Kathleen could only see the back of Parker’s head sticking out over the top of the bed. He had the hood of his sweatshirt up and must have been bent over a guidebook of some kind.
“Okay. I’ll leave you guys to it.” She backed out of the doorway, leaving the door ajar. J.T. was just being paranoid. Theo, Reese, and Parker were responsible, levelheaded kids.
As soon as she was gone, Reese swiveled her chair around. “That was close! What if she comes back?”
Theo jumped up and stared at the stuffed sweatshirt he and Reese had propped against the bed as a substitute for Parker. “I don’t know! I’ve never been good at sneaking around. That was always Parker’s thing!”
“Okay. Okay. Let me think.” Reese pulled out her phone. She didn’t have to search through her contacts to find the number she needed. Besides her relatives and her various tutors there was only one other person in there. “Maybe we need to call in reinforcements.”
Parker held his flickering torch to the blue skull set in the wall, bracing himself for whatever was going to happen next.
“Okay,” he said. “So, uh, what do you want me to do?”
The skull spoke. “To retrieve your prize you must only answer a child’s riddle.”
Parker let out a sigh of relief. “That’s it? Just answer a riddle? Jeez, I thought you were going to make me fight a skeleton or bend steel with my bare hands. I’m great at riddles! Lay it on me.”
The empty sockets of the blue skull stared out into nothingness. “I never was, I always will be. No man has ever seen me, nor ever will. No man dares believe me not, without me hope is lost.” Then every skull that made up the room spoke as one, a chorus of dead voices that shook Parker to his core. They said, “What am I?”
Parker took a deep breath. “Okay. That’s easy. It’s something that doesn’t really exist, right? It’s something we take for granted. It never was, but it always will be. Let me think about that.”
The room groaned again. Then, in a cloud of bone dust and dried mortar, the stone ceiling began to drop down.
“Oh boy,” said Parker. He needed to come up with the right answer, and he needed to do it, as the French say, tout de suite.
16
PARKER RACKED HIS BRAIN FOR THE answer to the riddle of the skulls as the ceiling dropped lower and lower. There was nowhere for him to go. If he didn’t find a way to stop it he would be smashed flat.
Think, Parker! I never was, I always will be. It’s something simple! It has to be!
The roof dropped, popping row after row of the skulls that made up the walls like they were bubble wrap. Parker coughed up ground bone.
No man has seen me, nor ever will. What’s on the other side of a mountain, maybe? The back of your own head? It’s got to be something like that.
The falling ceiling reached the torches in the walls. They were extinguished and smashed, just like Parker would be if he didn’t land on the answer PDQ.
No man dares believe me not, without me hope is lost. Love? Could it be love?
The only light in the room came from Parker’s flaming torch. He felt the roof touch the top of his Dodgers cap. The ceiling was close enough to make Parker scrunch down. In another few seconds the blue skull would be crushed and Parker would be next.
He started to blurt out answers the second they came into his head. “Um, your shadow when it’s dark! What’s in a mirror when you turn around!”
Come on, Parker! I never was, I always will be….
Reese checked a text and rushed to the open window. She saw the glowing screen of a phone waving from the dark yard outside.
“Hey!” someone yell-whispered. “How am I supposed to get in?”
Theo ran over and pointed to a trellis leaning against the house. Naomi bounded up the trellis and was on the roof in no time. She climbed to the window and swung herself gracefully into Theo’s bedroom.
“So.” She grinned. “How are we getting in trouble tonight?”
The ceiling took out another row of bones, including the blue skull. Parker threw himself faceup on the ground. The ceiling was now just a foot away and still falling.
Parker’s answers got more desperate. “A ghost! Glass! Bigfoot! An invisible cat!”
No man has seen me. I never was. Without me hope is lost.
The roof filled Parker’s vision. Right before he was crushed, his mind was flooded with the thought of pancakes. Thick, golden pancakes dripping with rich butter and way too much maple syrup. His mom had promised to make him pancakes in the morning. Parker loved pancakes, but morning was hours away and it was looking like he wasn’t going to live to see…
“Tomorrow!” he cried. “No one has ever seen it, but it’s always there! It’s always a day away!” The ceiling kept on in its relentless descent. It was inches from Parker’s face. Parker screamed out again, this time in French. “Le demain!”
