Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1

by Peter Speakman

  A lamp had been discovered nearby, and the Path was already in the middle of the ritual. A brother wore the robes and knelt, his hands on the lamp, ready to sacrifice himself for the cause. He tried to be brave, but he was shaking. Badly.

  Xaru sniffed. “This time we will be ready for her. And for Fon-Rahm.”

  The sacrifice finished his words and twisted the ends of the lamp. The lamp burst open, throwing everyone back. There, rising in the smoke and stink, was the genie Yogoth. Although he was one of the first genies that Xaru created, he had none of his older brother’s charm or intelligence. Yogoth was a misshapen brute, with four arms and a twisted version of the face Xaru and Fon-Rahm wore.

  Yogoth lacked even the ability to speak. He pointed at the kneeling brother and grunted.

  The sacrifice, scared out of his mind, scrambled to his feet and tried to run. Xaru raised his arms to stop him, but there was no need for magic. In one fluid motion, Nadir drew a knife and threw it. The man fell dead at Yogoth’s feet.

  The four-armed genie seemed confused. Where was he? Who were these strange men? Did they mean to harm him?

  Xaru approached him carefully, his arms outstretched.

  “It’s all right, brother. You’re safe, now.”

  Nadir turned his cold blue eyes away as the two genies embraced. He had never understood the concept of affection.

  27

  FON-RAHM CLEARED OFF THE WORKBENCH and unfurled an antique map. He weighed down the corners with old tools and a coffee can filled with washers and nuts.

  Reese peered over the genie’s shoulder.

  “Are you sure we should be using this?” she asked. The map was hand-painted on some kind of cloth, and the writing was in florid German script. “It looks like it might be valuable.”

  “Priceless, really,” Professor Ellison told her. She was sitting, her legs crossed primly, on the broken tractor. “Sixteenth century. One of a kind.” She shrugged. “It’s all I have with me.”

  Fon-Rahm pointed to the map.

  “They unearthed Xaru here, in Greenland,” he said as Parker and Theo gathered in close. “That means that there are eleven more of us out there somewhere.”

  “Seven,” said Professor Ellison.

  They all looked at her.

  “Well, what exactly do you think I have been doing with my time?”

  Parker said, “Fon-Rahm won’t be able to find the other genies until they’re freed. We’ll have to wait until somebody digs up another lamp.”

  “The Path already has,” said Fon-Rahm, pointing to a spot that was once part of Russia. “Last night. Here.”

  Professor Ellison sighed.

  “The realignment of the planets is causing the lamps to reveal themselves. Three thousand years have passed without a single one of the Jinn getting loose, and now three have been freed in one week. We have to stop this before it gets completely out of hand.”

  “Yes. We must go and confront the Path,” said Fon-Rahm.

  “Go,” said Parker.

  “Yes.”

  “To Russia.”

  “Near Russia, yes.”

  “I’m into it. I’ll go pack.”

  “Wait. Wait. Wait,” Theo said. He couldn’t take it any longer. “You guys have got this, right? I mean, you don’t need me. I’m not contributing anything.”

  “Too true,” said Professor Ellison.

  “I mean, look, guys, it was fun to have a pet genie for a while. It was great, really! I had a lot of fun! But this is crazy. It’s just too dangerous.”

  “Oh, come on, Theo,” Parker said. “Don’t be such a...”

  “Theo’s right.”

  Parker was surprised Reese agreed with Theo. Reese was a little surprised herself.

  She said, “We’re way out of our league.”

  Theo was relieved to learn he wasn’t alone. “So you guys can go to Russia or wherever, and Reese and I will stay here. Everybody wins.”

  “I don’t believe you two,” said Parker incredulously. “Stay here? Stay here for what? Reese, are you really going to fall behind if you miss one violin lesson?”

  “Viola,” she said, her eyes locked on the floor of the barn.

  “And, Theo, buddy, I know you’re trying, but nobody even knows you’re here. If you didn’t show up at school for a week, who would even miss you?”

  Theo flushed red with anger. Before he could say anything, though, Parker continued.

