TWENTY-NINE

“The first thing you have to know is that the story is a lot longer and more complicated than we can hope to describe in one night. The beginning goes back farther than anyone can remember, and some have much longer memories than you might imagine.”

Adelia looked at Huxley, who nodded and jumped in. “Do you remember your research on The Book of Sorrows?” asked Huxley.

“Yes, of course.”

“Good. Then you already know that The Book of Sorrows is distinct from the scrolls Isham created,” said Huxley. “What you may not have guessed is that our Book of Sorrows isn’t an original either. All three known copies were themselves copied from an even earlier text.”

“The very first Book of Sorrows, the one ours was copied from, was created over a thousand years ago,” said Adelia. “We don’t know who created it, but he or she must have been very powerful. Over the centuries, only a handful of people have had the talent and will to replicate the complex magic that went into the original book. The most recent person to successfully do so was a British magician named Aldus Alpheus. When he took on the work, he also translated the text from Latin into English.”

“What about the scrolls Isham wrote?” asked Thomas.

“Isham’s scrolls weren’t called The Book of Sorrows until much later, and even then, not for the reason people assumed. It was misinformation, not the misfortune of treasure hunters, that afforded them that moniker.” Huxley grinned. “The original scrolls were intended to serve two purposes—to remind Isham’s descendants of what they were protecting, and to guide them to the places where the crystals were to be hidden.”

“Over the centuries, several copies of the scrolls turned up,” continued Adelia. “Some were counterfeit, deliberate misrepresentations designed to hide the true location of the crystals. At least one copy was authentic, a genuine replica that revealed the location of a missing crystal. It was that scroll that inspired James Jackman’s journey.”

“You remember the Ehrlenthal book, right? The Lost Treasure of Africa?” Huxley asked. Thomas nodded, and he continued, “Did you finish reading it?”

“Mm-hmm. Yeah.” And now it’s sitting in my room collecting late fees.

“That book is a more-or-less true account of Jackman’s adventures, first in search of the scrolls, and later in pursuit of the crystals,” said Adelia. “The story was disguised as fiction, with a few of the key details changed. Jackman wanted the story captured, but with enough doubt and misrepresentation sprinkled in to keep the accuracy in doubt. He knew that sooner or later, others would pursue the crystals, and he didn’t want them falling into the wrong hands.”

“How do you know all of this?” Thomas asked. “I couldn’t find anything like it in my research.”

Huxley and Adelia exchanged a look.

“No more secrets,” said Professor Reilly. “The whole truth.”

Adelia let out a long sigh. “Because it was me, Thomas. I am Adelia Ehrlenthal. Or I was before Huxley and I got married. I’m the one who wrote the book.”

“But that’s impossible. The book was written over three hundred years ago.”

“It’s not impossible,” said Huxley. “Adelia’s longevity is a product of my craft. Our shared craft, really.”

“Selling books?”

“Alchemy,” said Huxley without missing a beat. “I am an alchemist, Thomas, part of an ancient sect that set out to unravel the mysteries of physical and spiritual transformation. Books are an extension of my craft, but buying and selling them is a hobby. In reality, H&A Booksellers was an excuse to stay close to you. We opened it shortly after you and your mom moved to Orange County, so that she could send you to us when the time was right.”

“You expect me to believe that both of you were alive three hundred years ago? You’ve got to be kidding me.” The words came out with an edge. A sharp edge. The joke had gone too far.

Huxley continued, unshaken. “I was born in 1402, in the Alsace-Loraine region of France, near the border of modern Germany. Adelia was born in England 142 years later. I am one of the few to have survived the experimentation that led to true alchemy. Adelia was my first and last successful apprentice. We have been together ever since.”

Either he was an exceptionally gifted liar, or there was an element of truth to his story. Thomas looked imploringly at Professor Reilly, hoping the big man would put an end to the charade and let him in on the joke. He found no such relief.

“It’s true, Thomas. I can’t vouch for their birthdays, but I met these two almost forty years ago and neither of them has aged a day. As for me, well, you can see what the time has done to my figure. I used to be the belle of the ball, but now just look at me. Ha!” He slapped both hands on his belly and let out a laugh. “I look more like I swallowed the belle.”

Thomas couldn’t help smiling at the last part. “All right. So just for fun, let’s pretend all of that is true and you were alive at the same time as James Jackman. What happened next?”

“James and I found the scrolls. He and I were . . .” Adelia paused for a long moment before continuing, as though lost in a memory. “Well, I suppose you could say we were close.

“Finding the scrolls changed James, drove him to obsession. He never doubted that he would find the crystals, but I don’t think he ever thought about what he would do afterward. Or what finding them would do to him. By the time we recovered the first crystal, our party had suffered horrible losses. Most people would have quit, but James was more determined than ever. He would do anything to succeed. People and money meant nothing unless they could help him in his mission.

“The hunt led us through some of the most hostile terrain in the world. Each time we got close to one of the crystals, we had to fight their protectors. The Asharians were fierce and creative warriors, but we had guns and numbers. By the time we recovered the third crystal, the last of Isham’s descendants had been killed, along with most of our party. In the end, it was just me, James, and a handful of hired men.”

