Tommy Black and the Coat of Invincibility

by Jake Kerr

  “That is accurate, Enayat.” Iggy said. “The Germans recently discovered the Cup in a ruin in Egypt.”

  Naomi stopped pacing and cast the light spell. I wondered if she realized that she was now better at making light than I was. “So that explains the artifacts not working until they were brought closer together, but it doesn’t explain why you can’t control the Staff now.” Naomi turned to Iggy. “Is Ana close?”

  “She is walking distance.”

  “Something has changed,” I said. “There was equilibrium. The active Artifacts all worked by themselves. Their powers are different and perhaps even complementary. Even when the Cup was unearthed, the behavior made sense—the closer the Artifacts were together, the more powerful they were.”

  There was a gasp, and I looked over at Naomi, whose palm was over her mouth. “What if the equilibrium was broken?” Her eyes were wide, and although she didn’t look scared, she had the look of someone who had just uncovered a deeply unsettling truth.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “Tommy, what if the Germans beat us to Ana, and they have the Coat?” Naomi slumped down into the desk chair.

  “Are you saying that the person who has the Cup now also has the Coat?”

  “Yes. It’s the only thing that makes sense. If someone has both, the equilibrium is broken.” Naomi slid her hair behind her ears. She looked like she was preparing for a dangerous but necessary task. “Maybe Zahhak’s power is now focused on the Bearer of the Coat and Cup and—” Naomi paused before she said it, “—not you.” Naomi lowered her head. “I’m sorry, Tommy.”

  “But why would this German leader risk coming to Paris during wartime? That sounds foolish,” I asked.

  “If you were looking for one of the most powerful magical artifacts in the world, one that makes you invincible, would you trust someone else to grab it for you?”

  I nodded. It made sense. Zahhak’s powers were now focused on the Archmage with two of the three Artifacts. Yet I didn’t accept it as indicating failure. I turned to Iggy. “Do you know where the Cup is?”

  “No. Its nature makes it difficult for us to find.”

  “What about the Coat? Is it gone?”

  “No. As I said, the Coat is in the residence on Boulevard de Courcelles.”

  I stood up. “Wait. The Coat is still within striking distance?”

  “Yes. Have I been unclear?”

  I excitedly rapped the staff on the floor a few times. “It’s not too late, and the opportunity is even better! We can attack now and get the Coat and the Cup!”

  Naomi looked up at me but didn’t move. I couldn’t read her face at all. “So you want to take on a building crawling with Nazi magicians, led by an illusionist wielding the Coat of Invincibility and the Cup of Jamshid, and you want to do this with a useless cane, an Ifrit bureaucrat, and me?”

  “Exactly.”

  She sprung out of her chair with a big smile. “I was hoping that’s what you were saying.”

  35

  THE DEMOLISHED HOUSE

  It was humiliating to know that my entire role in the assault on the house with the Coat and the Cup would be to do nothing more than grab the trophies after the battle was won. Naomi and Iggy would be doing all of the fighting. About the only thing I could do was use the sword that was hidden inside my cane, but although that was remarkably sharp I wasn’t sure I could actually stab someone. Stopping time and making people invisible were more my style.

  We left shortly after noon. Naomi started before the sun came up to cast a shield spell that would surround the three of us. As she stood up after casting the spell she stumbled. “Are you okay?” I asked as I grabbed her arm.

  “Fine.” She didn’t look fine. “It’s a… difficult spell.” She took a deep breath and steadied herself.

  “Is that the Babylon spell?” I looked around. I was used to seeing a slight film or some kind of iridescent glow or muffled sound. I couldn’t perceive any of those things.

  “No.” Naomi slipped her hair behind her ears and tugged the sleeves of her dress up her arms. “It's the Wall of Qin Shi Huang."

  “I am unfamiliar with that spell,” Iggy said, his voice expressing something close to awe.

  “It’s from China. It is easy to maintain, but the initial forms are very difficult.” I could only imagine. Very difficult for Naomi would be impossible for everyone else.

