Parker scooped the amber amulet off the floor. You never know when something like that might come in handy.
“I missed you, buddy,” he told Fon-Rahm.
“Yes,” said the genie. “I suppose I missed you, too.”
41
“THEY HAD ME OVER A BARREL,” Maksimilian said. He was, along with Reese, Theo, and Parker, trying to keep up with Fon-Rahm as the genie rushed through the train yard, ripping open steel shipping containers. “The truth is, I got soft. Pip-squeaks like the Path never would have gotten to me a century ago.”
Parker took off the professor’s bag and handed it to Reese. “Will you do me a favor and carry this purse?”
“Why?”
“It’s a purse,” he said.
“Who’s going to see you?” Reese asked.
“Nobody. Just, please?”
Reese rolled her eyes and took the bag. Boys.
“When this one,” said Maks, pointing to Theo, “came to me for help, I just couldn’t say no. It was a chance to wipe the slate clean and stick it to Nadir. He’s a hard man to like. Plus, I couldn’t very well pass up the chance to actually see one of the Jinn in action. Legendary.”
Maksimilian stopped, winded. “That’s enough for me. I believe there is a gallon of vodka with my name on it.” He offered his hand to Fon-Rahm. The genie stopped tearing through the metal containers long enough to take it. “I can sense there is something big happening, but I’m in no shape to help. All I can do is wish you luck.”
“I’ll see you later, Maks,” said Theo.
Maks winked at him. “Give my love to Julia. I’m sure she’ll forgive me in a thousand years or so!”
Maksimilian walked away, his laughter echoing through the train yard. Fon-Rahm went back to his search.
“Maks is right. Something big is happening. An impending doom descends upon us, and Xaru is one step ahead. There will be a reckoning.”
“Where?” Parker asked.
“Your home.”
Reese said, “But our families, all our friends...”
“They are all in great danger.”
“We have to get back,” said Theo.
“How?” said Parker. “The jet’s totaled and we’re halfway around the world.”
Finally, Fon-Rahm found what he was looking for. He tore the doors off a shipping container and stepped inside. When he came out, he unfurled an ornate carpet on the ground. Fon-Rahm looked at the kids and then back to the carpet.
“Not big enough,” he said.
He went back to the container and unrolled a massive sheet of linoleum.
“You’re kidding, right?” asked Reese.
“We have no time to lose. Climb on and sit down.”
The kids stepped onto the center of the linoleum and sat. Fon-Rahm stepped to the front edge. Smoke misted from his eyes.
“You may want to hold on,” he said as the linoleum rose into the air.
42
REESE’S MOTHER HAD READ HER stories from One Thousand and One Arabian Nights when she was a small girl. Reese had found the book too scary, but she did like one thing: the flying carpet of Prince Houssain. When she was tucked in bed, Reese had imagined herself flying on her own magic carpet. She would go to London to see Mary Poppins and drop by New York City to visit Eloise. She would fly across the ocean, the wind blowing through her hair. She would smile and wave at the people below, so far away they looked like ants.
Now that she was actually on a magic carpet (or a magic piece of linoleum; really, it was pretty close), she had a completely different reaction. She was terrified.
“I’m going to fall off!” she screamed as the linoleum ripped through the air.
“You will not fall off,” said Fon-Rahm.
“How do you know?”
“Because I have made it so.”
Reese trusted the genie. She locked her fingers on to the edge of the linoleum and carefully, carefully looked over the side. They were flying over the ocean at unimaginable speed, yet the wind was no worse than as if she were home riding her electric bike. They were so low that they were skimming the water, the linoleum tearing a white wake through the waves. Dolphins were chasing alongside. A whale breached not a hundred feet away.
All of Reese’s fear was gone. She was mesmerized by actual, real-life, swear-to-God magic.
“When I was a kid I dreamed of flying,” she said, “but this is better than anything I ever imagined.”
“I think, you know, I might be sick,” Theo said. He was still in the middle of the linoleum, trying his hardest not to yak.
Reese said, “Over the side, please.”
Fon-Rahm strode to the front of the makeshift craft, where Parker was staring out toward the future.
“What if we don’t get there in time?” Parker asked.
“Better to think of more pleasant things,” said Fon-Rahm.
Parker turned to look at his two friends. He had come so far since his days in Los Angeles, and so much had happened. Maybe the most amazing development of all was his new friendships with Theo and Reese.
“Reese and Theo truly care about you.” Fon-Rahm spoke as if he could read Parker’s thoughts. “I know that it is hard for you to give your trust to anyone, but your new friends have earned it. Perhaps it is time for you to let them in.”
“Theo gave up the lamps,” Parker said.
“He made a mistake.”
“What if he makes another one?”
“He will. As will Reese. As will you.”
“But not you.”
Fon-Rahm thought for a moment. “I was not sure that you would return for me or that you possessed the courage and the skill necessary to free me again. I underestimated you, and that was a mistake.”
“Fon-Rahm, was that a compliment?” Parker looked surprised.
The genie allowed himself a grin. “Let us call it an observation.”
“I’ve been thinking,” said Parker, “about what’s going to happen when we get home. There’s going to be a fight.”
