Finders Keepers

by Peter Speakman

  “Leave him alone, Fon-Rahm!”

  A chunk of concrete bounced off the back of Fon-Rahm’s head. He whirled around to see Reese and Naomi standing in the wreckage of the room. Reese held another piece of rubble in her hands, ready to let fly. “What’s gotten into you? Parker’s your friend!”

  Reese dropped her weapon when Fon-Rahm tipped back his head and let out a bloodcurdling roar.

  “Parker!” yelled Naomi. “Run!”

  Theo watched it all on the wall of monitors that flickered in Professor Ellison’s control room.

  “Well, I can’t say it’s all according to plan, but things actually seem to be working out quite well for us,” the professor said. “Vesiroth and Duncan may well kill each other, and Fon-Rahm is taking himself out of the picture. Of course, things do seem rather bleak for Parker.”

  Theo jumped out of his seat. “You don’t care about him at all, do you? Even after all the times he’s saved you?”

  “I care about more important things.”

  “Like yourself?”

  “Be careful what you say next. Up until now you’ve only seen my maternal side. Don’t make me raise my voice.”

  Theo shook his head. “All this magic. All this power. And what has it got you? What has it got any of us?” He looked his mentor dead in the eye. “I’m going out there to help my friends.”

  There was real anger in Professor Ellison’s voice. “Do not disobey me, Theo. I will not warn you again!”

  Theo went to the door and grabbed the handle.

  “I’m going, Professor Ellison. If you want to stop me you’re going to have to kill me. We both know you’ve had plenty of practice.”

  Theo pushed the door handle, half expecting to be cut down by a magic spell. When it didn’t happen he opened the door and ran into the maze of the house.

  Naomi could hardly believe her eyes. She knelt with Reese by J.T.’s side, trying to shield the unconscious man from the flying debris and the general mayhem of the surroundings. On one side of the gigantic room Parker ran from Fon-Rahm. On the other, Vesiroth used his blasts to keep Resparia and Kain away from Duncan. It was chaos. She said, “We have to get out of here. We have to get J.T. some place safe!”

  “I thought you understood what was happening here.” Reese shook her head. “This is a battle between good and evil. If Vesiroth wins there is no place safe.”

  Naomi clenched her teeth. She felt helpless. She wanted more than anything to make a difference and prove to Reese that she was on the side of the angels.

  Thanks to Parker’s magically enhanced parkour skills, Fon-Rahm’s zap missed the seventh grader’s leg by less than six inches. Parker ran and yelled over his shoulder, his voice dripping with desperation. “Come on, Fon-Rahm, cut it out! Deep down you know it’s me!”

  The genie continued to silently stalk his former master, casting electric volleys and staring with sickly black eyes.

  “If you really wanted to kill me I would already be dead!”

  A blast of red-hot electricity scorched the air around Parker’s head.

  “That’s enough!”

  Parker stopped running. He was out of breath and covered with plaster dust. His parkour skills were almost gone, returned to the Nexus with his long-lost ability to speak French. “I’m not running from you anymore! I’m your friend!”

  Fon-Rahm held his good arm out and blasted a hole through a bookcase not a foot away from Parker’s head. Parker did not flinch.

  “We defeated Xaru together. We battled the Path and we saved humanity. I taught you to eat junk food. You taught me that there are some people in this world who keep their word.”

  Fon-Rahm fired off another round of lightning. It tore chunks out of the ground at Parker’s feet. Parker did not flinch.

  “I taught you what it meant to be human. You taught me what it was to be a true friend.”

  Fon-Rahm let loose a storm of sparks that surrounded Parker like an aura of blue flame. Parker did not flinch.

  “You won’t kill me because we need each other. You’re a part of me and I’m a part of you.”

  Fon-Rahm raised his good arm and then let it drop. The black in his eyes clouded over. He was winning the battle that raged inside him.

  “Parker…” he said, his entire body trembling with the effort it took to speak. “I cannot control myself much longer. Please. Run.”

  Parker did not flinch. He crossed his arms and stared down the genie. “No.”

