Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1

by Peter Speakman

  “No!” Fon-Rahm cried, just as the sacrificial Path member twisted the lamp. Fon-Rahm was too late. The lamp was open.

  But nothing happened.

  Parker helped Reese and Theo to their feet. They rushed to Fon-Rahm’s side.

  “Could it be a dud?” Parker asked.

  “I fear not,” said Fon-Rahm.

  Nadir walked over to the kneeling Path member and casually slit the man’s throat. The sacrifice slid to the floor without a sound. Nadir peered into the open canister. Then his face turned gray. He leaped for cover just as the lamp detonated, erupting with the fury of a blazing sun. Everyone in the room was tossed away from the blast.

  Again, Parker found himself on his butt. He coughed and waved his hand in front of his face to clear away the smoke and dust. When he saw the sky he realized that the roof of the building was gone, obliterated in the explosion.

  And then he saw Rath.

  The newly freed genie was a horror. He was huge, the size of a building, so massive that he couldn’t even fly. He had squirming, squealing rats for hair, attached to his horrifying head by their hairless tails. Any resemblance he had to Fon-Rahm, Xaru, Yogoth, or even Vesiroth was hard to see. He was simply a roaring monster.

  Rath wielded two giant, curved scimitars and howled at the heavens.

  “Oh, crap,” Parker said. “You are a big boy, aren’t you?”

  The Path members were dumbstruck. They dropped the professor, who collapsed to the floor, and then they fell to their knees in front of the rat genie. Insane with rage that had been building for three millennia, Rath swiped with his twin swords, instantly killing the kneeling thugs. Only Nadir and one other Path member survived.

  Fon-Rahm marshaled the kids behind him. “Take cover.”

  “What are you going to do?” asked Parker.

  The genie took to the air.

  “I’m going to keep them busy,” he said as he flew off to do battle with Xaru, Yogoth, and Rath. The genies sized each other up. There was suddenly a lot of firepower in the airspace over Cahill University.

  Reese was searching around the rubble.

  Theo asked her, “What are you looking for?”

  She pulled out the professor’s bag. It was dusty, but intact. “This. There has to be something useful in here.”

  Parker saw Nadir and the remaining Path member coming for the unconscious professor. “Theo! Can you get to Professor Ellison?”

  “Yes.”

  Parker took the bag and threw it to Theo. “Then take care of her. She’s the only one who can trap the genies.”

  “Got it.”

  “Good,” said Parker before he threw an age-old bowl from the professor’s collection that smashed against the remaining Path member’s head, knocking him out cold. Nadir turned away from Professor Ellison, livid, and drew his curved blade. He was getting pretty tired of this meddling seventh grader.

  Parker took Reese’s hand. “We should probably go.”

  Reese nodded. “You’re probably right.”

  Parker and Reese ran, with Nadir right behind them.

  Fon-Rahm withstood the fire from Xaru, and he held his own against the mindless fists of Yogoth, but Rath was harder to ignore. His swords cut huge arcs through the air, and when one hit Fon-Rahm’s arm, it cut him deeply. The wound would heal, but it would sap precious strength from Fon-Rahm just when he needed it most. They were going to wear him down. They were going to punish him for standing against them.

  And they were going to enjoy every second of it.

  Theo held Professor Ellison’s head in his hands. At first he was afraid that the professor was dead. Her face was pale, and she felt almost weightless in his arms. For the first time, Theo saw Professor Ellison for what she was: a very frail, very elderly woman.

  Then, with a start, the professor came to. Theo scooted away from her in fright. He rushed back when she made it clear that she was trying to stand.

  “Don’t try to get up, Professor.”

  “I have to,” her voice was a hoarse croak. “I have to contain them.”

  “You’re too weak!”

  “Nonsense! I’m stronger than I have ever been!”

  She got to her feet and raised her arms. Before she could cast any kind of a spell, she fell back into Theo’s arms. He lowered her gently to the floor and bowed his head, wondering what they would do if she was too far gone.

  Parker and Reese ran through the wreckage of the building.

  “Do you think we lost him?” Parker asked, looking over his shoulder. A thrown dagger stuck angrily in the wall behind them.

