Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility

by Jake Kerr

  It was complex. It involved pieces of light, not just brightness and darkness but color and motion. It would need to constantly adapt as we moved. It sounded impossible.

  But I knew I could do it. The staff told me so.

  I put my arm around Naomi and said, “Just walk with me. Don’t worry.”

  Then I let the staff take control. It would do the impossible and reflect only the light that matched the colors behind us. We wouldn’t turn invisible by bending light around us; we would turn invisible by making the light look like the background colors behind us.

  I turned us into chameleons.

  And it worked. The moment I thought it, the staff made it so, and the reaction in the Russian soldiers was instantaneous. Jaws dropped, and faces looked up, down, right, and left. I expected that they would rush forward to look for us, so I maneuvered Naomi across the side wall to the far corner and then inched toward the back door. My plan was that when the opening was clear enough, I would take us through the back door to the engine.

  Thankfully, there were only five soldiers that went to look around the room. They passed us and looked under benches and up into the rafters. I stopped at the back door, which was blocked by two soldiers who were looking around the building for some sign of us.

  I was going to wait for them to leave, but the train whistle blew. Could that mean that the train was departing? It couldn’t be leaving so fast. It had just arrived. Naomi would know as the daughter of a Way Master. I looked at her, and she seemed alert. I leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Is the train leaving?”

  She looked up at me and nodded, her mouth set in a grim line. “Let’s go,” I whispered. I took her hand in mine, and with a few steps I barreled between the two soldiers. They didn’t expect the impact and went flying. I looked to the right, and there was the engine in the distance. Naomi kept pace as I sprinted toward it, still holding her hand.

  There were shouts, and I glanced over my shoulder. Thankfully, no one could see us or hear our footsteps in the din of the station. A few soldiers were looking under the train.

  We reached the engine, which looked ancient. I was shocked that it was a train that ran on magical power, as it looked like the coal trains that ran in the Old West. The good news was that the engine was large, so Naomi and I weren’t noticed as we climbed up.

  There was a single engineer who was leaning back and drinking a cup of coffee that was so hot I could see the steam rising from it. Naomi and I moved to the rear of the compartment and into a corner that looked like it hadn’t been cleaned or even seen a footstep in years.

  We waited.

  A few minutes later a soldier climbed up and said some words in Russian. The engineer shook his head and replied, waving his arm around the compartment. The soldier looked around, shook his head, and then departed. The engineer pulled out a pocket watch and checked it. After placing it back in his pocket, he pulled a rope, and a loud, mournful whistle split the air.

  I whispered into Naomi’s ear, “We don’t speak Russian, and I doubt the engineer speaks English. Do you think you could guide this to Paris?”

  Naomi shook her head as the Engineer spun around and squinted directly at us. Finally he shook his head, turned some knobs, pulled a lever, and the train surged forward.

  As I felt the train move I had an idea. It was risky, foolish even. And it was based on nothing more than a guess on my part. But I felt like it was our only hope.

  With the train slowly accelerating to its normal speed, the engineer returned to his coffee. I walked over and slid open the door that led outside. The engineer’s eyes went wide, and he stood up.

  He took a few hesitant steps forward, looking around and peering at the door which had magically opened. I maneuvered myself behind him, and with two steps of momentum I drove my shoulder into the middle of his back. The engineer stumbled forward. His arms reached for the door frame, but with an additional shove he flew out the door to the Russian countryside.

  I hoped he didn’t get hurt as he landed, but that was the least of my concerns. I closed the door to find Naomi standing right in front of me. “What the heck was that? You do realize that he’s the only one that can drive this thing.”

  I removed our camouflage and tried to think of a way to explain my plan. I finally gave up and prepared for the abuse.

  “I’m the engineer now. I removed the previous one. So I’m going to ask the Marid to guide us to Paris. It’s driven these lines for years. It’s powering the train. Certainly it could get us there, don’t you think?”

  Naomi just stared at me and said nothing. It was worse than her screaming.