  Naomi watched as Vesiroth took a metal rod in each hand and aimed one each at Resparia and Kain. The jade globes glowed bright green, and beams of light struck the evil genies, contorting the two creatures in a dance of pure pain.

  “Kain! Resparia! Seventh and twelfth of the Jinn!” Vesiroth roared. “I, your creator, command your obedience!”

  The genies spasmed in agony.

  “He’s killing them!” said Reese. “He’s killing his own genies!”

  Naomi didn’t say anything. She just stared at the ground next to Vesiroth’s feet. In the chaos the welded pieces of the Elicuum Helm had been ripped from Duncan’s black bag. The artifact that would allow Vesiroth to enslave mankind was simply lying in the dust and torn pages of the destroyed library, waiting for someone to pick it up.

  Vesiroth’s voice burned. “You were created from my very life force, and I call upon the power of the Nexus to unmake you. Begone from this earth and exist no more!”

  The rods shook in Vesiroth’s hands. Kain and Resparia clasped their hands to their heads. As Resparia blinked in and out of existence and Kain’s repulsively segmented body whipped around in a frenzied panic, Naomi saw her chance. She broke from Reese and sprinted toward Vesiroth.

  “Naomi! No!” Reese shouted. “You don’t understand!”

  It was too late. Naomi got to the Helm just as the two genies, vibrating with the pain of the Nexus’s pull, imploded in a storm of ash and smoke.

  Vesiroth began to shake as the life force once contained in Kain and Resparia rushed back to its home. His metal staff crashed to the floor.

  Duncan, his head aching and blood pouring from his nose, had been to this rodeo before and he knew he had to get out of the way pronto. He started to run but stopped when he saw Naomi reaching for the Helm. The Helm! With the Helm, Duncan would be invincible! He manifested a scimitar in each hand. “Hand it over, girl, or I’ll slice you to pieces.”

  Reese knew it was true. She charged Duncan’s back with a scream of her own, pushing him toward the energy field that was about to erupt from Vesiroth in a storm of chaos and destruction. Reese and Naomi left the Helm where it was and dove for cover.

  “No,” said Duncan, as he realized what was about to happen. “Please, no.”

  It was too late. Vesiroth threw his arms to his sides as a blast of untamed power burst from his very soul. Duncan was blown back by the wave of pure energy that scorched the walls, burned every book, shattered every piece of furniture, and torched every priceless piece of art in the room.

  Reese threw herself on top of Naomi and closed her eyes tight. She had just killed another human being. She felt sick to her stomach.

  When Fon-Rahm saw what was happening he instinctively activated a crackling blue field of electricity to protect himself and Parker. The entire house rumbled as walls fell and beams cracked. When it was over, Fon-Rahm looked at Parker with clear eyes.

  “I knew it,” said Parker, almost collapsing with relief. “You protected me. Nothing could change what you really are. Nothing could turn us against each other.”

  “Parker…” Fon-Rahm shook his head with growing horror. “I am sorry.”

  Parker’s smile faded as Fon-Rahm’s eyes slowly turned black.

  The genie raised his right arm and prepared to incinerate the boy who had freed him from his prison of three thousand years. Before the fatal blow could be struck, Fon-Rahm cried out and fell to a heap in front of Parker.

  Professor Ellison stood with Theo at her side. Her hands were r
aised, a fine green mist settling around her.

  “What did you do?” Parker asked, dropping to his knees to tend to his fallen genie. “What did you do to him?”

  “I told you there would be a price to pay when you cut your tether,” Professor Ellison said. “I figured that as long as I was messing around in Fon-Rahm’s mind I might as well put in a back door.”

  “What kind of back door? What did you do?”

  “I installed a kill switch, dear boy. I always knew that I would have to put him down someday. I severed Fon-Rahm’s connection to the Nexus. He no longer has any powers to grant wishes or throw bolts of lightning or fly.” She stared at the prone genie. “Now he’s just like the rest of us.

  35

  THE ROOM WAS DESTROYED. Vesiroth, his tsunami of power spent, staggered to his feet. He knelt unsteadily, pulled his two pieces of the Helm from the rubble, and cleaned the dust away with slow, almost loving hands. It was all he could do to keep from collapsing where he stood.