  “No,” said Reese.

  “This way!” Parker pulled Reese with him, but he was too far from Fon-Rahm. He broke down from the searing pain in his head.

  “Parker! Get up!” Reese pulled him to his feet, but he could barely move. Nadir kept coming. They were not going to be able to run away.

  The battle in the air shifted as Fon-Rahm clutched his head.

  “Now! He’s weakened!” said Xaru. Yogoth grabbed Fon-Rahm from behind and held him while Rath used his mammoth scimitars to slice hundreds of rats from his own head. Rath couldn’t fly, but the rats could. They streamed at Fon-Rahm, their razor-edged teeth dripping venom.

  “Now, this should be fun,” said Xaru.

  Reese saw that Fon-Rahm was struggling and in real trouble. She braced herself and did the last thing in the world that Nadir expected. She dropped Parker and charged him. Nadir made a quick stab with his blade, but with the skill of a martial artist, Reese planted one foot on the ruins of a wall and launched herself at him. His knife missed and Reese punched Nadir as hard as she could in the throat. Nadir went down, gasping for breath, and Reese picked up Parker. She dragged him back to the professor’s office and he revived.

  “What happened?” he asked.

  “Nothing,” she said. “Just giving Nadir something to remember me by.”

  With Parker close, Fon-Rahm recovered instantly. He threw off Yogoth and obliterated the attacking swarm of rats with a burst of blue lightning. Yogoth and Rath charged at him from opposite directions, enraged, but Fon-Rahm flew straight up and out of their way. The two brutish genies smacked into each other, and Fon-Rahm landed on top of them with enough force to leave them both dazed.

  “Such heart!” said Xaru with a laugh. “I’ll miss you when you’re a pile of dust!”

  He blasted Fon-Rahm with white-hot flame.

  Parker and Reese knew they could only go so far before Parker’s tether held them back, and now they were out of options. They were trapped.

  Nadir turned the corner and saw them. He held his wounded throat as he walked slowly and deliberately, straight at them.

  Parker pointed to the only way out. It was a hallway strewn with rubble. At the other end was a hole that led to the outside.

  “Go that way,” he said.

  “No!”

  “I’m the one he wants. Let him chase me.”

  “I’m not leaving you here alone! He’ll kill you!”

  “Reese. I have this covered. It’ll be okay. I swear. Go.”

  Reese paused.

  “I’ll be okay. I promise,” said Parker.

  She nodded and turned to the hallway. Parker sprinted away and around a corner. Nadir, holding his throat with one hand and his knife with the other, went after him and out of sight. Reese tried to go the other way. She even started to. But in the end, she couldn’t help herself. She turned on her heels and followed them.

  Theo and Professor Ellison had great seats for the battle of the genies, but Theo would have rather been anyplace else. Even math class, Theo’s least favorite thing in the world, was better than this. All he and the professor could do was watch as Fon-Rahm was worn down by the other three genies. Fon-Rahm was powerful, but he was also overmatched. He would block Rath, only to be sucker punched by Xaru or battered by the four fists of Yogoth.

  Theo came to the only conclusion he could possibly reach. “Fon-Rahm can’t b
eat them,” he said. “He’s just not strong enough.”

  The professor looked to her own useless hands and gritted her teeth.

  Nadir was confused. He had followed Parker into a maze of destroyed offices, but somehow lost him among the debris. The Path leader had spent almost his entire life working to make Xaru’s rule a reality, but at this moment, blinded by rage, the only thing he wanted was Parker’s slow and painful death. Nadir was a man used to suppressing his emotions. He was violent and cruel, yes, but not because he enjoyed it. Everything he did was to advance a goal. This was different. Killing Parker was something he was actively looking forward to. Nadir had never before felt such hatred.

  Where had the child gone? Nadir stepped into a destroyed classroom. Two of the walls were completely torn down. He kicked over a desk, expecting to find Parker hiding behind it, but there was nothing there. He huffed in exasperation.

  “Looking for me?”

