Joey looked at the black-eyed men, women, and children. They weren’t muscle. They were cannon fodder. A brainwashed mob to be used as a human shield in case Joey’s friends came to rescue him.
“You’re a monster,” he said, appalled.
“Oh, don’t worry,” DeMayne said. “Nothing’s going to happen. First of all, if you tried to run, Scarlett would strike you down before you took a single step. Second, I don’t need these people to take care of your little friends. Scarlett and I handled them easily, I’m sure you remember. I’m not really worried about their families, either. They’re academics and performers. Not real players in our game.”
“So why have these people here at all?” Joey asked.
DeMayne shrugged. “Why not? It never hurts to have an insurance policy. People surprise me sometimes. You certainly surprised me, Joey. Managing to keep us out of the Majestic? I’m still not sure how you did that, but don’t worry, we’ll get to the bottom of it soon enough. I’m incredibly patient—and persistent. However, the Majestic Theatre and its contents have been bumped to number two on my list of priorities after the last few days. Scarlett told me what you’ve been up to. It’s very exciting stuff. I don’t usually get personally involved in the acquisition of magical objects, but three times now I’ve made an exception in your case. You should be flattered.”
Joey nodded. “I’m so flattered,” he said, his voice full of disdain.
DeMayne’s lips flattened into a tight smile. “I’m going to miss your sarcastic little quips. This will likely be the last time we meet. After today, I expect I won’t have any more use for you.”
DeMayne let the subtle threat hang there a moment, giving Joey time to think about all the different ways he could have meant it. “All right, enough preamble,” he said, clapping his hands together. “Let’s get down to business. Where’s this map I’ve heard so much about?”
“He didn’t have it,” Scarlett said. “None of them did.”
DeMayne raised an eyebrow. “You let them keep it?” He had a smile on his face, but it was all pretense. There was anger underneath.
“I didn’t let them keep anything. It wasn’t there.”
“The map’s gone,” Joey said. “We lost it. In space.”
“In space,” DeMayne repeated. “You don’t say. This is getting to be a habit with you, Joey. First you drop Houdini’s wand down a black hole, and now this? You’ve got to take better care of our things.”
“They’re not your things,” Joey said. “And they never will be. At least this one won’t. You missed your shot,” he added, looking at Scarlett. “You had your chance to get the map, and you blew it.”
Scarlett made Joey pay for that one. He’d known she would. He was deliberately provoking her, which was arguably the worst possible move he could make, and yet he had to do it. The pain that followed was ten times worse than he remembered. Probably because the black mark on his skin was ten times bigger. His whole body convulsed as she tortured him with her paintbrush once again. He tried to ignore the pain and block it out, but that was impossible. It took everything he had just to think straight. He screamed at the top of his lungs, hoping someone would hear him. DeMayne had let it slip that Shazad’s and Leanora’s families were both in the area. They were somewhere close. Joey knew they’d come for him. He just had to give them a chance to find him. As he flailed around, tumbling down the steps, he felt like Luke Skywalker being electrocuted by the Emperor. DeMayne didn’t have a change of heart and save him like Darth Vader had saved Luke, but he did surprise Joey by making Scarlett stop.
“That’s enough,” he said, pushing her paintbrush down and away from Joey. “Don’t punish him for your mistakes. He’s right. You had a chance to get the map and he outmaneuvered you.” Scarlett opened her mouth to protest, but DeMayne put his hand up, heading her off. “I know, you salvaged the situation. You came back with valuable information, and now with Joey, which in the end is all we need. Still, it’s a shame about the map. It sounded like an exciting find.” He walked down the steps to where Joey was lying on the ground, trying to catch his breath. “I would have liked to have it, but we don’t need it to find what you were looking for.”
Joey sat up. “Camelot? You know where it is?”
“Do I know where it is?” DeMayne repeated. “I’ve known for ages.” He gestured to the open circle of land, presenting the vast expanse as if it were something grand. “We’re here.”
