Kingdom Keepers II: Disney at Dawn Read online

“Please tel us,” Wil a pleaded. She wiped the rain from her eyes. “We want to help, but we

  need to know what’s going on, what we’re involved in.”

  Charlene proved she’d been paying attention after al . “This has to do with Finn, doesn’t it?

  When Finn got tangled up with Jez, and you said some kind of spel had been removed.

  Maleficent’s spel .”

  That incident had happened months ago, though the kids remembered it as if it were

  yesterday. Maleficent had kept Jez under her control to prevent Jez’s own powers from interfering

  with Maleficent’s plan. The DHIs had managed to trap Maleficent, and Finn had helped free Jez

  from the spel —though her powers had yet to be explained to any of them. Maybe this was why the

  sisters had vanished recently: to keep from having to explain themselves.

  “We have to hurry,” Wil a said. “For one thing, those kids are blowing our cover. For another,

  every second counts. She can’t be far.”

  “Since when are you a detective? You’ve been reading too many American Girl books,”

  snapped Charlene.

  “No, she’s right,” Maybeck said. “Time is in our favor, but not for long. Amanda and I wil retrace her route, looking for her. Wil a, you and Charlene get Finn and Philby out of the castle and meet up with us.”

  Amanda jerked her head toward Cinderel a Castle. “He’s in there?” she gasped, and then mumbled, “I’d nearly forgotten.”

  “Forgotten what?” Maybeck asked.

  Amanda looked back and forth from the sputtering and sparking DHI of her sister to the colorful lights il uminating the castle.

  “Something horrible’s going to happen,” Amanda whispered. “Jezebel dreamed about it. We

  came here to warn al of you.” She met eyes with Maybeck and then Wil a. “He’s actual y in there?”

  “She dreamed about it?” Charlene said, distrustful and sarcastic. “Your sister can dream the

  future, I suppose? Is that what you’re trying to tel us?”

  “Fairlies have abilities you wouldn’t believe.”

  “What’s a Fairlie?” Wil a blurted out.

  “I told you you wouldn’t believe me.”

  8

  FINN FOLLOWED PHILBY up the tightly wound spiral staircase in complete darkness, his lungs and

  legs burning, his head pounding. Transforming himself into a DHI—twice in a matter of minutes—

  had taxed him. He climbed, half in, half out of consciousness, sliding his hand along the cool steel handrail, faint of head but not of heart. Someone was trying to attract lightning to Cinderel a Castle. He envisioned the penthouse apartment converted into a Frankenstein laboratory, some

  Disney monster strapped to a stainless-steel table with wires attached to his head and heart. He

  didn’t know what to think—except that the Overtakers had sent the Dapper Dan to stop them. That

  had to mean something big was going down.

  Thunder cracked outside, sending a rumble up his legs. Climbing higher in a lightning storm

  was not the smartest move. He felt another tremor in his chest.

  Speaking in a breathless whisper as they climbed, Finn said, “What if it’s al a trap? An elaborate trap? What if this guy is supposed to drive us to the top of the castle? What if the weather bal oon and lightning are intended for us? To kill us?”

  Philby stopped, and Finn bumped into him. He had trouble catching his breath. His heart was

  about to explode.

  The staircase vibrated: the man was climbing toward them.

  “But if that’s the case, then this guy’s suicidal,” Philby said, “because he’s right behind us.”

  “But if he’s an Overtaker, how do we even know he’s real?”

  “How do we know if any of this is real?” Philby quipped. “Not one of us has ever told our parents about what happens to us at night. Why do you think that is?” He answered his own question. “Because they wouldn’t believe it.”

  Shadows flickered on the wal . A flashlight. The guy!

  “Climb!” Finn hissed.

  They started climbing higher, running up the stairs as fast as they could. Their pursuer wasn’t

  nearly as light on his feet as they were. The beam from his flashlight and the strange, shifting shadows it cast propel ed them hurriedly up, up, up. At last, they faced a door.

