فصل 45 - بخش 02

Sarah, J.D., and Aidan had almost reached the park entrance. The end of the parade had passed them, which meant they were pushing against the surging crowd, most of which was going in the opposite direction, following the last float.

They were reaching the Main Street Train Station, which rose over the entrance to the park. Just ahead was a passageway that would take them out into a large open plaza leading to the monorail and boats. Sarah looked up—the ravens were still circling overhead, with more scuttling along the rooftops. Aidan saw them, too. He stopped, looking at her with fear in his eyes.

“Sarah,” he said, “if we go out there, that thing is going to get us. I…I can’t take that again.”

J.D. had reached the entrance to the passageway. “Come on!” he said. “They’re coming!”

Sarah and Aidan looked back up Main Street and saw a line of security guards coming toward them, directed by the two suit cops they’d eluded back by the castle. They were walking now, as if they were in no hurry.

Aidan and Sarah trotted into the passageway after J.D. He put his arm out, stopping them. “They’re waiting for us,” he said, pointing ahead. In the plaza, spread out along the exit turnstiles, were at least a dozen more security people.

“We’re trapped,” said Aidan, his voice rising. “They’re gonna get us, and then Ombra’s gonna get us.”

“It’ll be okay,” said Sarah, taking his arm.

He shook free. “No, it won’t,” he said.

“Listen,” said J.D. “I’ll run out there. I’ll get some of them to chase me, and then you guys can—”

“Peter!” said Sarah.

As before, he seemed to appear from nowhere, coming through the crowd in the passageway, holding a shopping bag.

“We need to hurry,” Peter said.

Sarah said, “But the police are—”

“Just listen,” said Peter, handing the shopping bag to Sarah, “and do exactly what I say.”

Gomez, Blight, and the security men entered the passageway just as the three fugitives exited at the other end, onto the plaza.

“We got ’em now,” said Gomez. He turned to the security chief. “Tell your people to move in now, but slowly, and don’t let those kids get past.”

The chief spoke into his radio. On the far side of the plaza, the line of security men started moving forward.

“I don’t understand this plan,” said J.D. “We’re out in the open, and we have guys coming at us from both directions.”

“I don’t understand it either,” said Aidan. “And I don’t like it.”

“You have a better idea?” said Sarah.

“No,” they both admitted.

They had walked to the middle of the plaza. They stopped and watched as the security guards advanced warily toward them from both sides. The crowd—not so dense out here—swirled past them. Some people, weary from a day in the park, were heading back to their hotels; others were just arriving at the Magic Kingdom, hurrying to catch the legendary fireworks show. Occasionally somebody pointed to Sarah’s long Mollusk dress, but for the most part the crowd paid no attention to the trio.

The nearest guards were only about fifteen yards away.

“Are you guys ready?” said Sarah.

“I’m not sure what we’re supposed to be ready for,” said J.D., “but yeah.”

“I don’t see Peter,” said Aidan, scanning the sky.

“He’ll be here,” said Sarah. I hope.

The guards were within ten yards…five…

“Here we go,” said Sarah. She reached into the shopping bag and pulled out Peter Pan’s lantern. She held it up, and as she did the lantern lit up with a brilliant golden glow. The guards stopped, momentarily uncertain how to respond.

“Move in!” shouted a voice.

The guards started forward again. They had each taken only a step or two when an ominous sound filled the plaza—the sound of rushing wind, like a sudden storm, directly overhead. They looked up to see a sky filled with dark shapes, seeming to come from everywhere, flowing like a black aerial river toward the center of the plaza.

Toward the lantern.

There was no time to escape, even if there had been somewhere to run; in seconds, the first of the vast swarm of ravens had reached the trio in the middle of the plaza. J.D. and Aidan threw their hands in front of their faces; Sarah closed her eyes but still held the glowing lantern aloft, determined to carry out the plan. The raven storm was all around now, and Sarah heard nothing but the furious beating of wings. She felt the air buffeting her, felt feathers brushing her, and then she heard Aidan scream as she felt the same awful cold she’d felt back in the ride…

And then the lantern was gone, snatched from her hand. At the same instant she felt a shift in the movement of the ravens. She dared to open her eyes, and saw that the darting shapes were still all around, but now they were pursuing something else, something moving too fast for her eyes to focus on, a blur with a bright light that she knew to be the lantern Peter had snatched from her. He was about ten feet off the ground and flying in a gradually expanding circle, with Sarah, Aidan, and J.D. in the center. Outside of this strange hurricane Sarah could make out a scene of great confusion—a growing crowd of park visitors, wildly excited by this spectacular post-parade show, rushing closer to take pictures and video, overwhelming the confused security force.

She felt J.D. grab her arm.

“Come on,” he said. “This is when we get out of here.”

He pulled her and Aidan toward the circling birds. As they reached them, the blur that was Peter shot past, then veered suddenly upward. The ravens followed, a geyser of blackness erupting into the sky.

“Now!” said J.D., pulling Aidan and Sarah with him as he plunged into the crowd. Overhead, Peter shot back and forth, drawing the ravens this way and that, sending the crowd below running in all directions.

J.D., Sarah, and Aidan, taking advantage of the chaos, ran toward the ferry.