  Nadir whirled on the voice behind him and was met with the hard edge of a Bronze Age shield in Parker’s hand. It caught Nadir on the chin and knocked him sideways. Parker raised the shield to deliver a harder blow, but Nadir was a trained fighter with instincts to match. He grasped the shield and wrenched it away from the seventh grader. It clanged to the ground, out of the boy’s reach.

  Parker was defenseless, but not beaten. He charged at Nadir with his fists.

  “Come on!” he cried. “Come on, you coward!”

  Nadir slipped his punches with ease, and with one blow thrust his blade into Parker’s chest.

  Reese was watching from the doorway. “Parker?” she said, her hands over her mouth in horror. “Parker!”

  Then Nadir pulled the knife from the boy’s heart, and smiled as Parker Quarry slid to the floor, dead.

  46

  NADIR WIPED THE BLOOD FROM his blade on Parker’s shirt. He had killed many, many men in his life, but this death was by far the sweetest. He would have liked to have savored it for a few moments more, but Reese was standing in the doorway, paralyzed with fear. There was no time for Nadir to contemplate his own successes. The girl needed to be tended to, as well.

  He stepped over Parker’s lifeless body and walked slowly at Reese. He wanted her to be good and scared when she died.

  “Oh, I don’t think so.”

  Nadir froze. He recognized the voice coming from one of the destroyed walls, but he knew that his ears were playing tricks on him. It was impossible.

  He turned slowly and saw Parker step over the ruins of the wall and into the room. The seventh grader was with Reese and Theo, but that didn’t seem right, either. Theo was with the professor in the other room, and Reese was still standing in the doorway. He could see her.

  Nadir looked down at the boy he had just killed and saw that the body was dissolving into sand.

  “Don’t look so confused, buddy. You’re not the only one who knows magic,” said Parker, and Nadir knew. Doppelgängers! Magic doubles! Tricks, no doubt conjured up by that wretched witch who Xaru called Tarinn.

  Nadir was enraged. He charged at Parker. Fine, he thought. Now I get to kill Parker Quarry twice.

  As Nadir took his first lunging steps, Parker—the real Parker—aimed the amber charm from Professor Ellison’s bag at him. Heat and vibrations come out of the amulet, and Parker could have sworn he saw the spider inside the amber twitch its legs. Then the jewel fired out a blinding yellow light that hit Nadir in mid-stride. As the magic struck him, Nadir began to rapidly age. His blond hair turned white and his skin wrinkled. His bones grew brittle and his head drooped. Only the hatred in his cold blue eyes remained intact.

  Nadir’s pace was slowed to a crawl, but he did not back down. He continued to come at Parker, deliberate step by deliberate step. By the time he reached Parker, Nadir was so old that he could no longer hold his knife. It dropped to the floor. With one final lunge at Parker, Nadir collapsed. He was now an old, old man, gasping for air and too weak to move.

  Reese hated Nadir, but she couldn’t bear watching years being taken away from anybody’s life in seconds. “That was horrible,” she said.

  “I know,” said Parker, taking her hand. “But right now we have to go.” Reese nodded her head, and with one glance back over her shoulder at Nadir, she and Parker took the fake Reese and Theo and ran to rejoin the fight.

  “It’s the end for you, brother,” said Xaru. Fon-Rahm was being battered by another onslaught of rats sliced from Rath’s head. He was swatting them away, one by one, but their accumulated bites, added to the punishment from Yogoth’s fists and the fire from Xaru, were taking a toll. Every time Fon-Rahm blocked one attack, two others struck him.

  As Fon-Rahm evaded a swipe of Rath’s swords, Xaru grabbed him and gave him a nasty head-butt to the face. “You should have joined me when you had the chance.”

  Professor Ellison had seen enough. She stood on shaky legs, brushing aside Theo’s offer of help. “Give me my bag.”

  Theo did what he was told. Parker and Reese, with the fake Theo and Reese in tow, reached Theo and the professor just as Fon-Rahm kicked Rath through a wall.

  “Where did these two come from?” Professor Ellison asked, nodding to the fakes as she searched inside her bag of tricks.

  “I had Fon-Rahm summon them on the way here,” said Parker.

  “Smart,” said the professor approvingly. “Maybe I can find something for them to do.” She found what she was looking for, something in a soft velvet bag with a pull-string. “If I’m going to capture those genies, I’ll have to prepare. Fon-Rahm will have to buy us some time.”

