Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1 (17 page)

Reese watched the missiles streak toward the G650.

“Parker?”

“Not yet,” Parker said, his nerves made of metal.

“Parker?” Reese was getting very nervous now. The missiles were so close.

“Wait for it.”

The missiles were right on them. Reese could read the Russian letters on their fins.

“Parker!” she cried, and, at the last second, Parker screamed “Yee-haw!” pushed the stick down, and rolled the Gulfstream away.

Theo was on all fours, searching for the Bow of Qartem. His eyes were drawn to a small object rolling around. He picked it up and saw that it was a small glass vial sealed with
red wax. It held some kind of bright green liquid.

“Did you find the bow?” asked Professor Ellison.

“I don’t see any bow,” he said, holding the vial up. “But I found this.”

The professor saw what Theo had and reached out to him.

“Don’t touch that!” she yelled.

And then the plane rolled, Theo, Professor Ellison, Fon-Rahm, and the deadly copilot found themselves shoved onto the ceiling of the G650, and the vial slipped out of Theo’s hands.

The missiles shot right by and exploded close enough to shake the Gulfstream. Reese was surprised to find herself gripping on to Parker’s arm as hard as she could. She
let go.

Parker brought the jet out of its roll and watched the MiG speed up and away.

“He’s only got one missile left,” he said.

When the Gulfstream righted itself, Theo, Fon-Rahm, the copilot, and Professor Ellison thudded to the floor of the cabin. Theo stretched out his hand to catch the vial, but it
brushed his fingertips, landed with a crash, and broke. On contact with the air, the green liquid started to bubble.

That’s probably not good, thought Theo. He was right. Theo was eye level with the carpet, so he got a great view of the tiny flaming skeletons dressed in armor that rose out of the spilled
liquid. He tried to stand up, but fell backward as the skeletons grew in size until they were as tall as professional point guards.

The skeletons looked at Theo, their eye sockets empty but for green flame, and raised their burning swords. Theo screamed and buried his head in his hands. No more baseball. No more go-karts.
This was it.

The ghostly warriors didn’t kill Theo. Instead, they whirled and charged out the hole in the side of the jet in an ill-fated attack on the MiG. It might have worked, too, except for the
fact that they couldn’t fly. The flaming skeletons just dropped harmlessly into the ocean below.

Professor Ellison kept looking for the bow. “You might want to be careful,” she said. “Those are some of the most powerful talismans in history.”

Theo agreed. He also noticed that, on top of everything else, the inside of the G650 was now on fire. He watched as a line of flame sped toward Fon-Rahm and the copilot as they wrestled on the
floor, locked in their fight to the death. The copilot smiled and forced Fon-Rahm’s head to the ground. The fire was racing right toward them.

“Uh-oh.”

Parker tugged at the yoke. Something was wrong with the controls. The plane was not responding.

“I don’t mean to alarm you,” he said, looking out Reese’s side window, “but we seem to be having a problem with the starboard wing.”

“What kind of problem?” Reese asked.

“Part of it no longer exists.”

Reese planted her hands on the glass and looked for herself. Smoke was pouring out of the wing, and a chunk of it was indeed missing. The missiles must have exploded even closer than she had
thought.

“Can you still fly the plane?” she said.

“Sure, I can fly it. I can even probably land it, but we’re not making any more fancy moves.”

He looked out the window and saw the MiG as it looped overhead, preparing to make one more fatal run at the G650.

“It’s up to Professor Ellison now.”

Theo saw an object by his feet. It was a small bow, maybe four inches long, made out of a knotty twig and strung with a wire of silver. A small metal arrow was already mounted.
It looked like a harmless toy.

“Um, I think I found your bow,” he told Professor Ellison. He nudged it with his foot, afraid to touch it.

The professor stood at the hole and reached back for the bow.

“Give it to me! Only a sorcerer can wield the Bow of Qartem!”

Theo reached for the bow but stopped. Beyond Professor Ellison he could see the MiG. It was right on them.

“Theo! Throw me the bow!”

Theo couldn’t move. He was frozen with fear.