  “Will it stop bullets?”

  Naomi nodded. “It’s not easy to destroy, but don’t expect it to hold up to sustained machine gun fire.”

  “Then I think we should avoid sustained machine gun fire.” I held out my arm toward the door. “We should get going.” Iggy took the lead and Naomi followed behind. As I slipped in behind her, I added, “You look fierce in that dress.” And she did. It would be easy to get lost in her golden hair and blue eyes contrasting with the deep black, but a closer look revealed her concentration, her sharp features, and the intimidating movement of her hands as she prepared spells. With a background of black, it made her look ominous.

  “Why thank you, Streetlight!”

  The fact that Naomi called me streetlight when I couldn’t even make a flicker with the staff was comforting. She had faith in me and that meant a lot.

  “The Germans call you the Black Witch,” Iggy added.

  “What?” Naomi stopped.

  Iggy turned and walked back. “They are aware of you now and call you the Black Witch.”

  “I love that!” Naomi exclaimed, running a hand over her dress. “I’m going to wear all black from now on.”

  “Uh, you may have missed the part where Iggy said the Germans are aware of you now,” I stated. “That can’t be good. No more element of surprise.”

  “When did I ever worry about the element of surprise?” And with a bounce in her step, Naomi jogged ahead, took Iggy’s arm in hers, and tugged him forward to face the German Archmage.

  We walked the same street I had followed the day before. I kept glancing about for Germans or Russians. Of course I wasn’t expecting anyone to be in a uniform, but I still thought I’d be able to pick out something suspicious. Naomi was doing the same thing.

  About twenty yards away from the house that Iggy indicated, he held out his hand and we all stopped. “That is not good.”

  I stared at the house. It was beautiful. Standing three stories, it had ornate decorative carvings at the top of each level, with a gorgeous deep brown door with inlaid gold. It appeared to be constructed of a light stone or a rough marble cut into blocks. To the left of the door was a short staircase that rose to a lawn with a patio.

  “What’s not good?” I tried to peer into the windows or find some other evidence of trouble. There was nothing.

  “The house is badly damaged. There has been a magical fight here.”

  “I don’t see anything like that,” I replied, which elicited a nod from Naomi.

  “Oh, I’m sorry, Enayat. It is hidden by an illusion, a very strong one. The house appears normal and well-maintained, but the door is hanging from its hinges, the windows are broken, and there are scorch and bullet marks along many of the walls.”

  I turned to Naomi. “How good is that shield?”

  “Good enough,” she replied, marching forward, leaving Iggy and me behind.

  We quickly caught up. “Got a plan?” I asked.

  “Enter through the front door and blow up anything that moves.”

  I was going to object, but the truth was that I didn’t have any better ideas. “What do you think, Iggy?”

  “The weather is warmer than usual. There aren’t many people around, and I’m concerned that I won’t be able to protect you.”

  I couldn’t help but laugh. “I meant what do you think of Naomi’s plan?” I looked around. He was at least right about the people. Perhaps the Germans had created an illusion to drive people away.

  “It is simple and direct. She has the power to overwhelm most opposition. However, I fear her shield will be too li
ttle to protect us.”

  “Don’t worry about that. Just turn into your fire form or whatever the heck it is you do and make sure to fry as many Nazis as you can.”

  “I think it would be better if he were to warn us about illusions. We don’t have Mister Ali with us.”

  “Fine. I’ll do all the hard work,” Naomi replied, starting forward. She sounded more excited than annoyed. Iggy and I once again played catch up.

  We reached the door, which appeared closed. Iggy reached out, pushed his hand forward, and the door swung forward easily on its hinges. “They know we are here now,” Iggy said, forming a precise frown on his face.

  “How so?”

  “I knocked the door to the floor. It was hanging by a hinge and fell loudly to the ground when I pushed it.”

  “I didn’t hear anything,” I stated.

  “Sound is part of the illusion,” Iggy replied as we walked across the threshold.