Parker shut his eyes tight, sure he was about to be smashed as flat as a DVD. He heard the roof come to a grinding halt. When he opened his eyes, he saw the ceiling somehow rising back to where it belonged.
Parker stood on shaky legs and picked his still-burning torch out of the dirt. A hole opened in the mortar behind the pulverized blue skull. Parker reached his hand in, hoping against hope that it wasn’t filled with spiders. He hated spiders.
Naomi sifted through the junk in Theo’s closet while Reese and Theo explained their situation.
“It’s not a big deal,” said Theo. “He just went to an R-rated movie with some high school guys he met, that’s all.”
“We’re covering for him,” said Reese.
“We didn’t think he was going to be gone this long, that’s all.”
“He’ll be back, like, any second.”
“That’s all?” said Naomi.
“Yeah, that’s all,” said Theo.
Naomi threw a half-deflated football out of the closet. “We’re sitting ducks up here. We need to get somewhere we have some room to maneuver.”
“There’s the basement,” Theo said. “There’s a Ping-Pong table down there, but we hardly ever use it. It smells kinda funny.”
“The Ping-Pong table smells funny?”
“The basement smells funny.”
“Okay. So. Is this all we have to work with?” Naomi held up a lacrosse stick and a catcher’s chest protector. “Because I have to tell you, it doesn’t look promising.”
Theo said, “Yeah. Well, I mean, there’s some crap under my bed, but it’s just old toys and stuff.” He turned red. “I just haven’t gotten rid of it yet.”
Reese bent down and pulled a cardboard box out from under Theo’s bed. Naomi leaned in and cracked it open. “Oh, yeah,” she said. “This’ll do just fine.”
The wall separating Parker from his genie and Professor Ellison rose and Parker emerged into the hall of skulls, burning torch in one hand and a third of the brass Elicuum Helm in the other. “Piece of cake,” he said, tossing the fragment of the helmet into the air and catching it like this was stuff he did every day.
Professor Ellison eyed the helmet. “Nicely done, Parker. I must admit I had my doubts.”
“You should have a little more faith in me, Professor. I feel like I’m getting pretty good at this.”
“Let us not let success go to our heads,” said Fon-Rahm. “We should split the scene as soon as possible.”
“Split the scene?” asked Parker.
“Yes. I fear this place is bogus.”
“The genie’s right, you know,” said the professor. “This place is rather bogus.”
“Hey, I’m all for getting topside. I’m as sick of bones as you guys are. Lead the way.”
Professor Ellison said, “I’d feel better if you handed the Helm over to me.”
“Yeah, I’m sure you would, but I’d just as soon hang on to it for now.”
“A stalemate! How exciting!” The professor stared at Parker in the flickering light. “However shall we resolve our differences?”
Fo
n-Rahm cocked his head to one side, listening to something neither Parker nor Professor Ellison could hear. “Get behind me,” he said. “Get behind me now!”
They ducked behind the first of the Jinn just as he raised his arms and created a force field crackling with blue electricity to block the tunnel ahead of them.
For a moment, nothing at all happened.
“I don’t get it, Fon-Rahm,” said Parker, peeking past the genie. “What’s out there?”
“Annihilation,” Fon-Rahm said just as Duncan skated around the corner, accompanied by a suited member of the Path and a figure cloaked in black.
“Oh, hi guys,” said Duncan, cheerfully. “We didn’t expect to find anybody here. Looks like we have company, boss.”
The figure lowered his cloak and Parker saw the scarred face of the ancient wizard Vesiroth for the first time. Parker heard Professor Ellison gasp. His blood ran cold and he remembered what his mother used to say about someone walking over her grave.
17
“VESIROTH,” PROFESSOR ELLISON SAID, and then, more softly, “Vesiroth.”
