Kingdom Keepers VI(23)
Finn was next to arrive. Willa fought to keep the disappointment from her face.
“Hey,” she said.
“You were hoping for Philby,” Finn said.
She shrugged. “We’re not exactly seeing eye to eye.”
“I don’t think you have to worry about him and Storey.”
“I don’t want to talk about it, Finn. Okay? Besides, he’s not coming with us anyway. He’s watching the cameras.” Willa waved at a hemispheric plastic globe in the ceiling, but it was a churlish gesture. “So, Finn. News alert: I may have deciphered the code.”
“Seriously? Already? Did Storey help you?”
“No,” Willa said tersely. “I had some extra time at the computers. Ka’n is ‘gold.’ It’s also the symbol in the upper left. Pet is ‘island,’ upper right.”
“Gold island?”
“Patience! Ch’en is ‘cave.’ Lower left. I haven’t figured out the fourth one yet.”
“That’s huge!” Finn said. “So maybe it is a treasure map. Gold. Maybeck will love this.”
“Whatever it is, it’s buried in a cave on an island.”
“And the only island remaining on the cruise is Aruba. Tomorrow morning.”
“We’d be stupid not to follow the OTs, not to do everything we can to find out where they’re going and why.”
“That’s genius work!”
“That’s Google,” Willa said.
“You never let anyone compliment you,” Finn said. “What’s that about?”
“Thank you for the compliment,” Willa said, effectively ending the discussion.
“You’re welcome.”
“What’s with you and Amanda, anyway? Or is it you and Storey, too?”
“Me and Maleficent is more like it.”
“Who do you think is more powerful? Maleficent or the Evil Queen?”
“I put Tia Dalma above them both.”
“Seriously? Because?”
“She’s a witch doctor. She practices black magic. And she’s more in this world—our world—than any of the others. She doesn’t wear a costume. She doesn’t play a role. She throws bones and stabs dolls with pins, and who knows what else?” Finn’s eyes were haunted.
He’s remembering his mom, Willa thought. She didn’t know what else to say.
Next, Maybeck, then Charlene arrived to join them. Willa caught them up quickly on what she’d learned.
“So as promising as that is,” Maybeck said, “we’re still hoping to find Chernabog and end this before it starts, right? Trouble is, no one ever said what we do when we find him.”
“We call Security,” Finn said. “Wayne said we can trust Uncle Bob.”
“As if,” Maybeck said. He had issues with authority and didn’t trust anyone in a uniform.
“We pretend we didn’t see anything and call Security. No heroics. Got it?”
“Hey, you and I are paired up, Whitman. No heroics. Agreed.”
“Same for you two,” Finn said, mostly to Willa.
“Way ahead of you,” she said.
Charlene looked at Maybeck and he looked back at her, and for a moment Finn thought he was going to be sick.
“Let’s do this.”
* * *
The Aruba orientation in the ship’s Walt Disney Theatre began with a welcome to the audience from Christian, the director of entertainment. He stood alone on the huge stage in his ship whites, pressed and sharp. He cracked a joke about the ceiling falling while a slideshow of Aruba played behind him on a screen bigger than most houses.
Finn and Maybeck heard him clearly over the backstage speakers, and caught the blinding white of his uniform out of the corners of their eyes.
Charlene and Willa separated from the two boys upon entering backstage—two performers looking for the beauty salon. They descended the stairs leading to where Chernabog’s crate had been found earlier, empty.
Upstairs, Finn pushed the walkie-talkie’s button. “Clear?” he asked Philby, adjusting the iPhone earbud in his right ear.
“Yes. I don’t see anyone.” Philby was monitoring the backstage cameras, running interference for both search parties.
Maybeck led the way, cutting across the back of the deep stage behind the giant projection screen.
Backstage areas were separated by drops—thick fabric curtain dividers. As Finn and Maybeck approached, they saw the metal hull walls stacked with well-organized groupings of stage furniture and show props, all of it tied down and secured. Neon tape designated safe walking lanes. To his credit, and to Finn’s astonishment, Maybeck remained inside the yellow.
They passed giant alphabet blocks used in a Toy Story show, pieces of a disassembled castle, jungle vegetation, and a pushcart from Beauty and the Beast. They carefully searched for a possible hiding place for an eight-foot-tall half-breed monster with flaming eyes.