by J. R. Rain
“Where are we going?” Jewel called out to me.
“There’s another way,” I said, “one that will lead us to Samarkand.”
Jabeer actually turned his head and looked back at me, fear in his dark eyes. “No,” he whispered.
He, of course, would have known of the road, which, for all intents and purposes, wasn’t much of a road at all. It was an ancient trail that led through the heart of what some claim were enchanted mountains. Enchanted, or cursed, depending on who you spoke with. Still, most people were in agreement of one thing: Only the most foolish ventured upon it. And those who did were seldom seen alive again. That is, of course, if you believed in such fantastical tales.
I didn’t. Besides, I had a few tricks up my own sleeve.
I patted Jabeer lightly on his stooped shoulder. “Don’t look so nervous, old man.”
“Please, this isn’t wise.”
“I would have to agree, master,” said Faddy in my ear.
“Is there another way?” I sub-vocalized.
The djinn paused before answering. “As of now, no.”
“Rest now, my friend. I may need you later.”
“Of that, I have no doubt, master.”
“And quit calling me master.”
“Yes, master.”
At the bottom of the slope, I turned my mount to the east, toward a great chain of shimmering mountains, and as as we cut across the sun-baked earth, two vultures slowly circled above.
I did my best to ignore them.
Chapter Four
The pace was slow, because the horses were overloaded and not trained for riding; they were carriage haulers. I knew that our chances of reaching the mountains before the raiders caught up to us were next to nil.
Jewel knew it too. “Those ruffians won’t be distracted long. Then they’ll orient on our trail and catch us within the hour.”
“They will,” I agreed grimly.
“You have planned for this contingency?”
“Naturally,” I agreed, cudgeling my balky mind for some viable plan. I knew the raiders would not be fooled by spot diversions again.
“Why is Jabeer so alarmed?”
“Must be delirium from the fever of his wounds.”
Jabeer, not completely out of it, made a weak chuckle. He knew he would soon be dead regardless, so he could be halfway objective. He was concerned about the risk to Jewel, not himself.
“It’s a good thing I have confidence in you, Niddala,” she said ironically.
I touched my ring. Faddy responded immediately, as was his wont. “Master.”
“Is there any cover we can reach within the hour?”
“Just a dried up oasis. No food or water there, just rocks and bones. Some think it’s haunted.”
“Is it?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Where?”
“East south east from here.”
“Thanks, Faddy. Begone.”
“Master, those haunts are weak. They won’t stop the raiders.”
“Are you getting deaf in your senility? I said Begone.”
“...and obey, master,” he said disapprovingly, and was gone.
“You have a djinn!” Jabeer said.
“Just a no-account ifrit, bottom tier. He can’t do much except spy and some illusion. But I like him.”
“He can’t stop the raiders.”
“He can’t stop the raiders,” I agreed. “But I have tricks of my own. Now stop wasting your energy talking to me.”
“I’m done for anyway.”
“Probably,” I agreed. “But if we make the mountains, there may be healing elixir.”
“Along with dragons, curses, and worse.”
I shrugged. “One has to take the ill with the good.”
“You’re an utter fool,” he said admiringly. “No wonder Jewel likes you.”
“She’d as soon gut me as kiss me.”
“True. But most men in her mind rate only the gutting. Still, don’t push your luck.”
“I’m hired help. I have no ideas about her.”
“And you’re a liar too. If you’re a man, you have ideas about her.”
“Oh? You too?”
“I served as her hired driver before her ass of a husband dumped her and framed her. She never noticed me, but I used to dream what it would be like with her in bed before she threatened to gut me. Might have been worth it.”
“Might be,” I agreed.
He sank into troubled slumber. It had been an interesting dialogue.
We reached the oasis. It was exactly as Faddy had described. Dead trees, deserted stone huts, a low spot where there had once been a spring, and bones.
“Rest yourself,” I told Jewel. “We’re bound to have company soon.” I dismounted and helped Jabeer half-fall off. I got him settled in the shade of a tumbled wall.
“I’ll tend to Jabeer,” she said.
“Be kind to him. He’s not long for the mortal realm.”
“I know.” She took the man’s hand and kissed it. “You have been a good and faithful servant,” she told him.
Jabeer was dying, but he seemed to glow. I liked her better for her consideration. She wasn’t all hell cat.
“Cover him and yourself,” I told her. “Stay out of sight. I will need to be unfettered.”
She glanced at me and nodded. She unrolled Jabeer’s blanket and spread it over him.
“No,” he protested weakly.
“Don’t argue with me or I’ll kiss more than your hand.”
“You don’t understand. That carpet—”
She knelt down and kissed his sallow cheek. He shut up. He might be heading for hell, but he was halfway to heaven at the moment. She was giving him a proper send-off.
I moved to another section and gathered a pile of stones, sticks, and bones. My pride was the thighbone of a camel, a really solid instrument. I know our chances were small, but if things worked out even halfway decently, I would get us through this crisis.
The horsemen did not keep us waiting long. “Master, they come,” Faddy whispered.
