Kingdom Keepers VI(38)

Pulling into a squat, Maybeck slowly stood, an inch at a time. A blob of darkness moved, only feet from him. It moved again, toward where he’d last seen Storey. With her attention on the two women, she wouldn’t see this man—if that’s what it was—coming for her.

Maybeck took a step forward. What he’d been looking at was a shadow.

But to his left, less than three feet away, stood a man.

Looking right at him.

* * *

Up close, Maybeck could see that the guy was Joe College, the one who’d helped attack them backstage. One of the zombified Overtakers. Blond, tall, and fit, he had the clean-cut look of a Cast Member and was dressed as one, in khaki shorts and a white polo.

The guy swung a club up and into his grip, a string loop holding it to his wrist. He handled it in a controlled, practiced way, striking Maybeck on the shoulder and dropping him to one knee.

Maybeck’s shoulder was numb. He found himself unable to move his arm.

The club was raised again. It was coming for his head.

And then Joe College was hit from behind and knocked off his feet, revealing Storey, suspended from a pair of stalactites, which she’d used as handles in order to elevate and kick.

From the recesses of the dark cave came Maleficent’s crackling voice.

Joe College got to his feet again, directly between Maybeck and Maleficent, raised the club—and turned into a huge, hairy crab.

He’d intercepted Maleficent’s transfiguration spell.

The crab, easily the size of a cafeteria tray, landed on its back.

“Ew,” Storey said, now on her feet.

She scooped up sand and guano, packed it into a snowball, and flung it at Maleficent, forcing the dark fairy to duck out of its way. But not before Maleficent lit a fireball in her hand.

The cave came alive with a million shadows thrown by the stalactites. The floor and walls shifted in a disorienting dance of darkness and light.

To Maleficent’s side stood Tia Dalma, shorter, darker, and holding a tiny rag doll in her hand. She stabbed the doll.

Maybeck screamed and twisted.

Tia Dalma stabbed the doll a second time.

Maybeck roared and buckled over, holding his stomach.

Storey grabbed on to him. “Run!” she said.

He limped forward. She steered him through the maze of ceiling spears. He buckled again. His right leg dragged behind him, stiff and unusable.

Then, as quickly as it hit him, he recovered. He was more surprised than anyone. “I’m good!” he gasped.

“Not so good,” Storey warned.

All around them the stalactites transformed: no longer calcified stone but a thousand snakes hanging by their tails.

Maybeck’s pain had disappeared because Tia Dalma had changed tactics, casting a curse that endangered both of them, not just Maybeck.

Storey was lifted off her feet. She was hanging by her throat, a snake coiled around her neck. The snake constricted, lifting Storey higher, choking her more fully. Leaping up, Maybeck forced his fingers between the snake and Storey and pulled. It was like trying to uncoil a steel cable. Storey’s face bulged like an overinflated pool toy. It was no use—the snake wasn’t going to let go.

Maybeck took hold just behind its head. The snake didn’t like that. It flexed and pulled. In doing so, it loosened its hold on Storey, who drank in a gulp of much-needed air. Maybeck pulled hard, twisting the snake’s head at the same time as he unwrapped it from Storey’s neck. It came free.

Storey fell to the sand, coughing. But breathing.

Maleficent, holding the burning orb, marched steadily toward them.

Storey and Maybeck crawled away, keeping low to avoid the dangling snakes.

“Oh, please!” Maleficent called out. “Are we so limited in our thought?”

A hundred snakes dropped to the sand, writhing and coiling. Maybeck started dancing from foot to foot, shifting wildly, terrified. Storey grabbed him and tried to climb up him to get her feet higher.

Maybeck eased her back to the sand. “Hang tough.” He knew this was one of those defining moments, his chance to prove himself. He sucked it up and shook off his outward fright.

“Perplexing, isn’t it?” Maleficent said.

Maybeck dove, took hold of one of the snakes, and threw it at Maleficent—more out of fear than heroics, but he wasn’t ever going to admit that.

Maleficent threw a transfiguration spell. The snake became a harmless length of rope, and she caught it with her free hand.

Tia Dalma strode up behind Maleficent.

“How you feel now, me boy? Eh?” She stuck the doll with a pin.

Maybeck twisted, moving in inhuman ways that seemed sure to break his limbs.

“Stop it!” Storey shouted.

“Now?” Tia Dalma said, delivering more of her voodoo.

Maybeck folded backward, screaming. Storey feared the next pin would break him in half.