Prelude to Magic: The Prequel to Moonlight and Illusions (5 page)

She gave him a glass and settled her skirts as she
sat beside him. “I thought it was terrific, Stephen. Taking off
your shirt was a little gift for the women in the audience,
darling. We all love a muscular physique. Stretching your body out
straight between the two chairs was a test of strength to impress
the men in attendance.” With a smile, she gave his arm a
squeeze.

“You’ve changed since you’ve come back from touring,
Mr. Elliott.” Jacob’s young face radiated enthusiasm.

“I’d have to agree with you, Jacob,” Michael said.
“Our magician has never looked more fit, and you were worried about
his health, Ruby.”

“I still think you work too hard, Stephen.” Ruby’s
voice held a hint of a pout. She knew he would not stop working, no
matter how much she fussed.

“This is my dream, sweetheart. Most men never
realize their true ambition. I intend to make the most of this
success while it lasts.”

Michael held up his glass. “To a long and magical
dream.”

“Cheers!” They chorused, clinking glasses.

* * *

His performances were growing stale and Stephen knew
it. Despite taking the show to various cities around the United
States, the crowds had been slowly dwindling over the past few
months. They needed to make a change.

Tonight was perfect for engaging in some intense
practice, he decided as he crossed the back yard to the small,
whitewashed workshop. A full moon smiled down on Pennsylvania,
casting the shrubs and spring flowers into glowing silvery light.
Even ensconced in the thick velvet pouch around his neck, he could
feel the
Companion
Spirit
’s
warmth begin to
grow.

Other magicians had been performing so called
“levitations,” but Stephen knew they had been using wires to
suspend their assistants and objects. They didn’t possess what he
did. Only he had the ancient Mayan artifact, which truly held the
power of magic.

The corners of his mouth tugged upward as he
darkened the room, opened the ceiling panel, and positioned himself
facing six colored balls sitting on a table. He took out the stone
and held it in the palm of one hand, exposing it to the strong
moonlight.

Power surged through his body and radiated to his
opposite hand. By now Stephen’s tolerance to the energy had grown
to where the pain was negligible. His control had also increased.
Through concentration and positioning of his fingers to guide the
beams of light, he was able to get all six balls to lift off the
table, and he could command them to spin one by one.

This trick was sure to impress The Illusionist’s
fans.

Bang!

The door to the workshop opened violently, letting
in a gust of moist spring air. Stephen cut his eyes to the door
finding Michael standing there, his eyes wide as he beheld the
rotating balls hanging suspended in the air. “My God, Stephen! You
are a sorcerer!”

“Papa!” On Michael’s heels came Calvin. In a split
second, the boy’s eyes grew as wide as his uncle’s.

The distraction of those two broke Stephen’s
concentration and all six balls fell clattering to the floor. Only
through presence of mind did Stephen manage to prevent accidental
misdirection of the power and close his fingers over the little
stone. He tucked it into the pouch, breathing hard. The strong
energy running through him during these sessions stimulated every
cell in his body.

Michael and Calvin both stopped in the doorway with
identical stunned expressions, watching him close the panel over
the roof’s window.

“Shut the door, Michael, and I’ll explain.”

Without a word, his brother closed the door and
urged Calvin farther into the room.

Stephen sat on the bench, trying to gather his wits
and strength. The others stood staring at him. How similar their
facial structures and builds were. His son was twelve years old
now, and the Elliott heritage ran strong in his blood. Except, he
did have auburn hair, fair coloring, and freckles he had inherited
from Ruby’s family. Cal hated those freckles, but Stephen counted
each one as precious gifts from his wife.

“Papa, how did you do that?” Cal was clearly
excited, now he had recovered from his initial shock. He walked
over to the balls and bent over, his hand outstretched toward the
colorful spheres.

“Stop!” Michael ran over and pulled Cal away. “Don’t
touch them. You don’t know what will happen!”

“It’s all right, Michael. They’re just ordinary
balls,” Stephen told him.

Cal glanced at his uncle, shrugged, and headed back
to pick up and examine the balls.

