Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1 Read Online Free

gave me clothes
and a place to lay my head. At night we sit by the fire in silence. Farrad stares into the flames and thinks his thoughts. He has asked me no questions about myself, although he must know what
happened to me. If he takes any satisfaction at having saved my life, he does not show it. His kindness to me feels less like a good deed and more like atonement for past sins.
    I can think of nothing but my family and how I failed them.
    One day, while Farrad was away trading, the grief I felt over the death of my wife and daughters finally overwhelmed me. I felt I could not bear another night of loneliness,
another night of black dreams that ended in me sweating through my bandages and screaming myself awake. I had nothing to live for, and my despair was so great that I sought to do myself
harm.
    I searched for something, anything I could use to take my own life. Perhaps Farrad had foreseen my joyless mood, for the wagon was devoid of weapons of any kind, and even the
sham ointments foisted off on gullible peasants as a cure-all for anything from coughing fits to baldness were gone.
    In my desperation, I tore the wagon apart. Just when my mood was at its bleakest, my hands felt a weak spot in the wood of Farrad’s driver’s bench. I pried it open
and found hidden within an ancient book, so old that at first I dared not open it lest the pages crumble into dust. I found my courage, though, and I opened the volume to read.
    What I found astounded me. The book is an ancient compendium of arcane magick, written by hand and bound in some kind of hardened leather. It describes something called the
Nexus, which is a force of magick that surrounds everyone and everything. With the right spells, potions, amulets, and talismans, the book claims that it is possible to tap into the Nexus and amass
great power.
    The book is the first thing, the only thing, to hold my interest since the destruction of my family. I became obsessed. I read it through that night and put it back in its
hiding place before Farrad returned. Now, whenever he is gone, I go back to the pages. They pull at me, call to me even. They quiet the screams of my wife and daughters when they threaten to
smother me. The secrets of the universe are contained within them.
    I am especially beguiled by the book’s concluding page. There is written a fragment of an incantation that promises ultimate power. The spell is incomplete, but it
intrigues me and haunts my sleep.
    Perhaps in the Nexus I may find the peace that eludes me.

3
    APPARENTLY, MERCURY AND THE REST of the observatory gods were feeling...benevolent.
    Mr. Ardigo, out looking for his favorite student and for once in his life at the exact right place at the exact right time, grabbed Parker’s arm and stopped him from getting all the way
over the railing and splatting to a messy death on the rocks below.
    He stopped Parker in midair and dragged him back over the wall. Mr. Ardigo didn’t let go until they were both lying in a heap next to the wall.
    “Thanks,” said Parker, his eyes wide with amazement. “For a minute there I was in serious trouble.”
    Oh, thought Mr. Ardigo, you have no idea what serious trouble is.
    “Suspended. Well, that’s just great, Parker. That’s just about perfect.”
    Parker stared out the window of the ten-year-old Saturn sedan as his mother drove. The car was once tan, but most of the paint on the roof and the hood had blistered off in the California sun.
The back door on the driver’s side was red, replaced after an accident years ago, but never repainted. His mother had assumed she would scrape together the cash to do it someday, but someday
never came.
    “You talk back. Your grades are terrible, you lost all your friends, and now you’re getting into fights. Awesome. You’re future’s looking brighter every day.”
    “I don’t know why I’m the one that’s in trouble!” he said. “Those guys were beating on this little kid and I told them to