  “I guess the illusion ended at the front door,” I replied as I looked around the entry way. There wasn’t any identifiable furniture, just piles of splinters and broken ceramic and glass. The walls were scorched with marks of fire, and bulletholes were everywhere. There was a relatively clear path to a door on the opposite side of the room, at least.

  I took a step only to have Iggy hold his hand out, stopping me. It felt like walking into an iron bar. “This is a trap. There—” Iggy pointed a foot in front of me. “—Is a large hole open to the basement. There are wooden spikes.”

  “Well, it’s crude, but it almost worked,” I replied. “Thank you, Iggy.” I stepped back. “Why don’t you lead?”

  “Where is everyone?” Naomi asked, her head darting around as we followed Iggy.

  “I’m sure they’ll show themselves soon enough.”

  Iggy paused just inside the next room. A raging fire filled the room from left to right, completely blocking our way. It was clearly an illusion as the top of the flames licked the ceiling but nothing burned.

  Turning around, Iggy said, “It is an illusion and cannot hurt me.”

  “Yeah. About that. It is an illusion, and it can hurt us,” I replied.

  Iggy nodded. “We will need to go around.”

  I turned and looked back in the other room. “The wall to the right has to connect with another room. Could we just blow through that?” Naomi stepped past me, looking like I had just given her a present.

  Her hands and fingers moving with their typical unworldly speed, a kind of glowing orange smoke appeared in her hand. I guessed it to be some variation of a detonation. Before I could tell her to be careful she hurled the spell at the wall. Rather than explode, this spell hit the wall with great force, as if it was a giant hammer. The wall blew backward into a pile of rubble.

  There was a hallway behind it, and before we could consider whether to proceed forward a man in dungarees and a green shirt ran up and immediately cast a spell. It didn’t even get halfway to us before it fizzled. The look on his face told the story—his jaw dropped, and you could practically see him trying to figure out what happened.

  Naomi stepped forward and thrust her hand out. The magician flew back and slammed into a wall. Naomi dropped her arm, and the man slumped to the floor.

  “Was that the Djinn Breath spell?” I asked. Naomi nodded. “I love that spell!”

  Iggy didn’t wait and stepped through the ragged opening and into the hall, which was now full of the rubble from the missing wall. An explosion flashed in front of my eyes, but I didn’t feel anything. Iggy stepped back. He was unhurt. “They have some kind of weapon that hurls large explosive projectiles.”

  “My shield can’t take too many of those. Be more careful, will you?” She muscled her way past Iggy, forming detonations in each hand as she walked through the wall. In the same motion she turned to the right and launched the detonations down the hall. As quickly as she had launched them, she had two more prepared and launched them. She did this two more times.

  The effect was immediate. Through the walls to my right I could hear a series of explosions. There was a shout, but then quiet. “Remind me not to get on her bad side, Iggy.” He nodded in reply.

  Turning our way, Naomi said, “Coast is clear.”

  The carnage at the end of the hallways was worse than I anticipated. There were two men that I hoped were just unconscious but I feared were dead. They looked like regular men, but I was sure that they were the ones manning the bazooka that lay at their feet. It was little more than twisted metal now.

  They had set up an ambush at the an intersection of two halls. The one we were on ended at a “T,” and the wall behind the men was partially caved in, with broken plaster and wood showing through scorched wallpaper.

  “There are no illusions here,” Iggy stated as a fusillade of bullets thudded against Naomi’s shield. They came from the hall to the left, where four men were wielding machine guns. It was eerie how the bullets would hit Naomi’s shield and then just fall to the floor.

  “This is tiresome. Where are the magicians?” Naomi said, as she tossed a detonation toward the men. It hit one of them knocking him backward into two others. As they landed on the floor Naomi marched forward, her black dress flowing behind her as she held out her hands on her left and right. They glowed with an orange light.

  One man fled down the hall, while the two that had been knocked down scrambled backward and to their feet, fleeing as fast as they could. It must have been a frightening sight—this woman in black, terrifying spells poised in her hands, her sharp face in a scowl, and her hair and black dress flowing out as if powered by their own magic.

