Kingdom Keepers V(12)

Finn had never articulated exactly how he felt about what he and the Keepers did. It didn’t come out exactly right, but it felt incredibly good. He wondered how the other Keepers would put it.

“We have an offer to make you,” Mrs. Whitman said.

Finn looked at his mother curiously. He wanted to say, “We do?”

Sally raised her head. Her face was tear-streaked, her grim expression disturbing. When Finn’s mother cried her contacts got messed up. But Sally’s hadn’t. In fact, being so close, getting such a good look, he wondered if they were contacts at all.

Sally shied away from Finn’s stare. “What’s with you?”

“Your eyes,” Finn said. “They’re contacts, right?” But the weird thing was, they weren’t contacts: her pupils were changing size as he stared at her. The color of her eyes had actually changed. How could such a thing be possible? Unless…

She averted her head completely. “Leave me alone.”

“Finn?” his mother said.

“You used to have blue eyes, Sally. So what happened? How’s that even possible?”

“Finn, girls do these things,” his mother said.

“Maleficent…” he muttered. Some kind of spell had been placed on her and the other OTKs. The spell had physically changed their eye color so they could identify each other. Maybe they had pigmented contact lenses or something to fool their families, but this OTK stuff was getting serious.

“To heck with her eyes! I will only offer this once,” his mother told Sally.

“Mom…?”

An upset Mrs. Whitman ignored her son. Addressing Sally, she said, “First, you’re going to tell Greg Luowski that you escaped right behind him. Do you understand?”

Sally nodded her head.

“You mess this up, young lady, and your parents and the police will hear about what you tried to do here tonight.”

Sally nodded shamefully.

“Next, you will spy for us,” Mrs. Whitman said. “Anything you’re asked to do, anything you’re told. Any missions. Any rumors. Any anything that has to do with the parks or with the Kingdom Keepers is reported to Finn. You will text him the moment you hear about it. The first moment you possibly can. If we hear the same thing from someone else before we hear it from you then I’ll make the call to your parents and to the police. Is that understood?”

Finn swelled with pride. Genius! His mother sounded on the verge of slapping Sally across the face. In fact, he knew she couldn’t even hurt a spider—not even a super-ugly spider: she trapped them and set them free outside. A real terror, his mother.

Sally nodded. “I don’t hear all that much,” she choked out.

“You will now. Don’t think you’re the only spy we have,” Mrs. Whitman warned. Finn marveled at her ability to lie so effortlessly. He looked at his mother completely differently. “Don’t think you can play with me. You’ll regret that.”

Sally nodded again. “I understand. I’m sorry, Mrs. Whitman.” She looked up at Finn. “I’m sorry for what I…what we tried to do to you.”

Finn felt his hands tighten. He should have punched her while he’d had the excuse. “Do as we ask,” he said. “My mother means it.”

Sally looked into his mother’s face and recoiled. There was no mistaking Mrs. Whitman’s intensity.

“Okay,” she said. “I’ll do it.”





Technically speaking, a siege is when an attacking army surrounds another, often in a castle or fort. Usually the attacking army surrounds the castle or fortress and waits for the people inside—the besieged—to begin starving. The besieged then surrender. Sometimes a siege backfires: the attacking army runs out of food or disease diminishes its ranks.

A common tactic used by the attackers is to build an earthen wall to keep supplies from entering the castle. The besieged would often dig trenches to slow down the attackers.

Technically speaking, the Overtakers’ threat to the Engineering Base located backstage of Disney’s Hollywood Studios was not a siege. During the day, business was conducted as usual: employees came and went; the Disney villains assumed their characters in the various parks in which they lived. No trenches were dug. No one starved.

But at night things were different. Considerably different. Cast Members inside the Base dared not leave for fear of attack. Anyone outside dared not approach for the same reason. Those inside the Base were isolated and expected an assault. Fireballs were thrown at security guards and Cast Members who dared enter the area. Laser light cages appeared, trapping the innocent. Perfectly healthy people grew dizzy and fainted—the result of spells, no doubt. A young person was made to look old. An old person was transfigured into an animal. Storm clouds formed over the Base, dumping rain on it or lashing it with lightning. Definitely a siege.