A Thousand and One

by Daria Doshrelli

  “It certainly was not.”

  “It certainly was so,” Claire replied airily. “You gave one plain old, gold lump—”

  “It was a sovereign coin.”

  She shook her head in that know-it-all way of hers. “And how much gold would you say the necklace contained?”

  Tad thought back to the item in question, how it draped in front of the merchant from chest to waist. “Probably half an ounce.”

  “Uh huh. And why would anybody sell a finely crafted item of genuine gold in exchange for roughly the same amount of gold coin?”

  “Er…”

  “Exactly…So you see, it had to be a fake…unless, of course, the merchant stole it and was just trying to get rid of it…or if he acquired it for very little knowing it was stolen. And how do you know something is stolen?” She laughed at her own question. “You normally do business with thieves, of course. But that would mean he couldn’t openly display the stolen items alongside the legitimate ones, or else he might get caught, and therefore the only way he could sell anything would be to foreigners.” A sinking feeling overcame Tad as Claire looked steadily at him. She was surely inspecting him for signs of lunacy again. “Was the necklace hidden and the merchant only took it out after giving you a good look-over?”

  Tad nodded glumly.

  Claire wagged her finger, tapped her chin, and then went back to wagging her finger again. “So now we know with a high degree of certainty that the merchant knowingly acquires items obtained dishonestly. And your theory is that a thief watched you buy the necklace and then followed you and picked your pocket?”

  He shrugged. “They say Alibaba is the prince of forty thieves, probably a sophisticated operation, so I think the thief was the man who remarked on how lovely and exotic my Roselle’s necklace was.” Just thinking about how beautiful the design had been made him want to weep over having lost it.

  “Yes, it must not have been fake or else the merchant should have packed up and left right away after finding the world’s biggest sucker.”

  Tad growled at her.

  Claire put up her finger. “We can’t be sure if the necklace is often sold and stolen back, or if the merchant and the thief know each other at all, but it’s a plausible theory. In any case, I don’t think there’s much chance of you getting your money back.”

  He looked at the floor and mumbled out, “I figured as much.”

  Claire tapped her chin. “But why the straw…?”

  “To laugh at me, probably.”

  “Not professional thieves. They wouldn’t risk getting caught. No, there is something else going on here, I think.” An impish look spread over her face. “Well then, let’s just see this box of straw.”

  Chapter 12

  Tad didn’t want to show Claire his box of straw. She would just laugh at him and then go tell the pigeons all about it. But how might he change the subject without sacrificing his dignity? “I know what the rug beast was guarding,” he said after several moments of contemplation.

  “Magic carpet,” Claire replied matter-of-factly.

  “What?”

  She let out a small sigh as if answering this inquiry was especially tedious. “Since I discovered a new species I get to name it, and I decided to call it simply a magic carpet.”

  “Uh…” That didn’t sound vey scientific but Claire did have a squishy spot for creatures of questionable nature. “Anyway, I think I know what it was guarding.”

  Claire said nothing but Tad could see the cogs turning in her mind as she regarded her box of trinkets. She desperately wanted to hear about his clue. Either that or she was trying to decide if his method of collecting evidence and drawing conclusions was capable of producing anything worthwhile.

  He charged on. “I’m fairly certain it was guarding a creature called a jinn. I think I saw one in the woods behind the stables next to Della’s house.”

  “What’s a jinn?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “You saw one but you don’t know what it was?”

  “Ugh. Yes, all right, it’s just a theory…I mean an idea at the moment, but Zaen is trying to trap it inside an old oil lamp, I think. And that must mean that it got out somehow. There’s also something to do with wishing…”

  Claire turned from her baubles and directed her words at the shelf on her right. “So that’s who somebody made a deal with...”

  Was she talking to him or the shelf? “What’s that?”

  “Just a clue I turned up,” she replied casually. “Someone made a terrible deal with a nasty character, or so I heard Della’s mother say. But I didn’t find out who made the deal or who they made it with.” She screwed up her face. “I’ve never heard of a thing called a jinn.”

