by Justin Swapp
Ellie widened her eyes at Marcus, as if to tell him to do something. Marcus didn’t know how to get them out of the situation he had created.
“Do you see anything that interests you?” Marcus asked, not knowing what else to say.
“My master will be so proud,” said the stranger, bowing before them while still scanning the shelves. “Yes, of course. I am interested in all of these magical relics.”
Then, as if he had swallowed a large piece of dry meat, the man’s eyes widened, and he seemed to struggle breathing. He coughed. “However, I have a particular interest in that one.”
The stranger gestured toward a large bird’s skull on the top shelf. Engravings of symbols and other things Marcus didn’t understand ran down the bridge of the skull’s chalky surface. Odd grooves streaked down from its eye sockets. The man gawked at it.
“Do you remember that being there before?” Marcus whispered to Ellie. “I don’t think that was there before.”
“I can’t remember. That was two weeks ago.”
“What do you want for it?” the stranger asked in a subtle voice.
Marcus looked up at the bird skull and suddenly felt panic surge through him. There was no price tag in front of it like there were on the others.
“There’s no tag,” Marcus said quietly, leaning over to Ellie. “How do we price it?”
“It must not be for sale, then,” Ellie said.
Marcus surveyed the other magical items. The ornate long sword showed the number 50,000 on the paper place card in front of it. An elaborately carved box showed the number 35,000, and the knotty stick that Marcus still harbored hard feelings for indicated 10,000.
“These other prices are all over the place,” Marcus said.
“Well?” said the stranger.
Marcus thought for what seemed like a while. Then he said, “Name a fair price.”
The stranger looked shocked to be asked such a question. “Me?” he asked as he began pacing, “name a fair price?” He tapped his fingertips together and mumbled something for a few moments.
“Will you trade for it?”
Marcus and Ellie huddled in the doorway for a few moments, and then stepped back into the room.
“Sorry,” Ellie said. “No trades.”
“The Dun-Bhar be served,” he finally said quietly, “Then I will offer 100,000.”
Marcus was beside himself. One-hundred thousand dollars was nothing to scoff at. That kind of money could erase many of the problems their family faced. Perhaps they could even upgrade the shop and attract more customers.
“Done,” Marcus said. Ellie’s mouth gaped open.
“Yes?” the stranger asked, showing the first semblance of excitement since he had arrived.
“May I?” he asked as he looked up at the large bird skull. Marcus nodded.
The man reached up to the top shelf and carefully lowered the bird skull. Marcus thought the man gazed upon it like a long-lost friend.
“Sir,” Marcus said, “if you’ll meet me in front, we can ring it up for you.” He turned back to Ellie.
With a nod, the man carried the bird skull carefully back toward the front. He moved like he was carrying a basin of water that he didn’t want to spill.
“What is the Dun-Bhar?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know,” Marcus said, “but will you close up back here, please?” She didn’t say anything, but she did hang back.
The man placed the skull on the front counter carefully. He looked as though he wasn’t sure if he should let the skull out of his grasp.
“Will that be cash, credit, or check?” Marcus asked, mechanically holding out his hand. He felt like he had gotten this part of the store process down. A moment later Ellie came back into the shop.
The man extracted an old leather bag from his coat pocket and put it on the counter inconspicuously.
“What’s that?” Marcus asked, gesturing at the bag.
“Your payment,” the stranger said, giving Marcus an innocent smile, “as we agreed, one-hundred thousand.”
“Look at this,” Marcus said to Ellie as she joined him behind the counter. She loosened the leather strap around the bag.
Marcus peered in the bag and saw a mound of large gold coins adorned with strange writing that he had never seen before. He pulled the bag to lift it, and it was much heavier than the man had made it seem.
“Gold?” Marcus asked, raising an eyebrow at Ellie.
“We’re settled then?” the man asked.
“Yes,” Marcus said, “we’re settled.”
The man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a red velvet cloth and draped it over the bird skull.
“Would you like a bag for that?” Marcus asked. “Paper, or—”
Ellie stomped on his toe and he winced.
The stranger ignored them and said nothing else. He carefully picked up the skull and walked out the open shop door.
“Wow,” Marcus said, watching the man leave. “That was pretty random.” He ran a hand through his hair.
“What do we do with this gold?” Ellie asked.
“I don’t know, Ellie. It’s gold. We could sell it, like on those TV commercials, or maybe take it to a bank?”
“Grandma and Grandpa are going to kill us,” Ellie said, rubbing her face. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“Me?” Marcus said. “You were involved in this just as much as I was. Besides, it was the right thing to do for the family. We needed the money, Ellie.”
“Do we tell Grandma and Grandpa?” Ellie asked. “I mean, they’re going to notice something missing, aren’t they? If Grandpa noticed a stick gone, he will notice a skull.”
“Maybe we should just sell the gold and then give them the cash?” Marcus suggested.
Without warning, their grandma walked through the shop door.
“Phew,” Grandma said, bounding in the door with several bags in her hands, “that was quite a day of shopping for an old lady.”
