Kingdom Keepers(76)

Finn resisted the cold. He felt warmth replace it. He heard her calling out, “Your Grace!” She sounded desperate and afraid.

The crowd roared their approval; a spinning vortex of light, and the girl’s wild cries for help.

Finn stepped away from her, and Jez spun to a stop, dazed. She raised her head slowly while studying her hands, her arms, touching her forearms as if they didn’t belong to her.

“I can’t believe it.” As her eyes met Finn’s, she cried out, “I’m…free!”

Free from what? Finn wondered.

“You did it!” Jez said to Finn, her eyes bright, her voice excited. “No more cold. No more Maleficent. You freed me!”

With that, the most startling thing happened. Jez changed, she transformed, before Finn’s eyes. The crowd applauded as her hair changed color, from jet-black to a sandy blond. Her eyebrows and eyelashes became lighter as well, and a few freckles appeared on her cheeks. She was, without question, a different girl, a beautiful girl, and yet…familiar. Finn couldn’t get over the feeling that he’d met her before, that he knew her, this new girl. And then, as he glanced back to his friends and saw Amanda there calling for him, a spike of astonishment filled him, and he felt the DHI dissolve and the real Finn return. Amanda’s face filled with light, with an expression of joy Finn had never seen. Tears filled her eyes.

Finn looked back and forth between the two girls, Jez and Amanda, and—

It couldn’t be….

But it was.

They were sisters, twins perhaps, not identical, but close to it.

Only then did he understand Amanda’s efforts, her never giving up. Only then did he come to wonder if Amanda wasn’t some kind of witch herself—a good witch.

The crowd exploded into celebration.

Maleficent’s green form streaked toward them.

As Finn—a boy again—reached the fence, he faced Amanda. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You weren’t ready,” she said.

Amanda stood in front of a large yellow cylinder sticking out of the ground, with a thick, circular, steel trapdoor on top. A number of warning posters instructed proper use.

“The others went ahead,” Amanda said. “Go!”

Finn looked down. “But it’s a trash chute.”

“Go! Feet first.” She opened it. “Quickly! Jump!” She seemed distracted.

Finn followed her line of sight. Maleficent had caught up to Jez. But Jez held her hands in front of her, and try as Maleficent might, she could not get close to the girl. Raging with anger, Maleficent suddenly saw Finn.

Finn asked Amanda, “Is Jez who I think she is?”

“Jess, not Jez, not any more. How can we ever thank you?” The tears spilled from her eyes. “We couldn’t break the spell ourselves.”

“Then she is—Then you are—” Finn’s head swam.

But he stopped himself as Maleficent raised her hand to cast a spell.

Seeing this, Finn jumped down the trash chute.

From high overhead he heard Amanda’s gleeful voice echo as he fell. “I’ll never forget what you did!”

As he was sucked down the foul-smelling tube, Finn tucked the roll of plans away under his belt. He took a deep breath and gagged. He thought he might throw up.

The tube reeked of rotting trash. Gooey bits and sticky globs of rancid food and soggy litter stuck to him like leeches, licked his face and slopped into his hair and clothing. Again, he felt himself gag.

In the distance, far down the tube, echoing through the metal, Finn heard hoots and hollers—Maybeck and Philby.

The suction spit trash into his face. He slammed into some kind of mesh gate, an intersection of converging trash-evacuation tubes. On the other side, black garbage bags and trash raced past. Then the gate opened and it was his turn. He tumbled down and rolled into the next tube, picked up speed, and headed off again, upside down and backward.

Wind roared all around him. A garbage bag smashed into him. It broke open, its trash freed. Awful stuff raced around him and stuck to him. He braced himself just in time for another intersection. But this gate was open and he moved into a third, larger tube.

Aluminum cans peppered his head. Cellophane and cotton candy stuck to him. Diapers, orange peels, sticky popsicle sticks. He somersaulted to avoid this stuff, and there, behind him, came a dull green light. It grew ever larger. It moved quickly.

He was thrown into a back somersault. As he came around, he found himself facing Maleficent. Arms at her side, head forward, legs outstretched behind her, she flew effortlessly through the garbage tube, apparently unaffected by the suction.

“Miss me?” she wheezed.

She lunged. Her ice-cold hand grabbed for the scroll. Finn kicked out and pushed her back.