“Stay out of this,” I said. “They aren’t going to fall for any of your illusions this time. It’s purely up to me. If I get taken out, do what you can for Jewel and Jabeer.”
“Hear and obey,” he agreed sadly.
The raiders spotted me, which wasn’t surprising because I was standing up and waving to them. But they were professionally cautious, having been fooled before. My beckoning figure could be an illusion to cover our retreat. They spread out so as to check other parts of the oasis simultaneously, and one hung back so as to spot anyone who tried to sneak out. They knew what they were doing.
But they hadn’t come up against Aladdin before. They had a lesson coming.
My horseman charged in, scimitar lifted. I stood my ground. When he got within range, I hurled my first rock. It missed to the right. By Allah the Magnificent! I was out of practice. I cast the second stone. It missed to the left. Seeing that, the man let out a guffaw.
My third missile caught him on the chest. It surely stung, but did no real damage. Curse again! I had aimed for the neck, where it would crush his larynx and stop his breathing.
Now assured that I was little if any threat to him, he ran his horse directly at me, trying to knock me down. But I had had experience with horses. I stepped aside at the last instant, leaped up, and smacked him across his ugly face with the big solid leg bone. He toppled backward off his mount and landed hard on his scrawny little rear.
I was on him before he could get to his feet, bashing him again with the bone. I felt his skull crack as I laid into it. He was out before he even emitted a productive curse.
I picked up the fallen scimitar and hefted it. It was a good weapon, well balanced, with a sharp edge. Good enough.
“You did it!” Jewel called, evidently relieved.
“Stay clear, woman. It’s not yet over.”
Now two more raiders headed for me, having seen the fate
of their companion. They aligned their steeds and came at me as a pair, spaced just far enough apart so that I could not swing my weapon at both together. I might get one, but the other would get me. Evidently they had had experience with armed pedestrians. They were not common ruffians, but trained warriors. But had they been trained enough?
Time for the second lesson. I showed no fear and made no effort to flee. I stood unmoving, holding my scimitar before me as if to ward them off. That stance should have suggested caution. Like fools, they did not heed it.
The two horses bore down on me like juggernauts, ready to knock me down and trample me without breaking stride. Just as they seemed about to strike me, I made a kind of hissing whistling sound.
Both horses reared back, throwing off their riders and galloping away, terrified.
I went for the nearer man, but he was already on his feet with his scimitar raised, and the other was close behind. Smite me for an infidel! I had hoped to see at least one incapacitated. Only a fool would take on two together.
“I have the second,” Jewel called, sweeping in to join the fray.
I opened my mouth, but it was too late to warn her back. She wanted to help me fight? Utter folly! The second man would not kill her outright; he would merely knock her out, bind her, and make his best effort to rape her to death. I had sought to spare her that.
But at the moment I had to focus on my own man. Our scimitars crossed, and I knew immediately that he was no amateur. He attacked me with precision, not leaving himself open to a countersweep.
But I had been trained by the best. I played dumb, backing off, barely fending off his cuts, seeming to tire. Then, just as he thought to finish me off, he got careless. There was my opening.
In a moment his head was rolling on the ground, his body still standing.
I turned immediately to tackle the second. But he was already down in a pool of blood. Jewel was putting her robe back on; I caught only a glimpse of phenomenal breasts. I realized that she had flung her robe off, bracing the man naked, stepping into him with seeming eagerness, and gutted him before he even knew she carried a knife. She had a body to die for, literally.
“Good job,” I told her gruffly.
“Thank you. You too. I did not know you were a swordsman.”
“You didn’t ask.”
“What made those horses spook?”
“Little trick I developed long ago. I emulated the whistle of an annoyed basilisk. Few men recognize it, as they are normally dead seconds after they hear it, but horses know it. They knew they would die if they stepped on it. They acted instinctively.”
She smiled. “I could get to like you, if I tried.”
“Same here. It’s a gut thing. But there’s one to go.”
But there wasn’t. The fourth rider, seeing the fate of the others, was racing away.
“Son of a leprous cur!” I swore. “He’ll carry the word back, and twice as many will be on our tail in hours.”
“So we had better get moving,” Jewel said. “Fortunately we now have three fine fresh horses, and the supplies they carry, like food and water.”
“Good point,” I agreed. “Let’s see to Jabeer.”
But Jabeer was now beyond hope of recovery. “You tried to warn me,” he gasped. “To save me. I want you to have my carpet.”
“Oh, I wouldn’t take your rug,” I protested.
“Take it! Use it! You must! It’s—” But he was unable to finish. He choked, shuddered, and died.
“We’ll have to bury him,” Jewel said sadly.
“Yes. What was he trying to say about his carpet? It looks nice enough, but surely he would prefer to have it with him in the afterlife. We should bury it with him.”
“I’m not sure of that,” she said. “There was something he said once. I thought he was joking, but maybe he wasn’t.”
“What did he say?”
“That it’s magic.”
“She’s right, Master,” Faddy murmured in my ear. “It is a flying carpet. I recognize the weave. This is a rare gift indeed.”
I stared at it. Could this be true?
