Power Play (29 page)

“You are leader?” he asked, his voice heavily accented.

“Me?” Finn said, putting the sunglasses up onto the cap. “I’m just a Park visitor.”

“The Invisible Ones. You are leader?”

Invisible Ones, Finn thought. That was new.

“Yes. That would be me.”

“Tell your emperor to send his strongest armies. I’m ready,” the warrior said.

“I have no emperor,” Finn said. “We have no army.”

“Only emperor have no emperor. You do not look like emperor.”

“I am
not
an emperor.”

“Then tell your emperor to send his strongest army.”

“Why would he do that?” Finn asked.

“Leader of Invisible Ones, I am not afraid.”

“Of me? I mean you no harm. What exactly do you want?”

“What does every man want?” Shan-Yu asked.

An Xbox? A PS3? Finn thought. “Immortality,” he answered.

Shan-Yu appeared impressed.

“How is immortality achieved?” he asked.

“By doing greatness. Or,” Finn added, “great evil.”

“By winning wars. By commanding empires. The gods approve of those who do their bidding.”

Finn had studied China in fifth grade. He understood there had been child emperors younger than he was, so he couldn’t play the kid card. Instead, he thought the better idea was to impress Shan-Yu. Or try to.

“But is not the man who builds the bridge for the army more important than the army?” he asked. “The man who makes the bows more important than the archer? The man who trains the horse more important than the rider?”

Shan-Yu answered, “The man who commands the army is more important than all of them, for the army does his bidding.”

“His bidding, or the gods’ bidding?”

Shan-Yu took a step closer. “You are indeed a wise leader. I see that clearly in you.”

“I am a humble servant serving the lord…Disney. My lord is great and powerful. His reach is wide, his army vast.”

“You and the other one enter my kingdom without invitation. This makes you both spies. In my kingdom, spies are put to death.”

“I…”
DEATH?
he was thinking. And why was Shan-Yu speaking only of his own kingdom? There was no mention of the Overtakers as a group. “If you put me to death, how will I tell my emperor you are ready for him?”

“So you have emperor. This clearly makes you spy.”

“No…no…no! Metaphorically!” Finn tried again. “My army is but five strong.”

“Five battalions? Five legions?”

“Five
warriors
,” Finn said. “We present no threat to you, great lord! Our fight is with the Green One.”

Shan-Yu stepped back at the mention of Maleficent. It didn’t give Finn the impression the two were the best of friends.

“When two leaders share a common enemy,” Finn said, “does that not make them brothers? Allies?”

“You are a sorcerer, Invisible One. A confessed spy. Spies are killed, not negotiated with. If you cannot deliver your army…”

He withdrew a curved, gleaming sword from its scabbard, the ring of steel echoing like a bell.

Five of Shan-Yu’s warriors appeared seemingly out of nowhere. They had him surrounded, all five with their hands on their sword hilts. Finn could picture his head lying on the floor.

“Shouldn’t we talk about this?” he asked Shan-Yu.

“Kill the girl,” Shan-Yu called out loudly. “I will take care of this one myself.”

Finn glanced to the door and the backs of the two guards. He had to reach Charlene before the warriors did. She wouldn’t see them coming. Like him, she would think they were part of the show.

With each step Shan-Yu took toward him, Finn took a step back, glad to see that with all the armor he wore, the man was not terribly light on his feet. The film moved ahead from ancient times to the present. A high-speed train zoomed around the circular wall.

Shan-Yu knew of Finn’s “magic.” The Invisible Ones. He’d probably seen their Epcot DHIs and marveled at the holograms. If Finn could impress him, perhaps he could intimidate him.

He closed his eyes and relaxed toward a state of
all clear
, knowing it would only last for a matter of seconds.

Light played across his eyelids—a glint from ShanYu’s sword, or the bullet train’s headlight?

His limbs tingled. A slight smile played across his lips.

He heard the blade slice the air and fought not to open his eyes. He wouldn’t be able to hold
all clear
if he saw a blade aimed for his neck.

