Finders Keepers

by Peter Speakman

  “Didn’t find any.”

  “She was always clever. But there is no need to worry. Her time will come.”

  Professor Ellison was a threat to Vesiroth, and it galled him. For the past three millennia she had been growing more and more powerful while Vesiroth had been a living statue, aware but unable to move. The woman who was once his pupil was now his greatest enemy.

  “Did you do what I asked?”

  “Yep.” Duncan hopped off of his board and manifested two gleaming chrome switchblades in each of his hands. “I went down there this week and cased the joint myself.”

  “The plan is sound?”

  “I’m not sure I would call it sound, but it’s doable.” As Duncan spoke he juggled his knives. “I don’t see why you’re in such a hurry. You’ve been waiting three thousand years. What’s a few more weeks?”

  “A few more weeks is an eternity.” Vesiroth’s voice dripped poison. “Our journey to Switzerland will be the true new beginning of my ascension and inevitable victory.”

  “Whatever you say, boss.” Duncan let his switchblades fade back into the ether and let out a loud yawn. “I’m hitting the sack. You going to stay up?”

  “I have had enough sleep for one lifetime.”

  “I knew you were going to say something like that. See you at breakfast!”

  Duncan mounted his skateboard and glided out of the room, leaving Vesiroth once again free to gorge on information undistracted. Footage from D-Day streamed on one of his screens. Explosions. Fire. Death. Nothing has changed, the wizard thought. Nothing will ever change until I am humanity’s master.

  7

  “DUDE, YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THERE!” said Parker.

  “Yeah, yeah,” said Theo, bouncing a half-dead tennis ball against the wall. His dad was working at the university and his mom was out with his aunt Kathleen at a farmers market. That meant that Theo, Parker, Reese, and Fon-Rahm could hang out in the barn again.

  “Seriously, I thought it was going to be super lame…”

  “Hey!” said Reese.

  “…but it turned out to be epic when I had my pal Fon-Rahm here search out a giant anaconda.”

  “It was supposed to be a hike, Parker, with walking and communing with nature. I wanted to see spider monkeys.”

  “We did see a spider monkey! He got eaten by the anaconda!”

  Reese shuddered. “That was really not what I had in mind.”

  Theo threw his ball again. Thwock. He had always liked the barn. He had fond memories of playing here when he was a kid, when his dad would have Theo hand him tools while he tried (and tried, and tried) to get the engine in their ancient Farmall tractor to turn over. After they were done his dad would drink a beer and he would give Theo a bottle of orange soda. The barn itself had seen better days. There were exposed nails around the door and there was a hole in the roof his dad made a new promise to patch every time he came into the barn to grab a tool.

  “How is it that we haven’t talked about this? For crying out loud, how is this not an IMAX movie yet? This snake was huge. I mean, like, really big. Picture the biggest snake you ever saw and then picture a snake four times that big, and then picture a snake that could swallow that snake whole, and then you’re getting close. Tell him, Fon-Rahm!”

  The first of the Jinn nodded. “It was a very large snake.”

  The barn was the only place that was both private and close enough to the house so the genie could still be near his master. Fon-Rahm spent most of his time here, conserving his energy and trying to feel for changes in the Nexus. The barn smelled like apples. Fon-Rahm was beginning to associate the scent with looming disaster.

  “I get the picture,” said Theo. “You guys went and had a killer time while I rode my bike the eight miles to Professor Ellison’s place and then got yelled at for two hours. Please, tell me more.”

  Parker said, “Nobody forced you to go over there.”

  “You just don’t understand.”

  “What don’t we understand?” said Reese. “Professor Ellison was going to let us die if we hadn’t stopped Xaru in time.”

  “But she didn’t.”

  “Sure, because Fon-Rahm stepped in. She was ready to let Xaru obliterate the entire town, including our friends and our families and everybody. She doesn’t care what happens to us.”

  “She’s training me to be a wizard! She’s teaching me things that would blow your mind!”

  “She’s only training you because she’s finally found somebody else with a connection to the Nexus she thinks she can control.”

  “You don’t get it. I can be great at this, if I want to. I could be powerful and—”

  “And what?” Parker asked.