Chapter Five
We buried Jabeer in a shallow grave, using the flat blades of the curved scimitars as shovels. Luckily, the sand was loose, which made burying easy. Unfortunately, it would also make excavating his body that much easier for the desert critters.
Hopefully, the three dead soldiers would keep such critters satiated, and leave Jabeer alone, although I did not hold out much hope for that.
Jewel wept for her old friend, but as soon as we were packed and mounted on the soldiers’ fine war horses, her cheeks were dry and her jaw was set determinedly.
The oasis wouldn’t be safe, not now. In fact, not much in this area would be safe. There were reports of fierce nomadic tribes that made sport of wayward travelers; that is, using their heads in wretched games. Or so people claimed. There were also reports that hidden within these foothills was a secret gateway to the land of djinn. A portal, as some called it, that led to a wondrous, fantastical, verdant land with all sorts of magical creatures. I had my doubts, although Faddy seemed to believe this account, too. As far as I knew, the ifrit had never seen such a land, having little memory of his existence prior to being bound to his ring since its creation eons ago. The very ring that now rested upon my right index finger. Nomadic warriors or not, magical lands or not, we needed to get away from the oasis and take our chances in the hills.
And so, with the sun setting beyond the western landscape, we followed a rocky path that sometimes appeared through the sandy dunes, a path that led toward the shimmering, distant foothills.
Once, in the far distance behind us, I saw a troop of soldiers appear. I immediately led the way around a rare rocky outcropping, but was pleased to see the soldiers take a different path, one that led back toward the outpost from which we had come.
I summoned Faddy immediately, suspecting the ifrit had had something to do with this. I expressed my suspicions, and the lesser djinn confirmed them, unable to lie to me.
“I erased your tracks, master, and, instead created a false trail, one that leads back to Al Bura.”
“I thought I told you to leave well enough alone,” I whispered to him.
“If you would like, I could remove the false trail and lead the soldiers back here.”
I sighed. I had made it a point long ago to use the djinn as little as possible. Often, not all went as planned, and sometimes the ifrit fouled up more than he helped. Besides, it was not good for a man to rely so heavily on such a creature. It made a man less sharp, less resourceful, and less a man.
“No, you did good, Faddy. Thank you.”
Faddy did not often physically appear, but when he did it was usually as a young man. He would not appear in this situation, as his existence would be difficult to explain to Jewel, and I rarely spoke of my djinn to anyone. After all, men would kill for such a helpful being. Or, as some would call him, a slave. I did not treat Faddy as a slave. All beings, magical or not, deserved fair treatment. I did not know what powerful magics kept him bound to the ring, but that did not mean I had to make his existence a miserable one. Faddy once confided to me that some of his masters had not been so considerate, and that he had done things he wished to forget.
“Since I have you here, Faddy,” I said, “could you confirm that we are on the right course to find the back road.”
“Your wish is my command.”
“Oh, please.”
“I shall return shortly, master.”
I gritted my teeth at being called master, but let it slide. I was not a master. I was just a man with a magic ring.
A man, of course, who had once been king.
I shook my head and let the thought go. The thought was a painful one, and it brought up emotions in me that I wanted to forget.
Behind me trailed three of the horses. They would need water as well. It would be best to leave behind such horses, true, but even I could not treat a creat
ure so cruelly. I would not let a living creature die of thirst in such a wasteland, and the oasis we had just left would not support such creatures for very long. For better or for worse, they would trek with us until we found a suitable place to leave them behind.
Remarkably, Jewel took the lead, looking back often and urging me on. If the woman lacked anything, it was patience. I complied, not wishing to face her fury, snapping the reins of my fine mount, and pulling along the trailing pack horses.
Faddy returned shortly, appearing invisibly by my side. “Stay upon this rocky trail, and you will soon come upon a wider road, one that will lead through the mountains.”
“And eventually to Samarkand?”
“Yes, master.”
Samarkand had a reputation, one that I had not heeded, and for that I have suffered ever since. For it was there that my wife and child were killed. It was there that my life came crumbling down around me. It was there that everything changed, and not for the better.
It was there, after all, that I abandoned my kingdom, and my people.
We continued on, and as the sun dipped below the approaching foothills, I convinced Jewel that we must make camp, or risk breaking a horse’s ankle. The horse’s ankle did not seem to concern her much, until I reminded her that if we traveled on foot we would, more than likely, never make it out of the desert alive.
She didn’t like it, but she acquiesced.
We made camp under a sheltering rock overhang, at the base of the first of a series of foothills that would lead higher and higher until at last we were traveling through mountainous crags. For now, we found some comfort and protection from the cold wind that whipped to life with the setting of the sun.
I provided the horses with some of our valuable water, knowing full well that our supply of it would not last for long. I resisted the urge to ask Faddy to scout ahead. I would soon find out for myself what lay beyond.
As a moderate wind, alternately hot and cold, wound its way over the empty hillside, I made a small fire beneath the overhang, certain it would be shielded from curious eyes, although it was hard to imagine anyone else out here. At least, anyone sane.