Oracles of Delphi Keep (46 page)

Carl too looked surprised. “No,” he said. “You’re right. I shouldn’t have touched it without permission.”

Jifaar sighed as he regarded both of them; then he reached out and pulled a stool close to sit down. Ian waited tensely for the reprimand he was sure would follow, but instead, Jifaar shocked him by saying, “You two are not to blame for your outburst.”

“It’s the chess pieces,” interrupted Theo, and her eyes were pinned on the beautiful set across the room. “They’re evil.”

Jifaar nodded somberly. “To most observers, that chess set is like any other, save for the artistic beauty, of course.” Ian couldn’t tell if Jifaar had just made a joke, so he kept his face neutral and let the man explain. “But the pieces are not just polished crystal. No, they are something much more than that.”

“What are they made of?” Ian asked. He had guessed they might be carved out of ebony.

“They are made of one of the rarest crystals on earth, something known as Gorgonite—often called the Devil’s Stone.”

Ian shivered and he noticed Carl’s eyes growing wide before Carl gasped, “Did you say
Gorgonite
?”

“Yes,” said Jifaar, clearly not understanding why that might mean so much to the three of them. “And its more common name, Devil’s Stone, is an apt name indeed, as you and your friend Ian here just experienced.”

Ian’s eyes moved back to the chess pieces. His heart was thumping. The coincidence between the name of the crystal and that of the underworld god could not be dismissed, but he waited to hear more.

“Gorgonite,” said Jifaar, “is a crystal born of the most violent of volcanic eruptions, and it is usually found in the bottom of the crater of a dead volcano. Not more than a few ounces are ever discovered in one crater. Those pieces, in fact, were mined from no fewer than seven different extinct volcanoes, and I’ve had to be very careful in polishing their shapes to make sure no excess went to waste.”

“But what happened when we touched them?” asked Ian. “I mean, why did Carl and I become so angry?”

“All crystals have certain powers associated with them,” Jifaar explained, just as the professor had back in London. “Your friend Theo here is acutely sensitive to their powers, which does not surprise me, as she has the gift of sight and is probably more receptive to their energy.”

Ian thought about the crystal necklace he was keeping for her, and subconsciously put his hand into his pocket to touch the gem. It was warm and he was surprised to discover that he felt a calmness settle in him. It was a stark contrast to what he’d felt by the chess set.

“Some crystals are subtle,” Jifaar was saying, “like this blue fluorite over here.” He picked up a blue heart-shaped pendant and handed it to Theo. “If you hold that long enough,” he said to her, “you might feel calm and relaxed and there will be an orderliness to the way you think things through. But this piece over here,” he said, removing the fluorite and handing her a ring with a fiery red crystal on top, “this is vanadinite and it will cause your mind to go blank, as if you’re in a nice fluffy dream. Concentration will be difficult, and you may even lose track of time.”

As Ian watched, Theo did seem to develop a blank look on her face and she blinked at Jifaar a few times as if she were having trouble understanding him. He laughed and lifted the ring out of her hand.

“Blimey,” said Carl, who’d been watching Theo intently. “What else can you put in her hand?”

Ian reacted without thinking. He lifted the crystal necklace out of his pocket and offered it to Jifaar. “This makes her see things she doesn’t want to see,” he said, hoping the old man could explain why.

Jifaar’s eyes lit up as he gazed at the crystal in Ian’s hand. “You brought it along?” asked Theo, and Ian realized she was shocked to see he’d had it in his pocket all this time.

“Yes,” he said. “I’ve had it with me every day save the first time we went to London.”

“By Allah!” said Jifaar as he lifted the white gem out of Ian’s palm and held it up to the window. “Wherever did you come across
this
?”

“It was my mum’s,” said Theo. “She left it for me before she died, only, like Ian said, I have trouble with my visions when I’m wearing it.”

Jifaar dangled the crystal in the rays of the setting sun and Ian could see that pink essence in the middle of the white stone warm and brighten before their eyes. “Is it turning pink?” asked Carl, squinting up at the stone.

“It is,” said Jifaar, and he placed the crystal in Theo’s palm. “What you have there, young lady, is also one of the rarest gems on earth. It is called Zeusite, or the Eye of Zeus. It is found only at the top of the tallest mountains, and I
know of but a handful of very wealthy people who could afford a piece as large as the one you have here.”