  Theo threw the ball again. “It doesn’t matter. It’s just something I have to do.”

  Reese shrugged. “Well, I don’t trust her.”

  Parker was torn. He knew that Professor Ellison wouldn’t hesitate to throw them all under a bus if it would help her stop Vesiroth. He also understood that Vesiroth was a threat to the entire world and they were just three junior-high-school kids in New Hampshire. “What do you think, Fon-Rahm?”

  “I agree with the girl. Professor Ellison is not to be relied upon.”

  “You can call me Reese, you know.”

  “And yet,” the genie continued, “the professor is correct that the world is in need of new wizards. The strength of the Nexus must not be concentrated in the hands of a very few. With power comes corruption, even to those with noble intentions.”

  “I knew I could count on you to make things even more confusing,” said Parker.

  “You will find that things are seldom either completely good or completely evil. We must all try to do what we think is right. We can do no more than our best.”

  Theo caught the ball and held it in his hand. “Something happened at Professor Ellison’s house. These guys…” Theo stopped midsentence.

  Reese said, “These guys what? What guys?”

  “I can’t tell you,” Theo mumbled.

  “What?” Parker said. “I can’t hear you.”

  “I can’t tell you!” Theo yelled. “Professor Ellison made me promise not to say anything!”

  Parker stared at his cousin. “Oh. I get it. You two are keeping secrets from us now.”

  “No! It’s not like that.”

  “Are you sure? Because it sure seems like it’s like that.”

  “She has her reasons,” Theo said glumly.

  “Good boy, Theo.”

  At the sound of the unexpected voice, Parker, Reese, Theo, and Fon-Rahm looked to the barn door. Professor Ellison stood in the doorway with her Louis Vuitton bag and a look of cold contempt.

  “Hello, children,” she said. “And my dear Fon-Rahm. It’s been far too long.”

  8

  “PROFESSOR ELLISON!” PARKER SAID. “Great! Now, if we can just get Xaru and that kid who beat me up in third grade in here, we’ll really have a party.”

  Professor Ellison smiled. “Parker. How I’ve missed that razor-sharp wit! Of course, it might be more effective if your fly wasn’t open.”

  Parker looked down, mortified, but his zipper was fine. The professor had gotten him with the oldest trick in the book. He couldn’t help but notice Theo fighting to suppress a grin.

  “What are you doing here?” asked Reese, her tone as cold as a snowstorm.

  “Can’t a person stop by to see some old friends? I thought New England was famous for its hospitality.”

  “You’re not our friend.”

  Professor Ellison strolled into the barn like she owned the place. “Oh, you’re not still upset about that business at the college, are you? Really, Marisa, that was months ago. You’ll find that you get farther in life if you learn to let things go.” She cast a glance at Theo. “Theo certainly doesn’t hold a grudge.” Theo’s cheeks burned with embarrassment.

  Fon-Rahm watched Ellison as she walked through the barn, examining the tools and the outdated ju
nk with bemusement. “What do you want here?”

  “After giving the matter some thought I’ve decided it would be prudent to warn you.”

  “Warn us? Warn us of what?”

  The professor cleared a space on Kelsey’s dusty workbench for her bag. “My house was attacked. It seems I have again attracted the attentions of those charming fellows who make up the Path.”

  “Couldn’t happen to a nicer person,” said Reese.

  Professor Ellison ignored her. She took a cube made of what seemed to be polished black glass from her bag and set it on the workbench. “I took care of it, of course, but I did have to wonder what exactly they were after. They already have the two lamps I collected before we met. There weren’t enough of them to make a real go at killing me, and I doubt they were on a fishing expedition. They want something and they think I have it. But what could I have that Vesiroth needs? My amulets and talismans would just be trinkets to him. What else is out there that could really pique his interest? What could tempt him into showing his hand? What would be worth the risk? And then it came to me.”

  She waved her hand in front of the black box. The device came to life, and the projected three-dimensional image of an ancient, battered helmet appeared above the workbench.

  “Whoa,” said Parker. The helmet was so lifelike it seemed as if it was right in the barn with them. “What is that thing?”