Joey looked at the vacant field, bordered by the ruins. “I don’t see anything.”
“That doesn’t mean it’s not there. Joey, you’ve led us on a wild ride. You could have avoided a great deal of trouble if you’d accepted my offer a month ago. You would have saved us all some time and spared yourself a lot of pain. The fact is, we were always going to end up here, no matter what. I want to show you something.”
DeMayne produced a compact metal box. He popped the lid open and took a pinch of bright red powder from inside. “This is fairy dust. It has many interesting applications, but it has to be used sparingly. They’re not making any more of it.” He pocketed the box, sprinkled the powder into his open palm, and blew it into the empty, circular field. A strong wind that Joey couldn’t see or feel took hold of it and whipped it around in a swirling upward spiral. Joey watched as the red powder spread out, changing the color of the air like an inkling of dye that had been dropped into a clear glass of water. The fairy dust twisted up into the clouds, revealing the funnel of a massive, stationary tornado in the center of the ruins. The whirling crimson storm was awesome in its size and scope, powerful enough to rip up whole forests and scatter them about like twigs. Fortunately, it didn’t seem to be going anywhere. “Impressive, isn’t it?” DeMayne asked Joey. “This is the Imaginary Vortex.”
Joey stared, dumbstruck. “How did you know this was here?”
“That’s what I do. I know things other people don’t. The vortex is hidden by a glamour charm. It’s a manifestation of one of the most powerful warding objects in the world. It has a special effect on people like us. Magic users. For those of us who are aware of its existence, there’s another level of sorcery at play. If you know it’s there and still dare to venture in, it will turn you away permanently. You lose your imagination. The ability to believe in the impossible. You’ll never work magic again. Scary, I know, but the bigger the curse, the bigger the treasure. Behind all this is the Lost Kingdom of Camelot. You’re going to give it to me.”
“Am I?” Joey eyed DeMayne with a healthy dose of skepticism. “Exactly how am I supposed to do that?”
“By using the only thing that makes you the least bit special,” DeMayne told him. “The wand. Call the wand and vanish the vortex.” He folded his arms. “I’ll wait.”
Joey’s face twisted into a mask of confusion. “What?”
“You heard me,” DeMayne said, nonchalant. “Use the wand. Wipe this monstrosity away.”
Joey shook his head. “I don’t understand.”
“I know you don’t. I can teach you. That’s something Redondo never did. It’s not too late for you to join us, you know. You can have these secrets… this power without having to constantly look over your shoulder and see if we’re there behind you.” DeMayne nodded to Scarlett, and she gave Joey a little sting of pain to help make his point. “Wouldn’t it be nice to never feel that again? You have a choice, Joey. Why choose the hard road?”
Joey didn’t know what to say. “What you’re asking me to do… I don’t even know what you’re talking about. I don’t have the wand.”
“But you do,” DeMayne replied. “In a way. You have a connection to it. It’s yours. You can call it wherever it is, and it will come to you.”
“That can’t be right,” Joey said. “You told me the wand was lost. That anybody could find it.”
“I know what I told you. I lied. I do that. The wand has only one master at a time, and like it or not, that’s you. You’ve always had the power to call it. Why do you think we
haven’t killed you yet? Scarlett’s been following you for a month now. She could have taken you out at any time, but she didn’t because you still have value to us. That’s why we’re here.”
Joey was floored by what DeMayne was telling him. Could getting the wand back really be that simple? It had to be a trick.
“It’s no trick,” Scarlett told Joey, seeming to read his mind. “The wand is out there, waiting for you. Make the call. You know you want to do it. In the jungle, you painted yourself wielding the wand like a knight of the round table. Deep down you know you can get it. You just have to believe.”
Joey thought about what they were telling him. It made sense in an unbelievable sort of way. “That’s why you were watching me but never did anything. You were waiting to see if I’d work this out on my own.”
“Which obviously didn’t happen, so here we are.” DeMayne held out his hands. “Even my patience has its limits.”