Fon-Rahm knew that they were in trouble. He gathered all the energy he could and flipped the copilot over, pushing his face into the path of the fire. Right before the flames reached the
copilot, Fon-Rahm head-butted him and tossed him screaming out of the plane. Fon-Rahm jumped to his feet. Element of surprise or no, he had to act.

“Enough!” he cried. He pushed the professor aside and stood in the middle of the hole, smoke pooling in his eyes, as the MiG headed straight at them in a last-ditch attack. The genie
raised his hands, but before he could unleash his terrible magic, the MiG exploded in a burst of bright flame and shattered metal.

Fon-Rahm and Professor Ellison looked behind them to see Theo, holding the Bow of Qartem. It was full-size in his hands, but its arrow was gone. Theo had shot the MiG out of the sky. He lowered
the bow, awed at his own ability. When he placed it on the ground, it shrank back down to its toy size.

Professor Ellison attacked the flames with a fire extinguisher. “It appears you have an affinity for magic,” she told Theo. “Go figure.”

In the cockpit, Parker cleared his throat and grabbed the mic. He grinned at Reese and put on his best Midwestern pilot drawl.

“Ah, attention, passengers. Please fasten your seat belts and put your trays in their upright, locked positions as we make our, ah, final descent. We hope you have had a, ah, pleasant
flight, and thank you for flying Parker Air.”

Theo collapsed into his seat, as far away from the hole as he could get. Fon-Rahm sat next to Professor Ellison.

“The Path grows more brazen by the hour,” he said. “And I will not be able to find Xaru unless he uses his magic. I fear we may be in for a long and fruitless
search.”

“I know someone who might be able to help us,” said the professor.

“Is he human?”

Professor Ellison mulled it over. “Sort of,” she said.

DESPERATE. THAT’S WHAT ELLISON
thought of herself. She could not believe that she had agreed to work alongside the Jinn. She could not
believe that her companions were children. It was pathetic. She would only resort to this kind of behavior if she were desperate.

But she couldn’t help it. As she led them to their meeting place in one of the seedier parts of Utena, Ellison couldn’t stop herself from worrying. Not about the dangers of the city,
of course; she could protect herself with any number of simple spells. No, she was worried about herself. Maybe she was slipping. She had
known
that one of the Jinn was hidden near Cahill.
That’s why she lived there in the first place, so she would be close by. She had
known
that the lamps would start to make themselves more visible. There was nothing she could do about
the stars. They were aligned now, just as they had been three thousand years ago, just as they would be in another three thousand years.

Three thousand long years of waiting. Time that moved slowly. Until now.

And she had
known
. She should have been able to do something.

Now two of the Jinn were out, and that meant that two more sources of Vesiroth’s power were in play. This was what had made her worry more than anything over the millennia, and now it was
happening. No matter how much she had tried, no matter how much she had studied, there was one thing the Nexus refused to divulge: she could never see the future. Ellison could, however, maintain a
relatively close control over the present. That is, until the Jinn started to return in number.

All this to say, Professor Ellison was a bit distracted as she walked into one of the least-friendly bars in Lithuania with a genie and three middle-schoolers.

Maksimilian was fat and greasy, with sweat stains under his arms and brown gunk under his fingernails. His eyes were bloodshot. He hadn’t shaved in days. He needed a
haircut. He needed a shower.

He was at a scarred table in the back of the bar, surrounded by a crowd of cheering, jeering bar patrons, and locked in an epic arm-wrestling match with a shirtless Lithuanian strongman. His
fans cheered him on, but Maksimilian was overmatched. His opponent was made entirely of muscle, and it looked like Maks was done for. Just as his arm was going down, however, Maksimilian reached
deep inside himself, leaned in, and let out a massive belch into his opponent’s face. The he-man, stunned by the evil stench, lost his focus. Maks forced his arm down with a satisfying thud.
Victory.

While the strongman complained about what he saw as cheating, Maksimilian stood and acknowledged the cheers of the crowd. He raised one arm to the sky and with the other he drained a glass of
cheap vodka.

“He’s like a garbage dump brought to life,” said Parker, entranced.

Parker, Theo, Reese, Fon-Rahm, and Professor Ellison tried their hardest to fit in. If they weren’t standing in the single scariest bar in the world, Parker didn’t want to know what
was at the top of the list. The place was filled with shady characters with darting eyes and unkind faces. It reeked of body odor and old beer. It was dark and it was nasty. Plus, despite
Parker’s lies, this was the first time he had ever set foot in a bar. It was maybe not a great place to start.

