Kingdom Keepers(3)

“No, it’s not a dream,” Wayne said. “Take a look at the moon.” Finn didn’t move. Wayne’s voice became more severe. “I said: look at the moon.”

Finn had to turn around to locate the moon. A half-moon, like a crooked smile, hung well above the horizon.

“When you wake up—when you think you wake up—take a look out the window. You’ll see the same moon, and you’ll know.”

“Know what?” Finn asked.

“That you were here. Sitting here in Disney World with an old guy named Wayne.”

“You’re telling me this isn’t a dream?” Finn felt his words catch in his throat.

“We’ve got a problem. A big problem. A problem that affects not only the park, but the world outside the park. We call them the Overtakers.”

“The what?” Finn didn’t like the sound of that.

Wayne said urgently, “You need to contact the other hosts. All four. Arrange to meet them here at the same time. That will mean all of you going to bed, going to sleep, fairly close to the same time. Within a half hour of one another. Tell them that. That should work, I think.”

“What are you talking about?”

“There’s a fable, a story, a puzzle of sorts that was left in case of a problem like this. It’s called the Stonecutter’s Quill.”

“A problem like what?” Finn felt totally confused. The Stonecutter’s Quill—the title had an eerie sound.

Just then, Tom Sawyer came out of Frontierland and headed up a long ramp into the castle. Is that really the Tom Sawyer? Finn wondered. The barefoot boy was smoking a pipe with a long stem. Wayne did a good job of not reacting, of pretending he didn’t see the kid.

Wayne said, “The puzzle has to be solved to be understood. It has to be understood to be of any use to us.” He paused and looked over at Finn. It felt to Finn as if Wayne were looking right through him. “You’re going to solve it.”

“Me?”

“The five of you,” Wayne said.

Finn jumped away from the man. Again he thought: how complicated can a dream get? If Wayne was only a part of the dream, how could he possibly know about the four other hosts? How could he talk about Finn’s audition tape the way he had? It was all related, all rolled into one, but Finn couldn’t sort it out.

Finn said, “You’re talking about MGM Studios.”

“Of course I am,” Wayne said. “You see? I knew you were the right one. You’re the leader, Finn.”

“I don’t have the slightest clue what you’re talking about,” Finn said.

“Nice try. But of course you do. You know exactly what I’m talking about. You just don’t want to face it. Perfectly understandable. That will change.”

“A fable,” Finn said, testing him again. Could a dream remember itself?

“The moon,” Wayne reminded him. “Don’t forget the moon.”

I won’t.”

“All five of you. I need you together. Here. All in the same place at the same time. I can explain it to you then. Once. As a group. Just the one time. You can decide—as a group—to help us or not.”

“Us?” Finn said.

“I’ll explain that as well.”

“This is the weirdest dream I’ve ever had!” Finn said, not realizing he was shouting.

“You’ll get over it,” Wayne said. He raised his right hand—the one carrying the black remote-control fob—and pressed the button with his thumb.

Finn awoke, sitting up in bed. His bedside clock read 2:07 A.M. He collected himself, checked his surroundings. He reached out and touched the glass of water next to the clock. Just the feel of it was reassuring. Thank goodness, he thought.

A dream? he wondered. “Whoa,” he heard himself say aloud. “What a dream!” This time his voice sounded more the way it always sounded, which reminded him of how thin and electronic it had sounded in the park.

“Whoa,” he repeated, just to hear himself say it. He scratched an itch on his head, and another on his belly. That felt better. He lay back down, his head on the pillow, his green eyes wide open to the dark room.

All at once Finn spotted a shaft of light—bluish light—on his ceiling. It was in the shape of a knife blade. Moonlight.

Finn slipped out of bed with trepidation. He crept toward the window, afraid to look. The closer he got to it, the more his face was bathed in that pale light seeping through a small crack in the curtains.

Finn raised his arm and caught sight of his watch. His arm appeared solid. It did not glow and shimmer the way it had while he was with Wayne. That came as a relief.

Finn parted the curtains.