Kingdom Keepers Boxed Set

by Ridley Pearson

  “It’s just me.”

  She came up from under the veil of hair and met Finn’s eyes. Hers were close to tears, shining like marbles. “You, of all people, might understand. You and the others. I can’t think of anyone else. Maybe you won’t believe—and that’s okay,” she said, reaching out and touching his knee. “I won’t be mad or anything.”

  “I can’t believe it if I never hear what it is,” he said, a little impatiently.

  She nodded, her eyes apologetic. “Jez and I are different,” she said.

  “I know that,” he said quickly. “You’re very different.”

  “No…I don’t mean from each other. I think it might be better if you just listen. No offense or anything, but this is kind of hard to explain.”

  He nodded, thinking he shouldn’t speak.

  She saw this and giggled. Covered her mouth. Looked as if she might cry. When she spoke, it was very softly.

  “I guess the only way to explain this is just to say it.”

  Works for me, he thought, but didn’t say so.

  “We’re Fairlies.”

  “You mean: fairies?”

  “No. Fairlies. As in, fairly human. It was supposedly a joke a long, long time ago, but it stuck. Fairlies. Go figure. We’re not witches or fairies, or anything like that. We’re just kids with…unusual abilities.”

  “Such as?”

  “I’m not allowed to say. Sorry. Rules, you know?”

  “You and Jez are sisters?”

  “Sort of, I guess. Not exactly. We’re both orphans. All Fairlies are orphans. My parents drowned. Jez’s went on this trip to South America and never came back. They think pirates—real pirates—got them. She and I were raised in the same foster home. That’s why I call her my sister. Fairlies display certain qualities at a very young age: spoon-benders, mind readers, clairvoyants. There was a boy who could set fire to things by just looking at them. Very strange. But real. Jez dreamed the trouble here in the Parks. This was way before you guys were hired to be the models for the DHIs. She and I…we kind of ran away. Not recommended, I might add.”

  Finn understood the solar panels then: there were no parents. Jez and Amanda lived by themselves.

  “The day we got here, Maleficent put a spell on Jez or bewitched her or something. Jez didn’t even recognize me. Then you and the DHIs came along. Somehow, you released her right before Maleficent was captured. I wanted to go back after that, to the foster home, but Jez had more dreams. She keeps them in a diary, a journal,” she explained.

  “So, she can dream the future?” Finn asked skeptically.

  “Believe whatever you want to,” Amanda said, “or not. I believe the Overtakers have taken Jez prisoner to prevent her from interfering with whatever they have planned.”

  Finn’s skin crawled. He felt slightly sick to his stomach.

  She stared at Finn long and hard, her eyes fiery pinpricks. “I can’t expect you to believe any of this. Asking that is probably too much. I hope you do someday. I hope this makes us better friends, not worse. I’m trusting you in ways I’ve never trusted anyone.” She paused. Her breathing was labored, her skin flushed. Finn felt as if he might explode with anticipation.

  “And your powers?” he asked.

  “Sorry,” she said squinting. “Can’t say. Not now. Not yet, anyway.”

  “You and Jez are squatting. Here, in this house, this church. Whatever it once was. The solar power.” He pointed.

  Amanda eyed Finn cautiously. “You’re not going to tell.”

  “I’ve got bigger secrets than this, believe me.”

  “It was closed up. Abandoned. We always enter by the back. We’re very careful. Only once have I used the front door, and that’s when you and your mother dropped me off here. I wasn’t even sure it could open.”

  “And the neighbors?”

  “What neighbors? It’s stores and stuff. No one’s ever said anything. It’s only been a couple of months. The water’s on. It’s cold; no hot water, but it works. We shower at school. The toilets work.”

  “This is way cool.”

  “It’s not great, but it’s what was available. We had to think fast.”

  “Don’t Fairlies have money?” he asked.

  “If you’re going to tease me, we’re done here.”

  “Can’t take a joke?”

  “Not about that. And yes, I have an after-school job. But right now, I think we both could use some sleep.” She yawned.