She had not seen the scarred wizard in more than three thousand years, but just being near him brought her back to the days when she was a child clinging to life in the gutters of Mesopotamia. She had begged him to take her in and teach her the ways of magic, only to betray him when his dreams of world conquest drove him to madness.
Vesiroth stared at his former pupil through the crackling blue lightning of Fon-Rahm’s force field. “Tarinn. I had hoped to put off this confrontation until later, but here you are. Surely fate has a sense of humor.”
The sound of his voice made Professor Ellison shiver. It sang to her of death and destruction.
“Hi, Professor,” said Duncan, chomping on pink bubble gum. “Long time no see.”
“Duncan.” Professor Ellison tried to maintain her cool, but she could hear the shakiness in her own voice. “Aren’t you out a little late for a school night?”
Duncan’s smirk disappeared. “Watch yourself. I could slice you to pieces without batting an eye.”
“So cranky. Perhaps you’d like a juice box?”
Duncan took a step toward the force field but Vesiroth held him back. The wizard spoke directly to Professor Ellison. “I suppose it’s a waste of time for me to try to convince you I’m right. You must have noticed that mankind’s penchant for killing each other has not abated. From what I’ve seen, it’s only gotten worse. Humanity spends most of its time devising newer and ever more horrific ways to create sorrow. I could put a stop to all of that. The world could finally know true peace.”
“Sure, as slaves,” Parker said.
Vesiroth turned his steely gaze in the direction of the seventh grader. “You keep company with an actual child. This surprises me. Is he to be a sacrifice of some kind?”
Parker flushed red. “You wish.”
“He is with me,” said Fon-Rahm. “I am bound to do his bidding.”
“Ah, Fon-Rahm. My firstborn. Do you not bow to your creator?”
“I have never bowed to you.”
“Of course not. You only obey your master.” Vesiroth got on one knee and fixed his eyes on Parker. “A dream come true, isn’t it? A genie to fulfill your every wish. Tell me, why are you traipsing through this endless tomb instead of sitting on a throne of your very own? You could rule over all you survey.”
“I don’t want to rule over anything.”
“No? You lack imagination, boy.”
Parker bristled. “Don’t call me boy.”
Vesiroth smiled. “When Tarinn was your age she had dreams of becoming a great wizard. She wanted revenge on all the people in her life who had wronged her. She has a dark heart, no matter how she presents herself. She can’t be trusted.” He shifted his gaze to his onetime student. “But I suppose you know that already. You have enemies on both sides of this barrier, boy.”
“Check it out.” Duncan jutted his chin at the piece of brass in Parker’s hand.
The wizard stood. “You have something I want, so I’m willing to make a deal with you. Give me that shard of the Elicuum Helm and I’ll let you live, for now. Who knows? You may even survive long enough to see a world without war.”
“Get stuffed,” said Parker.
“Excuse me?”
“The boy told you to get stuffed,” Fon-Rahm said. “I will second his sentiment.”
Vesiroth locked eyes with Professor Ellison. “Tarinn! You will take that object from this brat’s hand and you will give it to me. Do you hear my command?”
Professor Ellison shuddered. She opened her mouth to tell the wizard no, but nothing came out. Even now, after all this time, she felt the pull of obedience to the man who saved her life. Something inside her still wanted to please him.
It took all of Fon-Rahm’s energy to maintain the force field, but he saw Ellison was struggling. “Professor Ellison!” She didn’t answer. “Tarinn!” he shouted, and the professor finally snapped out of her trance.
“You can’t have it,” she told Vesiroth in a whisper. “You’re right that nothing has changed. I still stand against you.”
“Why even bother? I already have one piece of the Helm.”
Professor Ellison paled.
“Ah, you didn’t know that, did you? You can’t stop me, woman. Every time I destroy a genie I regain a piece of my old strength. You’ll see it when I kill Fon-Rahm.”
“Enough of this talk!” When Fon-Rahm yelled, the force field surged with blue power. “This conversation serves no purpose. You are far too weak to face both Tarinn and me at once. Begone, creator, back to your hole and your dreams of death!”