  Iggy and I rushed to catch up to Naomi, who seemed dead set on fulfilling her plan of walking through the front door and blowing up anything that moved. I glanced down at the man who had been hit with her detonation. His eyes were closed, and smoke rose from his chest.

  Naomi was a few feet in front of us, and there was an explosion of light as she turned a corner. “This is more like it,” she muttered as she moved out of view.

  Iggy was moving slowly and deliberately, and I tried to push past him. It was like trying to shove a boulder out of the way. I turned the corner to see five magicians in the distance. There was a thick gauzy haze between them and us. One was on his knees, eyes closed, waving his hands casting a spell. The other four were trying to defeat Naomi through pure force. They hurled powerful detonation spells at her over and over.

  I expected them to fizzle against her shield, but they landed with something more like a thud, and, as I watched, each one seemed to progress a little further and sound a little louder. Naomi was casting different spells. The first few seemed to be force spells, but they didn’t do more than explode against the hazy air.

  “Finally, someone who knows how to make a decent shield,” Naomi replied as she tried another spell.

  “Can you break through that shield?” I asked, rather in awe of the Germans at being able to contain Naomi’s power.

  “Of course I can break though that shield, but I’d bring the whole house down on our heads if I did it.” Naomi stopped casting, ran her fingers through her hair, and then pulled her hair behind her ears. It was awe-inspiring to watch four magicians hurling explosive spells at her non-stop, while she calmly searched her memory for the right spell to use.

  I felt a vibration, and that’s when I realized that Naomi’s shield was weakening. “Uh, Naomi. Maybe Iggy can do something,” I replied. I turned to him. “Can you defeat these magicians?”

  “Yes, but I’d have to be in my elemental form, and that would set the building on fire.”

  “I don’t need the Ifrit,” Naomi said. Her comment caught me off guard. Two years earlier she had been dismissive of magical creatures, but I thought she had changed. Now she was calling someone who had saved us as “the Ifrit.”

  The time wasn’t right to say anything, but it turned out I didn’t need to. Naomi stopped what she was doing and turned to Iggy. “I’m sorry. That was rude. Ignatius
Lazarus, I do not need your help, but I appreciate the thought.”

  She said her comment with the utmost calm, even as her shield continued to weaken. “Okay,” she muttered to herself. “Something that will blow through a Wall of Gorgan that won’t destroy the house.”

  I tapped my cane on the floor nervously, and that’s when an idea popped into my head. “Naomi, will the shield follow me if I move?”

  “Yes,” she replied, barely acknowledging my question.

  “What happens if your shield overlaps theirs?”

  “Nothing. Defensive spells don’t really affect each other.”

  “Can I damage our own shield?”

  “No. It is attuned to stopping external attacks. Anything you do would simply pass through it. Wait—” Naomi turned and peered at me. “What do you have in mind?”

  “I have an idea,” I said as I walked forward, tapping my cane on the wood floor, its tap both calming me and filling me with confidence.

  “Tommy, no!” she yelled out, right behind me.

  It was frightening, walking directly toward Master magicians casting deadly spells at you. The shield in front of me absorbed them, but that was little consolation as their spells got closer to hitting me with each passing second. The interesting thing was the effect it had on the magicians. I could see fear build in their eyes as I slowly walked toward them, step by step, tap by tap.

  I reached the gauzy shield and stopped. It was right in front of my face.

  “Tommy, I don’t think my shield will last much longer,” Naomi said.

  “How fast can you cast that spell that binds people up in ropes?”

  “Ariadne’s Net? I just learned it, but it’s simple. I can probably cast it in less than a second.”

  “Get them ready. I don’t want to kill anyone if it isn’t necessary.” To her credit, Naomi didn’t argue with me. She crouched and prepped her spells. The Nazi magicians were in a panic, tossing a constant barrage of spells at us.

  “Better hurry, Streetlight. We don’t have more than a few seconds.”