  “No! We can’t sleep,” he said. “Wayne says if any of us—the DHIs—go to sleep, we might get trapped the way Maybeck did last time. He said the only way to protect ourselves is to find Jez, get her to safety, and then find and crash the second server.” He let this sink in. “We need your help. That is, only if you want to.”

  “Of course I want to.”

  He liked the idea of her being involved. She was the most unusual girl he’d ever met. He wondered what powers she might have and why she wouldn’t tell him about them. “You were going to join us on IM,” he reminded her.

  “Yeah, well…my computer access is through our local library. A little late for that.”

  “So what about her journal? Can I see it? Maybe she left clues or something. We don’t know what we’re looking for, and it’s a huge park. We’re all real tired, and we haven’t started. We don’t know for sure she’s in the Animal Kingdom. Wayne thinks so, but no one knows for sure. I don’t know if you can help, but—”

  “Absolutely. I absolutely want to help if I can.”

  She took off, out the bedroom and down the dark hall. A light popped on in the next room, casting a trapezoid of light against the far wall, where a mural of a woman’s stern face had been painted. She seemed to be looking at Finn. He ducked back into Amanda’s room.

  She returned, clutching a leather journal. Reluctantly, she passed it to Finn. “This is private stuff, remember?”

  Finn nodded and flipped through the pages. The diary was filled with writing, drawings, sketches. Clippings and photographs had been pasted, paper-clipped, and stapled to the pages. Fortunes from fortune cookies. Ticket stubs.

  In the upper-right-hand corner of a page crowded with sketches was a drawing of a castle being struck by lightning. Finn pointed to it. “Okay,” he said. “Now I believe.”

  FINN CLIMBED BACK UP the fire rope to his bedroom window, while below him, barely seen, Amanda waited for him, straddling his mother’s mountain bike, which he’d loaned her.

  His mission was to get hold of his father’s BlackBerry; to make sure his parents didn’t worry about him or question where he’d gone; and to borrow his little sister’s DS for Amanda, who didn’t own one.

  He reached his parents’ bedroom on tiptoe and quietly opened the door. His mother was snoring; his father lay on his side facing the window. The clock on his mother’s end table read 4:08 AM.

  He found his father’s dresser in the dark and patted around, searching for his BlackBerry. On Saturdays, his father only took his phone if he went on an extended errand. Finn could only hope that his father had no such errands planned. If he did, and he looked for his phone, he wasn’t going to find it.

  He returned to his mother’s side of the bed and quietly turned the clock so that it faced away from the bed, where it couldn’t be read by his mother. Then he gently shook her awake. She was a heavy sleeper, and he was counting on her not coming fully awake.

  “Mom…”

  Her eyes squinted open, saw him, and then shut again.

  “Finn,” she complained.

  “It’s just after six,” he lied, wishing he didn’t have to. “I’m going on my bike over to the skate park. Might go to Blizzard Beach later. I’ll call.”

  “Don’t forget sunscreen.” She opened her eyes a little more and looked for the clock, but she made no effort to turn it around. This he’d been counting on.

  “I’ll call,” he repeated.

  There was precedent here: early Saturday morning rides at the skate park wer
e part of his routine. Bikes weren’t allowed in the half pipe after 9 AM on weekends. He often got up early and returned for a late breakfast. By adding the bit about Blizzard Beach—a favorite among his friends—he’d bought himself the rest of the day.

  “Take your father’s phone,” she said, rolling over.

  “Ah…okay,” he said, his hand tapping his pocket.

  He put away the fire-escape rope and left the house by the back door, joining Amanda and climbing onto his bike.

  “How’d it go?” she asked.

  “Worked out great. I’m good to go for the rest of the day.”

  “Your parents let you leave the house at four in the morning?”

  “Not exactly. But we’re cool.”

  Had he looked overhead he might have felt otherwise: hanging upside down from the gutter of his house, the large bat with the blue tint on its wings dropped free and flew away. Flapping frantically, it circled just above the two bikes as they sped off down the empty street, red safety lights flashing in the dark.

  THE FOOD-SERVICE STEP VAN had double tires in the back and mud flaps that carried silhouettes of silver mouse ears on their black rubber.