Ellie quickly positioned herself in front of the counter to block the old leather bag from her grandma’s view.
“Did you get me anything?” Ellie asked. Marcus thought it was a bad attempt at sounding normal, and that she overdid it a bit.
Their grandma continued across the shop, and Ellie shifted with her. Apparently Grandma took note.
“What are you two up to?” she asked, stopping to put her bags down. “What’s that behind you?”
“What’s what?” The problem with Ellie was that she was a horrible liar. She couldn’t help but show some facial expression that always cast suspicion on the two of them.
“Move away from the counter, please,” their grandma ordered.
Marcus looked at Ellie and swallowed hard. Ellie moved around the counter and stood next to Marcus. The old leather bag sat on the counter, waiting for their grandma’s wrath.
“Oh, it’s just one of those magic bags from The Magic Box,” their grandma said. “Grandpa and I have been talking about stocking those here for some time. We just never got around to ordering them. Have you made anything disappear in it yet?”
Marcus and Ellie exchanged a worried look and examined the bag again. Sure enough, the gold was gone.
6
Full Circle
“What a big waste of time,” Marcus said, just loud enough to be heard over the passing cars as they started back home. “I can’t believe I suggested that.”
“We need to tell Grandma and Grandpa what happened,” Ellie said. They walked past The Magic Box without even noticing it. “And I don’t mean how good the movie was.”
“Tell them what? That we went to the mental ward and tried to ask our crazy uncle to explain how he could possibly draw the face of a man that had recently robbed us before we ever even met him? I don’t think so. They will probably put us at the table right next to him for suggesting such a thing.”
“Didn’t you see his face, Marcus?” Ellie asked.
“I’m holding back the jokes
on that one. You make it too easy.”
“You heard what he said, right?” Ellie asked as the sun began to set. The pink and orange sky seemed to darken, bleeding into purple.
“I’m not sure what he said, Ellie, and I’m definitely not sure what he meant. Do you really believe that the man in the drawing did something to Caleb? I mean, what could he have done to put Caleb into the mental ward? Tell him scary jokes?”
“I don’t know,” Ellie said. “All I’m saying is that we’re in over our heads and out of options. We have to talk to Grandma and Grandpa. We should start at the beginning with the blue room.”
Marcus considered it and finally nodded. They had indeed exhausted all of their options. They would have to suck it up and look stupid if they were wrong. Their grandparents would probably lock them up with their aunt and uncle once they finished the conversation.
Upon arriving at The Magic Shop, the door swung open and their grandpa stood rigidly waiting with his arms crossed.
“Where have you been?” their grandpa asked. Grandma appeared over his shoulder with a disappointed look on her face.
Ellie answered, “We were just—”
“Don’t tell me you were at the movies,” Grandpa said, “because I looked for you there. Your grandmother told me you had gone to the movies and I got worried, what with the robbery and all. That man is lurking out there somewhere.”
Grandpa stepped aside and waved his arm theatrically, inviting them into the shop. The children obeyed, following their grandma into the living room behind the shop.
“Sit,” Grandpa ordered. The children plopped down on the old couch.
“What is going on with you two?” he asked. “We used to be able to talk about anything, and now everything seems so secret.”
“Is this some kind of pre-teenage thing?” Grandma asked. “Because if it is…”
“We just came from the hospital,” Marcus said, glaring at Ellie as if he had said, “see, I told you I could do it.”
“So you did lie to me,” Grandma said. Then, she raised a questioning finger. “Wait, I thought you hated that place?”
Winston took a deep breath. “What were you doing there?” he asked, attempting an even, controlled tone.
“That picture Caleb drew for you,” Ellie said, “we took it to him.”
“You stole my drawing? What has gotten into you kids?”
Marcus said, “We didn’t steal it, I knew he drew something for you during our last visit to the hospital, but I never got a good look until Tofu brought it to us,” Grandma gave her husband an annoyed look at the mention of Tofu. “And when we did, we recognized the man in the drawing.”
Grandpa froze. “What?” His eyes darted from one person to the next. “You know the man? Explain yourself.”
“He’s the one that stole the skull,” Ellie said.
Their grandparents would have been hard-pressed to appear more shocked than they did at that moment. Winston gaped long and hard at his wife. No words were spoken, but something was being said.
“Are you sure?” Grandpa asked, turning back to the kids. His jade eyes were distant, searching. “It’s critical that you are absolutely certain.”
“Yes,” Marcus said. “We’ll never forget that face. It’s caused us nothing but trouble.”
Grandma asked, “So you went to the hospital to do what, show Caleb and Anabell the picture? You thought they could explain the drawing?”
“Yes, but strangely enough, only Caleb was there,” Marcus said. “And he didn’t react well to the news at all.”
“If what you say is true, we’ve got to pack up our things and leave immediately,” Grandpa said. “That man is very dangerous.”
“So you know him too?” Marcus asked.
His grandpa didn’t answer. He paced the room, mumbling to himself until Marcus spoke again.