  It was bolted shut; there was no doorknob or handle.

  In the dim light, Finn caught sight of a handwritten sign taped to the wal :

  OPEN ONLY IN EMERGENCY

  “Do we dare?” Finn asked.

  “It has to lead into the apartment,” said Philby.

  “Agreed.”

  The light from the flashlight rose more quickly now. “And we’re trying to get into the apartment.”

  Finn moved the bolt, and the door popped open.

  Together they entered into another dark space. Finn reached out. It was narrow and tight. The

  sound of bel s…no…Finn knew that sound. It wasn’t bel s. It was… hangers.

  “We’re in a closet,” Finn said softly. “A closet inside the apartment, I’l bet.”

  “The stairs are the apartment’s fire escape,” said Philby. “Makes sense.” But why lock a fire

  escape from the outside? Finn wondered silently.

  He groped in the dark and touched another door in front of them and opened it a crack. The

  closet led into the apartment’s smal bedroom, the shiny bedspread a hideous shade of grass green. The air smel ed stale and dusty. The boys slipped into the bedroom. It felt unbearably warm.

  Heavy footsteps clomped up the stairs.

  “Hurry!” Finn hissed. He and Philby rushed out of the closet, shut its door and, working together, slid the bed to block it. At the very least they had bought themselves a few seconds.

  They hurried to the bedroom door, and Finn put his ear to it.

  “Anything?” Philby asked, one eye nervously on the blocked closet behind them.

  “It sounds like someone mumbling.” Finn opened the door careful y and then quietly stepped

  through. Philby fol owed. They were in a smal hal way with a view into a larger living room. The

  decor might have once been cal ed modern. Now it looked slightly cheesy.

  Finn angled his head around the corner to get a better view into the living room. Then he jerked back.

  Maleficent—the most powerful of the Disney fairies and Finn’s greatest enemy—stood by the

  apartment window. Amanda had somehow known! Maleficent had enormous evil powers,

  including the ability to conjure spel s with nothing more than incantations. Finn had once seen her transfigure a trash bag into a rat. She had demonstrated powers of fire and electricity, conjuring a cage of glowing “wires” around him. Her one weakness was temperature—she could only conjure

  when cold, which helped explain her being jailed in an apartment kept so warm. He doubted she

  was at her ful powers, given the warmth of the apartment, but that could change in an instant. She had her back to them, and her dark robe hung to the floor. Now Finn understood what he’d heard:

  Maleficent was chanting while facing the open window. It was blocked on the outside by a heavy

  iron grate—like a jail cel .

  Casting a spell? Finn wondered.

  His legs shook with fear. The last he’d known, she’d been locked in a jail cel in the catacombs beneath Pirates of the Caribbean. What was she doing here?

  She stepped away from the window but continued chanting. Through the window, the sky

  darkened. The storm roared as lightning flashed and thunder cracked. Finn tensed with the next

  lightning strike: a tremendous flash was fol owed instantly by a crack and boom. Was she summoning the lightning? Another loud crack. A bolt of electricity struck the iron grate. It glowed red hot, and then sparks
flew. The iron grate melted and fel open, the window no longer blocked.

  The evening’s cool breeze blew through.

  Maleficent climbed up onto the sil . The crowd cheered from below.

  Color fil ed the sky—the fireworks display had begun.

  “Stop!” he shouted.

  She turned. “YOU!”

  It was no trap. Their being here clearly surprised her.

  Her red eyes locked on to his. Her green, hideous skin scrunched tightly around her eyes. If

  looks could kill…he thought.

  Finn stepped back, afraid. The cool air… Three loud bangs of thunder mixed with the fireworks, making a war zone out of the sky. A fiery backdrop played out behind the green creature standing in the window.

  She glanced back at him one more time and then climbed outside.

  Finn and Philby hurried to the smoldering window opening and looked out.

  Maleficent was climbing the castle wal , her cape swirling in the wind. She moved like an insect.

  He looked down and gasped. They had to be a hundred feet up.