  Tad frowned. “Me, neither. But that’s all I’m telling you. So now I have given you several clues of mine in exchange for your measly one clue about the gold.”

  Claire whirled around to face him head-on. “My measly clue, as you call it, obviously led you to your highly-speculative conclusions. And I just gave you another clue about the conversation I overheard. Somebody made a deal, and if your research is to be believe, possibly it was with a creature called a jinn.”

  For some reason her accusations against his methods didn’t bother Tad this time. That was probably because he felt pity now that he understood she was such a case herself. “So I guess that makes us even again?”

  Claire tapped the toe of her slipper on the floor three times. “I’ll agree with that. Neither of us know anything that unquestionably solves any particular riddle on this case. That’s definitely even.”

  “Should we…work together, then?” As these unexpected words came out of his mouth something like a flicker of light sparked inside him.

  “Ha! Admit defeat and I’ll be happy to share all of my research with you.” She sent him a curt nod.

  The little flicker of light in Tad’s soul poofed out instantly. The girl might be tragically deficient in romantic sentiment but that didn’t mean he had to put up with her looking at him like she was doing now. He was going to solve this case by himself, just like he’d said. “Ha, yourself. You haven’t done anything this afternoon except make jam.”

  A sneaky smile from Claire had his enthusiasm sinking. “As I already said, cooking is how I think, and to prove to you the benefits of manual labor in stimulating cognitive function, I’ll tell you another clue.”

  Tad lowered his head and sighed inwardly. Here it was, yet another one of her unromantic theories.

  “Della is not going to marry Zaen. She’s promised to somebody else.” Claire raised her eyebrows at him in a look of triumph. “That’s what my research has uncovered.”

  Tad shook his head slowly, emphatically. “You’re making that up.”

  “I heard it straight from her father. I was listening to Della’s parents’ conversations while I worked.” She pivoted her torso and pointed at the globe behind her. “Though I was stumped for a while about the meaning of a particular discussion I heard, one thing was very clear. Della’s fortune and her hand are already promised to a very powerful person…obviously not Zaen. It’s quite a settled matter.”

  “That’s impossible. Who is this supposed other suitor?”

  “I didn’t catch his name. Her parents referred to this mysterious person simply as him.”

  “Sure. In any case, assuming what you said is true, which of course it isn’t, that would be the opposite of helpful, and you shouldn’t look so pleased about it. To solve the case we have to fix the happily ever after, remember?”

  No answer from Miss Know-It-All. She tapped her foot rapidly now, arms crossed, lips pressed together in a sulk.

  Tad huffed at the bookcase next to him. “So now we’re right back where we started.”

  The foot tapping suddenly stopped. “Not quite.” With these words Claire magicked herself away.

  Tad rallied his fighting spirit and whirled into action behind her. His scientific assistant was probably fo
llowing up on her clue about the mystery suitor she claimed Della’s parents had spoken of, but Tad had suspected from the first that one of Della’s friends was responsible for the lady’s indifference toward her true love. This in mind, he resolved on getting to the bottom of the three companions’ true natures by any means necessary.

  To uncover such things as lady secrets, a person had provoke the beast to emerge. That meant he had to get himself into each woman’s presence and behave in some very ill-mannered ways. He consulted the globe for a few minutes to determine where Della’s friends were and what they were up to. Then it was time to get his hands dirty. He decided to start with Cordelia since she was the most likely suspect as the only one of Della’s friends who definitely opposed a match to Zaen. This, plus she had been eyeballing Della’s jewelry so she could easily be involved in a plot to dispossess her of it.

  Tad found Cordelia in the streets of Shub-Haramb distributing bread to orphaned children. He charged onto the scene and tried to provoke her into revealing her wicked nature by masquerading as a beggar himself and then trying to steal a piece of bread. She walloped him over the head with her basket. And then she scolded him to wait his turn but gave him a piece of bread, anyway. Someone so ladylike could hardly remain a chief suspect, so he mentally crossed her off his list and moved on to Emily.