  The man behind the wheel had florid cheeks, blue eyes, and bushy eyebrows. He spoke in a deep voice to Finn, who pulled the passenger door open.

  “Everyone in back. Find places to hide in case they check back there.” He popped open his door. “It’ll be pitch black in there once I pull that door down, so hurry!”

  Finn rushed the others into the back. They climbed up into a refrigerated area of cardboard boxes filled with fresh fruits and vegetables stacked onto wooden pallets and strapped to the walls. Each stack offered a place to hide behind. The kids doubled up. Charlene and Willa hid behind a tower of raspberry and strawberry flats. Maybeck and Philby ducked behind the lettuce, leaving Finn and Amanda to press into a small space behind six stacked boxes of carrots.

  “Okay,” the driver said. “That’s good. Stay like that. All set?”

  The door came down hard, with a bang of finality. It was dark as a cave inside. The refrigerator unit up near the cab wheezed loudly as it blew an icy wind, freezing them.

  “Dang…” Maybeck said. “This is how I always imagined prison.”

  “What if one of us is afraid of the dark?” Charlene asked timidly.

  “Then she should hold on to Willa, Charlene,” said Maybeck.

  “I didn’t say it was me!” Charlene said.

  “Right,” said Maybeck.

  The truck grumbled and groaned as it lurched around a series of corners toward the back side of the Animal Kingdom. Pretty soon its brakes squealed to a stop. Finn and the others had been in the same situation before—at the reinforced, militarylike security gates at the back of the Magic Kingdom. He could picture the guards outside. Supplies and merchandise and employees came through these entrances. The driver’s credentials were checked, manifests and work schedules cross-referenced. The kids heard some talking through the shell, though the words were indiscernible. Then a single thump. The Dapper Dan had elbowed the back wall of the cab, trying to warn his passengers.

  “I dropped my purse,” Charlene announced in a harsh whisper. “I can’t find it! I can’t find my purse.”

  Finn knew that if Security saw a purse, they would probably climb up into the back of the truck to retrieve it. And if so, then they’d spot the kids.

  “I can’t see!” she hissed again.

  Sounds of the door hardware rattled at the back of the truck. The back door was definitely about to be lifted.

  “My purse…” Charlene moaned.

  Finn stepped out from behind the stack of carrots. Amanda reached out to stop him, but she was too late.

  He felt around the floor. Nothing. Then he remembered his father’s BlackBerry. He pulled it out of his pocket and hit a button on the keypad, and the screen came to life like a flashlight.

  Charlene’s arm shot out from behind a stack of boxes, and she grabbed hold of her purse. It vanished.

  The door rolled open a crack. Finn shoved the BlackBerry into his pocket, snuffing its light. His knees didn’t flex. He didn’t move. He just stood there. Light flooded into the back of the truck. He turned, but it was too late. The door continued up.

  In an instant everything changed: he was suddenly pasted to the ceiling—floating—hidden by the rolling door, which was carried on tracks like a garage door.

  “Clear,” one of the Security guys announced.

  Finn sank toward the truck bed. From the light of the BlackBerry he saw Amanda facing him, her arm extended. As her arm fell, so did Finn.

  The back door clattered shut and the clunk of hardware confirmed they were locked inside again.

  “You did that!” he said, accusing Amanda.

  “No idea what you’re talking about,” she whispered.

  “You saved us,” he said.

  “That was way cool, Finn,” said Maybeck. “You mind telling me how you did that?”

  Amanda whispered warmly into Finn’s ear. “No…not yet.”

  Finn said into the dark: “Ah…I could show you, but I’d have to kill you.”

  Maybeck chuckled.

  “I want some, too,” added Philby.

  “Later, dudes,” said Finn.

  Again, he felt Amanda’s breath warm against his neck as she whispered softly, “Thank you.”

  He wanted to say something, but his voice had gone dry, and he couldn’t get a word out.

  A MOMENT AFTER the truck finally pulled to a stop, the Dapper Dan climbed up inside and then lowered the garagelike door behind himself, leaving it open just enough to admit some light from the nearby light poles.