Michael stomped around the room, lighting the
available candles, grumbling under his breath about how the place
was “too dark” and “foolish brother of mine.”

With the moonlight blocked out and candlelight
illuminating the room, Stephen began telling his brother and son
the whole story. About ten minutes into his explanation of the
levitation they had witnessed, the door to the workshop opened
again. Ruby, wearing a cloak over her dressing gown came in looking
worried.

“What is going on? I thought you had left, Michael?
Calvin, dear, it is bed time.”

“Mother, wait until you hear what Papa can do!” Cal
burst out before Stephen could stop him.

Ruby frowned. “Whatever is he talking about,
Stephen?”

With a sigh of resignation, Stephen began his story
at the beginning again, relating the words of the Mexican peddler,
his experience at the jail, and leading up to the experiments he
had been conducting. For Ruby’s peace of mind, or for his own, he
didn’t tell her how channeling the power of the stone through his
body actually hurt.

They argued for hours when he finished his story. At
one point, Calvin climbed onto the bench with his father, put his
head in Stephen’s lap, and fell asleep.

Both Michael and Ruby fought against the use of the
Mayan stone to perform magic, fearing for the consequences to
Stephen’s health and the possibility of some unexpected
accident.

“But can you not see the potential here? There is
not another magician in the country, no, in the world, who can
perform
real
magic. No mirrors. No smoke. No wires.
Real
levitations…and this is only the beginning!”

“Don’t get so excited, darling.” Ruby glanced at the
sleeping boy next to her husband. “You’ll wake him.”

“If I can find a way to use this little stone
onstage—” He held it out to them so they could see its harmless
little face. “—the crowds will come, and with them will come our
fortune. None of us will ever need to worry about money again.”

He gazed down at his son. “My boy will not have to
labor as a carpenter or anything else.” Gently smoothing Calvin’s
copper locks, Stephen glanced again at the little
Companion
Spirit
lying in his hand. It seemed so innocuous. Hardly
worth all this fuss.

Michael reached out a hand. “Can I see it?”

The strange reluctance to part with the charm, for
even a moment, seized him again, but Stephen dropped the stone into
his brother’s open palm.

For a moment or two, all Michael did was stare at
the artifact, rolling it over in his hand. Then, before Stephen
could move, his brother leaped to his feet from the wooden stool,
threw open the ceiling panel with a loud bang, and exposed the
Mayan stone to the full moonlight streaming in.

Chapter Four

“No, Michael!” Stephen and Ruby shouted at the same
time.

Calvin shot to a sitting position just as his father
leaped to his feet. Stephen dove at his brother, reaching for the
Companion
Spirit
.

A wrestling match proceeded, something they had not
done in years. The stone dropped to the floor with a ping. Stephen
had Michael pinned under him as he stretched toward the little
charm lying fully exposed to the moonlight.

A soft glow suffused the surface and grew in
intensity.

“Get off me, Stephen!” Michael also reached for the
stone, but the magician grabbed it first. A jolt of energy ran
through him.

A cry of pain split the air.

Under him, Michael’s whole body jerked. The energy
passed through him to Michael!

Quickly rolling off his brother and out of the
moonlight, Stephen found the velvet pouch around his neck and
shoved the rock inside. Skirts rustled and the ceiling panel
rumbled shut. Ruby closed the portal tight and looked from him to
Michael and back again.

“Are you all right?” she asked, her voice shaky.

“Fine.” Stephen rolled over and crawled on all fours
to where his brother laid, eyes closed and limbs akimbo. “Mike!
Answer me! Are you hurt?”

Both blue eyes opened and Michael gazed up at his
brother. “What happened?”

“The energy from the stone went through me and then
you. You should not have done what you did.”

“I can see why.” His tone was as dry as a
lawyer’s.

“Can I try it, Papa?” Cal was dancing from one foot
to another, holding his hand out for the
Companion
Spirit
.

“No!” Three adult voices rang out
simultaneously.

