Day of the Djinn Warriors by P. B. Kerr Read Free Book Online Page B

“Especially when you can’t actually rely on using djinn power in there yourself.”
    There was a longish silence.
    “Did I mention that?” said Nimrod. “No, perhaps I didn’t. Djinn power is severely limited in the ethereal world. Oh, you can move stuff about a bit. Take possession of someone. Rattle a chain, open a door — not that you’d need to, of course. But your focus word will be useless, I’m afraid.”
    “We may enter the spirit world only as spirit,” added Mr. Rakshasas. “But djinn power is not something of that world.”
    “Quite simply you can’t practice mind over matter where there is no matter,” said Nimrod. “But in some ways more can be achieved. You’ll find time moves much more slowly in the spirit world.”
    For a moment, neither one of the children said anything. But eventually, sensing his twin sister’s greater fear of ghosts,John spoke up. “I guess it had better be me that goes,” he said finally.
    “Good lad,” said Mr. Rakshasas. “Sure, it’s true what they say: What you’re afraid to hear you’d better say first yourself. But we’ll look after each other, I’m thinking.”
    “Very well, then,” said Nimrod, continuing. “You, Philippa, will accompany Groanin and me to London, where we will attempt to locate Faustina’s body, and then bring it back here to be reunited with her spirit.”
    “Wait a minute,” said Philippa. “I thought you said you
knew
where her body was. You said it was in a private clinic for sick djinn.”
    “I did,” said Nimrod. “But it isn’t. It seems that there was some kind of clerical error. This is common enough in British hospitals. Believe me, they’re always mislaying patients and bodies, not to mention people’s organs. The ambulance forgot to pick her up, apparently. So, it seems her body is still where Faustina left it. In Madame Tussaud’s.”
    “The wax museum?” said Groanin.
    “That’s right.”
    “Ugh,” he said. “I don’t like the sound of that. Waxworks are creepy sorts of places. Ghosts and such like. Worse, probably. When I were a lad, Tussaud’s used to pay a man a thousand pounds if he dared to spend the night in the Chamber of Horrors. Them as did went off their heads. Or had their hair turned white from the sheer terror of it.”
    “Thank you, Groanin,” Nimrod said crisply. “That will do.”
    “There’s something else I don’t understand,” said Philippa. “If John’s going to the spirit world to look for Faustina, how can I go to London with you guys? What about Dad? Don’t we have to stay near him to counter the effects of Mother’s Methusaleh binding?”
    “It’s very simple,” said Nimrod. “You’re going to give John all your power. And he’s going to leave his body here at home. He’ll only need a little bit of djinn power to come out of his body. The rest will remain here, near your father. This will counter the binding, as you say.”
    Philippa made a face. “You mean I’ve got to breathe into his ear now?”
    “I’m afraid so,” said Nimrod.
    “Don’t think I’m looking forward to it, either,” said John. “I think I’d rather see Akhenaten’s ghost than let you taste my ear.”
    “Now, now,” said Mr. Rakshasas. “They are short of news those that speak ill of their own blood.”
    “Okay, bro, I’m sorry,” said Philippa. “Look, I’m really grateful to you for going to the spirit world instead of me. And I’ve been thinking, you won’t have to go all the way back to Cairo to enter the ethereal world through an Egyptian temple portal. You can do it right here in New York. At the Met. They have a temple there — the Temple of Dendur.”
    “Light my lamp,” said Nimrod, “of course. It’s the only Egyptian temple in the Western Hemisphere. A gift to the United States from the people of Egypt in 1965.”
    “Except that the museum is closed right now,” added Philippa. “Mr. Groanin and I tried to go there earlier