  “And me? Please. My own mother shipped me out of town. It’s Thanksgiving on Thursday and she’s not even coming. As sad as it sounds, you two are the closest things I have to friends at all.”

  The barn was still.

  “Something is happening. And we’re right in the middle of it. This is our chance to be a part of something big. Magic. Adventure. Don’t you see what this is?”

  Parker laid his hand on the map.

  “This is destiny.”

  “I’ll go,” Reese blurted, almost without thinking. How had Parker won her over so quickly? “I mean, I never get to go anywhere, except for my grandparents’ house in Maine and that one time the academic decathlon team went to Rhode Island.”

  Theo threw up his hands.

  “Fine. Whatever. Go to Russia. Get burned to death by a genie. Get shot by a guy in a suit. I’m staying.”

  “That is out of the question,” said Fon-Rahm.

  Parker said, “Hey, if he doesn’t want to come, he doesn’t have to come. Let him stay here and keep his parents company. Who cares?”

  “The Path will kill him!”

  The force in Fon-Rahm’s voice shocked the kids. They stayed silent while the genie spoke.

  “Theo has been marked. Parker. Reese. All of you. The Path does not stop. They cannot be reasoned with. They will give up their lives to bring about a new age, ruled by the Jinn. They will die without a thought if they believe it will help their cause. And now that they have Xaru to lead them...”

  He didn’t even want to consider the possibilities.

  “Theo must come with us. It is the only way I can protect him.”

  The kids all looked at one another.

  “We’re stuck with each other,” Parker said.

  Professor Ellison slid off the tractor seat.

  “Well, that’s settled. See how nicely everything is turning out?”

  “Well, yeah,” said Reese. “But there’s one little detail I think we might have overlooked.”

  “What is that?” asked Fon-Rahm.

  “I think maybe my mom and dad might notice if I’m in Russia instead of my bedroom.”

  They all let this problem sink in.

  “Fine,” sighed the professor. “I’ll see what I can do.”

  An hour later, Reese, Parker, and Theo stood in the living room of Theo’s house and stared back at themselves.

  “Problem solved,” said Professor Ellison.

  Ellison had used her magic to create exact duplicates of the kids. The fake Reese, Parker, and Theo looked, acted, and spoke just like the real things.

  Reese said, “This is too weird.”

  Theo walked up to his twin and gave him a little push, thinking his hand might go right through it. It didn’t. The fake Theo stumbled, regained his footing, and pushed the real Theo right back.

  “What are they?” Theo asked.

  “They’re you, basically,” Professor Ellison answered. “I created them in your own images.”

  Reese’s jaw dropped with newfound respect.

  “You can create human life?” she said, awed at the prospect.

  “No, I can’t create human life. No one can create human life. They’re illusions. They were programmed to do whatever you would do in any given situation.”

  “So, um, Reese Two will go to my classes?”

  “She’ll go to your classes and argue with your parents and make inane comments with a vacant look on her face, just like you.”

  “I don’t like this,” said Fon-Rahm, his arms folded across his chest. �
�This kind of magic can easily spin out of control.”

  “Oh, relax,” said the professor. “I barely put anything into them. In two weeks they’ll vanish back into the Nexus. It will be like they were never here.”

  Parker circled his double, a grin on his face.

  “This is wild. How do we know they’ll pass for us?”

  The fake Parker’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “Yes, how could we be expected to master the subtle intricacies of minds like these?”

  Parker nodded his approval.

  “I like him.”

  “We have to leave,” said Fon-Rahm. “Now. We must reach the Path before they move again.”

  Professor Ellison said, “It’s taken care of. We leave tonight.”

  Reese was once again dazzled by the prospect of real magic.

  “On a magic carpet, right?”

  “No,” Professor Ellison said with a look that might be considered amusement. “I have arranged something a tad more comfortable.”

  28

  PARKER, THEO, REESE, AND FON-RAHM got out of the limo and stepped onto the wet tarmac. They followed Professor Ellison past airport workers carrying fuel and up the stairs that led into a gleaming blue-and-white twin-engined Gulfstream jet.