* * *

May 1900

Philadelphia, PA

“Jacob, we’ve been working together for years. Why
must I explain how I need the lighting for each trick? Can’t you
use your best judgment?”

The still-boyish face of his assistant became as
petulant as if the clock had turned back twenty years and he was a
lad instead of a grown man with two children of his own.

“Mr. Elliott,” Jacob said, his tone clipped, “when I
do, you always find something to change.”

Standing in the middle of the stage, Stephen’s
stomach churned with anxiety. Tonight would be a private show for
the Prince of Wales and his invited guests in the Walnut Street
Theater. He had not given a private performance since the one for
the Mexican governor had resulted in his imprisonment years ago.
This the fact weighed on his mind, along with his plan to use the
powers of the
Companion
Spirit
tonight for
levitation. Unfortunately there was no way to tell if he had stored
up enough of the charm’s energy to complete the feat.

For years he had practiced in the moonlight, holding
the Mayan stone to channel its power through him to the object.
Then one day he had accidentally summoned his slippers out of his
bedroom, down the stairs, and onto his feet by merely thinking
about the slippers sitting under his bed. Since that time he could
move objects at will with concentration. Thankfully he had been
alone in the house at the time. Breaking this kind of news to his
family took the right timing and careful finesse.

“Mr. Elliott?” Jacob’s voice interrupted Stephen’s
thoughts. How long had he been just standing here like this? People
would think he had gone daft. On the other hand, maybe a crazy
magician would bring in even more crowds.

“I’m sorry, Jacob.” He walked back to where his
assistant was assembling the large tri-folding full-length mirrors.
“What was your question?”

“Which mirror goes in the middle?”

Stephen picked up each plate of silvered glass,
turned it over, and inspected it closely. “This one.” He turned it
around so Jacob could see the back. “See how translucent the
silvering is? This is the one Ruby will stand behind.”

What a shame he could only use the
Companion
Spirit
’s
power to move things. If he had the power to
create objects as well, it would come in very handy in this
business of befuddling the mind and defying the laws of nature.

An hour later, the show was going smoothly just as
they had planned. In the audience Stephen could see the Prince of
Whales sitting in the center of his beautiful women wearing
glittering jewels and satin gowns.

Facing the tri-fold mirror, Stephen turned his back
to the audience. The lights on the stage dimmed as he gave a wave
of his hand. Jacob had the lights under control tonight.

“Behold,” he said, raising his hand, palm up, toward
the mirrors. The crowd gasped.

“There’s no one behind him!” one person said.

“Where is the woman?” another asked.

“She must be a ghost,” came the answer.

He watched the same thing his audience saw. At first
the blurry silhouette of a woman, in a flowing long red dress,
surrounded by a halo of light, appeared as if at a distance.
Gradually, she floated gracefully closer and closer, her image
ethereal and ghostly while his own reflection in the mirror
appeared sharp and crisp.

Stephen moved closer to the mirror and pressed one
palm flat against the cool surface. Ruby’s hazy figure came within
a few feet and stopped. Her hand stretched beseechingly toward him.
Sorrow rose up inside him. He couldn’t touch her, couldn’t feel the
soft warmth of his beloved, only the coldness of the glass met his
touch. This little scene felt
too
real. Then slowly the
light surrounding her faded until she disappeared and only his
image remained.

He let his head drop, put a hand on his heart, and
turned back to the audience still without speaking. Raising his
head, he bowed from the waist, and walked off the dim stage to the
sound of steadily growing applause.

Strange how his own illusions affected him
sometimes. Stephen shook off the blanket of gloom and took a deep
breath.

In the wings Calvin waited, props all around him, a
black coat identical to the one Stephen wore, over his arm. “It is
going well, don’t you think, Papa?”

Jacob hurried past them, pushing the mirrors on a
squeaking dolly.

“They do seem to be enjoying everything thus far.”
Stephen shed his cape and coat then Calvin helped him put on the
new, fully prepared coat, and the cape over it. His son stood in
front of him, fastening the cape at his throat while the magician
patted his pocket. “Everything is ready, son?”