“Interesting,” said Amanda. She didn’t sound winded at all. Finn wondered if she was levitating herself up the endless stairs.
Jez asked, “Are you saying he has to defeat Mickey before he can be assured of maintaining any power he gains?”
“Defeating Mickey,” Finn said, “defeats us all. Without Mickey, there is no Magic Kingdom, no Animal Kingdom, no Disney at all.”
“But then why kidnap Jez? Why involve the five of you? What do you guys have to do with Mickey?” Amanda asked.
“Nothing,” Finn answered. “That’s what’s puzzling. But think about it: the sooner he eliminates Mickey, the sooner there’s no one to stop him from overtaking the Park.”
mybest: ice truck just arrived!!!
Finn told the two sisters the news. “The ice truck pulled up around back.”
“Then this is it,” Jez said, her voice trembling. “Whatever Maleficent has been planning, it’s happening right now.”
They rounded a corner and then quickly jumped to one side to hide.
What they’d witnessed was emblazoned in their minds. Far above them towered the frightening figure of the yeti. It stood thirty feet tall or more, leaning out over the track—the embodiment of evil: monstrous and otherworldly.
At the yeti’s feet stood a tall figure in a black robe. They were too far away to see the purple fringe on the cape or the green skin, but no one in the group doubted it was she. Hidden by an outcropping of rock, they continued higher until the steady chanting of her voice could be heard. She was conjuring a spell. As the staircase curved, following the rocks, they were forced to drop to their stomachs and belly-crawl up the metal stairs. Then Finn raised a hand signaling the others to stop.
He didn’t know exactly why they’d come here—only that they couldn’t turn away from Jez’s daydream. Perhaps they were here to witness whatever Maleficent planned, perhaps to stop it. He believed their attendance here critical to Wayne’s rescue, yet he knew they were no match for the yeti. Not if Maleficant awakened the thing.
And then it became perfectly clear to him: they had to stop her from awakening the yeti in the first place. Chernabog must not come to power. This was the secret to preserving the peace in the Animal Kingdom. This was why Jez had dreamed it in the first place.
More than anything, Finn’s concern for Wayne remained at the forefront of his thoughts. He had to find out what had happened to him, where he’d gone. And to that end, he must not be afraid.
This became his focus: he must not be afraid. He felt a tingling sensation wash over him.
It was true: he did not see the green skin or the fringe on Maleficent’s robe, and he was betting she couldn’t make out the sudden slight shimmer to his skin, either.
He rose to his feet and called out boldly, “Do you really think you’ll get away with it?” His electronically-edged voice echoed in the cavernous building.
Amanda and Jez slunk back and down, once again hiding in the lee of the rock outcropping.
Far below—miles it seemed—a loud pop was heard, followed by sudden humming. The round rail to the left of the stairs carried a slight tremor.
The roller coaster had been switched on.
64
IT ALL HAPPENED SO QUICKLY: his words echoing around the building; the steady increase in electronic and mechanical sounds as the roller coaster started up; Maleficent’s arms shooting up from her sides and lifting her robe like magnificent wings.
The twitching of the yeti’s fingers, like the paws of a sleeping dog.
Too late! She had already awakened the giant.
His massive head moved side-to-side, and a loud crack thundered through the snowcapped mountains.
The hum and whir of the roller coaster grew steadily closer.
“Silly, silly, boy!” Maleficent spun around and shot a ball of fire at Finn. The size of a soccer ball, it exploded at his feet, flaming out.
And whereas once Finn would have been terrified by such things, would have stood transfixed by the power she displayed, something had come over him. She was nothing but an illusionist, a magician using her substantial skills to scare him. He was no longer convinced she even possessed the ability to kill him—or, if she did, then why hadn’t she done so?
“If you were going to kill me,” he shouted, “then you would have done that the first time we met. But you can’t, can you? Walt Disney would never allow a creation of his imagination to take a life.”
The tingling grew stronger; he felt it in a way, a degree, he’d never experienced. This confrontation was making his DHI stronger.
“But I am not of his imagination,” Maleficent said. “I am of the old stories—tales that existed for hundreds of years in places all around the world. Tales of things that actually happened.” She shot another ball at him. Again, he did not move from his spot. Again, the flames fell short.