The farmer’s wife didn’t look convinced. “She could be getting out and then coming back in. Crafty, she is.”
Ben had to agree with that. “Let us know if you see the snake again, but please try not to worry. I’ve sent several troops of imperial soldiers to Charmington to keep it safe.”
Ben returned to the castle to pick up Chad and took his leave of the grand duke, who promised to alert him should anything else purple turn up in the area. Chad was in the kitchen petting a brown puppy from Bruno’s latest litter.
“All set, old man?” he asked.
Ben nodded. “Let’s go. I’ll drop you off back at school on my way.”
“Where are you going?” Chad asked as he climbed back into the convertible. “Maybe I’ll join you. I’ve got nothing better to do today but homework. Now that Evie won’t do mine anymore.”
“Neverland.”
Chad changed his tune. “Right. I’ll stay at Auradon Prep, if you don’t mind. One of the Lost Boys is still mad that that I stole his bear costume last time they played us. He brought it up again at the game yesterday, but it wasn’t my fault he never got it back!” The ragtag group was still very fond of their bear, fox, rabbit, and raccoon pelts.
“But it was your fault that someone found it and turned it into a rug,” reminded Ben.
Chad sighed. “Yeah, you might have a point there.”
Jay was hiding by the hedges that lined the road to Evil Queen’s castle when he heard the voices of his friends whispering—or was that bickering?—in the darkness. “Hey,” he said, stepping out from behind the bushes. “About time you guys got here.” It was 11:54, only five minutes before the meeting.
“I broke a heel,” said Evie, who was limping a little. “Sorry. I’m still wearing dance slippers, not hiking boots. I forgot how much walking we have to do on the island. But I’m okay.”
“What were you guys arguing about?” he asked.
“Evie doesn’t trust Maddy,” said Mal, and filled him in on what they’d learned so far from their brief time on the island, mostly nothing good. Evil Queen, Cruella de Vil, and Jafar were still nowhere to be found.
“Mad Maddy? I wouldn’t trust her either; she’s pretty shady,” said Jay. “This is the Isle of the Lost, remember? Isle of the Lost, Land of Lies.”
“Find anything at the Junk Shop?”
“Not a thing,” said Jay, who told them about how suspicious and odd Big Murph had acted, and how Anthony Tremaine had called them turncoats.
“They all hate us,” said Evie, who sounded sad about that fact.
“Yep, we’re totally despised,” agreed Carlos.
“They don’t all hate us. Some of them are really scared of me, it turns out,” said Mal.
“Everyone was always scared of you, Mal. That hasn’t changed; come on,” argued Carlos.
“Okay, fine,” admitted Mal. “But now they’re even more scared!” She told them about how her room had been left pristine while the rest of the castle was ransacked. “Apparently it’s because they all think I’ll turn them into lizards.”
Jay guffawed. “You should turn the Isle of the Lost into the Isle of the Lizards!”
“Not funny,” said Mal, even though her lips were quirking a little. “And we still have to find out what this Anti-Heroes club is planning.”
“Planning their revenge on us, most likely,” said Carlos.
“Do we have to go to this meeting?” asked Evie.
“Come on, let’s not chicken out now. Maybe they just don’t like sandwiches? Heroes? Get it?” joked Jay.
The rest of them groaned. Mal ignored his wisecracks. “Well, from how Maddy was acting, it sounds like Jafar, Cruella, and Evil Queen are definitely part of it.”
“Looked to me like Maddy is part of it too,” said Evie.
“Oh, definitely,” said Carlos.
“Shhhh!” warned Jay. “Someone’s coming.”
The four of them melted back into the shadows, peeking out from the hedges to watch as a succession of shadowy figures made their way toward the cellar door. “Recognize anybody?” whispered Evie.
“No,” said Jay, who had the sharpest eyesight. “It’s too far and too dark to see.”
“What do we do now?” asked Carlos, trying to push the branches aside so they didn’t tickle his nose.
“We follow them in, isn’t that obvious?” Mal said, mimicking the tone he’d used on them earlier.
“No bickering!” said Evie. “And quiet, or they’ll hear us!”
