The air felt even colder now.
Finn counted three dark doorways leading from the room. Jez and the woman could have gone through any one of them.
Philby dropped to one knee, looking for wet prints to follow. He crawled forward on his hands and knees and ended facing the middle of the three doorways. He pointed silently.
Finn nodded.
The boys entered a dank, narrow tunnel with walls close enough to touch on both sides at the same time. It grew ever gloomier. There was barely any light. A suffocating staleness hung in the air.
Finn toed his way carefully ahead, encountering yet another short flight of stone steps. A single bare bulb lit the place where the tight passageway ended at a second, vast open space, a room carved from sandstone. A half dozen columns, all connected by carved arches, rose like tree trunks from the floor.
It reminded Finn of Escher’s Keep. It was almost as if Escher himself had once been here. Many similar patterns and designs adorned the room. Had Walt Disney once shown this room to the great artist?
Maybeck crossed his arms tightly. “Temperature alert,” he whispered. “Arctic air mass.”
It was an unnatural cold. A far too familiar cold. They were drawing closer to the source.
Philby, in the lead, led them to the right. Noticing that the chill was reduced here, they reversed directions, following the cold like a bloodhound follows a scent.
A tremor of terror ran through Finn. What were they thinking in coming here? A spiral staircase that looked like a hermit crab’s shell rose to his left. Another set of narrow stone steps descended straight ahead. This place was a labyrinth. But more strangely, it was also a forced-perspective hallway. The deeper they penetrated into the room, the lower the ceiling. The effect made the room appear much longer than it actually was.
Finn, no giant himself, ducked as the moist sandstone caught his hair. Spiderwebs stuck to his face. He clawed at them.
The boys heard hushed voices to their right. They changed direction, hunched, and stooped by the sloped ceiling.
“Valor is such a dangerous thing.” The same voice from the teepee: Maleficent.
The boys stopped and turned in unison.
She stood alongside a column. She’d hidden behind it. They’d walked right past her. “Like bees to sugar water,” she said.
She now blocked their return route.
She said, “If you didn’t care so much about your two girlfriends up there, you wouldn’t have followed us down here. And if you didn’t follow us, then how would we ever get you to give us the pen?”
They’d been tricked. Jez and Maleficent had wanted to be followed.
Maybeck made a quick move to his left, but with a simple wave of her gloved hand Maleficent threw up a series of white vibrating lines that connected one column to the next. A cage of light. The lines hummed and sparked with electricity. They added light to the gloominess.
A second wave of her hands erected more lines, intricately connected. She had created a complex fence around the boys.
She said, “You’re familiar with shock collars for dogs? Wireless fences? Same concept. I don’t advise testing it, but be my guests, if you must.”
The light allowed Finn to see the purple of her robes. Too scared to talk, he summoned his courage, refusing to look directly at her while at the same time keeping a monstrous image in his mind’s eye.
“We know you have it on you,” she said, “you clever child. Now…place the pen down on the floor there. As soon as you do, your girlfriends will feel fine.”
Silence. Not even Maybeck responded with his usual sarcasm.
Philby’s eyes danced toward the sparking white lines that caged them. Finn could feel him plotting escape.
Finn felt it worth a lie. “It might help if I knew what you were talking about.”
“You insolent young man.”
“We were there. One Man’s Dream.” Jez stepped out from behind another column.
“One Witch’s Dream, too,” Maleficent said. “These parks grow so…claustrophobic—don’t you think?”
Seeing these two side by side, Finn realized how different they looked. It was hard to believe Jez was this woman’s daughter. And now he felt awful for doubting Amanda. Now she sat semiconscious somewhere above them.
“You two can go,” Maleficent said to Philby and Maybeck. She swept her hand to one side and the fence sputtered and vanished. “Omnia haec obliviscantur!” she chanted musically, then said, “When you reach the surface, you will remember none of what has gone on here. Neither the events nor the way down. All you will recall is going to the restroom together. You don’t know where Finn is. Haven’t seen him in a while. Now go.”
The two boys remained rooted firmly in place. “No way!” Philby said.