  “I’m not going out there!” Finn said.

  “The stairs!” Philby said.

  With every second she would be cooling off, regaining her powers. The boys hurried back to

  the bedroom, determined to fol ow her. The Dapper Dan was pounding on the closet door from the

  other side.

  “Ready?” Finn said, his hands against the bed frame.

  Philby, selected as a DHI in large part for his brainpower, did not need to hear what Finn had

  in mind. He knew intuitively.

  “One…two…”

  On three the boys shoved the bed out of the way. The door flew open.

  The Dapper Dan, who’d been pushing hard on the closet door, fel through and tumbled down

  onto the carpet. Finn and Philby ducked into the closet, hurried out the emergency door, and threw the bolt before the Dapper Dan had climbed to his feet. They had trapped him inside.

  They hesitated on the landing.

  “Up or down?” Finn asked Philby, the chal enge obvious to both boys.

  Philby looked down the stairs, knowing this meant safety. Then he looked at Finn. “If she gets

  free, we’l never be safe again,” he said.

  “Up!” the two boys said in unison.

  The boys climbed the dark staircase, slowly at first, but then, holding the rail, Finn picked up

  the pace.

  As they neared the top, the sound of the crowd grew louder. The stairs ended in a smal stone

  chamber with an open window.

  It took only seconds for Finn’s eyes to adjust. There was a young woman tied up in the corner.

  She had wings, and for a moment he thought she, too, was an Overtaker. Then he recognized her

  as Tinker Bel . She was a Cast Member, in costume.

  Maleficent stood in the open window, her robe fluttering, the fireworks flashing colors in the

  sky beyond her. Now Finn saw the metal wire secured to the wal .

  “Sil y boys!” Maleficent said in a raspy voice. “The end is near.”

  She jumped.

  Finn ran to the window.

  But she hadn’t fal en. Instead, she flew off, away from them.

  She could fly!

  But then Finn understood: near the conclusion of the fireworks show, Tinker Bel flew from the

  castle. Tinker Bel was actual y a Cast Member riding a zip line from the castle onto a roof in Tomorrowland. But on this night, it wasn’t Tinker Bel riding the zip line.

  Maleficent let out a bloodcurdling screech—to the delight of the crowd—as she rode the wire

  high in the sky. She grew smal er and smal er.

  The crowd went crazy with cheers and screams.

  Her hideous screech rang in the air until swal owed by the next thumping blast of fireworks—

  the grand finale—that joined the rippling of thunder echoing off the Florida landscape like the aftereffect of a bomb exploding.

  9

  THE LIGHTNING STRIKE that hit Cinderela Castle charged the night sky with intense light as fire

  rained down. The bolt of lightning had grounded out on the thin wire holding the weather bal oon.

  Next, the lights went out in a large area encircling the castle, including the street lamps surrounding the Hub, most of Liberty Square, and as far away as Tomorrowland. Spotlights that

  normal y lit the sky went black, leaving the colorful glow of the fireworks’ grand finale.

  Then something—or someone—flew out toward Tomorrowland, and it was quite obviously

  not Tinker Bel . The caped figure was chased by a bal of swirling orange flame. A chorus of cheers arose. No one was exactly sure what they’d just witnessed, but whatever it was, it was amazing.

  Wil a and the others heard the cheer. Only moments later a swirl of rumor reached them: a

  witch had flown from the castle. Maybeck said a few words that would have gotten him detention in

  school.

  “Which witch?” Charlene wondered aloud.

  “Three guesses,” said Amanda.

  The three others looked at her sharply.

  “Finn!” Charlene muttered, her worry hanging in the air.

  “What do we do now?” Wil a gasped.

  “You’ve got to tel us what you know,” Maybeck demanded of Amanda.

  “It’s Jez that saw this coming, not me,” Amanda said.

  “Saw what coming?” he asked.

  “Trouble.”

  “You already said that. You gotta give us more.”

  “I told you: Jez is different.”

  “She’s your sister!” he complained.