  25

  THE SECRET OF THE STAFF

  I made my way to the back of the engine. The layout was similar to the modern train I first rode when fleeing the Djinn attack in the Southwest United States, but where that train had a living cabin that was plush, this one was like an old shed. It was filthy, with coal dust and dirt and broken wooden chairs leaning against the walls.

  The door to the very back of the engine was iron, and the handle was so hot I couldn’t touch it. I looked around, and on the floor was a dirty rag. I wrapped it around the handle and wrenched the door open.

  A blast of extreme heat knocked me backward. I looked around for some kind of a protective clothing, but there was nothing. Talking to the Marid would be downright dangerous. The Russians apparently didn’t believe in protecting their main engine room from the heat.

  I inched forward and peered into the room. It was like those scenes I remembered from the movies, where the heat from the desert would make the image on the screen all wavy. Still, I had been in enough engine rooms to know that all I’d need to do was to take a step or two inside and the Marid would hear me.

  I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, held the crook of my elbow over my mouth, and walked in. The air burned my lungs, while the heat scorched my skin. Unfortunately, I had run out of options. I talked fast.

  “Mighty Marid. I don’t know your name, but I am Tommy Black. I have freed many Marids from slavery because it was the right thing to do, and I will free you shortly. But I want you to hear a request first.”

  There was no sound but the clanging and grinding of the train’s gears moving.

  “I am the engineer now, but I don’t know how to guide this train. I need to get to Paris. My goal is to free more of your kind, and getting to Paris will help me do that, so I ask you this heartfelt favor—please take me to a station in Paris. That is all.”

  I was going to take a deep breath, but the hot air was making it hard to breathe. I badly wanted to finish and leave the room, but the burning in my lungs made me cough. My coughing fit over, I hurried and finished. “As the engineer of this train, I am your master, and I free you now. I have no right to be your master. You are free to go. There are no limitations or conditions to my words. You are free.”

  The train shuddered, and I took a step backward. “You may go, but I ask you again. Please. Take us to Paris.”

  I rushed out, slamming the iron door door closed behind me. Taking deep breaths of cool air, I walked through the compartments that lead to the front of the engine, marveling over how the magic of the Marid made the train so much different on the inside than regular trains, even as they looked the same on the outside.

  Naomi looked at me, and while I saw a glimpse of anger it immediately disappeared. “Oh my God, Tommy, are you okay?” She ran over and grabbed my arms. “You’ve been burned!”

  “I’m okay. Really.” I walked over and sat in the engineer’s chair.

  “Your face is as red as a lobster.” She looked around the compartment, but it was as sparse as the countryside. “Is there water?”

  I took a deep breath and felt weak from the pain. Sweat was pouring down my face, and as it ran over my cheeks it burned. My hands hurt. I was badly burned, it was clear. “I’ll be okay.” I said, filling my lungs with fresh air even as each breath caused pain in my chest.

  “Wha
t happened?” Naomi asked, standing in front of me.

  “Well, I am now positive of three things.” She tilted her head, telegraphing her curiosity in a way that made me almost laugh it was so cute. “The Marid that runs this train is very old and powerful. He is now free. And he is taking us to Paris.”

  “Can you be sure?”

  “I’m sure. Look outside.” Naomi looked through the windows. “This train is traveling way faster than when the engineer was in charge. Plus, the Marid is free right now. He could leave whenever he wants. The conclusion is obvious. He is taking us to Paris, and he wants to get there as fast as possible, so that he can then be truly free.”

  I kept lightly touching my cheeks, and while they hurt a bit less I wasn’t so concerned about the pain. I just hoped that I didn’t end up covered in blisters. The last thing I wanted was anyone, especially Naomi, seeing me in such an ugly light. Luckily, it appeared that my burns were not severe. I had a couple blisters on my hands, and a few on the side of my face, but mostly I was unscathed. Each breath was also becoming less painful.

  “The engineer’s coffee is probably cold by now. Maybe that would help,” Naomi said.