Vesiroth grinned. It was an evil sight among the skulls of the dark catacombs.
“You’re right, Fon-Rahm. I couldn’t take you both on. Not yet. That’s why I brought a secret weapon.”
He held his hand out to the silent Path member. The man threw his gray duffel bag to the ground. It landed with a clang.
“Oh no,” said Parker, as the Path member reached into the bag and pulled out a glowing cylinder made of metal and carved with intricate runes. It was one of the lamps stolen from Professor Ellison. Vesiroth had brought a genie of his own.
Reese looked over Naomi’s disguise and groaned. “This is never going to work.”
“Of course it’ll work,” Naomi said, her voice muffled. “Believe me, parents only see what they want to see.”
“I don’t know,” said Theo. “This whole thing seems nuts.”
Naomi shrugged. “We don’t have to do it. We could just tell Parker’s parents he’s at the movies. What’s the worst that could happen?”
Theo and Reese exchanged a knowing look. The worst that could happen? Well, Parker’s mom and dad could go to the movie theater, for one thing, and when they saw Parker wasn’t there they could search for him, and then they could call the hospital and the police station, and then they could discover that their only son was in France with a three-thousand-year-old sorceress and an actual real-life genie, and that would be, you know, bad.
“No, we should do this,” Reese said. “Maybe we’ll even pull it off.”
Naomi said, “Okay then! The key to this whole thing is going to be speed. The less time we spend in the open the better. You guys ready?”
Theo nodded without enthusiasm. Reese got out her phone and trained the video camera on Naomi. “If we’re going to do it we might as well do it,” Reese said. “Let’s go!”
Theo screamed and tore out of the room and down the stairs, Naomi stumbling behind him, moaning as low as she could get her voice to go. Reese followed them filming the whole thing from the back. They were headed straight toward the living room and a card table filled with parents. Reese had faced homicidal Path zealots with machine guns, a building-sized genie with rats for hair, and the prospect of being burned to cinders by Xaru, but this was somehow worse. It was a plan so crazy that it was hard to believe Parker hadn’t thought it up himself.
&
nbsp; “Lower the shield!” yelled Professor Ellison.
Fon-Rahm kept the shimmering force field in place. “No! I cannot place my master at risk!”
“He’ll certainly be at risk if we let this maniac free a genie!”
“She’s right!” said Parker. “Once the genie’s out we’re in trouble. Either the genie wins and we’re done or we kill it and all its power goes back to Vesiroth. We have to stop that guy before he opens that lamp.”
On the other side of the blue energy field, Vesiroth smiled. It did not improve his appearance. “You never could think strategically, Tarinn. I’ve bested you before we’ve even started.”
“You have to lower the shield!” the professor repeated.
“Do it, Fon-Rahm,” said Parker. “I command you to lower the shield!”
Fon-Rahm closed his fists and the incandescent lightning crackled away into the ozone. The instant the shield came down, Duncan conjured a mirrored dagger and sent it zinging toward Parker. Fon-Rahm blasted it with a bolt of pure electricity milliseconds before it could embed itself into the seventh grader’s throat. The genie threw another blast at Duncan, but by the time it got to him the ten-year-old was gone, spinning away on his board like a pro skater. The lightning exploded a wall of stacked skulls instead.
“Who is that kid?” asked Parker.
“He’s no kid,” replied Professor Ellison. “He just looks like one.”
Duncan slammed to a stop in front of the Path member and let loose a string of ninja stars at Parker. The genie threw balls of lightning that melted the deadly spinning blades in midair. Duncan was never going to kill Parker, but every second he kept Fon-Rahm occupied was another second the nervous Path zealot could use to twist the ends of the metal canister, first one way, now the other. The zealot’s hands were sweaty and shaking. He knew that when he completed his task his life would be over.
As Fon-Rahm and Duncan traded magic attacks, Vesiroth and his one-time protégé stared each other down, neither making a move. After what seemed like an eternity, they began to take slow steps toward each other.
Finders Keepers Page 10