A few more dark silhouettes made their way down the road toward the castle, disappearing down the stone steps. After a large wave of people, the crowd trickled down to a few stragglers. “Okay, let’s go,” said Jay. “We’ll sneak in after those guys.” He scanned the area. “I think they’re the last ones.”
The four of them crept up from behind, and when the clouds drifted from the moon, they saw that the guys they were following were Harry and Jace. Carlos shrugged his shoulders when his friends turned to him questioningly. Although Jay thought that if the sons of Cruella’s most loyal minions were part of this club, then it probably meant Cruella was one of its leaders.
Harry and Jace disappeared down through the cellar door, which was left open. They waited for a beat then followed right behind. The castle dungeons were cold and damp, and as they made their way deeper and deeper into the darkness, through winding corridors and musty hallways, it grew colder and darker still.
Jay was in the lead, and when he suddenly stopped short, the rest of the group piled behind him, stumbling and pushing into each other. “Oof!” “Ouch!” “Watch it!”
“Where’d they go?” Carlos whispered. “Why’d you stop?”
“I think they heard us,” Jay whispered back. “Everyone, be quiet!” He strained to hear and squinted in the pitch-black gloom. A few moments later, he picked up the sound of Harry’s heavier footsteps. “All right, come on,” he whispered, motioning to his friends to follow him.
“Where are they going?” Mal asked Evie. “This is your castle, right? What’s down here?”
“No idea,” said Evie. “Until today I didn’t even know we had a basement.”
The darkness abated somewhat and they saw Harry and Jace disappear into a room on the left side of the hallway. Jay nodded and the four of them entered right after. Like the rest of the dungeon, the room was completely dark, but Jay thought he could sense people around them. What was going on? He couldn’t help but feel that their sneaky entrance hadn’t been so successful after all.
“Back up, back up, I have a bad feeling about this,” he said, trying to lead them the opposite way.
Too late!
The door immediately shut with a bang behind them.
“Dalmatians,” cursed Carlos. “It’s a trap!” It was just as they feared, the stuff of their nightmares.
From the darkness came a menacing voice. “Operation Welcome Home is a go.”
Carlos startled at the sound of the voice and quickly hid behind Mal. He figured it was the safest spot. He wasn’t afraid to face danger, but he preferred to do it knowing Mal was in front of him. Evie gasped but managed not to scream. Jay cracked his knuckles, preparing to throw fists. Mal was calm, and her voice was even and steady when she poked Carlos and told him what to do. “Torch, please.”
“Pardon?” he asked, before realizing she meant the torchfire zapp on his phone. He turned it on, shining a blazing light into the darkness.
The four of them were illuminated by the sudden brilliance, and Carlos saw that they were surrounded on all sides by a small but excitable group of young villains. He recognized some of the faces—his cousin Diego de Vil, who raised an eyebrow in greeting; Harry and Jace with eager grins on their faces; Yzla, Hadie, Claudine Frollo, Mad Maddy, who was holding some kind of flaming weapon in her hands.
Hold on. What was that noise? What were they doing?
He couldn’t be sure at first, but it looked as if the crowd was clapping, cheering even,
hooting and stomping feet and calling out their names. “They’re here! They’re here!” “It’s really Mal!” “Jay’s here too!” “Yay, Carlos!” “Evie looks fantastic!”
And hang on…that weapon that Maddy was holding…was that a cake? With way too many candles?
It was definitely a cake, and one that said WELCOME BACK, HEROES!
“I think they mean us?” said Jay, breaking into a grin.
“Definitely us,” said Evie, sounding incredibly relieved.
“Hmm, I think we had the wrong idea about this club somehow,” said Mal, nudging Carlos. “Or maybe we’re at the wrong meeting? They sure don’t seem very anti-hero to me.”
But Carlos didn’t notice the ribbing, he was too stunned to see a very familiar and very welcome face in the group.
“Professor!” he called, when he spotted none other than his former Magic of Science teacher, Yen Sid. He was standing right behind Maddy, the stars on his peaked sorcerer’s hat reflecting the candle flames. Yen Sid was one of Dragon Hall’s most respected teachers, even if it was rumored he wasn’t any kind of villain at all, but had voluntarily relocated to the Isle of the Lost in order to help educate the villains’ children.