  I looked at the mug, and the deep brown sludge was not quite what I needed. “No thanks. I think I’d rather go back and talk to the Marid again than drink that stuff.”

  Naomi leaned over and looked in the mug. “I think that might actually be grease.”

  We were making small talk while nervously waiting to get to our destination. We both wanted to get settled in Paris and prepare ourselves for seeing Ana. We needed to somehow come up with a plan for retrieving the Coat.

  I tapped the cane on the iron flooring, as I thought about exactly how we could do that. Ana could not be hurt. Could she be restrained with ropes or a trap? Or would that be considered being hurt? Magic was too arbitrary for me to know for sure. If we couldn’t restrain her or hurt her, how could we possibly get the Coat from her?

  Naomi reached over and grabbed my wrist, stopping me from tapping the cane. “Sorry,” I replied. “I’m just a bit nervous.”

  “Speaking of nervous, I wanted to share something with you, but I don’t think you’re ready for it.” I stared at Naomi’s face, and the first thought that went though my head was that she was going to tell me that she liked me. I tried to dismiss the thought as being absurd, but part of me wanted to believe it even though I couldn’t see us ever being together. Naomi was cute and amazing, but she was also annoying and insulting and all those things that made me want to just toss up my hands and leave any room she was in.

  “What’s that?” I swallowed hard, which I hoped she blamed on my burnt throat.

  “This may take a while, so I’m going to sit down.” I got the sense she was buying time. Why was she so nervous? She walked over to the rear of the compartment and slid to the floor, leaning her back against the wall. “So you know what I’ve been doing for the past two years?”

  “Sure. You’ve been studying magic. I can’t believe how hard you must have worked. You’re amazing.”

  Naomi lowered her head, but I caught a smile on her face as she did so. “Yes, but I also studied a lot of history of magic.” She wove her hand in the air, and a tiny ball of pure white light appeared in her palm. “The context is important. Merlin’s diaries were practically useless, as they were little more than a record of his activities and achievements.”

  “That must have been disappointing.”

  “Well, Merlin would discuss other magicians, and if you paid close attention, you could see from his criticisms of their work how he fixed their flawed spells. Do you understand?”

  “I think so. You’d find a spell that didn’t work from the time of Merlin, and then Merlin’s comments on it would give you a hint as to how to fix it.”

  “Exactly!” Naomi looked up, a huge smile on her face. I got the feeling she had been waiting months to explain to someone her process. I found it interesting and exciting. “So I didn’t just study spells, I looked for hints and notes from history, as well.”

  “That makes sense, but why would I not be ready to know that?”

  “Well—” Naomi paused and then continued, “I spent a lot of time studying Jamshid, and—” She paused for a very long time. Finally, she looked up and blurted out, “I know the source of the power of your staff.”

  “What? Really?” I stood up and walked toward her. “What is it? It’s a powerful Marid isn’t it? I’ve been using a slave thinking I was doing something good!”

  Naomi’s eyes were wide open. “No! I mean, yes, but don’t think of it that way.” She shook her head. “This is what I was afraid of. You have done amazing things, Tommy. You saved your grandfather. You saved countless enslaved creatures.” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “You saved me.”

  I slid down the wall and sat next to Naomi. She snuffed out her light, pulled her knees up to her chest, and hugged them with her arms. “So what is the history?”

  “It’s an enslaved creature, Tommy. I didn’t want to tell you, because I didn’t want to ruin your dream of changing the world and saving magical creatures, and—” Naomi was quiet, so I looked over at her. She was crying.

  “What’s wrong, Naomi?” I touched her arm, but she pulled it away.

  “It was me, Tommy. Me! I love magic so much. I’m not an idiot. I know that I’m probably the only one who can even cast a decent spell that’s under the age of forty. It’s dying. Magic is dying.” She looked up at me, and her cheeks sparkled with her tears, while her eyes shone. “I needed you to save the magical creatures and show the world the power of magic. I don’t want it to die, and I’m afraid I can’t save it all by myself.”