Adelia paused again. This time, the silence was of a heavier variety, as though the weight of the memories threatened to squeeze the breath from her lungs. She let out a long sigh and continued.

“As power-hungry and relentless as he was, James was equally protective of his daughters. He knew the risks associated with awakening the crystals and didn’t want to accidentally harm them or their families. He thought about staying where he found the last crystal, outside of modern-day Baghdad, but ultimately decided to take them farther away.

“James assumed an ocean would be enough to keep his children safe, but I wasn’t convinced. I told him the crystals should be destroyed before any more harm could be done. He refused to consider the idea. Eventually I went home to England, unable to face the possibility that more people would die. That’s when I met Huxley and began my study of the alchemical arts.”

Thomas looked at her, trying to sense deception. He found none. His head spun. “The book said he ended up in Asia. Is that why we’re in China? Because the crystals are here somewhere?”

“An excellent guess,” said Huxley. “But no. As it turns out, we are a very long way from the crystals.”

A pleased smile lit up Adelia’s face. “James’s final destination was the most important detail I changed in the book. The reference threw off power-seekers and treasure hunters for centuries. Until Arius, nobody has come close to finding the crystals. I had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that they had been forgotten by everyone outside of our circle.”

“Where did he go?” asked Thomas. “Where are the crystals now?”

“America,” Adelia responded. “Originally, James landed in New York. He wrote me twice after we parted ways. Once from the ship, and once about a year after landing. After the final letter, I never heard from him again. For a long time, I assumed he had died without finding a way to awaken the crystals. That’s not what happened, though.”

Thomas’s eyes widened. “What did happen?”

“It took us decades to piece the rest of the story together,” Huxley chimed in. “Are you sure you want to jump to the ending so quickly?”

“Yes. Yes, I am.”

Professor Reilly laughed. “Of course, he does. Go on. Tell him the rest of it.”

“All right,” said Adelia. She was smiling now. “A member of our network eventually discovered letters indicating that Jackman had left for the territories near the Great Lakes. By the time Huxley and I finally made our way to the origin of those letters, James had passed away and the crystals had been hidden yet again.”

“No way! That can’t be the end,” said Thomas. “There has to be more to the story.”

“There is more, actually,” said Adelia. “In our search, we met Dark Eagle, a Sioux chief who told us what had happened. He described James as a man with extraordinary powers. Blind, but unparalleled as a Shaman and healer.

“James protected Dark Eagle and his people from the pox and settlers. As a reward, the chief offered his daughter in marriage. She and James had three sons. All had abilities, but the youngest, Jameson, had the same extraordinary gifts as his father.”

“Apparently, he also had a knack for getting into trouble. The people called him the wildest one.” Huxley smiled wryly at Thomas. “By the time we met him, Jameson had taken a variation of that nickname and made it his own.”

“What do you mean?” asked Thomas.

This time, it was the professor who answered. “He called himself Wildus. Jameson Wildus.”

“That’s the beginning of your part in this story,” added Huxley. “You’re part of an unbroken line that dates back to James Jackman and his youngest son. And like you, many in that line have inherited a measure of his power. A few have achieved far more.”

“Slow down,” said Thomas. “You’re telling me I’m related to James Jackman?”

“That’s right,” said Huxley. “James was your great-great-great-great-grandfather, with a bunch more greats added in the middle.”

“We’ve come to understand that there is a genetic component to the thing we call magic,” said Professor Reilly. “An activation of certain genes that enable a leap forward in human potential. Your dad focused a significant fraction of his research trying to find and understand the specific genes affected by the crystals. He believed, as I do, that it might be possible to activate those same genes through scientific means.”

“Whatever the specific mechanism, the crystals awakened that potential in James,” said Huxley. “The code has been carried through the centuries in your family DNA. It’s usually around the time a child comes of age that the potential starts blossoming into tangible abilities.”

“No way,” said Thomas.

“Yes,” said Adelia, her eyes twinkling with delight. “The Book of Sorrows verified your potential. Summoning the statue proves that your abilities have started to manifest.”

“Whoa,” whistled Thomas. A mingling rush of awe, disbelief, and even fear flooded his mind, filling his body with strange sensations. They were talking about magic. Real magic, based on science and history.

“My sentiments exactly,” laughed Professor Reilly. “My sentiments exactly.”

“So, what happened to the crystals?” asked Thomas, grasping for something concrete to hold onto. Something he could really understand.

“I wish I could say that James destroyed them.” Adelia sighed and shook her head. “It’s what he should have done. Instead, he did the same thing as Isham. He gave a crystal to each of his sons, along with secret instructions for where to hide them. They followed his wishes, and as far as we know, none of them told a living soul where the crystals had been hidden. We let the search go, choosing instead to focus our attention on Jameson and his remarkable abilities.”

“Adelia and I have been friends of the Wildus family for more than 300 years,” Huxley continued. “We’ve helped guard your family secret and guide those with magical abilities for that entire time. And when we said that everything you see here is yours, we weren’t kidding. It’s literally yours. Your great-great-grandfather built this place. Marcus Wildus.”