  “It’s a magical projector my dear friend Lady Alisa Pembrook-Pendleton whipped up in England a hundred and fifty years ago. When her husband discovered it he had her committed to an insane asylum.” She reached into the hologram and took the ghost helmet in her hands. “This is the Elicuum Helm.”

  “The what now?” asked Parker.

  “It’s a helmet,” said the professor, turning the helmet over as if it were a solid object. “It’s a simple thing, isn’t it? No frills, no plumes, no fancy ornamental filigree. It’s nothing but pounded brass. It would be useless as protection. Really, a half-solid swipe with a half-sharp sword would cut right through it.” She stared intensely at the Helm. “Of course, it wasn’t designed for defense. The Helm is a weapon.”

  She let go of the helmet and let it float out into the center of the barn. Parker, Theo, Fon-Rahm, and even Reese followed it as it went, captivated.

  Professor Ellison continued. “It was created by the Elders before they even got the idea for genies. It was their first attempt at a superweapon.” A raging battle of ancient armies appeared projected under the Helm. Horseback riders sparred with charging foot soldiers. Swords flashed in the sun and arrows found their marks across the battlefield. The detail was astonishing. The kids and the genie could practically smell the combat and hear the clash of steel. It was like watching an insanely intricate diorama come to life.

  “All it required was a volunteer to wear it.”

  The helmet shrank down and set itself on the head of an unarmed man standing off to the side of the war. When it was set, the man waded confidently into the carnage. His own troops fell back, leaving him alone to fight an entire army of enemy soldiers.

  “The Helm is an amplifier. It takes in all the negative energy that surrounds it, concentrates it, and then releases it back to the source.”

  A horseman came at the man in the Helm. As the soldier readied his lance to strike, the Helm let out a thick, oozy black tendril of pure negative energy that uncurled slowly. Suddenly, the tendril lashed out. It cut through the rider like a laser beam. He fell from his horse and was dead by the time he hit the ground.

  “One man wearing the Elicuum Helm could defeat an entire army.”

  Hundreds of tendrils sprang from the Helm. They found targets all across the battlefield. Soldiers died without raising their swords. It seemed as if the man was an octopus whose tentacles were infinite and wholly without mercy. Then the arms of negative energy disappeared and the man walked off the battlefield. Every member of the opposing army lay dead in the dirt.

  “It was very effective, but the Elders knew enough to use it sparingly. It was one-of-a-kind and they were afraid it might fall into the wrong hands. Of course, some things are too powerful to keep under wraps, and all it took to bollix everything up was one thief with more nerve than brains.” She eyed Parker directly.

  In the hologram, a thief snuck into a house and removed the Helm from a pedestal. He jumped from an open window and was gone.

  “The Helm shows up sporadically after that. There are reports the three hundred Spartans used it against the Persians at Thermopylae. I know for a fact it was used in the Crusades.”

  “How can you be so sure?” asked Parker.

  “Because I was there. Are you familiar with the story of Vlad the Impaler?”

  “He was a Transylvanian prince,” said Reese. “He was notoriously cruel. Vlad was famous for impaling his enemies on wooden poles. It would take them days to die. He’s supposed to be the model for Dracula.”

  “Quite right. You always were the smart one.”

  The hologram flashed to a new scene. Vlad, wearing a mustache, a bloodred suit of armor, and a sneer, led a procession of men on horseback down a street lined with the impaled bodies of his victims. A man wearing the Helm stepped into the road.

  “The Helm was never designed to confront inhumanity on such a sadistic level.”

  The Helm collected the negative energy, but instead of releasing it back to Vlad’s army, the tendrils lashed out in a fury of confusion.

  “It was overloaded with evil and irreparably corrupted.”

  Finally, the berserk tentacles wrapped themselves around the wearer of the Helm until he was bound by an inky-black blanket. The man jerked around like a mad marionette before he fell to his knees, screaming as every bone in his body was broken. He keeled over. The Helm bounced from his head, splitting into three pieces as it hit the ground. Vlad dismounted and held one of the pieces up to the light.

  The hologram projector let out a sound like a dying eagle. The image in the barn flickered and then contracted into a single dot of green light.