J.D. glanced back at the milling crowd on the plaza; nobody was following them. They sprinted onto the ferry dock and through the gate seconds before the attendant closed it. Gasping for breath, they walked quickly onto the ship and found a spot at the rail from which they could see the plaza.

The blur of light that was Peter was rising higher and higher into the sky, darting back and forth with astonishing speed. Right behind was the vast cloud of ravens, not moving quite as quickly as Peter, but remaining close.

“Man,” said Aidan. “There’s so many of them.” Sarah nodded. “How long can he keep away from them?”

“I don’t understand the physics of it,” said J.D. “But he can’t keep that up forever. He has to tire at some point.”

“Then what happens?” said Aidan.

“I don’t know,” said J.D.

“He saved us,” Sarah said softly.

They fell silent. The ferry horn sounded and the ship started to move. Sarah, Aidan, and J.D. stood utterly still, staring at the glowing light, growing fainter now, darting back and forth in the sky, pursued by the huge, relentless black cloud.

Peter was tiring, and he had no plan. He had thought it through to this point: putting Tink in the lantern to trick Ombra into believing it contained starstuff, then using it to lure the ravens away so Sarah, J.D., and Aidan could escape. But he hadn’t had time to come up with anything beyond that. He’d assumed that he’d be able to figure something out when the time came. He always did.

But now the time was coming. The ravens were getting closer, and he was feeling slower and weaker. Tink, he knew, was exhausted from radiating the light that had fooled—and continued to fool—his pursuers.

If he kept flying much longer, the ravens would catch him. Ombra would have him, and Peter knew he would not be merciful. Time was running out.

And he had no plan.

He flew higher, higher; below was the castle, a spectacular sight from this altitude, had Peter been able to enjoy it. On all sides of the castle he saw people, tens of thousands of them. Many were looking skyward, although not in Peter’s direction. Peter wondered what they were looking at.

Then he heard an explosion.

“Fireworks,” said Aidan, pointing from the ferryboat rail as the first burst of color exploded in the sky near the castle, followed quickly by another, and another.

Sarah ignored the fireworks, squinting as she tried to keep track of the tiny, distant, glowing streak that was Peter.

“Maybe they’ll help him,” she said.

“Help him how?” said J.D.

“I don’t know. Maybe he can use them as a distraction, to get away from the—wait a minute.”

“What?” said J.D.

“He’s heading toward them,” said Sarah, watching the blur elongate. “He’s heading straight toward the fireworks.”

No mistakes, thought Peter. Even a single mistake meant death.

He could see the flashes of the mortars far below. Each flash meant a fireworks shell had been launched into the sky, its fuse burning.

When the fuse burned all the way down, the charge inside the shell exploded, sending burning stars of molten metals and chemicals hurtling out in a predetermined pattern; some of them exploded in two, or even three, stages. The explosions were terrifyingly powerful, the shock waves buffeting Peter even at a distance of a hundred yards. He knew that if he got too close, he would be burned or knocked unconscious from the sky.

If he didn’t get close enough, his plan would fail.

Either mistake would ultimately be fatal.

He glanced back; the birds were closer now than they had been. He veered slightly left, then right; the lead birds tracked him exactly. That was good. He was counting on the fact that the birds were focused on him, and not their surroundings.

He was over the mortars now. He veered left, circling, watching the mortars flashing below, tracking the shells hurtling upward, fuses burning. Peter had superb eyesight, but even he could not see well enough to tell exactly when a given shell’s fuse had burned down completely. He would have to guess.

He felt something strike his feet and he kicked hard, knocking away a raven, which screeched in anger. The others were right behind. They were closing in on him. There was no time left.

He looked back at the mortars. He saw a flash, then another.

Perfect.

He veered sharply, heading to intercept the flight of the first shell. He flicked his eyes and caught a glimpse of the second, trying to gauge its trajectory. He did not look back, but he knew the birds were close. He slowed slightly, and felt one, now two, now three, striking his legs with their beaks. Ignoring the pain, he focused on the shell hurtling toward him. From this angle, almost directly above, he couldn’t see the fuse. He wanted to veer now, to get away from the missile that was almost on him, but he forced himself to wait one more second…

Now.

With a desperate effort, he contorted his body and executed a sharp right turn away from the shell. For a tenth of a second he thought he’d turned too soon.

Then the night exploded into brightness. Peter was hurled forward, head over heels, barely hanging on to the lantern. White-hot burning stars shot past; he felt agonizing pain as one of them ricocheted off his left leg and another hit his arm. As he tumbled through the air he heard a piteous chorus of inhuman, screeching sounds; regaining control, he looked back and saw black shapes everywhere, some fluttering erratically, most plummeting toward the earth.

And some still coming for him.

Peter veered right, and the remaining birds followed.

Peter looked desperately for the second shell, but could not pick it up; he knew it was close, but where?

He saw the flash an instant before he heard or felt the blast, and in that instant he knew he was much too close. As the massive shock wave hurled his body across the sky and the world went black around him, he felt himself falling through the night. Somehow he was still clutching the lantern, from within which sounded the urgent, but unheard, chimes of the much-weakened Tinker Bell, urging him to please, please wake up…