  “You’re done, Vesiroth,” said Professor Ellison, serene and regal in the wreckage of her own house. “It’s over.”

  “I…am strong enough to finish you, Tarinn.” Vesiroth clasped his fingers around his silver spike and cast a wave of energy at Ellison. The spell was so feeble that it barely moved the air. By the time it reached the professor it was nothing but a stiff breeze.

  “Be careful, Professor,” said Theo, hiding behind her. “When his power comes back he’s going to be really mad.”

  “By then it will be too late.” Ellison knew that her window was closing. If she wanted to trap Vesiroth she had to do it now. She walked backward, hoping the wizard would follow her to the containment room and the trap that would hold him for the rest of eternity.

  Vesiroth staggered after her. He was so sluggish he could barely walk.

  Parker cradled his genie’s head in his hands. “Fon-Rahm? Can you hear me?”

  “Yes, I hear you,” said the first of the Jinn, blinking into the light with clear eyes. The magical infection that had taken control of his mind and body had vanished along with his Nexus-given power.

  “Are you all right, buddy?”

  “Yes, I feel…” He cocked his head to the side. “I feel as if the ground pulls at me. It is a most unusual sensation.”

  “That’s gravity. That’s what happens when you can’t fly.”

  “I see. And this air that moves in and out of my body…”

  “You’re breathing, Fon-Rahm. You should probably keep doing that.”

  “Ah.”

  “Fon-Rahm, we have to fight Vesiroth.”

  Fon-Rahm held his right hand in front of his eyes and turned it over. He held it in the air and concentrated. A glowing mist did not flood from his eyes. Blue arcs of lightning did not materialize. Nothing happened at all.

  “I am afraid I will be of little use, Parker.” He dropped his hand. “I feel a drumbeat inside my chest. It grows stronger even as I contemplate the dangerous situation in which we find ourselves.”

  “That’s a pulse, Fon-Rahm. You’re feeling your heart beat.”

  “A heartbeat, of course. And why does its tempo increase?”

  “Because, buddy,” said Parker, patting the genie on his shoulder, “we’re in a boatload of trouble.”

  Reese dug through the destruction until she found Duncan’s broken body. “Is it possible he’s still…” The hint of hope in her voice died when she pulled a piece of collapsed wall from his face and saw that in death he had reverted back to his cursed childhood. The sight of Duncan’s ten-year-old face shocked her.

  Naomi pulled her friend away from the rubble. “You had to do it. He didn’t give you any choice.”

  Reese stared for a moment longer. Duncan’s hand reached out as if to accuse her of murder. Reese clenched her jaw and pushed herself to her feet.

  “Take it easy, Reese,” Naomi said. “You should give yourself some time to recover.”

  Reese’s voice was steel. “I don’t have time to do anything but stop Vesiroth.”

  Vesiroth followed Ellison and Theo to the very end of the immense room. He kept casting his energy spells and they kept dying well before they could reach their target and inflict any damage.

  “That’s it, Vesiroth. Just a little farther.” Ellison signaled to Theo and they threw open a final set of closed doors. “Your prize awaits.”

  It was a small room, for Professor Ellison’s house, at least. Windows stretched from the floor to the ceiling on three sides, revealing the gorgeous landscape of New Hampshire. The final piece of the Elicuum Helm floated in midair, suspended by a beam of pure light in the middle of the room.

  Vesiroth was entranced. All he had to do was walk into the room and take it.

  Theo and his mentor backed out of the way. They wanted to give the scarred wizard plenty of space. Theo whispered, “He won’t do it, Professor Ellison. He must know it’s a trap.”

  “He has just absorbed a tremendous amount of energy and he’s not thinking clearly. Right now he wants one thing in the world and he will do anything to get it, including lie to himself.”

  “But even if he’s trapped, the piece of the Helm will be stuck in here with him! He’ll use it to break out!”

  “Do you really think I didn’t account for that?”