Joey weighed his options, wondering if he could turn the situation to his advantage. If they were telling the truth, the wand could be his way out. Joey could use it to get rid of Scarlett and DeMayne and then see what was behind the red tornado. He could have Camelot, the shield, and the wand. He could be the conquering hero, but he couldn’t use the wand if he was busy being tortured by Scarlett. Or worse, killed. Wand or no wand, the Invisible Hand had the edge on him. “I’ll do it on one condition,” he said. “You have to get this paint off my arm first.”
DeMayne smiled. “I don’t think so.”
“I’m right-handed,” Joey complained. “If you want this to work, I’m gonna need my right hand.”
DeMayne studied Joey, considering his point. “Fine,” he said after some deliberation. “Scarlett, give the boy a hand.” She waved her paintbrush with a swish and a flick. The black paint under Joey’s skin shifted from the right side of his body to his left. Joey sighed in disappointment. DeMayne snickered. “You think I’m going to let you summon the most powerful magic object in the world without protection?”
“It was worth a shot.”
“I wasn’t born yesterday. Get to work.”
“No,” Joey said. “I wasn’t born yesterday, either. The wand can have only one master at a time, right? That’s my insurance policy. You need to kill me to own the wand, but you need me alive to find it. The second I have it in my hand, I become expendable. I’m not loving that idea. I can live without Camelot. We’ll find another way to change the world.” He nodded toward the Imaginary Vortex. “I can’t go in there without the wand, but you can’t, either. It’s a wash.”
A crease appeared in DeMayne’s forehead. He was visibly frustrated by Joey’s lack of cooperation. “You know what doesn’t come out in the wash?” He patted Joey’s blackened arm. “This.”
“AHHH!!” Joey screamed as the pain rocketed through his body. This time DeMayne let Scarlett go on a little longer before he told her to stop.
“Your insurance policy has a very high premium,” DeMayne taunted. “Don’t misunderstand me, Joey. This is not a request. I’m not asking you to call the wand. I’m telling you. You’re right. I can’t kill you until I have it, but I can let Scarlett hurt you so bad you’ll wish you were dead. And then we can nurse you back to health and do it again. And again, and again, until you listen to reason.”
Joey locked eyes with DeMayne. He wanted to say something really clever and cutting, like a character in one of his favorite movies would do, but he couldn’t speak and nothing snappy came to mind. He felt like he was going to melt into the ground. The best he could muster up was a defiant stare. He wasn’t going to play ball, and DeMayne knew it. His courage was rewarded with more enthusiastic torture from Scarlett.
“I’m actually glad you’re being so stubborn,” she told him. “It gives me an excuse to pay you back for the snakebite in the jungle. Did you think I was going to let that go? I threw up fourteen times in the last twenty-four hours. Did you think I was going to forget?”
“This is pointless,” DeMayne told Joey as Scarlett put him through the wringer. “You really think you’re going to change the world? Set magic free? Think again. We like the world the way it is—ours. It’s our playground. I invited you in, but clearly you don’t play well with others. Do you realize what it is you’re trying to fight? How hopeless your situation is? I’m going to control whatever’s left in Camelot. Anything in there belongs to me. No one else. If you don’t want to curse the day magic entered your life, you’ll give me the wand now. While I’m still in a mood to ask nicely.”
“This is you… being… nice?” Joey struggled to say.
“This is me being very nice,” DeMayne continued. “I could go after your family. Your mother and father… your friends at school… that cute little girl Janelle who’s trying to use magic as part of some next-generation power grid. We know all about it. We could do so much more. This can get so much worse. You told me last time we met that we only think of ourselves. That’s true, but if you force us to consider others, we will do so. Is that what you want?”
“NO!” Joey shouted in agony. DeMayne’s words had introduced a whole other level of trauma. He was talking about hurting Joey in ways that would never fully heal, and Joey knew he wasn’t bluffing. He couldn’t let DeMayne hurt the people he cared about, but he couldn’t give him the wand, either. Joey didn’t know what to do. Only one thing was certain. He couldn’t take much more of this.