“Crikey!” said Ian and Carl together, and they looked at each other and smiled.

Theo held the crystal in her palm nervously, and Ian knew she was afraid she’d start having visions again. “It makes her see terrible things,” he said, holding out his hand so that she could give it to him again for safekeeping.

But before Theo could hand it back to him, Jifaar reached over to the table to retrieve a beautiful bracelet of blue and white stones. “Here,” he said gently as he wrapped her wrist with the bracelet. “This will help temper the Zeusite until you can gain more control over your visions.”

Theo gazed at her new bracelet with awe. “Thank you, sir, but we haven’t any money to pay you,” she said.

“Then it is my gift to you,” said Jifaar with a kind smile.

“Why does the Zeusite make her visions so intense?” Ian asked, still curious about its effect on her.

“The Eye of Zeus is a powerful crystal indeed. It can bring out the true goodness and talent of the individual. It is most useful to those like you, Theo, who are gifted with sight. It can enhance the range of your abilities and make you all-seeing, but the images will be difficult to control until you’ve mastered the temperament of the stone. I imagine that you won’t like the idea of wearing the stone, but the more you do, the more you’ll familiarize yourself with it, and soon, you and the crystal will become like one. The longer you wear it, the more it will take on a pinkish hue.” Jifaar pointed to the Zeusite’s pink center. “It is also
something that repels evil, so it is useful to wear as a good-luck charm.”

“Whoa,” said Carl.

Jifaar nodded and his eyes moved down to the end of the table, where the chess pieces were. “How interesting that within my humble house we have the two most powerful gemstones in all the world,” he said.

“You were going to tell us about those chess pieces?” Ian reminded him.

Jifaar crossed his arms over his wide belly and got back to his story. “Just like the Eye of Zeus can bring out the best in someone, the Devil’s Stone can bring out the very worst,” he said. “It can reach into your soul and pull out the darkest part of you. It will enhance your anger and make you do and say things you’d never think of without its influence.”

“It sounds awful,” said Theo, fingering her new bracelet.

“Oh, it is,” Jifaar assured her. “Devil’s Stone radiates conflict and impurity. It was created through violence, the birth of a volcanic eruption, and it thus craves a constant return to that violence.” Ian turned to look pensively at the chess set. He wished he’d never gone near it.

He turned back as Jifaar continued. “Like the Zeusite you’ve got there, Theo, Gorgonite seeks to bring out the true essence of a person. If the individual who owns it is inherently evil, the stone will quickly enhance that evil, making that poor soul’s blackest thoughts even darker. Most people have some good in them, so many of us are soon repulsed by the stone and will resist handling it. I myself cannot work with it without wearing my protective gloves.” Jifaar pointed
to some thick woolen gloves on the bench. “And even wearing those and all of my best calming crystals, I must be careful to work only for short periods with the stone so that my thoughts do not become too dark.”

“Why would you be making a chess set out of it, then?” Ian demanded, shocked that Jifaar would be so irresponsible as to make something he could sell to some poor unsuspecting person that would turn them evil.

Jifaar sighed heavily, as if he carried a great burden. “A long time ago, when I was a poor youth and my older brother still ruled the Jstor, I was trying to find my place in the world. I loved searching for valuable treasure in the hills near here and turning the gems I found into pendants, bracelets, rings, and such. It was my mother who suggested I find a way to make my living at it, and so, I traveled the world in search of teachers to apprentice under.

“As an apprentice, I was given the smallest of stipends, and I eventually ran out of money while I was in London, learning from a master craftsman there.” Ian now knew how Jifaar had come to speak such perfect English.

“I’d made some pretty rings and pendants out of the small amount of gold I had left to sell in one of the London markets,” Jifaar continued, “and one day a man came to my stall and offered me a great deal of money to craft him two chess sets out of a strange black stone I’d never seen before. I gladly accepted his offer, but shortly after I began to work with his pieces, I started having dark thoughts, which soon led to terrible violent outbursts. I got into fights and yelled at patrons, and the master craftsman who had taken me on as his apprentice quickly told me to leave his shop and never return.”