  Vesiroth stood outside the room, wavering. He didn’t appear to notice the sea of ancient runes painted on the room’s floor, ceiling, and walls. He didn’t see the circle drawn in red under the Helm. He was exhausted and barely on his feet. The pull of the Helm was the only thing holding him upright.

  “Do it,” the professor whispered. “Don’t think about it. It’s right in front of you. Reach out and take it.”

  Vesiroth raised his foot to enter the room, but at the last second he stopped. He stared at the hovering metal helmet with newfound suspicion.

  Reese and Naomi, running hard, finally reached Theo and Professor Ellison. “What’s happening?” asked Reese. “Why is he stopping?”

  “I don’t know,” said Professor Ellison. “We need him to go in himself. It has to be his idea.”

  Reese bit her lower lip. “Do you trust me?” she asked Naomi.

  Naomi didn’t hesitate. “Yes.”

  “Then follow my lead.”

  Reese dropped her head and ran. She and Naomi charged past Vesiroth and into the library.

  “Reese! Naomi! Stop!” Theo cried out, but it was too late. The two girls were standing under the floating Helm in the middle of the room.

  Vesiroth glared at them.

  “Father,” Reese said, “why do you stare at us so strangely?”

  Vesiroth’s face became a mask of confusion. Could it be? “My…daughters? Here?”

  Reese’s instincts screamed at her to take a step back, but she held her ground. “Of course, Father. It’s us.”

  “My girls…I thought I had lost you….”

  “Never, Father.”

  “My daughters…”

  “Won’t you embrace us, Father?” Reese held out her arms to the terrifying wizard, and Naomi did the same.

  Vesiroth walked into the room, all thoughts of the Helm gone. He had waited (was it years? decades?) for this moment. He couldn’t quite remember why.

  “Father, we missed you so much.”

  The wizard’s footsteps echoed in the silence of the ruined house. He was going to be reunited with his daughters. Nothing else mattered.

  “At last, we’ll be together,” Reese said.

  And then the levitating shard of the Helm disappeared.

  Vesiroth stopped, just a few feet shy of the circle that would sever his connection to the Nexus and entrap him forever. He stared at the empty air.

  Reese shifted her feet. Naomi shot her a nervous glance.

  “It’s okay, Father,” Reese said. “It’s not important.”

  Vesiroth took another step, and the Helm was there again. He halted on the very edge of Professor Ellison’s painted circle. “It’s not re
al…” he said, examining the broken piece of the Helm. “It’s…”

  His eyes searched the room and found the professor’s polished-glass hologram projector. He grabbed the metal spike at his throat and cast a spell of energy that knocked the box over and shattered it into a million pieces.

  “A trick. A paltry magician’s illusion.” The wizard whirled on the girls. “You are not my daughters….My family is dead!” His eyes burned with madness and anger. He reached for his spike again and Naomi and Reese dove for cover. His blast found only the professor’s circle.

  “It’s gone wrong,” Professor Ellison told Theo as she rummaged through her bag. “And his power has returned.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  “It’s time to pull out the big guns, Gods help us.” She pulled the real final shard of the Helm and held it to her own head.

  But before the Helm could work its magic Professor Ellison was blown backward and off her feet. Theo turned to see Vesiroth, fuming.

  “You sought to trick me, Tarinn? With illusions and little girls?”

  Ellison tried to raise the broken Helm to her head. Another attack from Vesiroth threw her into a wall and sent the Helm flying.

  “To think I doubted myself, when fate demands I succeed! I need no baubles and tricks to defeat the likes of you!”

  He threw his own pieces of the Helm into the rubble and bore down on the professor. He wrapped his hands around her throat and hoisted her off the ground. Professor Ellison kicked and flailed at his arms but it was no use. She was done for and the war for humanity’s freedom was lost.

  “I was going to keep you alive to witness the glory of my kingdom. A world without war! A world of servants who would live in fear of my displeasure! A world in my own image!”

  The professor’s kicks and jabs grew weaker. She was dying.

  Theo picked up the three broken pieces of the Helm. They had not been in the same room for hundreds of years. Theo gasped as they welded themselves together, making the Elicuum Helm complete once more.