“There is going to be a war.”
“Then we should use every weapon we have.”
“You have something in mind?”
“A little strategy and some insurance,” said Parker.
The genie nodded. “We can discuss it on the way.” He aimed the linoleum at the sky, and in seconds they were tens of thousands of feet above the sea, so high they could see the curve of the earth.
Fon-Rahm called out to Reese and Theo. “We’ll be there in an hour or so. You will need your full strength. You should try to get some rest.”
Reese stayed glued to the side, where she watched a 747 fly by underneath them. “That doesn’t seem likely,” she sighed.
43
PROFESSOR ELLISON HAD KNOWN PAIN.
She had almost drowned once, when her boat was sunk by pirates off the coast of ancient Egypt. She took a Spartan arrow to the shoulder in the Peloponnesian War. She twisted her ankle fleeing from Rome when the emperor Nero set the city on fire, she was tortured on the rack for weeks when she found herself on the wrong side of the Spanish Inquisition, and her hair was singed to a crisp when she was tied to a stake during a particularly nasty witch hunt in Scotland. An artillery shell shattered her leg near Verdun in World War I.
But the worst pain was the hunger she had felt when she was still a girl named Tarinn, poor and begging on the streets. She had gone days without food, and the pain in her empty stomach had been enough to double her over. A slumlord took “pity” on her and made her his property in exchange for a bowl of rice. She cleaned, she cooked, and she slaved. She accepted her regular beatings as part of the price she paid to keep the pain of starving at bay.
It was at the tables of the wealthy, serving food that she herself was forbidden to touch, that she first heard the stories of the dark sorcerer who bent the laws of nature to his own will. A man who could do magic, real magic! A man who never went hungry, who never had to bow to anyone! A man who had conquere
d pain!
Then she found Vesiroth, and for years, the pain went away. He didn’t listen to her, but he didn’t thrash her as long as she stayed out of the way, and eventually, grudgingly, he became her teacher.
She learned small things at first. How to read, how to pronounce the arcane language in the texts, how to cast a spell, how one spell combined with another. It was there that her thirst for knowledge of the Nexus became unquenchable. She was enthralled at the feet of her mentor. She learned how to sway emotions. She learned the secret to living for thousands of years.
She also learned a healthy distrust for the power that attracted her to Vesiroth in the first place. She was not surprised to find herself enchanted by him. He was a sorcerer, after all, and the passion that poured from the wizard with every breath was mesmerizing to his young apprentice. He was magnetic, and Tarinn could at times barely force herself to look away. But as she studied the books and legends, she found story after story of wizards who had destroyed themselves in the never-ending quest for power, and story after story of good intentions twisted by the accumulation of might. Power brought ego, and ego brought more ego, and she saw that it was all too easy for someone with a noble goal to become the very thing they hated most. A human being was just a human being, and human beings were creatures of fragile minds and hurt feelings. They lashed out when they felt threatened, and the more power they had, in Tarinn’s experience, the more they felt attacked. People with power saw enemies everywhere.
Vesiroth had always been gruff. He had a frightening temper and was quick to lash out. He was also, even after his centuries of solitude and the immense knowledge he had acquired, human. There was a hurt that lay deep inside him and, horrible as it was, it kept him connected to the people he saw age and die all around him.
She could sense a change in Vesiroth after she brought back the last piece of the Elders’ spell. When she read the spell on her own (not aloud, of course; she wasn’t suicidal), she realized with a sudden certainty that if her mentor used it, he would be corrupted to his soul. The exposure to the power that was the Nexus would be too great. His mind would snap. The Elders knew the spell would bring only suffering. That was why it had been so hard to find.
Tarinn tried to bring Vesiroth back from the edge, but it was far too late. The Nexus called to him. The temptation of power was too strong.
She had to get away. Away from her mentor and away from the frightening power of his vengeance.
Away from the pain.
“This can all be over, witch. Release the spell and give me the lamps.”
Xaru was inches away from Professor Ellison’s face. She was in Yogoth’s grip, his four arms holding her like a straitjacket. Her face was bruised, and she was experiencing the most intense pain of her long life. Xaru and the four members of the Path he had brought with him had not shown her any mercy. They were more than willing to kill her if it meant that they would take possession of the lamps. They were more than willing to kill her even if it didn’t.
“No,” she said.
They were in her office on the campus of Cahill University. All of her treasures, so carefully cataloged and arranged, were scattered on the floor. Shelves were tipped over. Her clippings were torn from the walls. They had found the shimmering wall, but none of them could breach the magic field she had placed to protect the only things she owned that could not be replaced.
“Don’t be a fool, Tarinn. Give me the lamps. Spare yourself hours of torture.”
“No.”
The professor knew that it would be useless to scream out. There was no one there to help her. Fon-Rahm was buried under tons of rock. The children were probably dead. She was doomed. After thousands of years of life, she was finally going to see what came after.
Xaru grabbed her by the hair. “You are seconds away from becoming a limbless torso. Give me the lamps!”
The professor looked the genie right in the eye and spoke with steely conviction.
She told him, “The next time you see a lamp it will be from the inside, and I will be the one that put you there.”