Marcus added, “Caleb seemed to know him,”
His grandpa slowed a step. “What do you mean? What did he say?”
Ellie jumped in. “He wrote something on a piece of paper—”
Marcus lifted a hand, “But first, you need to tell us what is going on around here.”
“Don’t you hold out information on this family,” Grandpa scolded. “Your little game could cost someone their life.”
“Winston,” Grandma chided.
“We deserve some answers,” Marcus said. “There have been too many unexplainable things going on around here. There’s something you’re not telling us.”
“Winston, can’t you see? It’s just like I’ve been telling you, it’s time.”
“We’ve discussed this, Charlotte, and we’re not going there, not if we can help it. Moving is the only option.”
“He did this to me,” Ellie covered her face. “That’s what Caleb wrote down, ‘He did this to me.’”
“What?” Grandpa asked.
Marcus scowled at Ellie. She had just given away their only bargaining chip.
“I’m sorry, Marcus,” Ellie said. “I don’t want to move, but I don’t want to see our family divided either. We shouldn’t fight like this.”
Winston’s face softened. “Kids, we know this is a lot to ask, but you have to trust us. You need to go and pack your—”
Marcus saw the flashing discharge first—a dazzling display of bright lights and streaking shadows splay across the walls and ceiling. Shattered bits of glass, drywall, and wood flew around the room. A deafening blast erupted somewhere behind him.
A moment later Marcus found himself face-first on the ground, covered in soot and debris. He blinked, but couldn’t see. He coughed as smoke slowly filled the room.
“What’s going on?” Ellie croaked. “Grandma? Grandpa?”
Marcus followed her raspy voice, groping toward the overturned couch, then back onto the floor. He blinked hard. Apparently she had been thrown from the couch; he found her on the ground several feet away.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“I think so, I—”
Something shattered from the other side of the room and crashed to the floor.
“Where is the Dun-Bahr?” an oily female voice asked from somewhere deep within the smoke.
Marcus grabbed Ellie and pulled her toward the inventory shelves.
“Who’s there?” Charlotte asked. Judging from the sound of her voice, she had landed on the other side of the room. With every moment the smoke seemed to thin out.
“I said, where is he?” the female voice asked again. They heard a thump, and then something fell to the ground and broke. Marcus and Ellie jerked at the sound.
“Who are you,” Winston asked groggily, “to barge in and demand the Dun-Bahr? Have you no shame? Show yourself.”
“Ah,” a deep male voice said, followed by a raspy chuckle. Marcus tracked the voice through the smoke and thought he saw a shadow close in on the source of Grandpa’s voice. “There you are. I have some questions for you.”
“How do you work the skull?” the female voice asked in a slow and calculating tone.
Winston asked, “What skull?”
With a wave of the shadow’s hand, the smoke in the room settled instantly, revealing two people dressed in black from head to toe. To Marcus’s surprise, however, they were both shorter and thinner than their voices had led him to believe.
“Don’t play dumb, old man,” the male voice said. “That wouldn’t align well with the reputation you spent all those years establishing, now would it?”
Marcus couldn’t shake the odd feeling that he attached to these intruders. They had the body of children, but the voices and apparent experience of adults.
“Do yourselves a favor,” Winston said, “and take your parlor tricks to the shop down the street. You don’t know what you are getting yourselves into here.”
“The Magic Box?” the woman asked. “You’ve lost your touch with reality, haven’t you?”
The short man next to her landed a swift elbow into her side, and then removed something from i
nside his shirt.
“You’ll tell me what I want to know, or I’ll have to convince you by other, more painful means,” the small male said. He opened his hand to reveal a small shard of crystal.
“Raw Uribrim?” Winston asked. “How did you come by that?”
Charlotte asked, “Who put you fledglings up to this? Can’t you see you are being used? Get out while you still can.”
Marcus took courage from his grandparents’ tongue-in-cheek approach to these intruders.
“Just hit puberty, huh? Is this some kind of dojo initiation?” Marcus asked. “You’re not even tall enough to play four-square.”
The two black figures whirled around. Marcus was on the ground by the inventory, still holding his sister.
“Are you making fun of my outfit, boy?” the short woman asked. “You realize you’re not really in a position to mouth off, don’t you?”
“Focus,” the short man said to his accomplice. “Very well, Winston,” he looked the old man right in the eye, “perhaps this will convince you.”
The man lifted his arm and pointed the crystal shard toward Marcus and Ellie.
“No,” Winston reached toward the intruder, “I’ll give you what you want, just leave the children out of this.”
The little man laughed and said, “I don’t believe you.”
The small man flicked his wrist and the shard began to hum, emitting a faint red glow. Marcus cried out and then gasped, feeling as if some invisible force had seized him and began crushing him. Ellie gasped before she could make a sound, and then fainted.
“I’ll give you want you, just stop—” Winston stopped mid-sentence.
Marcus started laughing. He rolled over on the ground uncontrollably as if the same invisible force that had caused him so much pain had changed its mind and started tickling him. His agony had been replaced by unrelenting laughter. Then he started to cry for the tickling to stop.