philitup: a sword?

[ ]: it’s all i could find on short notice.

philitup: how many of them?

[ ]: no idea, maybe none, but the closer we get to destroying them, the bigger the fight they will put up. they know you were in vmk earlier. I assume they’ve adjusted their defenses accordingly.

Philby took hold of the small sword—it looked like a silver toothpick—and swung it back and forth. It took him a moment to get the hang of it. Then Wayne stepped in front of him and the two sparred, Wayne handling the weapon with surprising aplomb. In fact, the more aggressive Philby got with the sword, the more effortless Wayne’s motions. They continued to duel, Wayne’s avatar dancing circles around Philby. Then Philby held his sword to his chest and typed a message.

philitup: you’ve done this before.

[ ]: a little, perhaps.

philitup: more than a little.

[ ]: there was a time…a long time ago…when the overtakers challenged the kingdom, this is why uncle walt left the stonecutter’s quill in the first place. I was a member of the team sent to repel the overtakers.

The Stonecutter’s Quill had been central to the Kingdom Keepers’ first attempt to defeat the Over-takers. Philby found it interesting, important even, to hear the history. He told himself to remember everything so he could tell the others.

philitup: sent?

[ ]: disney world was just being built at the time, the real power of the kingdom lay in disneyland, as it does to this day.

philitup: what kind of power?

[ ]: it needn’t concern you now.

philitup: but it does.

[ ]: patience, my young friend, if the battle ever returns home, believe me, the kingdom keepers will be part of it.

philitup: you were a swordsman?

[ ]: we learned many defenses, the sword but one of them, surprising how easily it comes back, you’re doing well enough, just remember: it is double-edged, it cuts just as easily on the backswing. conserve your energy and always swing in both directions.

philitup: I’ll try.

[ ]: it’s all that can be asked, now let’s be off…

Together they continued along the catwalks, up and down staircases, always following the pulsing purple cables. A group of cables ran to the right. Philby stopped to examine them: none was purple. Others continued straight ahead.

[ ]: we’re in dinoland. those are restaurants to our right the rides are to our left: fossil fun games, primeval whirl, and triceratop spin.

Six cables continued straight ahead—four of them pulsing a rich purple. What had left the Discovery Island hub as hundreds of data cables had been reduced to just a few, the majority of which were purple, indicating a large amount of data transfer. The cables were nearing the source of that data—the second server.

Philby was scared. For Finn, the key was to defeat the second server, to eliminate the DHIs Maleficent was using to increase her army. Who knew how many of the monkeys, birds, or tigers were real? The only way to absolutely know was to shut down the second server—for good—and that task now fell to him and an old man with toothpick swords. If they were going to encounter resistance, it was going to be soon.

He didn’t need to ask Wayne where those cables led. There was only a single attraction at the bottom of DinoLand USA.

Philby, the boy, not the avatar, briefly released the VMK controls. He turned around, found Maybeck’s face in the crowd, and called out, “The Dino Institute. You and Willa…as fast as you can!”

Then he turned back to the screen to see that he was too late: Wayne was under attack.

54

TWO MINUTES…

Finn counted down the seconds on his watch. He heard his mouth speak before he meant to say anything.

“The first time I saw you I was scared of you,” he told Jez. The two were huddled close together just below the hatch in the upper tiger yard.

“Me?”

“Your long hair. The way you looked at me.”

“I was under Maleficent’s spell,” she reminded him.

And I was under yours, he thought. “Yeah,” he said. “The thing is, as it turned out, there was nothing to be afraid of.”

“Are you trying to tell me something?” she asked. Their faces were about a foot apart. Only a tiny bit of light seeped in from around the edges of the hatch, emitting a dull glow. He saw the shape of her head, nothing more.

“Fear is a weird thing. It can totally take over, or you can push it away and suddenly it’s gone. That’s how I’m able to be a DHI—I remove all thought, all fear, and suddenly I cross over.”

“It’s going to be scary out there,” Jez said, suddenly understanding what it was Finn was trying to say.

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Why can’t boys ever say what they actually want to say? If you were Amanda, you’d have just said, ‘Heads up, girl! It’s going to be freaky out there.'”

“Heads up, girl,” Finn said.

“Ha-ha,” she mocked him.

“I will try to leave the hatch as my DHI. If Charlene’s inside the tiger yard, she will be near a wall. Have you ever been to a rodeo?”

“Are you serious?”

“In a rodeo, the clown’s job is to distract the bull. To draw the bull’s attention away from the bull rider to give the rider enough time to get over the fence, out of danger. Think of Charlene and me as the clowns. You’re the rider.”

“They’re coming after me,” Jez said.

“They’ll come after all of us,” Finn said, “but they can only hurt you. They don’t know that, so that’s to our advantage.”

“It’s not much.”

“No. But it’s all we’ve got. If Charlene has jumped the wall, then she’ll know the way out. You must follow Charlene. No matter what happens to me, no matter what you see, ignore it. Stay with Charlene.”

“I don’t like the sound of this.”

“I’m just saying.”

One minute…

“Finn, if you’re trying to impress me…I already have a boyfriend…”

“Rob,” Finn said. He saw her head cock to the side in curiosity. “‘Change Rob’—it was in your diary. Amanda told us Rob was your boyfriend. It took us forever to realize why you’d written that.”

“And why had I written that?”

“It’s an anagram for Chernabog,” Finn said.

“Like the guy in Fantasia?”

“The same. We think he’s Maleficent’s boss, or king, or whatever you’d call it.”

“Superior,” she said.

“Whatever. He’s the one in control.”

“I think…oh my gosh.”

“What?”

“I think I had a daydream,” she said. “While I was down here in the dark. King of the Mountain, I called him. Big and ugly, and really hairy. He was trying to kill me. Me and Amanda. He had this club in his hand. No! It wasn’t a club. It was—” She gasped. For the first time in the dull light he could see her face clearly: her eyes were squinted closed.

“What?”

“It wasn’t a club in his hand,” she repeated. “It was…you, Finn. He had you by the legs and was swinging you like a club.”

Finn knew the strength of Jez’s dreams. He found it hard to breathe, his chest tight, his throat dry.

Fear!

He had to push it away. He had to find a sense of calm. He needed to cross over to his DHI.

Because at that moment, the hatch above their heads began to squeak and groan. Light flooded in and blinded them.

The hatch was coming open.

55

PHILBY RAISED HIS AVATAR’S SWORD and blocked the swipe of silver steel that aimed for his head. Wayne was fighting two at once, his sword nothing but a blur of shining light.

The things coming at them—there were four altogether—were hunchbacked trolls with exaggerated noses, long hair, and strong arms. Never mind that they were avatars, they were horrendous-looking creatures, incredibly quick with their swords and determined to eliminate Wayne and Philby from VMK.