Swish.
The sound moved left to right.

He opened his eyes.

An off-balance Shan-Yu glared at him, staring in disbelief. Clearly, he’d cut through Finn’s neck and had expected his head to fall. The General looked over at the sword’s blade and back at Finn.

Finn stepped forward and walked through him.

Shan-Yu cried out and spun around, swinging his sword.

Finn turned immediately and walked through the man for a second time, his limbs tingling as his
all clear
timed out.

For Shan-Yu, Finn had vanished. Each time the General had spun around, the boy had stepped toward him and disappeared.

Real magic.

Now he spotted Finn and studied him more closely. “Most impressive,” he muttered.

“We share the same enemy,” Finn said. “Join us.” He held out his hand.

Shan-Yu studied Finn’s hand, then looked him up and down. “Allies share their resources. Will you share this power of yours?”

“I…ah…It isn’t mine to share.”

“GUARDS!” Shan-Yu thundered. “KILL HIM!”

Finn sprinted for the door, splitting the warriors as they were turning around. He ran hard.

“CHARLENE!” he hollered, approaching the audience huddled around the acrobats.

He spotted a stick flying end-over-end from the center of the show.
The spindle
. He jumped up and caught it in midair.

He spotted her. Charlene ran across the acrobats’ mat, flew through the air, and hit a mini-trampoline. She flipped over the heads in the crowd, landing neatly in stride with Finn as the spectators roared.

“You took long enough,” she said, the two running full speed.

“Had an appointment with royalty,” he said. “Shan-Yu.”

“What now?”

“Finn!”

It was Dillard. He’d turned over a plastic barrel. Soda cans and ice belched from its open end as Dillard sent it rolling toward the oncoming guards like a bowling ball heading for the pins.

Finn spotted a girl waving at them from a dugout canoe beneath a sky thundering with fireworks.

The guards were forced to dive out of the way of Dillard’s barrel.

“Coming through!” shouted Dillard, clearing the crowd for Finn and Charlene by running through angry guests. Dillard was not fat, but he wasn’t small. When he wanted a crowd to part, it parted. Having cut a path for his friend, he held open a space at the railing. Finn and Charlene jumped the railing and hurried down into the canoe.

Waiting there was Mulan. She raised her bow and arrow.

“Don’t shoot!” Dillard said, clambering over the railing.

“HURRY!” Finn said, reaching to help Dillard aboard.

Mulan fired an arrow.

Thwack!
It struck something hard.

Finn looked up to see it had landed in a shield carried by one of Shan-Yu’s warriors. Mulan’s two warriors, two boys older than him whom Finn hadn’t seen until that moment, pulled on paddles. The canoe moved swiftly away from shore and out into the flashing lake. Color rained from the sky.

“You are safe now,” Mulan said. “We will pick up your friends at the bridge and we will carry you however far you need to go. The river, it is long.”

Charlene looked down at the spindle in Finn’s hand.

“We got it,” she said.

“We got it,” Finn echoed.

M
RS. WHITMAN PICKED UP FINN
, Maybeck, Willa, Dillard, and Charlene from Downtown Disney, where Mulan had dropped them. The conversation in the canoe had gone something like this:

“So,” Finn said, “are you really Mulan, or a Cast Member playing Mulan?”

“Let me ask you something,” the beautiful warrior woman responded. “Who were you running from just now? Cast Members?”

“Ah…yeah…okay. I get it,” Finn said.

Dillard looked confused, but impressed. Maybeck and Willa remained silent, kneeling near the second thwart from the stern. They looked back toward the shore, bewilderment on their faces.

Maybeck said, “No matter how much I think I’m used to what goes on here, it still freaks me out.”

The Chinese warriors navigated the lake, weaving the canoe between the exploding barges of fireworks, the air heavy with the tangy smell of gunpowder.

“By now, the Reflections of Earth team, led by Sam, has seen us,” Mulan explained. “Sam is the Crew Chief. His men have powerboats, and we are forbidden from being out here, so, unless you would like to explain yourself to Park Security, which I have no intention of doing, I would suggest you pick up a paddle and help out.”