Fortunately, the moment was interrupted by the sound of a honking horn. Joey’s pain eased up as Scarlett and DeMayne both paused to see what was going on. Joey crawled up the steps in time to see a car driving up to the ruins. It was a beat-up old junker being driven by a blue-haired lady who could barely see over the steering wheel. She looked like she was ninety-nine years old. The man sitting next to her was at least 112.
The car came to a halt at the edge of the ruins and the doors opened. Leanora and Shazad stepped out. “Get away from him,” Leanora said. “Now.”
“How do you like that? It’s the cavalry,” DeMayne said, amused. “Welcome to Camelot. How did you two find us so fast?”
Shazad held up an orange gemstone the size of a walnut. He didn’t say anything. He had a stunned look, taking in the sight of the Imaginary Vortex.
DeMayne’s eyes narrowed, trying to identify the object in Shazad’s hand. “What have you got there?”
Joey cleared his throat and picked up an identical gemstone that was sitting on the steps next to him. “You could ask me the same question.”
17 Eye of the Tiger
“It’s activated by the light.” Joey held up the jewel, letting it sparkle in the sun. “Like anything else, you’ve also got to believe.”
He still had the Tiger’s Eye from when Shazad had given it to him back in the Amazon village. Joey had pushed Scarlett to attack him, knowing it would hurt, but also knowing it would give him the chance to remove the gemstone from his pocket without anyone noticing. He wasn’t able to take it out while he was standing across from Scarlett and DeMayne, but when he was thrashing about on the steps, he could do it on the sly. Shazad had told Joey that his parents could home in on the jewel’s location as long as it was out in the open. He’d hoped Shazad would remember he still had it and that his parents would have the other gemstone with them. Fortunately, that hope had been well placed.
Joey didn’t come out and say all of this to Scarlett and DeMayne. They didn’t need to be told the details to guess at the connection between the two stones. “Clever,” DeMayne admitted, giving Joey credit. “Just not very smart,” he added. “You never learn, do you? There’s no reason to think this is going to go any better for you than it did outside the Majestic Theatre.”
“Actually, there is,” Leanora said. “We didn’t come alone. We just have the fastest car.” A motorcade of trucks and cars blasted through the trees behind her. The cavalry had truly arrived now.
DeMayne’s face fell flat. “How very annoying.” He looked at Scarlett next to him. “I guess thi
s is happening. Let’s get it over with.”
Once again, DeMayne donned the Armor of the Ages. Joey watched the invincible suit of armor cover his body just as it had outside the Majestic. DeMayne couldn’t be hurt as long as he was wearing the armor, but he still hid behind the innocent, sending his horde of hypnotized people out first.
Shazad’s and Leanora’s parents exited the newly arrived vehicles, followed by half of Leanora’s family. “What is this?” Leanora’s father asked, gaping at the Imaginary Vortex.
“And who are they?” Shazad’s father added as the black-eyed men, women, and children charged up the steps of the ruins and stormed across the field.
“They’re not magicians,” Leanora’s father replied, studying their appearance. “These are local people.”
“Look at their eyes; they’re enchanted,” Shazad’s mother said. DeMayne’s unwitting infantry ran headlong toward them, ready to fight. “We can’t hurt them.”
One of the children threw a rock. Many others followed, sailing through the air like arrows on a medieval battlefield. Grasping the amulet around her neck, Leanora’s mother put up a translucent golden force field just in time. The rocks bounced harmlessly off it, but Joey could see the magical barrier wouldn’t last long. The first wave of stones had left it riddled with spiderweb cracks like a big broken windshield.
The spellbound people pounded on the force field with sticks, shovels, and more rocks. Basically, anything they could pick up and use as a weapon. Leanora’s mother barked out orders in Russian, most likely telling the rest of the Nomadiks to go easy on them once the fighting started. “These people aren’t our enemies,” she said, switching back to English. “They don’t know what they’re doing. We have to help them.”
Lost Kingdom Page 23
