by J. R. Rain
“No, take it with you,” Jewel murmured.
She had caught on? She was almost too smart. I opened the chest, removed the lamp, fitted it in a pocket, and closed the chest again.
Bakr assured me that he would fetch our mounts and take care of them, as he could always use them to barter with future travelers. And with the sun high above and our bellies full, Jewel and I set out along a narrow rock path which led from his hut. I carried over my shoulder a satchel full of provisions, rolled up the magic carpet, and strapped it down to our bag. A thrill of excitement coursed through me. Perhaps I should have been wary. Perhaps I should have been overly cautious. But I was never one to run from danger, and I was never one to leave a woman without hope. Especially a beautiful woman who was already stirring curious emotions inside me. Emotions that I had thought were long dead.
Jewel and I soon crossed a wide section of desert, following a curiously raised rock trail that led directly to the arching bridge. At the foot bridge, I was suddenly a mixture of apprehension and excitement. A hot wind swept up from the chasm, thundering over us, hot enough to seemingly sear my eyebrows.
Next to me, Jewel peered over the edge of the cliff. Her hair whipped about her face crazily, and if she was afraid, she didn’t show it. I joined her at the edge and looked as well. More mist, roiling and churning far below. It would be a long, long drop. To where, I had no clue. Perhaps the djinn underworld, if there was such a place.
The world is full of magic, if one chooses to look. In my case, magic always seemed to find me.
I stepped back, suddenly dizzy. I rubbed my ring. “Will you guide us, Faddy, once we are in Djinnland?”
His voice came to me instantly, although it was nearly drowned out by the hot wind roaring up from below. “I should warn you, master, that I am not bound to you in this magical land.”
“Why is that?”
“This is my natural home, master. The magic is reversed.”
“So we could be bound to a powerful sorcerer, then.”
“Yes, Bakr spoke the truth.”
“Could we be bound to you?”
“I am not a powerful enough sorcerer, master.”
“Will you help us once we are there?”
“Will you someday free me?”
“I have always planned to someday free you.”
“Then I will see what I can do for you, master.”
“And, for the love of Allah, please stop calling me master.”
“In Djinnland, you will not be my master, master.”
I groaned.
“Are you speaking to your ifrit?” asked Jewel, joining me a few feet from the cliff’s edge. Her long, black hair had been blown in every which way. She looked as if she had spent a wild night making love. A pleasant if not disheartening thought. After all, it could never be me making love.
“Yes,” I said to her. “I’m seeking some last-minute guidance.” To Faddy, I asked, “How do we make ourselves ‘less dense’?”
“It is a state of mind, master. It is a matter of will power. Hold tight to an image of yourself floating, even if you find yourself sinking. Hold fast and do not let it go.”
“Sounds easy enough.”
“Unless you are distracted.”
“Then let’s pray for minor distractions.”
I relayed this information to Jewel and she merely nodded, as if this was something she already suspected she must do in Djinnland. To Faddy, I probed further, “How big is this land?”
“Massive. I have never seen the end of it.”
“And how do we find our trapped djinn?”
“Of this, I do not know. But perhaps I know someone who could help. An elder djinn.”
“Will you lead us to him?”
There was a slight pause. “Yes, master.”
“Thank you, Faddy. Be gone.”
“Are we ready?” asked Jewel.
“I think so.”
We stepped up onto the stone bridge, and almost immediately I knew something was different. The magical connection with Faddy was broken.
“El Fadl?” I called, but there was no response. My ifrit, for now, was free.
“He is gone?” asked Jewel, her sharp mind grasping the situation immediately.
I nodded, feeling oddly alone and vulnerable. I had forgotten just how much I had come to rely on my simple ifrit.
We continued onto the arching bridge, which angled up high and was far narrower than I had hoped. A hand rail would have been nice, too, but we had no such luck. I didn’t have a fear of heights, but walking over something like this wasn’t easy. And the bedeviled wind, which thundered over us like banshees escaping from the netherworld below, didn’t make things any easier.
But we plowed along, with myself in the lead. Despite her apparent fearlessness, Jewel reached forward and took my hand. I gave it to her willingly, pleased to be wanted in such an intimate way, and led the way up the curving strip of bridge. When we reached the apex of the stone structure, something strange began to happen.
Strange, but not unexpected, since we had been warned.
Each step grew more and more difficult. Our bodies were growing denser and it was a strange feeling, indeed. Jewel gripped my hand even tighter, and I saw her struggling as well. I reassured her as best as I could, but, for the most part, I shared her unease.