  Professor Ellison smacked the glass cube with the heel of her hand. “Lady Pembrook-Pendleton never did get this completely figured out. Well, I’m sure you get the general idea.”

  Parker said, “Vesiroth is after the Elicrom Helm.”

  “The Elicuum Helm. It’s a very old word that means something like ‘poetic justice.’ The Elders were nothing if not whimsical.”

  “Is this weapon currently in your possession?” asked Fon-Rahm.

  The professor paused. “No. I had a third of the Helm, but I traded it away somewhere around the time the black death took hold in Europe.”

  “What did you get for it?” said Theo.

  “None of your business. The point is, I don’t have it anymore.” Professor Ellison returned to the matter at hand. “Even in pieces the Helm has tremendous power. Since it was damaged, anyone who has tried to use any shard of the Helm has found it to be dangerously unstable. It’s impossible to control and the object itself has a corrupting effect on the user’s mind. It will worm its way inside your thoughts. It will twist your will to its own ends. It will quite literally drive a person insane. Vesiroth, though…Vesiroth isn’t human anymore. If anyone could withstand the Helm’s effects, it would be him.” She shook her head ruefully. “It was a mistake to let my piece of the Helm go. I was young and naïve.”

  “I can’t picture you young,” said Reese.

  “I can’t picture you naïve,” said Parker.

  Fon-Rahm was, naturally, all business. “Why would Vesiroth believe you have the Helm?”

  “I honestly don’t know. I can only assume he’s searching for ways to speed his rise to power. Something like the Helm builds its own mythology through the years. Perhaps my name appears in some dusty old books. Perhaps the Path keeps better records than I thought. Either way, he’s working with outdated information.”

  Parker said, “What’s the worst-case scenario? Let’s say he manages to get ahold of all thr
ee pieces of the Helm. What then?”

  Fon-Rahm lowered his head gravely. “The end of civilization.”

  “Your pet genie is correct. If Vesiroth reunites all three pieces of the Helm, he won’t even need to destroy the eight genies that are still out there. He can just put the helmet on and stroll into the Middle East, or Africa, or South America, or Chicago. If he was at full strength I believe that Vesiroth would be able to twist the Nexus itself to his own aims.”

  Theo gulped. “He would be unstoppable.”

  “So we’ll have to beat him to it,” said Parker. “It’s three lousy pieces and we’ve got the first of the Jinn on our side. How hard can it be?”

  Theo said, “We don’t even know where the pieces are!”

  “You’re always worried about the details. Let’s look at the big picture here. We’re back! We’ll fire up Fon-Rahm and kick some Path butt. Maybe this’ll give you a chance to try out some of your new skills!”

  “Oh my God.” Theo put his hand to his forehead.

  While the two cousins bickered, Reese was busy doing math in her head. “Hold on. You said there were eight genies left besides Fon-Rahm. We destroyed Rath, Yogoth, and Xaru. That leaves nine.”

  Professor Ellison packed up her metal and slung her bag over her shoulder. “You haven’t heard? Vesiroth bagged one in Australia. The Cyclops called Syphus, it’s said, although there’s no solid evidence. It’s all the buzz in magic circles.” She walked over to Fon-Rahm. “I’m surprised you didn’t sense it.”

  “As am I,” said the genie. “It is possible that with Vesiroth’s resurrection my ability to feel the presence of my brothers has been dimmed.”

  Parker frowned. “That’s not great news.”

  “It explains a lot, though,” said Reese. “I mean, I never thought for a second that things were really this quiet. We’re not that lucky.”

  “It certainly won’t make it easier for us,” the professor said. “All right. First things first. Theo, I’ll need you to start scouring my library for references to the Helm. I’ve already put out the word that I’m in the market to pick up one of the pieces, and I’m confident someone will come forward soon. I’m constantly amazed at how pathetic most of my fellow conjurers are with money. You would think that with magical powers and multiple life spans they might be able to accrue some sort of savings. I would write a book on fiscal responsibility for magicians if I thought I could get any of them to read it. Oh well. Now, Parker. You and Fon-Rahm will have to put in some legwork. The last I heard, one of the pieces was—”