  “Chartered G650,” said Parker approvingly. “Fancy.”

  “It’s not chartered, my dear boy. I own it.” Professor Ellison shifted her bag. “Anyone who lives more than three thousand years and fails to get rich lacks common sense.”

  “I’ve never been on a private plane before,” said Reese.

  “I’ve never been on a plane before,” said Theo. When Reese looked at him, he shrugged. “My grandparents live right down the street, and I’m pretty sure I never made the academic decathlon team.”

  Reese said, “I don’t know. You’re not so dumb,” and Theo practically tripped on the stairs.

  Parker didn’t know it, but as he was boarding the G650, his mother was wheeling a tattered bag through the very same airport, less than a thousand feet away.

  She had flown in from Los Angeles on the cheapest flight she could find, sandwiched between a woman with a tiny yapping dog and an overweight man in sweatpants who had fallen asleep on her shoulder. It was a miserable trip, made even worse by the nervous, gnawing feeling that had settled in her stomach the second she had gotten on the plane. She was in no way sure that Parker would be glad to see her when she arrived. She was going to surprise him for Thanksgiving.

  “I still think you should have told him you were coming,” Aunt Martha said. She was there to pick her sister up in the rusted Subaru.

  Mrs. Quarry was tired from the flight but happy to be on the ground.

  “Tell him when? He won’t even talk to me on the phone.” She shook her head. “You know how he is. Parker never would have forgiven me if I told him I was coming and then something came up and I couldn’t. I wanted to wait until I was absolutely positive I could get on that plane.”

  “Well, he’ll be happy to see you, I’m sure. He misses you.”

  “He’s good at hiding it.”

  She squinted out an airport window and saw the Gulfstream jet. Mrs. Quarry shook her head. Private planes were for a different class of person than she would ever know.

  “Must be nice to have money,” she said, and then she kept on walking.

  The inside of the jet was gorgeous and rich, with soft carpet and polished wood accents. Instead of a million seats jammed together, there were white leather recliners. There was a widescreen TV and a small vase full of fresh flowers on every table.

  Professor Ellison placed her bag beside her and sipped on a martini that was already waiting when she boarded the plane. Theo and Parker ran down the cabin, scoping out seats and pushing buttons.

  “It sucks that I can’t tell anybody where I’m going,” said Reese as she sank into one of the chairs. “This is the most exciting thing that has ever happened to me.”

  Fon-Rahm nodded gravely. “Yes,” he said. “I’m sure it will be...exciting for all of us.”

  He looked out one of the jet’s round windows and saw that the flight crew was making their last-minute preparations. He turned away before the plane’s copilot stepped onto the stairs. The man had a sinister look in his eye. He also had a curved knife stuck in the waistband of his stolen uniform pants, and orders to kill everyone on board the plane.

  29

  THE G650 WAS OVER THE Atlantic Ocean, flying smoothly through the night sky. The cabin was quiet. Theo, Reese, and Professor Ellison slept in their seats. The only light came from the reading lamp above Parker’s seat.

  He was too wired to close his eyes, and he was frankly amazed that anyone could sleep at a time like this. They were in a private jet, streaking over the ocean, on their way into the unknown! His mind flashed to the rich kids at his old school and how jealous they would be if they could see him now, and then he realized that they were in his past. His future was happening right now, and he was the only one awake to enjoy it.

  Well, not the only one. Fon-Rahm sat in a recliner facing him, and Fon-Rahm never slept.

  Parker drummed his fingers on the table and contemplated the covered plate in front of him.

  “A cheddar cheeseburger, I think,” he said. “Medium rare, please, with fries and a slice of raw onion.”

  Fon-Rahm waved his hand. When Parker lifted the polished metal cover, the food he requested was magically there. Parker dug in. He held the perfect burger to his mouth and then paused. The genie was staring right at him.

  “Are you going to watch me the whole time?”

  “If you would like me to look away, I will,” said Fon-Rahm. “I confess that I have always found the ritual of eating very curious.”