  She reached over and took my hand in hers. “I’m sorry, Tommy. I kept this secret from you because I needed you to help me keep magic alive.” She squeezed my hand. “Airplanes. Machine guns. Motion pictures. Submarines. I hate technology. It’s killing the one thing I love.”

  I wasn’t angry. I was confused. “Naomi, why didn’t you trust me? I don’t want to see magic die either. I think you’re amazing.”

  She pulled her hand away and cast another ball of light, slightly larger than her previous spell. “I did trust you, Tommy. I trusted you to be a good person. And that’s the problem, my problem—you’re predictable because you’re a good person. I knew what you’d do. You’d look at the staff as something evil. A prison not an artifact. And then you’d want to destroy the prison.”

  Naomi closed her fist and leaned her head against my shoulder. It was so unexpected that I didn’t know what to do. “You are a good person, Tommy. It’s one of the things that I love about you. And rather than let you be good, I kept the truth from you.”

  “I- I don’t know what to say,” I answered.

  “You hate me.”

  “No! I’m not even sure I’m mad at you. I’m so confused. Yes, I’d want to free the imprisoned magical creature, but maybe I could convince it to help me like the Marid on this train is helping me.”

  Naomi yanked her head back and looked at me. “I hadn’t thought of that.” She started casting the light spell again. “I’m an idiot.”

  “No, you’re not. I don’t even know if that would be wise. Maybe it would be dangerous.”

  “Hmm.” Naomi stood up and started pacing, casting the small light spell over and over again. “That’s a good point. Let me tell you the full story.”

  26

  THE GREAT DRAGON ZAHHAK

  “What Mister Ali said was true. The greatest magician in history was Jamshid. He was not just a great magician, he was a great emperor of Persia. While there are plenty of books about him, the contemporary magical accounts are rare. So with the exception of very few specific spells, the only things we know are the broadest accounts of his achievements.”

  “It almost sounds like he didn’t want anyone to know his secrets.”

  Naomi stopped her pacing and looked at me, a big smile on her face. “Yes! He was arrogant and secr
etive, and while he was the greatest of magicians, he wanted even more power.”

  “So he bound an ancient Marid into the artifacts?”

  “No. He bound the great dragon Zahhak.”

  I almost dropped the staff. “There is a dragon in here?” I stared at it in my hand.

  Naomi nodded. “Not just any dragon. Zahhak, an exceptionally powerful dragon, whose power with magic makes Marids look like schoolchildren.”

  “He was that powerful?”

  “Yes. He terrorized the world with his might. So Jamshid hunted down this majestic dragon and bound him with magic. Even then Zahhak was too powerful, so Jamshid split him into three pieces so that he did not have the power to escape.”

  “The artifacts!”

  “Yes. Each artifact contains part of Zahhak’s enslaved essence. Those artifacts were the pieces that made Jamshid’s power absolute. No one could defeat him with the combined power of his own magic and the enslaved magic of Zahhak.”

  I nodded my head. It was all new to me, but it made so much sense. “No wonder Mister Ali said the staff had a mind of its own. It literally has a mind of its own, the mind of Zahhak.” Naomi sat down beside me again. “So the Coat and the Cup are the other two artifacts?”

  “Yes. Of course they are considered by nearly everyone as nothing more than fanciful tales. Zahhak is a myth. Jamshid is known more as an emperor than a magician, and the artifacts are mere legends.”

  I could barely control my excitement. I finally knew the source of my family’s legacy, even if it was one based on a vile act of enslavement. “Do you know anything about them?”

  “Not much more than what Ana said. We know what the Staff and Coat do. The Cup presumably allows the holder to see anything in the universe. You just think of what you want to see, and the Cup shows it to you. There are some who believe it allows the bearer to read minds or even see into the future.”

  “I’m going to see if I can communicate with Zahhak.” I clenched the staff in my hand.

  “Will that be dangerous?”