Book 5: The Eye of the Forest

Considering that he was her twin brother, John Gaunt seemed to be unlike his sister, Phillipa, in quite a number of ways. Most obviously he did not look like her, which is a characteristic of all dizygotic, or fraternal, twins — even human ones: She was smaller, with red hair and glasses, whereas he was tall and dark. He was a person of action rather than much thought. He liked movies instead of books. Then there was the fact that he disliked Djinnversoctoannular, which is a particular game of bluff enjoyed by nearly all djinn. Both John and Phillipa were children of the lamp, having a djinn mother, but only Phillipa liked playing this ancient pastime. John, who was not a skilled dissimulator — his sister was now classed as Incognito, the level below Expert — much preferred the honest if rather mindless kinds of games that were played on a small electronic screen. And normally he would never even have thought of accompanying Phillipa to a Djinnverso party, but it so happened that he, too, had been invited to the weekend tournament at the country home of Mr. Vodyannoy, in New Haven.

Now, because John had always considered Mr. Vodyannoy to be his friend rather than Phillipa's, and because he knew he was facing a boring weekend on his own in New York City, he decided to tag along. New Haven is less than two hours on the train from New York City. Besides, Mr. Vodyannoy's house, which was called Nightshakes, was, according to Uncle Nimrod, famously haunted. Not only that, but Mr. Vodyannoy had the largest collection of antique talking boards — some of them more than a hundred years old — in the world. John hoped that while his sister and his uncle and his host were busy playing Djinnverso, he himself might put the shadowy inhabitants of Nightshakes to some practical use. For it was the boy djinn's sincerest wish to enlist the spirit world in finding out for sure if his old friend Mr. Rakshasas was truly dead or not.

But first they were obliged to ask the permission of their father, for with their mother now in Brazil, it was he who was in charge of their immediate welfare.

"I can understand why Phillipa wants to go," said Mr. Gaunt. "She loves playing Djinnverso. But you, John? I fail to see why you want to go. You hate the game."

"While we're in New Haven I thought I might take a look at the Peabody Museum," said John.

Phillipa said nothing.

"You know, at Yale University," John added.

"I know where it is," said his father. "In case you'd forgotten, I'm a Yale man myself. I'm just a little surprised to hear you say that you want to go there."

"I don't know why you should sound so surprised," said John, feigning innocence. "They've got a pretty good collection of dinosaur skeletons at the Peabody. Matter of fact, they've got all sorts of good collections. While she's off playing games, I expect I'll spend most of my time looking at all the interesting stuff they've got there. Improving myself."

"I guess there's always room for improvement," said Mr. Gaunt. "Just don't get into any trouble, will you?"

"Me?" John laughed. "I don't see how anyone can get into trouble just walking around a silly old museum."

"What about you, Dad?" asked Phillipa. "Will you be all right without us?"

"Me?" Mr. Gaunt hugged his daughter.

"Without Mom," she added.

"I'll be fine. What could possibly happen to me? But it's kind of you to ask." He tousled John's hair. "Both of you — go. Have a nice time."