“What?!” said Charlie.
“That’s ridiculous!” shouted Ty.
Brack put up his hand to silence the boys. “What if I do show how it was done?” Brack asked Theopolis. “What will you give me?”
Theopolis frowned in disdain. “It’s barely worth considering,” he said, “but if that happens, I suppose we can come to some monetary agreement.”
“No money,” Brack said. “You will agree never to step foot inside this hotel again.”
“Very well,” said Theopolis. He bowed.
Brack stood up from his chair and walked out from behind the table. He didn’t look like the old elevator operator today. He didn’t look old at all, except in the way that a tall and mighty oak tree looks old.
Brack stood in front of Theopolis. They were about the same height when Brack stood fully upright. “Begin your trick, Theo,” Brack said. He didn’t smile.
“It’s no trick,” said Theopolis.
“Yes, yes,” Brack said. “It’s true magic. Just get on with it.”
Theopolis bowed deeply, smiling. With a flourish of his black robe, he walked to the far side of the pool. He pushed through the crowds.
For a moment, Charlie lost sight of him. Then Theopolis reappeared at the edge of the pool. He walked to the end of the diving board and stopped.
Ty and Charlie shuffled over to stand with Brack. “You boys watch closely,” Brack said out of the side of his mouth. “You can bet Theopolis won’t make this easy.”
Charlie nodded. He and Ty had solved one of Theopolis’s tricks already. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard.
* * *
Any hopes Charlie and Ty had that this trick would be as simple as Theopolis’s last trick were dashed right away.
Theopolis was in prime form. Thick white smoke rose up from the ground and settled over the roof.
Theopolis threw back his head and raised his staff with both hands. Thunder clapped across the sky. Party guests flinched and ran for cover under canopies and on the mansion’s big front porch. Only Brack, Charlie, and Ty stayed beside the pool.
The whole rooftop estate filled with an eerie red light. The light crackled and popped, like tiny bolts of lightning.
“Great demons of the dimensions of power!” Theopolis shouted at the thundering red sky. “I call upon you! Give me your power!”
As he spoke, the thunder grew louder. The sky became a deeper, darker red. The lights at the party — which had been so bright and friendly — switched off.
Suddenly the rooftop party looked less like a celebration of Abracadabra’s return and more like the vision from a nightmare.
“Give me the power!” Theopolis screamed at the sky once more.
Then, slowly at first, he rose from the diving board. He kept his head and arms up to the sky, and he rose higher and higher, until he was at least twenty feet over the pool.
Magicians gasped and muttered. Assistants sighed and clapped. Charlie and Tyler looked at each other, and then stared back at Theopolis.
But Theopolis wasn’t done yet.
High above the rooftop, the robed figure floated farther out over the pool. He brought down the staff and lowered his head for a moment. The crowd hushed.
Suddenly, Theopolis threw the staff straight up, into the dark red sky and the white clouds of smoke and the streaks of lightning.
Charlie knew that all of it — the smoke, the thunder, the lightning — was just special effects. Still, he couldn’t help being impressed. Theopolis might be a fame-hungry, underhanded jerk, but he was good at putting on a show.
The staff reached its apex and seemed to explode. When it fell back toward Theopolis, who was still floating high above the swimming pool, it was in three pieces.
The Great Theopolis didn’t flinch. He caught the three pieces and immediately tossed them up.
Before Charlie could guess what had happened, Theopolis was juggling the three pieces perfectly.
The crowd cheered. Brack nodded, impressed. Ty leaned closer to Charlie and whispered, “Since when does Theopolis juggle?”
Charlie shrugged. It was a good question.
Finally, Theopolis caught all three pieces at once. The staff seemed to reassemble itself. He held it aloft once more. “I thank you, great demons of the dimensions!” he shouted into the clouds. “And now, go back to your own realm!”
Lightning cracked. The thunder boomed: the loudest crash yet. Charlie had to cover his ears with his hands. The red light flashed brightly, and Charlie had to turn away and close his eyes.
When Charlie looked back, Theopolis was gone.
“Where’d he go?” someone shouted.
Chattering spread through the crowd of magicians and assistants. Most of them sounded very impressed. A few magicians standing near Brack and the boys said things like, “Pff, I could do that,” and, “I don’t see what the big deal is.”
But it was a big deal, Charlie knew. Theopolis had levitated, called demons from another dimension, controlled the weather, and vanished.
He’d even juggled.
Brack put his arms around Ty and Charlie. “I hope you boys were watching closely,” he said quietly. “I’ll need your help to figure this one out.”
Just then, someone stepped up behind them. “Counting on the help of two children?” said Theopolis. He laughed. “This proves it. You are too old, too out of touch with magic today.”
Brack didn’t respond.
“You have less than one week,” Theopolis said. “Then you will leave this theater, cancel your farewell show, and hand over this hotel — and this rooftop estate — to me.”
He pulled up his hood, sneering at Charlie and Ty, and stormed for the exit.
“What a nasty man,” Charlie said.
Brack nodded. “Indeed,” he said, “but he is also a master illusionist.”
“What are you saying?” Ty asked.
“I’m saying that I hope you two have some ideas,” Brack said, “because frankly I’m stumped.” With that, the old magician walked back to his table under the canopy.
