Kingdom Keepers VI(20)

“The computers on Deck Two,” Willa said. “We can search the Web.”

“A good place to start.”

“Trouble is,” Storey said, “there are something like ten thousand characters in the Mayan language.”

“My nana presses flowers,” Charlene said, pointing at the page with the symbols. “The thing in the middle of the frame? It could have been a pressed leaf or a flower or something like that.”

“Nice!” said Maybeck. “That makes so much sense.”

No one commented on the fact that lately Maybeck liked anything Charlene said.

“But wait a second!” he continued, his frustration revealing itself as a tightening of his fists and lips. “Are we insane? How could some journal entry written in Florida fifty years ago have anything to do with a Caribbean cruise that wasn’t even around back then?”

“It doesn’t,” Philby said. “It can’t. Obviously. So it has to do with something else, something Walt Disney and his animators were working on: Fantasia. Chernabog.”

Mention of the monster sobered the group.

“He’s half Minotaur, half bat god,” Finn said. Wayne’s words echoed in his ears, and he shivered. “The most evil villain Walt Disney ever created. There are descriptions of him being the ‘embodiment’ of evil.”

“The Minotaur was no picnic,” Willa said.

Again, the group turned to her.

“History Channel,” she said. “What? I watch a lot of TV! In Greek mythology—and I’m not talking Percy Jackson—the Minotaur ate people.”

“Lovely.” Maybeck pretended not to be interested, but he clearly was.

“He was horrible and did horrible things. You know how stuff found in one culture is often found in others?” Willa’s eyes were wide. “Let’s assume the old Imagineers found references to a Minotaur-like demon, like a Caribbean Bigfoot. You know? Including some lore, some pictographs or whatever, that supposedly told you—”

“How to wake it up,” Philby said.

“Not good.” Charlene sounded panicked.

Maybeck moaned.

“That would interest the Overtakers,” Storey Ming said. She used the term with familiarity, Finn noted.

“See?” Philby said. “We’re much better at this when we do it together. I think we’re getting somewhere.”

“Charlene’s hummingbird!” Willa said suddenly, sitting up straighter.

“The Animal Channel, I suppose?” said Maybeck.

“Yes, as a matter of fact. Torpor.” Willa spotted several blank expressions and sighed. “You guys are such duds. Wayne explained it to Finn, who told us all about it. Anyone remember?” She waited. Sighed again. “Hummingbirds have this insane metabolism. Like drinking-six-lattes-an-hour kind of thing. So they don’t actually sleep; they enter a state called torpor. It’s like hibernating, but for a matter of minutes or an hour. Some bats use torpor as well.”

“Bats. As in bat gods,” Philby said.

“Tia Dalma,” Willa said.

It was like just the two of them in the room now.

“A witch doctor.”

“They smuggled some hummingbirds onto the ship so she can practice her magic. She puts the birds into torpor. She wakes them up. One of them escapes—”

“—and tries to spear me,” Charlene said.

“Whoa!” Finn said.

“No kidding.” Maybeck was suddenly a convert. “This is making way too much sense.”

“They’re missing something,” Philby said, “or they’d have taken Chernabog out of torpor and taken over the ship already.”

“Something from a cave,” Finn said.

“Something the glyphs describe,” Storey added.

A tattooed arm reached over Finn’s shoulder and dropped a folded piece of paper on the table.

Finn spun around, trying to see whoever it was, but Cabanas was mobbed. Dozens of people were milling around the food and drink stations. Another dozen stood with trays, looking for open tables.

He searched for an arm with a tattoo—a thin arm, a girl’s arm, he thought. In his random search, he caught a flash of red-streaked hair.

Her again? A girl with similar hair had helped them in the past few days, showing up exactly when needed. Philby would discount the coincidence, but Finn had little doubt it was the same girl. Had to be!

“Did anyone get a look at her?” Finn asked.

“Who?” Maybeck asked.

“No one?”

Blank looks.

Finn unfolded the note and read:

k’an pet ch’en

Instead of reading it aloud—he had no idea of its significance, and with the OTs, you could never be too careful—Finn passed it around. It moved hand to hand across the table.