“Mine?” Thomas looked around, his eyes wide. The living room alone was as big as his entire house, and that was just a tiny corner of the place. He gathered his thoughts and tried to refocus. “What about Arius? Why are we fighting him?”

“That’s a story that goes back at least to the time of Isham, perhaps even farther,” said Huxley. “Since the dawn of human history, there has been a battle between the forces of creation and those of destruction. Light and dark, as we tend to think of them, or good and evil. The light seeks to move us forward, to bring out the best in our species. The darkness stands in opposition, seeking to corrupt and destroy.”

“Like Star Wars? The Force?” Thomas’s skepticism edged up a notch.

“In a way, perhaps,” said Adelia. “Countless religions, philosophies, and theories have attempted to explain these forces, but the truth is that nobody truly understands them. Not in their entirety. I’ve spent my life studying little else, and after hundreds of years, one of the only things I can say with certainty is that the battle is real. There is light and there is darkness. Our history revolves around very little else.”

“What does that have to do with Arius?” asked Thomas.

“Arius has aligned himself with the forces of darkness,” said Huxley. “The very best-case scenario is that he has been deceived. The alternative is much worse, but in either case, he is pursuing a path that will almost certainly lead to catastrophic destruction.”

“Whatever else it might be, the darkness is clever, capable of disguising its influence in a million ways. Take Isham, for example. Would you say he was an evil person?” asked Adelia. “No? Neither would I, and yet because of his hunger for power, two villages were destroyed and hundreds of people died. Now, what about the stranger who gave the crystals to Isham?”

“I don’t know.” Thomas thought for a moment about the description of the dark gloves and gravelly voice. “Maybe.”

Adelia nodded. “We can’t be entirely sure, either, but we know it wasn’t human, and we believe it was an instrument of darkness. That creature is one of several such beings whose appearance has been recorded over the centuries.”

“You’re saying that thing was real? That it wasn’t just a made-up story?”

“We believe that it was,” said Huxley. “Similar encounters have occurred throughout history, and each time, the aftermath has been horrific. Our species is capable of doing plenty of damage on its own, but the worst of our mistakes have been preceded by a dark visitor. We’ll never know the extent of the damage that would have been caused if Isham hadn’t hidden the crystals, but the destruction of two villages is insignificant compared to the horror of our modern wars.”

“If Arius finds all three crystals, we might find out just how bad it could have been,” said Professor Reilly.

“Why do you think he’d use them like that?” asked Thomas. “The article I read made it sound like he was doing some good.”

“The darkness is like a disease,” said Adelia. “The symptoms of infection are consistent and predictable. Arius has more money, influence, and power than almost anyone on the planet, and yet it’s not enough. He has magical abilities, and still, he wants more. Insatiable hunger for power is one of the unmistakable signs of corruption.”

Professor Reilly shuddered. “If he were able to awaken the crystals, to add that power to what he already has, his ability to cause destruction would be almost unlimited.”

“Why? What would he do if he gets them?”

“Imagine that instead of a villager in a world before cities, Isham was one of the wealthiest and most powerful people alive today, on a planet with a population of nearly eight billion people,” said Huxley. “Imagine that his already extraordinary resources and abilities weren’t enough, that he also wanted the power to control the future for all of mankind. What would happen if you gave the crystals to a man like that and let him loose in a world full of nuclear, chemical, and atomic weapons? A world where almost every person and place is connected through technology?”

“The best case is bad,” said Professor Reilly. “The worst is destruction of a biblical nature. Apocalypse.”

“Obviously, we can’t take that kind of risk,” said Huxley. “We’ve faced the darkness before, but the stakes have never been higher. And because we’re the only ones who know what he’s after, we’re the only ones who can stop him.”

“That’s why you’re here,” said Adelia. “We need you to unlock your gifts and help us.”

Thomas’s brain felt like a punching bag. All the adults were watching him, their expressions serious. Going up against a billionaire with magical abilities who also happened to be backed by some kind of mystical darkness? They’re messing with me. This is a joke. A big, elaborate joke. And then, I’m not even a teenager yet. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I’m afraid not,” said Adelia. “We don’t yet know how Arius learned about the crystals, but we know that he did. He recovered one of them right around the time you found your way to our shop. That’s why you were led to us.”

“You might have seen something about it in the news,” said Professor Reilly. “A group of armed men took over a cave in Canada, and then the whole thing blew up.”

“I read about that,” said Thomas. “That was Arius?”

“It was,” said Huxley. “We didn’t immediately realize he was involved or that he was after the crystals. Now we’re playing from behind.”

“I thought none of the attackers made it out alive.”

“Arius escaped, and probably the others as well. We don’t know how much time there is before he finds the other crystals, but we have to assume it isn’t much,” said Adelia. “Whoever told him about the crystals also gave away your family secret. That’s why he had his people watching you, and that’s why we moved so quickly to bring you here.”

Thomas felt numb. His mom had said he was part of something bigger, but saving the world was a whole lot more than he’d imagined. He swallowed, tried to regain his composure. “What now?”

“Now you have to learn enough magic to help us stop that maniac and save the human race,” said Professor Reilly. “No pressure, of course.”

“No,” said Thomas. “No pressure at all.”