  “Yeah,” she said, sounding apologetic. “Kind of. I guess you could say I’m a little different as

  wel .”

  “Different how?”

  “Just…different.”

  “She’s not on trial,” Wil a complained to Maybeck. “She and Jez came to warn us!” She addressed Amanda. “What did Jez think was going to happen?”

  “She saw things. She wrote them down—drew things—in her journal. Kept track of them—

  dreams mostly. And daydreams. But…” She cut herself off and looked at each of the others searchingly. “The real y creepy part is she showed me a sketch she made of lightning striking the

  castle. She knew it was going to happen, and I think she knew that Finn was going to be inside.”

  “You owe us an explanation,” Maybeck said impatiently.

  “And you’l have it,” Amanda agreed. She glanced around—a number of guests were braving

  the rain to get a better look at the castle. “But not here. Not now. You have to help Finn. He’s in danger. More danger than from just the lightning. It’s the Overtakers. They did this. They’re responsible. Jez…I have to find Jez. They’re afraid of her…powers. She can stop this by warning

  you and others, but not if they control her.”

  “Stop what?” Maybeck asked.

  “I wish I knew.”

  “The lightning?” Wil a asked. “We’re a little late, if that’s the case.”

  “It was more than that,” Amanda said. “Listen, I’ve got to find Jez. You al need to help Finn

  and Philby. They’re in danger. Jez saw that coming. That was what she was trying to prevent.”

  “Okay,” Maybeck said, “enough chit-chat. Let’s get going. Amanda and I are going to head

  back to look for Jez while you two check out the castle and find Finn and Philby.”

  “With the power out, they’l close the Park,” Wil a warned. “They’re not going to let us run around for long. And if they recognize us, they’re not going to want us in the Park at al .”

  “Wel , then, pul up your hood. Mess up your hair. We gotta do this,” Maybeck said. “If they

  close the Park, we’l IM and figure this out.” He grabbed Amanda’s arm and tugged. She hesitated, then
moved with him.

  They took off at a run.

  “Everyone IM at midnight,” he yel ed over his shoulder.

  Charlene and Wil a headed for the castle, which was shrouded in darkness and a veil of smoke left over from both the fireworks and the lightning strike.

  Behind them, they left the sputtering hologram of Jez, who, as another series of street lamps

  flickered and failed in the spreading blackout, sputtered and went dark.

  Gone, just like the real Jez.

  Some kids cheered from under awnings. Rain continued to fal .

  One of them shouted, “The Kingdom Keepers rule!”

  Wil a winced at hearing the nickname that a local newspaper had adopted for the kids and

  their DHIs. She felt a chil down her spine and a pain in her stomach. They weren’t superheroes;

  they were teen models mixed up in some confused technology that no one ful y understood—not

  even the people who’d invented it.

  She’d gotten a good look at the thing flying. She hadn’t mentioned what she’d seen to the

  others, because who would have believed it?

  But she knew what she’d seen— whom she’d seen—and the chil was replaced with a spasm

  of terror.

  Maleficent had escaped. Jez had been turned into a DHI.

  To think that those two events were some kind of freak coincidence and unrelated was just

  plain wrong.

  10

  IT SOUNDED LIKE DOZENS of footsteps were hurrying up the spiral staircase as Finn and Philby

  rushed to untie the woman dressed up as Tinker Bel . Finn got the tape off her mouth.

  “Are you al right?”

  She looked terrified. “Who… what… was that?”

  Philby said, “Finn, we’re cooked.”

  The approaching footsteps were noticeably closer. They were either security guards or

  Overtakers. Either way spel ed disaster for the boys.

  “Who’s coming?” the Tinker Bel woman asked.

  “We don’t know.”

  “I’m not sticking around to find out,” she said.

  The boys looked paralyzed.

  She said, “Harnesses,” pointing to the wal . “They’re rescue harnesses, in case I get stuck out

  there.” She hesitated only a second before grabbing one. “Put them on!”