  “This is as far as I go with the truck. Finn gave each of you an assignment, as I understand it.”

  “I’ve got a pretty good handle on the tech side of the Park,” Philby said. “There are cameras all over the place, some for Security, some for the Park visitors. Basically, we won’t be alone wherever we go. But there’s a very cool element to this I think we should consider.” He glanced around at the group. Charlene was trying to wipe a smudge off her clothes, but everyone else was paying strict attention to him. “Out at Conservation Station—which everyone in the Park calls ‘CS,’ by the way—is a bank of camera monitors that are interactive. Visitors can actually move and zoom the cameras, searching for animals and that kind of thing. But I think they give us a real good opportunity to monitor what’s going on.”

  “That could be my job,” Amanda said, volunteering. “If no one else wants it,” she added carefully.

  Everyone nodded.

  “Other than that,” Philby said, swinging his backpack around and reaching inside, “I got nothin’.”

  “Is anyone going to explain to me why I brought along my DS?” Charlene asked.

  “The Parks all have free Wi-Fi,” Philby said, as if this answered her.

  “Yeah? So?” she said.

  “So I’ve set-up a D-Gamer chat room so we can IM each other,” he explained. “It’s totally secure. No one can eavesdrop.”

  “A D-what?” she asked.

  “D-Gamer,” he said. “Let me show you.” Philby took her DS from her and changed her settings to allow Wi-Fi access. Then he showed her how to enter D-Gamer mode. Turning on his own DS, he typed a message to her. An alert appeared on her screen and she answered it. Then he switched devices with her and sent one from her device to his.

  “How totally awesome,” she said, marveling. Taking back her own DS, she sent Philby a text message:

  angelface13: i never knew it could do that.

  philitup: it’s a new feature, added last spring.

  Finn set up his sister’s DS for Amanda. Philby had invited them all to join the private chat, and soon they were all texting back and forth.

  The Dapper Dan cleared his throat to stop them, and they put their Nintendos away. He asked if they knew their way around the Park. “I’m acquainted with the layout,” Willa said, pip
ing up. She handed out maps for each of them. “Basically there are five areas—Asia, Africa, Camp Minnie-Mickey, and DinoLand USA. These four surround a lake that holds the fifth, Discovery Island, in the middle—the Tree of Life, some food stalls, and shopping. I don’t know our plan, if we have one, but there are five of us, not counting Amanda, and five areas. Seems pretty obvious.”

  “And I’ll be watching you from the Conservation Station,” said Amanda, reminding everyone.

  “In terms of costumes,” Charlene said, “the best thing we could do is just dress as rangers or animal care. Either light green or dark green short-sleeve shirts and shorts. It would be best if we could get the real thing, but I don’t see how that’ll happen.”

  “That will happen because I’m going to help you,” the driver said. “Cast Members are now responsible for their own uniforms. But there’s a costuming shed that used to be for outfitting everyone. Now it’s more of a storage facility and costume-repair facility, but I can get you in there.”

  Finn said, “Here’s what I suggest: Willa will be a conservation ranger; Maybeck an animal-care worker; Amanda, Philby, and I stay dressed as we are. Charlene…you get the tricky one.”

  “Which is?” she asked, finally looking up from the smudge.

  “DeVine.”

  “Thank you,” she said.

  “The character,” Willa corrected. “He wasn’t giving you a compliment!”

  “Who knew?” Charlene asked.

  “I thought your cheerleading experience might make you a better gymnast than the rest of us. DeVine walks on huge stilts and dresses in total camouflage so that it’s almost impossible to see her. Can you use stilts?”

  “I’ve used stilts before, though not real high ones.”

  “These are real high,” said Willa.

  “There are four complete DeVine outfits,” the driver explained. “But I’ve got to warn you: DeVine enters the Park at ten, twelve, two, and four. If two DeVines are seen in the Park at the same time, that will alert Security. So if you do this, you’ll need to hide deep within the jungle when the real DeVine is in the Park.”

  They were all staring at Charlene.