“My boy,” said Yen Sid with a grave nod. “Welcome.” He turned to the gathered group. “Give them space, give them space, don’t crowd them around so much,” he said gruffly. “And I suggest you four deal with those candles before they set fire to the whole building. We wouldn’t want Evil Queen returning home to a pile of ashes, now, would we.”
The four of them blew out the cake to another round of cheers. Someone turned on the lights, and Carlos realized they were in a perfectly normal-looking basement room, clean and bright. There was a chalkboard on one wall and rows of neatly arranged tables.
“Shall we begin with the cake? I had to bribe some hard-bargaining mice to sneak it out of the Auradon kitchens to the goblins earlier this week just for this,” said Yen Sid. “Yzla, bring over the plates, please. Maddy, will you do the honors?”
“Of course, Professor,” said the young witch, and set about cutting slices.
The four of them watched in stunned silence as the group obediently and graciously moved aside and sat patiently, waiting for their slices. Carlos caught Jay’s eye and shrugged.
Yen Sid motioned for them to take the nearest table. “At least they’re not here to attack us,” said Jay, who accepted his slice with a wink.
“Unless they want to kill us with sugar,” said Mal, looking forlornly at her piece. “I sure wish I hadn’t eaten that whole stale pudding now.”
The Anti-Heroes club members, who’d never had anything remotely this good, were gobbling up the cake as fast as Maddy could slice it. It was their first taste of real sugar, and a few of them were dizzy and ecstatic from the sweetness.
Harry and Jace walked up with triumphant smiles on their faces. “Told ye we wouldn’t spoil it, and we didn’t, did we?” said Jace. “Ye had no idea, right?” asked Harry eagerly as he licked some frosting from his upper lip.
“No idea,” said Carlos, suddenly feeling much fonder of them than before. They were slow and bumbling, but often eager to please. When he had been forced to throw that party for Mal, they had helped him decorate without complaint. Jace and Harry grinned and shuffled back to their seats, satisfied.
“Professor, can we ask what this meeting is about?” said Evie as she picked daintily at her slice of cake.
“In time, in time,” replied the professor, licking frosting off his mustache. “We have much to discuss, and it is better to do so on a full stomach.” He set his plate down on their table. “So tell me, how were you able to return to the island?”
“I drove,” said Carlos, his mouth full of cake.
“We stole the royal limousine,” said Jay. “It has the clicker that unlocks the dome and makes the bridge appear.”
“Clever,” said Yen Sid. “I’m sure your talents at thievery were helpful in that area.”
Jay beamed. “I guess so.”
“Although we ran into Prince Ben and he let us take the car anyway,” reminded Mal, rolling her eyes at Jay for taking all the credit.
“Yes, Ben was always a progressive thinker,” agreed Yen Sid. “And you are all well, I take it? Enjoying life on Auradon?”
“Yes, sir,” said Evie. “Very much so.”
The professor stroked his long gray beard. “Excellent, excellent. Do give Fairy Godmother my regards when you see her next.”
Evie promised to do so. “By the way, Professor, does my mother know you’re here in our basement? Is she part of this?”
Yen Sid chuckled. “Everything will be explained in time.”
Mal was fidgeting and looked impatient, and Carlos knew she was eager to put an end to this chitchat, but Yen Sid seemed determined to keep the conversation light.
“How are the Knights doing this season?” he asked the boys.
“So far we’re five and one,” said Jay. “We’ve won all our games except a loss to a strong team from the Imperial Academy. Li Shang doesn’t mess around.”
“In my day, the Olympus team was the force to be reckoned with—always difficult to beat the gods,” Yen Sid said, looking nostalgic at the memory.
“They still have a strong lineup, but a lot of the god kids enroll at Auradon Prep now, so maybe that’s why,” said Jay.
Carlos finished his cake and was bursting with curiosity. He couldn’t keep it inside anymore. “So, Professor, come on, tell us, what is this whole Anti-Heroes thing all about?”