“When did you realize that all of that was because of the crystals the man had given you?” Ian asked.

“Not long afterward,” said Jifaar. “I had rented a room and stored the Gorgonite under a floorboard there for safe-keeping while I was out looking for more work, and I began to realize that all of these dark thoughts seemed to occur only when I was working on the chess pieces.”

“Then what happened?” asked Carl.

“I started avoiding my commission,” Jifaar said. “I simply couldn’t bring myself to work with the Devil’s Stone again. Eventually, the man who had paid for their creation found me and discovered that I had foolishly spent most of his money, and that I was only finished with half of the chess pieces.”

“So what did you do?” Ian asked, gripped by the story.

“What could I do?” said Jifaar, raising both hands in surrender. “He was a very frightening man. I sensed that he could cause me great harm if he wanted to and I was terrified that he would kill me or report me to the authorities, so I begged him to show mercy. He did but he forced me into an agreement, one that I regret to this day.”

“Whatever did you agree to?” Theo asked.

“He made me promise to finish his pieces within the week, and at some point in the future he would find me again and commission one more chess set from me.”

“What could he be doing with three identical chess sets made of that awful rock?” Ian wondered.

Jifaar sighed. “Nothing good, I’m afraid,” he said, then attempted to smile. “I have never had the courage to ask him who they were intended for, and I doubt very much he would
tell me if I did. My instructions from him were to craft them in such a way that they would be too beautiful to resist. And he wanted them fit for a king, so he supplied me with extra gold, silver, rubies, and emeralds.”

Ian glanced again at the ornate pieces on the table. “They certainly are beautiful,” he said.

“Thank you,” said Jifaar with a bow of his head. “Still, I will be glad when they are gone and my obligation to the man is at an end.”

“When will you be finished?” Theo asked.

“I was going to polish those last few tonight,” he said with a smile as he reached for the blankets he’d set on the floor and handed them to Ian, Carl, and Theo, “which means that you lot will need to leave me and get some rest.”

Ian turned to go, then, remembering his manners, stopped and said, “Thank you, sir, for the blankets and for allowing us to stay with you.”

“You are most welcome, lad,” said Jifaar kindly as he walked them to the door.

Ian had several nightmares that night. It was the same dream over and over, in which two beasts thundered down from the surrounding hills of Lixus while Theo stood directly in their path. Each time, Ian dreamt that he was unable to save her. He’d awaken, hot and sweaty, and look to make sure she was still there next to him, and each time, he had to reassure himself that it was only a nightmare. That is, until his last horrible dream became all too real.

The sound of the beasts vibrated under him, the thunder of their paws making the ground shake. Shouts rang out in
the night and Ian looked over to see that Theo was missing. He surged out of the tent, but Carl grabbed his shirt and began shouting at him. “Open your eyes, mate!” Carl yelled. But Ian was too frantic about finding Theo. He spotted her then, up the hill, and charging down upon her weren’t just two beasts, but fifty.

“Theo!” Ian shouted. “Theo! Come back!”

But she only turned to look at him, innocent and pretty. Her bandaged hand was wrapped around her pendant, and she was saying something to him that he couldn’t hear. Carl still held him by his shirt and was demanding that Ian listen to him.
“Theo!”
Ian screamed, his heart racing as he willed her to come to him. “Run, Theo!
Run!”

But she wasn’t listening. Instead, she kept gazing at her crystal, and in a moment the first of the beasts had tackled her small form.
“Nooooooo!”
Ian shouted. “No, Theo!” Carl still held him as he tried to run to her and Ian angrily shoved his friend, accidentally hitting him.

Carl fell back and shouted, “Owwww!” and that was when Ian opened his eyes wide, his chest heaving in panic as a chaos of noise surrounded him. “You hit me!” Carl cried, and Ian saw that his friend was lying on his back at the edge of the tent, rubbing his cheek.

“What’s happening?” Ian asked. “Where’s Theo?” he demanded just as a shot rang out.

Ian started and felt someone grab his arm. He turned and Theo was right next to him, her eyes wide and frightened. “There are men on horseback coming for us!” she said.

“Raajhi?” Ian asked, his thoughts muddled from his nightmare.