  This lady had one of those personalities that was so plain that it seemed merely to blend in with its surroundings with no particular sentiment of its own. Drastic measures would be needed to see beyond the veil of polite agreement with everything and everyone. Tad made sure she walked into her bedchamber just in time to catch him trying to steal the valuables from her vanity. At the sight of him standing there clutching her undergarments, hastily pulled from what he had thought was a drawer full of jewelry, Emily fainted dead away and her maid had to administer smelling salts repeatedly to revive her. Tad felt kind of bad about that but true love was at stake and a few sacrificial victims might be necessary. Yet any lady with such a delicate constitution could not possibly be involved in a wicked scheme, so she also was cleared of wrongdoing.

  And that left only Prudence. Of course, the seemingly perfect friend, the one dripping with sweetness, had to be blamed for Della’s woes. As Nan had remarked to him on his second case, sugar attracted a lot of pests, and in this case, it might also be masking a very clever fiend. This last stretch of his imagination was set down as Prudence walked into the garden on the side of her house and found Tad barring her path with as ferocious and air as he could muster.

  The lady blinked innocently at him. “Are you my fairy godfather, then?” she asked with perfect serenity.

  Tad was at first too dumbstruck by the lady’s calmness to reply, but at last recollected his mission. “I am an avenging agent here to right a terrible wrong…and for that I require a full confession.” He eyed her with what he hoped was an all-knowing expression. “What terribly wicked thing have you done lately? Admit it now and I may be able to plead your case before my patron.”

  Prudence’s face twisted into a heap of despair. She burst into tears and buried her face in her hands. “It’s true, I stole it,” she sobbed out.

  Tad sucked in a slow, deep breath. This was easier than he thought.

  The lady lifted her face from her hands. Tad saw true sorrow in those flooded eyes. “But it was so long until dinnertime and I was sooooo hungry…” She convulsed in sobs once more.

  Tad’s feeling of triumph fizzled. “Huh?”

  “The cookies. I stole them while Cook wasn’t looking. And Cook blamed it all on the dog and refused to give him any scraps.” The wails Prudence admitted at this full confession stung Tad’s ears.

  “Yes, very well. You are sorry, then, and now you are pardoned. Next time ask instead of stealing.” With these words Tad magicked himself back to the library with no new information, thoroughly worn out, and ready for bed. But he would get one more clue today if it killed him.

  It suddenly dawned on him that he had gotten sidetracked in the middle of an earlier clue and forgotten about learning where Zaen and Della’s father had gone. He sat down on Claire’s stool in front of the globe and commanded the contraption to show him where Zaen and Della’s father had disappeared to just after he had magicked himself inside the storage room.

  The image of the two men appeared in the globe. Zaen closed the storage room door behind him while Della’s father pulled something from his pocket and lit two the two small candles on the wall. He returned the strange contraption to his pocket, snatched up one of the burning candles and marched toward the pile of straw. “Open sesame,” he said.

  The rug lifted itself up to reveal a staircase, which both men descended. As soon as their heads had bobbed out of view the rug settled back onto the floor. The chamber they entered glowed as if the walls themselves were made of gold, though this effect must have been only the flicker of the candle in Della’s Father’s hand against the heaps of treasure.

  Zaen turned a quizzical eye around the space. “The thief didn’t take very much.”

  “Couldn’t carry it all, I suppose,” Della’s father replied, “and that means he’ll probably be back. He made off with a fortune in fairy gold before I noticed the lamp was missing.” He pointed to a pile of what looked to be straw made out of gold. “That’s the fairy gold, worthless stuff, though you can’t tell the difference between that and real gold until you take it quite a ways out of the city…apparently, that’s something to do with the jinn’s territory.” He redirected his finger to a pile of coins and gems. “Those are real but only a few handfuls are missing.”

  “If it was Ali Baba he’ll be back for sure,” Zaen said, “and with the rest of his thieves to clean you out. What about changing the password?”

