Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1 Read Online Free Page B

Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1
Book: Rebels of the Lamp, Book 1 Read Online Free
Author: Peter Speakman
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instead.”
    Parker practically spit the words out. His mother opened her mouth to say something cutting right back to him, but she took a breath instead. She let herself calm down before she spoke.
    “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to forgive him,” she said.
    Parker stared ahead.
    “I’m not excusing what he did. It was stupid and it was selfish, and he’s paying the price for it. We’re
all
paying the price for it. You know, it hurts his
feelings that you won’t go and see him.”
    “He’s a crook.”
    Parker’s mother glared at him.
    “He’s the man I married. And when this is all over we’re going to be a family again, even if it kills me.”
    They drove in silence for a moment. The button for the passenger-side window was broken. There was a Chiquita Banana sticker Parker had stuck on the dashboard in sixth grade.
    “New Hampshire will be good for you, honey. It’ll be good for you to have people around that are going to be there for you. It’ll be good for you to have people you can count
on.”
    “You can’t count on anybody,” Parker said. “They’ll always let you down.”
    His mother drove on. Parker knew that she was hurt, but at that moment, he didn’t care.

B31773—VESIROTH’S JOURNAL, CIRCA 1200 B.C.

    Tonight, Farrad came back from trading earlier than I expected him.
    He found me reading the book by the light of an oil lamp. I was so engrossed in its secrets that I did not hear him until he was already upon me. He jerked the book from my hands
and began to scream, furious at my transgression and betrayal. I had never seen Farrad display any emotion at all, and to see him so angry was a surprise to me. At first, he railed against me, but
soon his rant took on a different cast. He began to warn me against using magick. He said that any attempts to connect with the Nexus would only lead to my ruin.
    I listened to his outburst with a chastised heart. The book was his, and I had no right to take it. He had saved my life, after all. I was in his debt.
    But emotions I had never before felt flooded over me, and my guilt became bitter resentment. Who was this pathetic peddler to tell me what to do? Why should I follow his example,
when he was so clearly a worm of a man? He had nothing. A wooden wagon rotting from the wheels up. A load of worthless trinkets. A bucket of meal. A horse close to death. If he were to simply skim
the surface of what the book promised, he could be swimming in gold.
    I knew then that Farrad was a fool. I remembered the pages of the book and I raised my hands. I summoned up but a paltry sliver of the Nexus’s power and cast my first spell. A
ball of green light appeared in my hands, and Farrad was blown out of the wagon. He landed heavily in the dirt.
    The book was mine. I climbed down from the wagon and leaned over Farrad. For a brief moment, his eyes flashed with anger, and he raised his hands as if to cast a spell of his own. I
backed away, suddenly afraid. I sensed a great power unleashed in Farrad, as if I had roused a sleeping beast into action.
    Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the fury in Farrad was subdued. He seemed tired and resigned and older than I had ever imagined. I approached him warily, and I pried the book from
his hands. He stared ahead, powerless to stop me.
    I felt the sting of my own betrayal as I mounted his ancient horse and rode off into the night, but the promise of the book urged me on. I had a new reason to live. I would find the
men who had slaughtered my family, and I would use the spells at my disposal to make them pay.

4
    PARKER STEPPED INTO HIS NEW bedroom and dropped his bag on the floor.
    “This is Martha’s crafts room,” said his uncle Kelsey.
    Parker could tell. There was a sewing machine shoved against the wall, and the quilt on the twin bed was handmade. The wallpaper had pictures of flowers and vines, and it was torn at the corners
where the walls met the ceiling.
    “I asked her to clean it out, but I
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