That put all conversation on hold. Charlene, Dillard, Finn, Maybeck, and Willa grabbed paddles and began digging into the water with all their strength. The canoe raced silently across the black surface of the lake.

The gigantic globe of the Earth was spreading color across the water.

“If we can make it to the bridge at France before Sam catches us,” Mulan called out, “we can play a trick on him.”

Everyone put their backs into it. The canoe moved smoothly and silently. They left the fiery barges behind.

“We’ll be harder to see over there,” Maybeck said.

Mulan explained, “The light from the barges will blind them. It’ll buy us some time.”

Finn saw a powerboat zooming toward them.

“That would be Sam,” Mulan said.

“Faster!” Finn cried out.

Less than five minutes later, Sam’s Security boat motored beneath the bridge leading to France. On the walkway that was meant to imitate the quay along the river Seine in Paris, there were some boxes, a bicycle, a chest, and an upside-down canoe.

Hiding beneath the inverted canoe, tucked into balls and holding their shins, were two warriors, Mulan, and five kids, with barely an inch of space left over. The motorboat turned, heading back into the lake.

Now, riding in the Whitmans’ car, Finn needed yet another favor from his mom.

“We need to make a stop.”

“Finn…”

“Please.”

“Am I not supposed to ask why?”

“If you ask, I’m going to have to lie, and since I don’t lie to you, it might be better if you don’t ask.”

She huffed. “Dillard, what, if anything, do you have to do with all this?”

“I’m an innocent bystander.”

That cracked up everyone in the car.

“My sense is, Dillard,” Mrs. Whitman said, “that no one in this car, including me, is entirely innocent.” That quieted them down. She said, “Where to?”

Finn gave her the address by intersection. He added, “It might be good if you stopped, like, a half block away.”

“Finn?” she scolded.

“I’m just saying.…”

“What have I gotten myself into?” Mrs. Whitman complained.

“We’re trying to save someone, Mrs. Whitman,” Charlene said.

“Someone important to us,” Maybeck said, in a rare moment of genuine concern.

“Someone who needs us,” Willa added.

Mrs. Whitman nodded thoughtfully. “If I were a kid again,” she said, “I would want you all as my friends.” From then on, she didn’t ask any more questions.

Finn and Willa met Jess in back of Mrs. Nash’s house. Maybeck and Dillard staked out the street in case green-eyes were secretly watching the foster home. Charlene stayed by the car, having borrowed Mrs. Whitman’s phone to call Philby to catch him up.

Jess looked tired and unwell as they huddled in the shadow alongside a freestanding garden shed behind Mrs. Nash’s house.

“How is she?” Finn asked.

“Nothing,” she answered in a whisper. “She hasn’t moved. Hasn’t changed one bit.”

“These should help,” Finn said producing the acrobat’s spindle. Willa passed her the weaver’s spindle. “You’ll need to carve off a splinter and prick her finger.”

“I really do not want to do this,” said Jess.

Willa said, “Think of it as giving her a shot. She’s going to wake up. This is all going to be over.”

Jess’s sad eyes said it all: she didn’t believe Willa. She may have wanted to, but she didn’t.

“We’re going to wait here,” Finn said, “for the good news.”

“You can’t stay,” Jess said. “Mrs. Nash is inside. Supposedly I’m putting out the trash,” she said, indicating the bulging plastic bag at her feet. “I can’t do this until later. I’ll e-mail you,” she said to Finn, “depending what works out.”

“You’ll let us know right away?” he asked.

“As soon as I can.”

“We’ll be waiting,” Finn said.

“Yes. I know that.” She thanked them both.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Willa asked, deeply concerned.

“She’s so still, so…”

Dead-looking, Finn thought. He’d carried her. He knew.

“It’ll be over soon,” Finn said. “She’s going to be fine. Reverse the curse.”

“I hope you’re right.”

Jess disposed of the sack of garbage, slipped the two spindles down her pants to hide them, and returned inside.