Xaru could take her impertinence no longer. His anger took control. His fist became a flame as he pulled it back to hit her and put a stop to her meddling once and for all. Professor Ellison closed her eyes, ready for the end.
Before the punch was unleashed, Nadir grabbed Xaru’s arm.
Xaru paused for a brief moment. “Please,” he said, his voice hiding his fury at Nadir. “Please tell me that you did not just grab my arm.”
Nadir let go of Xaru’s arm. He was calm as he bowed to his master. Then he turned to Professor Ellison. She tried to squirm away, but she was held tight by the drooling genie Yogoth. Nadir placed his hands on her temples and locked his scary blue eyes onto hers. His grip became tighter as his concentration grew more and more intense.
“No,” she said. She was shaking, but not with fear or pain. She was shaking as if something were being pulled from her. “No. Stop.”
Nadir doubled his efforts. He was reaching deep into her mind, probing her for the spell that would bring the lamps into the open. His hands trembled. His teeth clenched. Finally, the professor screamed and passed out cold in Yogoth’s arms.
Nadir turned to the shimmering wall. Then he chanted a few words and reached in his hands. The wall parted at his touch, revealing four metal canisters floating unprotected in a sea of pure energy. Nadir smiled. The lamps were theirs.
44
THE CAMPUS WAS A GHOST TOWN.
That was the first thing Theo noticed when they landed. It was the middle of the day, on a Tuesday, and Cahill University should have been busy and noisy and crowded. There should have been a rush of students changing classes. There should have been professors drinking coffee and marking papers on benches. There should have been Frisbees. There should have been music. There should have been life.
There was nothing. All the students and the faculty and the workers were lying on the grass or on the sidewalks, motionless and silent. The only sound was the chirping of birds.
“We’re too late,” said Theo. “They’re all dead.”
Fon-Rahm shook his head. “No. They are not dead. Only sleeping.”
Parker knelt by a collapsed student and put his fingers to his neck, looking for a pulse. “He’s right. They’re all unconscious.”
“What happened here?” Reese asked. “It looks like they all just passed out at the same time.”
“A trick of Xaru, no doubt. He does not like to be slowed down.”
All of a sudden, Parker was frightened. He knew that Xaru was dangerous, but so far the only people that had gotten hurt were a few Path members. This was his first glimpse of what Xaru was capable of on a larger scale. If he could entrance an entire college full of people without breaking a sweat, what was to stop him from doing much, much worse? All the bodies on the ground could easily be dead, and instead of hundreds there could be thousands. Or millions.
“Dad!”
Parker looked up to see Theo running through the quad. Reese and Fon-Rahm were chasing after him.
Theo dropped to his knees. Both of his parents were sprawled unconscious on the sidewalk.
“Dad! Mom! Wake up!”
Theo was slapping his father in the face, trying to get him to snap out of his trance. Parker reached Theo and put his hand on his cousin’s shoulder. “Theo. It’s okay.” Parker’s voice trailed off. Lying next to his aunt Martha and uncle Kelsey was Parker’s mother.
“Mom?” he said. He held her head in his hands and turned to Fon-Rahm and Reese. “She came! She came for Thanksgiving, and they were giving her a tour. She actually got here.” He paused for a moment, and then screamed at Fon-Rahm. “Make her wake up! I command you to make her wake up!”
Fon-Rahm was stone-faced. “I cannot. The only way to wake these people is to stop Xaru.”
Parker put a hand to his eyes so that no one could see that he was starting to cry. He pulled himself together and stood. Theo was lyi
ng on the ground, one arm around his father and one arm around his mother. Parker gently pulled him away.
“It’s okay, Theo. We’ll save them.”
Theo, stunned, managed to stand.
“We got this,” said Parker.
Fon-Rahm zeroed in on Professor Ellison’s building. “They are in there.”
Reese nodded. “Then let’s go get them.”
They ran through the archaeology building, down deserted hallways and past empty rooms. When they reached Professor Ellison’s office, Fon-Rahm turned to the kids.
“I can take care of Xaru and Yogoth. You must deal with the Path on your own.”
The kids nodded. They were outmanned and outgunned, but they knew they had no choice. They would do whatever it took to stop Xaru and the Path.
Fon-Rahm looked at them with something like respect. Then he turned the handle on Professor Ellison’s office door, and the wall exploded in front of him.
45
AT FIRST, ALL THAT PARKER could see were bright white spots that danced in and out of his vision. As soon as he focused on one, it vanished. Parker couldn’t tell if they were really there or not.
Soon, though, his head cleared enough to see what had happened. He had, along with Theo and Reese, been blown backward by an explosion. It didn’t take long for Parker to realize what caused it.
“Now really, Fon-Rahm,” said Xaru, hovering three feet off the ground in the ruins of Professor Ellison’s office. “What took you so long?”
Xaru released a ball of flame that Fon-Rahm easily deflected.
“There is no reason for more innocents to be hurt. Surrender, Xaru!”
“Oh, I don’t think so,” said Xaru. He gestured to the back of what was left of the professor’s office, where the Path members were just completing the ritual to open one of the newly freed lamps.
Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1 Page 16