  “Yeah, well, some people find junk food very calming.”

  “I would not know.”

  “You’ve never had junk food?”

  “I have never had any food.”

  Parker put the burger down. “Never? Like, at all? No chicken fingers or peanut butter cups or Nerds? Jeez, no wonder you’re so tense. Here. Try this.”

  Parker held up a French fry. Fon-Rahm of the Jinn looked at it with disdain.

  “Are you commanding me to eat this?”

  “I’m not going to command you to eat French fries. You should want to eat French fries.”

  Fon-Rahm just stared. Parker shook his head and went back to his food. “I eat when I’m nervous. Or bored or happy. It’s a miracle I’m not a million pounds. You should see me put it away when I go to see my mom at work. My father’s the same way.”

  Fon-Rahm nodded sagely.

  “I have much in common with my father, as well.”

  Parker stopped eating and looked Fon-Rahm dead in the eyes.

  “My dad tricked a bunch of senior citizens into trusting him, and then he stole all of their money. Then he abandoned me and my mom when he got sent to prison. Get this straight. My appetite is the only thing I have in common with him.”

  Fon-Rahm turned his gaze to the darkness outside the jet’s window.

  “Why did he steal?”

  “What’s the difference?”

  “There are many reasons for men to do wrong. Was he hungry? Was he desperate?”

  Parker thought about this for a moment.

  “No. He was doing fine. We were doing fine. I mean, we lived in a little apartment and we didn’t have fancy cars or anything, but I didn’t care. My dad just...He was never happy with what he had. He was always complaining about how he deserved better. He had to be a big shot. He couldn’t just...”

  Fon-Rahm waited patiently, but Parker didn’t continue. He realized that he might as well have been talking about himself.

  “All men have two sides,” Fon-Rahm said. “My father created me in his own image, yet there are things about him I do not understand. I doubt I ever will.” He turned back to Parker. “Vesiroth was not always evil. He was once just a man who made a mistake.”

  Parker mulled that over. Then he h
eld up one of his remaining fries.

  “You sure you don’t want one?”

  Fon-Rahm just sat.

  “Xaru’s right,” said Parker. “You are stubborn.”

  The genie was trapped. He took the French fry and, with great care, put it in his mouth. The look of disgust on his face vanished as he chewed.

  Parker beamed. “Good, right?”

  Fon-Rahm scooped up the rest of the fries from Parker’s plate. He smeared them in ketchup and shoved them in his mouth.

  “Not bad,” he said.

  And then the first missile streaked past the window.

  30

  PARKER JUMPED OUT OF HIS SEAT. “What was that?”

  “Trouble,” said Fon-Rahm. He rose to get the others, but they were already up and staring out the window.

  “That was a missile,” said Professor Ellison. “Someone’s attacking us.”

  Reese scanned the sky desperately. “Who? I don’t see anyone!”

  Then, silhouetted against the full moon, they saw another plane.

  “Oh. Oh, wow,” said Theo. “That’s a MiG-17. It’s a Russian fighter jet from the fifties. I have a book about old fighter jets. I have a couple of books about old fighter jets.”

  “It’s the Path,” Professor Ellison said. “They must have followed us.”

  The MiG banked and then flew straight at the G650, firing its machine guns.

  “Get down!” commanded Fon-Rahm, pushing Parker down to the floor of the cabin. Bullets shredded the wall of the plane, but no one was hit. The Gulfstream banked away and the MiG disappeared back into the clouds.

  “A simple flying machine,” said Fon-Rahm, gearing up for action. “By your command, I will dispose of it.”

  “No!” yelled Parker. Everyone in the cabin turned to him, sure he was out of his mind. “No. The Path isn’t after you. They think Professor Ellison put you back in a lamp. They’re just trying to kill us.”

  “So what?” asked Theo. “Either way we’re dead!”

  Parker blew him off and focused on Fon-Rahm. “You can feel when other genies do magic, right? That’s how you knew the Path freed Xaru, and that’s how you knew to protect us back in the woods.”