“When two leaders share a common enemy,” Finn said, “does that not make them brothers? Allies?”
“You are a sorcerer, Invisible One. A confessed spy. Spies are killed, not negotiated with. If you cannot deliver your army…”
He withdrew a curved, gleaming sword from its scabbard, the ring of steel echoing like a bell.
Five of Shan-Yu’s warriors appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They had him surrounded, all five with their hands on their sword hilts. Finn could picture his head lying on the floor.
“Shouldn’t we talk about this?” he asked Shan-Yu.
“Kill the girl,” Shan-Yu called out loudly. “I will take care of this one myself.”
Finn glanced to the door and the backs of the two guards. He had to reach Charlene before the warriors did. She wouldn’t see them coming. Like him, she would think they were part of the show.
With each step Shan-Yu took toward him, Finn took a step back, glad to see that with all the armor he wore, the man was not terribly light on his feet. The film moved ahead from ancient times to the present. A high-speed train zoomed around the circular wall.
Shan-Yu knew of Finn’s “magic.” The Invisible Ones. He’d probably seen their Epcot DHIs and marveled at the holograms. If Finn could impress him, perhaps he could intimidate him.
He closed his eyes and relaxed toward a state of all clear, knowing it would only last for a matter of seconds.
Light played across his eyelids—a glint from ShanYu’s sword, or the bullet train’s headlight?
His limbs tingled. A slight smile played across his lips.
He heard the blade slice the air and fought not to open his eyes. He wouldn’t be able to hold all clear if he saw a blade aimed for his neck.
Swish. The sound moved left to right.
He opened his eyes.
An off-balance Shan-Yu glared at him, staring in disbelief. Clearly, he’d cut through Finn’s neck and had expected his head to fall. The General looked over at the sword’s blade and back at Finn.
Finn stepped forward and walked through him.
Shan-Yu cried out and spun around, swinging his sword.
Finn turned immediately and walked through the man for a second time, his limbs tingling as his all clear timed out.
For Shan-Yu, Finn had vanished. Each time the General had spun around, the boy had stepped toward him and disappeared.
Real magic.
Now he spotted Finn and studied him more closely. “Most impressive,” he muttered.
“We share the same enemy,” Finn said. “Join us.” He held out his hand.
Shan-Yu studied Finn’s hand, then looked him up and down. “Allies share their resources. Will you share this power of yours?”
“I…ah…It isn’t mine to share.”
“GUARDS!” Shan-Yu thundered. “KILL HIM!”
Finn sprinted for the door, splitting the warriors as they were turning around. He ran hard.
“CHARLENE!” he hollered, approaching the audience huddled around the acrobats.
He spotted a stick flying end-over-end from the center of the show. The spindle. He jumped up and caught it in midair.
He spotted her. Charlene ran across the acrobats’ mat, flew through the air, and hit a mini-trampoline. She flipped over the heads in the crowd, landing neatly in stride with Finn as the spectators roared.
“You took long enough,” she said, the two running full speed.
“Had an appointment with royalty,” he said. “Shan-Yu.”
“What now?”
“Finn!”
It was Dillard. He’d turned over a plastic barrel. Soda cans and ice belched from its open end as Dillard sent it rolling toward the oncoming guards like a bowling ball heading for the pins.
Finn spotted a girl waving at them from a dugout canoe beneath a sky thundering with fireworks.
The guards were forced to dive out of the way of Dillard’s barrel.
“Coming through!” shouted Dillard, clearing the crowd for Finn and Charlene by running through angry guests. Dillard was not fat, but he wasn’t small. When he wanted a crowd to part, it parted. Having cut a path for his friend, he held open a space at the railing. Finn and Charlene jumped the railing and hurried down into the canoe.
Waiting there was Mulan. She raised her bow and arrow.
“Don’t shoot!” Dillard said, clambering over the railing.
“HURRY!” Finn said, reaching to help Dillard aboard.
Mulan fired an arrow.
Thwack! It struck something hard.
Finn looked up to see it had landed in a shield carried by one of Shan-Yu’s warriors. Mulan’s two warriors, two boys older than him whom Finn hadn’t seen until that moment, pulled on paddles. The canoe moved swiftly away from shore and out into the flashing lake. Color rained from the sky.