“He may not look like much now, but Maksimilian was once one of the most powerful magicians alive,” Professor Ellison said. “There is not much that happens in this part of the
world without him knowing about it.”

“Um, do you think it would be okay if I waited outside?” asked Reese as she took a step behind Fon-Rahm. There was a strange man leering at her.

Theo shifted the weight of the bag the professor had given him when they got off the plane. It contained two empty metal canisters.

“I would rather be with everybody in here than outside alone,” he said. Reese weighed her options and decided he was right.

When Maksimilian caught sight of Professor Ellison, he broke into a wide grin that showed off one black tooth. “Julia!” he cried, embracing her in a sweaty bear hug. “As
beautiful as always.”

“It’s nice to see you, too, Maks. Keeping busy, I see.”

Maks shrugged. “It keeps me in vodka. There is only one reason you could possibly be here. You have finally come to your senses and accepted my proposal of marriage!”

Reese felt a shudder rack her body.

“Long-distance relationships never work, Maks,” said the professor. Parker could have sworn he heard a smile in her voice. This is what a three-thousand-year-old woman is like with
old friends, he thought.

“I would like you to meet some friends of mine,” she said, pointing to Reese, Parker, and Theo. “These are some children. I forget their names.”

Theo rolled his eyes.

“And this...” she continued, gesturing to Fon-Rahm.

“Wait. Don’t tell me,” said Maksimilian, looking Fon-Rahm up and down. “One of the Jinn, isn’t he? I never thought I would live long enough to actually see one in
the flesh.” He peered at Fon-Rahm as if the genie was on display. “Fascinating. He can almost pass, can’t he?”

“I would prefer it if you spoke to me directly,” said Fon-Rahm.

“Of course, of course,” said Maks. Then he turned to the professor. “Touchy, isn’t he?”

“We need your help,” said Professor Ellison.

“Of course you do! No one ever comes to see me unless they need something. What is it? A rare herb? A map to the hidden treasures of Amenhotep IV? An introduction to some crime
boss?” Maks waved his hand. The squalid men that surrounded the area all picked up their drinks and moved to the other side of the bar. “Sit! Sit! Can I get you anything?”

“I’ll take a beer,” said Parker hopefully.

Everyone ignored him. They all sat. Reese was instantly repulsed by the sticky table.

Professor Ellison said, “We’re looking for the Path.”

Maks seemed surprised. “Somebody’s looking
for
the Path? That’s a new one. Usually, people are looking to avoid them.”

“Do you know where they are or not?” said Fon-Rahm. His patience was wearing thin. “We have no time for games.”

“He’s not much on charm, is he?” Maksimilian said, a twinkle in his eye. He poured himself another drink. “I may have heard something about them skulking around. What do
you want them for?”

“That is none of your concern,” said Fon-Rahm.

“It’s my concern if you cause trouble and it comes back to me.”

“We’re not looking for trouble, Maksimilian,” Professor Ellison said. “Just a little information.”

“I suppose I owe you, after what happened in Mongolia,” the fat magician said.

The professor smiled. “I was too much of a lady to bring it up.”

Maksimilian took a dainty sip of vodka. “I have heard—now I don’t know this for a fact, mind you, as I have not seen it with my own eyes—but I have heard that some
hoodlums who may match the general description of the Path have set up shop nearby. I have also heard that they are not alone.”

Parker said, “Xaru is with them.”

Maks regarded Parker. “Perhaps. I value my own delicate skin too much to go and make sure.”

“Where are they?” asked Fon-Rahm.

“Holed up in a closed museum. It used to be named for Stalin, before the unpleasantness. There’s not much left after all the looting, but it’s big and it’s private. There
are worse places to hide.”

Professor Ellison rose, and the rest of her party joined her. “Thank you, Maks. I’ll consider us even.”

Maksimilian kept his seat. “Think about my offer, Julia. None of us is getting any younger. Maybe someday I’ll tire of waiting and I’ll marry someone else.”

“My loss,” said Professor Ellison as they walked out of the bar.