“Friends of Willa’s. I’m Amanda. This is Jess.”
“Ah!” Ariel’s eyes grew larger as she took in Jess. It was obvious she didn’t see the injury, or chose to ignore it. “The sorceress, Jezebel!”
“Hardly a sorceress,” Jess said, sitting up, but unable to stand.
“We owe a great debt to you and the others,” Ariel said.
“It’s the other way around,” Jess said. “We all—everyone who comes to the parks—worship you guys.”
“Guys?” Ariel said curiously.
“Characters,” Amanda. “You, the characters. We were sent here by—”
“The Imagineers,” Ariel said. “The Elder.”
“Wayne,” Amanda said. She’d never heard him called that.
Jess couldn’t contain her curiosity. “Is our coming here connected to the theft of the journal from the library?”
When Ariel smiled, the terrace filled with a soft light. “I believe you may be familiar with my friends.” She gestured into the shadows. Three silhouettes appeared, two of them distinctive. Tigger and Pluto. As they came into the light, Amanda and Jess saw that the sultry female form was Megara, from Hercules.
None looked exactly like their film animations, but again, each was unmistakable.
“We wish to help you,” Megara said in a silky voice. She looked directly at Jess’s leg. She was possibly the most beautiful of all the characters the girls had ever encountered in person. “Telephus, son of Hercules, is here in spirit.”
Amanda looked around the area. The Engineering Base was only a few hundred yards from where they stood. “You’re exposed here. We know our enemies to be in the area.”
“You forget,” Ariel said in an eerily calm voice. “Long before you and your friends came along, my friends and I were battling these same forces. Every night for decades. Yes, it is more serious now. Yes, the evil ones have organized in ways we never believed possible. But we are quite aware of the dangers.”
“The battle for Base.”
“Has subsided, at least temporarily.”
“The Keepers were told only days ago the final battle was imminent!”
“The darkness appears to lack leadership.”
“We know where the leaders are. But there’s a technology that could allow them back here at any moment.”
“I do not know this word tek…”
“It’s…a form of magic. It comes from the power of lightning. We are trying to prevent the leaders from appearing magically.” Amanda ran her hologram arm through a wooden kiosk stand. Ariel was clearly impressed by the demonstration.
“You see, Amanda,” she said, “once upon a time—forever, actually—the evil ones’ imagined superiority over one another has prevented them from working together effectively. They have battled each other, rather than us. This gave us an advantage. Now it is different. They have come together unexpectedly. This is why your friends like Willow were summoned. It is why all of you are here.”
Ariel’s calm, lilting voice affected Amanda.
It is why all of you are here.
Tigger jumped up and down. Pluto nuzzled Amanda. She petted him.
Megara approached Jess, knelt by her side, and kissed Jess on the forehead.
“You have sacrificed and suffered much, my dear. We wish to thank you.” As Megara ran her hand directly above the wound, she whispered, “The oracle of Delphi once said, ‘He that wounded, shall heal.’ Do you know what this means?” As she asked, she pulled out a small leather purse sack and loosened its drawstring. She reached inside.
“I suppose,” Jess said through clenched teeth, the pain tightening her throat, “I need to heal this myself?”
Megara chuckled. “Not exactly, child. To the contrary, it means all one needs is the source of the injury to end the effects of the injury.” She pulled out two small white teeth from the bag. “Hyenas are part cat, part dog. Did you know that?” she mused to herself as Ariel passed her a knife and Megara scraped each tooth with the blade. She collected a tiny amount of tooth dust in her palm.
“You mustn’t fear this, child,” Megara said. She rubbed the tooth dust into the open wound.
It was as if two different photos of Jess’s leg had replaced each other: one showing the wound; one, without.
“There,” Megara said. “That should feel better.”
The rip remained in Jess’s pant leg, but the wound was closed and clean. Jess flexed her leg effortlessly. “No way…”
Megara grinned serenely. “They have not defeated us yet, my child! The magic lives, I assure you. There is still much to fight for.”