“I can certainly explain,” Yen Sid exclaimed jovially. “After all, I founded it.”
In the past, the only way to get to Neverland was to fly. Just like the Isle of the Lost, there had been no usable bridge connecting the tiny island to the mainland, so the fairy court used to leave a bottle of fairy dust at the dock. Then visitors would sprinkle it on themselves while thinking happy thoughts, lifting into the air and floating to Neverland. When Ben was little, he had loved to travel by fairy dust, but when King Beast and Fairy Godmother decided that even this magic was against Auradon policy, a proper bridge was built.
Even so, Ben couldn’t help feeling a bit disappointed that he wouldn’t be flying anywhere that day.
He dropped Chad off at school and was in Neverland by midafternoon, driving across the bridge and onto the winding, curvy roads of the hilly island. He thought he was following the map correctly, but it looked like he’d taken a wrong turn somewhere, and instead of arriving at the fairy homestead, he found himself parked next to a group of tepees.
Ben left the car to ask for directions. There weren’t that many other people around, and Tiger Peony, Tiger Lily’s daughter, was the first person he encountered.
“Hey, Ben,” she said, when she saw him. “Come to gloat?”
“Excuse me?” he asked, before realizing she meant the tourney game that Neverland’s team had lost the day before. “Yeah, sorry about that. Lost Boys played hard.”
“Everyone’s bummed,” she said. “Mom’s already sworn to train a bunch of new recruits. What are you doing here?”
“I’m headed to Fairy Vale,” Ben said, “and I got lost. Can you show me the right way?”
“Sure,” she said. “Are you here about the dragon?”
Ben stopped. “How do you know?”
“Everyone knows. It’s Maleficent, isn’t it?”
“Actually we don’t know for sure,” he said. “That’s why I’m here.”
Tiger Peony seemed to think that was a reasonable answer, and didn’t ask anything more. She pointed back down to the forest. “You just make a left at the waterfall instead of a right, and the road should take you straight to the Great Oak in the vale. They’ll be waiting for you.”
The fairies lived in a thousand-year-old oak tree that was as large and roomy inside as any royal palace in the kingdom. They flitted about, their wings buzzing, excited to greet Ben, their laughter like the sound of tiny little bells ringing
. Faylinn Chime, a tiny fairy who had golden hair and translucent wings, greeted Ben with a smile.
“What can we do for you, Ben?” she asked.
“The three good fairies sent me. They said you might be able to help me with a problem we’re having,” he said, taking a seat at a large oak table that was carved right from the tree.
“We heard about Camelot’s dragon,” she said, her voice grave. “Is the creature still at large?”
Ben nodded. “And if I’m right, it was just in Charmington this morning.” He removed his handkerchief and showed them the purple scale from the chicken coop. “Do you know what this could be from?” He handed it over as gently as possible.
Faylinn picked up the scale and showed it to the other fairies. “Looks like a serpent of some sort,” she said.
He held her gaze. “I need to know if it’s from Maleficent.”
She considered his request. “We can check the archives. We fairies have cataloged every kind of creature across every kingdom in Auradon, so if it’s from Maleficent, we’ll be able to tell you for sure,” she said, putting the scale back in the handkerchief and motioning to the fairy next to her. “Take this to Lexi Rose, and have her run a few tests to see if it matches anything we have in our database.”
“Thank you,” said Ben.
“I’m glad you’re here,” said Faylinn, “because we were just discussing whether to come to you with what we’ve found.”
“Oh, what’s up?”
“Ben, I don’t know if the three good fairies or Merlin have told you, but here in Neverland, we fairies are very sensitive to fluctuations in the atmosphere and the world around us. I’ve heard that in Auradon, you have been experiencing a series of earthquakes, is that right?”
“Yes, and aftershocks too.”
“We’ve been having terrible weather, storms from the coast out of season, as well as giant waves crashing on our shores.”
“Yes, all around Auradon, the weather’s been acting strangely. I just heard it snowed in Northern Wei, and hailed in Goodly Point,” he said. “Scientists hope it just means winter’s coming early.”