Disney at Dawn

A wall of tension formed between Amanda and Maleficent. The witch produced another ball of fire, but this time Amanda levitated it as well. It hovered next to the witch, burning hotly and illuminating her green face.

“You will regret this, little one,” Maleficent muttered, clearly afraid of her own fire. “You are playing with things you know nothing about.”

She grew the head of a vulture. Wings began to sprout.

Amanda released her. Again, Maleficent fell abruptly, before slowly being carried aloft. Evidence of the vulture was gone; the green-ski

The strain on Amanda was evident. She had quickly grown pale, her body now shaking.

Fi

“Release Wayne!” Fi

“The Quill,” Maleficent said, “or you’ll never see him alive again.” She looked over at Fi

Amanda’s strength gave out, and she collapsed into Jez’s arms.

“You harm any one of us and you will never see that pen!” Fi

Fi

But the safety bars on the ride were already set, having been locked at the start; and, as the cars gained substantial speed, Fi

65

CHERNABOG MOVED WITH surprising agility for something that was a beastly demon with a pair of batlike wings the size of boat sails.

To the surprise of all, Chernabog made no attempt to stop the Kingdom Keepers. He flew toward the bottom of the ride. For once in his life Fi

He did not want to lose them.

Fi

Holding on with one hand each, he and Jez wrapped their free arms around the other’s shoulders and, with Amanda pi

Expedition Everest roared into its climactic spiral, the G-force driving Fi

As it came to rest, the restraining bars released, and Maybeck and the others hurried to join Fi

Fi

They ran out into the street where they caught a final glimpse of the back of the ice truck as it sped away.

“What now?” a gasping Philby said, clutching his sides.

“They got away,” Fi

“But we can’t just let them go!” Maybeck said.

“We got Jez back,” Fi

The others nodded.

“We have work to do,” Willa mumbled.

“Let’s get some sleep,” Fi

66

THE STORY MADE THE morning news: a refrigerator truck, being driven poorly, had been pulled over by the local police. The officer swore that he’d been knocked over when he’d gone to open the back of the truck, and that two creatures had been seen hurrying away. He refused to describe them. He said only that they had traveled in the general direction of Disney’s Hollywood Studios theme park, and that from everything he’d seen, that was where they belonged.

For nearly two weeks, Fi

So it was that exactly a month after the event at Expedition Everest, Fi

As he fell asleep that night, he intentionally dreamed of the Magic Kingdom, and he awakened there on a Park bench, his body glowing under the moonlight.

He was at the hub near the entrance, at the end of Main Street, USA.

Soon, the other Kingdom Keepers joined him. Only Charlene was still in her nightgown, having forgotten to change into street clothes before going to sleep. Or maybe this was how she wanted to dress.

The five headed up and into the small apartment above the firehouse in the Magic Kingdom. It was exactly twelve midnight.

This was Wayne’s apartment. Most had visited it before. There was incredibly sour milk in the refrigerator and food that now wore a coat of green fuzz—Wayne had not been here in a very long time.

They searched for over an hour for the Stonecutter’s Quill, but to no avail. If Wayne had hidden it, he’d hidden it well.

“What now?” Charlene asked.

“Is there any choice?” Fi

“But without the pen,” Philby said, “what leverage do we have? We can’t win his release without that pen.”

“We’ll think of something,” Fi

“Or maybe Jez will dream it,” said Charlene, “and give us more clues to follow.”

“The point is, we did save Jez, and we pretty much saved the Animal Kingdom from being overrun by DHIs. We can’t be giving DHIs a bad name, after all.”

They laughed. Five shimmering kids, glowing as they enjoyed a rare moment of levity.

“Maleficent used us to bring Wayne out of hiding,” Fi

“We know that even Maleficent ca

“I think it was intended—us being there. I think if we’d failed to defeat the server then the animals would have caught us all and taken us to her. I don’t know what would have happened, but I think she had plans for us. Amanda saved us all by levitating her. Without that…”

“I always thought staying up that late would be fun,” said Charlene. “But it—”

“Stank.” Although Maybeck used another word.

“We’ve got work to do,” Fi

“Tell us what to do,” Willa said.

All eyes fell on Fi

He smiled, a warmth filling him and making his DHI glow even brighter.