  Della’s father shook his head. “The carpet came from the place where I found the lamp all those years ago. It doesn’t obey any other commands.” He rubbed his head. “If only I had never set eyes on any of their kind.”

  Zaen frowned. “There are more of them?”

  “Two that I saw, arguing over whether or not thirty years was long enough…no idea what that meant, but I knew magical creatures when I saw them. I followed them until they stopped at the cave, and I heard the words they said to open it. When they left, I opened the cave myself and found the lamp, which was what I had been searching for…a way to make wishes come true, or at least that was the local story. Nobody ever said what it would cost.” Della’s father swept his hand at the fortune around him. “Anyway, take whatever you need.”

  Zaen scooped a small handful of gold coins into his pocket and the two men went back up the staircase and emerged next to the side of the house once more. They strode silently across the lawn to where Della’s mother was sitting next to a bed of flowers looking very unhappy.

  The lady smiled as the two men approached. “What’s this?” she asked her husband.

  Della’s father clapped a hand on Zaen’s shoulder. “This young man here is my new treasurer. Such a quick mind for numbers. After all these years I saw he’s much too valuable to continue as just a groom…a real diamond in the rough.”

  Zaen smiled weakly.

  “But I need a few words with my wife,” he told Zaen.

  Zaen nodded and walked off.

  “I’ve known for over a week that the two of you were up to something,” the lady said with a nod at Zaen’s retreating form. “But why keep your dealings with him a secret from me? Did you think I would disapprove of him because he is from humble origins? I thought you knew me better than that, my darling.”

  “Well…” The man jabbed at the ground with the toe of his boot. “I knew you’d not condemn him over his lack of wealth…after all, you married me. But I saw that he’s madly in love with our daughter, and that meant he was only one crazy enough to help with our special problem. Only I didn’t think you’d approve of my using the boy.”

  Della’s mother put her hand on her husband’s arm. “You’re sure, then? He’s
really back?”

  The man sat down beside her and nodded without meeting her eye. “Afraid so.” Suddenly, he snatched her hand and brought it to his lips. “I’m sorry, my love. I was desperate, you know. Not for the riches or the status, but…” At last he lifted his eyes to meet hers. “…for you.”

  “I would have accepted you without all that,” she whispered.

  “If only I had known.”

  “But how did he escape?”

  “I imagine whoever stole the lamp is likely the one who let him out, probably by accident. It’s such a ratty old thing, I never thought anybody would want it, and of course I thought it was safe with the rug guarding it and the rest of our fortune. Imagine my horror when I found the thing missing. I should have told you right away but…I was afraid. It was only when my worst fears were confirmed, when the jinn appeared to me and declared he will soon have Della that I...that’s when I hired Zaen since he’s so well acquainted with the goings on in the street. If anyone can find the lamp, it’s him. And he doesn’t care at all for our treasure, save Della, so I trust him. I offered him a fortune but he has only ever accepted a few pieces to pay his street informants.”

  “But what if he doesn’t find the jinn? And what if we can’t get him back into the lamp? Oh, what do we do now?” Panic flooded her eyes. “Only one more day and…”

  Her husband nodded with a solemn set of his jaw. He patted her hand. “I don’t know. I just hope true love can find a way.”

  “And if not?”

  “Then we don’t have any choice. The jinn’s hold over her is already starting to show. Soon she’ll not remember who she is at all. He’s got my mother’s necklace and my father’s ring as proof of his claim, and that means once she turns twenty-one Della will be fully his. And when he claims her, everything she is to inherit will pass to him. He informed me of this in a wild tantrum just after I had made my third wish to put him back into the lamp. I know I’ve told you all this before but I just can’t help marveling at my own stupidity, my impatience to get what I wanted. I just didn’t think.” He tilted his head in contemplation. “Strange little imp. I tried reasoning with him about his demand for my firstborn child but he wouldn’t hear of another bargain. And I wonder what he could want with the treasure my first wish enabled me to acquire when he can make his own…”