Authors: Ridley Pearson
“Is this their general, I wonder?” Jess reached into her pocket and passed down the sketch of the uniformed officer. It reached Ariel and stopped. She studied it, looked up, and studied it again.
“What is it?” Finn asked.
“This is no general,” she said. “It’s Captain Peter.”
“WHO?” Philby, Finn, and Maybeck said in near unison.
“Captain Peter Roseman. The
Disney Magic
. The cruise ship. I’ve worked with Captain Peter before, several times.”
“The cruise ship,” Philby said.
“They want to steal the
Magic
,” Willa said. “Not the magic—small
m
. The
Magic
—capital
M
.”
Finn stood up so quickly, his DHI knees went through the chain banister. “That’s the next Keepers installment! The cruise line! We have that opening scheduled for what—?”
“Two weeks,” Maybeck said. “A Saturday. Grand opening is Port Canaveral.”
The other Keepers clambered to their feet. Only Ariel was slow in getting up.
“We’ve got to say good-bye for now,” Finn said to the mermaid.
“I hope you’ll come back and visit?”
“Actually, we may need you.”
“And your other friends,” Charlene said.
“We’ll see if Wayne can arrange some kind of character spectacular on the cruise,” Finn said.
Ariel nodded, not knowing exactly what they were talking about. “Sounds lovely.”
Finn thought of Minnie and Pluto. He pulled the fob out of his pocket and held it before them. “Everyone ready?”
Nods all around.
“How strange that a thing so small possesses so much power,” Finn said.
“But it does,” Philby said. “That thing is the key to it all.”
Finn nodded. He held his hand over Ariel’s and said, “Will you hide this for us?”
“Of course,” she said. “Willa knows how to find me.”
Finn looked around at the faces of the Kingdom Keepers, thinking: We’re not done here.
And then he pushed the button.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The research for the Kingdom Keepers books continues to branch out and expand with each new book in the series. My world is expanding at the same rate as that of the Keepers. It’s a cliché that you can’t do a project without certain people, but it remains a fact. I’m indebted to hours and hours (days and weeks in some cases) from any and all of the following. Each of these people brings with them the knowledge of colleagues and the help of assistants, either too many to name, or those who wish to remain anonymous. But it takes a Kingdom to make these novels. So, in no particular order thank you to those at Disney: Laura Simpson, Chris Ostrander, Megan Fuchs, Alex Wright, Scott Otis, Richard Fleming, Sam Medina, Jerry Coleman, Les Frey, Cindy Johnson, Alisha Huettig, and Jessica Ward.
And it takes others to turn the research and my stories into actual books and book tours and research travel and a million e-mails and Google searches, and on and on. So, thanks to Amy Berkower and Dan Conaway at Writers House; Matthew Snyder at CAA; Wendy Lefkon, my Disney Books editor and dear friend; Jennifer Levine and Deborah Bass, publicity; Lisa Laird, speaking agent; my office manager of fourteen years, Nancy Litzinger Zastrow St. Louis. To David and Laurel Walters, who have actual day jobs, but who make the time in insanely busy lives to still copyedit repeated drafts. And to Dave Barry, who may not want anything to do with these books for all I know, but affects all of my work nonetheless—he really is the smartest man in the room.
Special thanks to Genevieve Gagne-Hawes for her thorough story and character editing during the multiple revisions of the book. Gen, you are a real Keeper.
For those I’ve forgotten, I haven’t actually forgotten you or the help you’ve provided, only your names…No lawsuits please.
—Ridley Pearson
2011
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