  Reese looked up at the battle. Rath had returned, hauling his bulk back into the building with a roar of anger. Fon-Rahm threw off Yogoth again. Xaru peppered Fon-Rahm with blasts of fire and laughter.

  “That’s not going to happen!” cried Reese. “He’s getting killed up there!”

  “That’s true. But that would change if he had more power.”

  Theo said, “How can he get more power?”

  The professor looked Theo dead in the eyes. “I can lend him some of mine,” she said. “With your help.”

  “I can’t help you! I don’t know anything about magic or spells or any of this!”

  “I would have preferred to bring you along more slowly, but we don’t have the time and there’s too much at stake. I need you to tap into your potential right now and help me.”

  Theo cast his eyes down. “I don’t know how.”

  “You do; you just don’t realize it yet.”

  Professor Ellison shook a glass prism from its velvet bag. “This spell is a doozy, and I’m too weak to cast it myself. I need you to concentrate on this prism and repeat the words I say. If I’m right about you, and I think I am, a good part of the power I have absorbed through the centuries will flow from me to you, and from you to Fon-Rahm. It’s the only way.”

  “What if you’re wrong about me? What if the thing on the plane was just a fluke?”

  “Then we all die in an explosion of fire and ash. No pressure, Theo.”

  Theo didn’t have a choice. He took the prism in his hand.

  “Okay,” he said. “I’m ready.”

  “You had better be,” said Professor Ellison. She pushed Theo’s hand up so the prism was between them and the genie fighting above them, and she began to chant words older than history.

  Theo repeated the words. Even as the professor’s voice wavered from her effort, he could feel raw power flowing through him. It was a strange sensation, like nothing he had ever experienced before. His hair stood out, as if someone was rubbing a balloon on his head, and he tasted metal. Finally, the spell was done, and the power left Theo in a burst of purple mist that enveloped Fon-Rahm.

  Professor Ellison fell limp to the floor. Theo hoped against hope that whatever they had done together was enough to save all of their lives.

  Fon-Rahm saw the mist close around him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath, drawing the mist into himself and feeling the professor’s
years of accumulated power stream into his body. For a moment he thought the wreckage of the building that surrounded them was getting smaller. Then he realized that he was, in fact, growing larger. In seconds he was a giant, a colossus striding through Cahill University. He dwarfed even Rath.

  Xaru paled as Fon-Rahm grew and grew. “What...”

  Fon-Rahm flicked the attacking rats away with the tiniest movements of his fingers. He caught one of Rath’s swords in each hand, tearing them away from the rat genie and casting them aside before crushing Yogoth beneath his titanic foot.

  Xaru hit him with all of his might, but he barely felt it. Fon-Rahm pulled back his fist and let fly. He caught Xaru in the face and blasted him half a mile.

  “You were saying?” he asked.

  “You did it!” Reese told Professor Ellison. “He can win!”

  “No,” the professor said, struggling to her feet. “He has enough power to destroy the others now, but only I can trap them, and I only have enough strength left for one good try.” She looked around the wreck that was her office. “Theo, all of you. Get me four containers. Jars, bottles, anything that can be sealed.”

  Parker raised his eyebrows. “Three,” he said.

  “What?”

  “You said four containers. You meant three.”

  The professor smiled slyly, caught. “Of course. That’s what I meant. Three.”

  With his new power, Fon-Rahm dominated the other genies. He was so huge and scary that Rath turned and lumbered away from the fight. Fon-Rahm grabbed Xaru by the throat. He held him and hit him again and again.

  “You’re time is up, Xaru. I’m sorry you could never listen to reason.”

  Xaru smiled through his pain. “That’s always been your problem, big brother. You never learned that reason only goes so far. Now!” When Xaru yelled, Rath stopped stumbling and lashed out, not at Fon-Rahm, but at the kids and Professor Ellison. The rat genie knocked them aside and grabbed Parker.

  Xaru laughed as Rath pulled Parker away from Fon-Rahm. “You never learned how to be truly vicious. You never learned how to do what it takes to win.”