As we continued down the bridge, we came to a stretch that was riddled with holes wide enough for a man to fall through. The bridge, apparently, was falling apart. I halted and tested the surrounding stones. They seemed to hold, and just as I was about to navigate around the holes, Jewel yanked hard on my hand.
“We are growing heavier and heavier, as Bakr warned. Perhaps other adventurers did not receive such a warning.”
I looked again at the gaping voids in the bridge. “Or perhaps they didn’t heed his warnings.” I nearly attempted to summon Faddy but stopped myself. “I think, perhaps, we better think lighter thoughts.”
“But how? I do not feel so light now.”
I knew what she meant. With my legs trembling from the weight of my upper body, thinking light thoughts seemed a near impossibility. As I thought about how to approach the problem, I found myself gazing ahead at the swirling mist that awaited us in Djinnland. The wispy mist. Roiling. Churning. So light.
“Something’s happening,” said Jewel behind me.
I turned and found her staring at me open-mouthed. “What?”
She pointed. “You’re doing it, but how?”
“Doing what?”
“I can see through you, Niddala. But how? I feel as heavy as a birthing elephant.”
I held up my arms in wonder, staring at them. Indeed, I could see through them. Also, the sense of heaviness had abated, but now it was returning, and I soon felt the crushing weight.
The mist! I quickly told her about it, instructing her to hold the swirling fog front and center in her thoughts. She did so, as did I, and soon we could both see through the other. I found myself wishing I could see through her clothing, as well, but no such luck.
Holding her hand, I led the way safely down over the bridge, bypassing the gaping holes, and to the waiting mist below.
Djinnland.
Chapter Eight
Ahead of us the raised rock trail continued, curving into the mist. Where did it lead?
I rubbed my ring, but there was no response. That made me uncomfortable, though I knew Faddy did not have to respond, because he had said he would guide us. Was he reneging? I did not think so. Then why was he not here?
Jewel tested the path with her foot. “Seems solid,” she said. “But does it go where we need to go?”
“I don’t trust it,” I said. “It must go where the jinn want it to. That could be a trap for unwary visitors.”
“They can’t get many visitors. More likely they use it themselves. Ask your ifrit; he surely knows.”
“He’s not responding.”
“Then how do we know where we need to be?”
“It’s a problem,” I agreed.
“I have an ugly thought.”
“Faddy wouldn’t betray us. I’ve known him for years and he’s a good person, for an ifrit.”
“Not about Fatty.” She paused, but I did not correct her, knowing she was teasing me. “About whoever has captured your other ifrit.”
“I call him Lamprey. That’s not his name, but it serves.”
“Lamprey,” she agreed. “Whoever has him may actually be after you. This is his way of making you come to him.”
I whistled. “Could be! Bait for the trap. But why would a powerful jinn want me?”
“I don’t know, but he must have a reason.”
“None that I can fathom. It seems like way more effort than it’s worth.”
“Think of my ex husband.”
I did, getting her point. Jewel might be nothing in herself, but she had motive to rescue their son, and that made her a threat to the man’s demonic designs. So he watched her, and acted the moment she did. After the boy had been sacrificed Jewel could probably be ignored, but right now he was not stinting in his effort to keep her away.
Similarly, I might be a threat to the djinn leader, so he was acting to take me out. There would be no evidence if it happened in Djinnland. What threat was I to him? Well, I had been king, and might one day be again. Kings had power, as I well knew, and I did know how to use it, and would if I had reason. Maybe he needed to be certain I never recovered that power.
“Then I think we had better stay out of sight,” I said. “We may be up against things we have no inkling of.”
“Exactly.”
“It occurs to me that this could be why Faddy is not answering. He knows they are watching him, and want him to lead them to us. So he is staying away, lest he betray me simply by responding.”
“Couldn’t they find us as simply by watching the bridge?”
“You’d think so. Maybe there’s magic on it that conceals who crosses.”
“That mist.”
“That mist,” I agreed. “But we’ll be clear enough the moment we leave it.”
“So what do we do?”
I pondered and came up with a devious plan. “Time is static here. That is, no matter how long our mission takes, no time will pass for us in the mortal realm. So we don’t have to hurry. We can take a year if we need to.”
“A year!”
“Better to take that time, than walk into a trap.”
She nodded. “We do have time.”
“We can take the most devious unlikely route, where they won’t have spies out, then strike suddenly when we spy our objective.”
“Devious route to where?”
“We’ll just have to find Lamprey ourselves. We’ll look for the most impressive djinn estate and see if he’s there. Given sufficient time, we can do it.”
She eyed me slantwise. “Are you hoping to travel alone with me indefinitely?”
“That might be nice, but no. I want to rescue Lamprey, return to our own realm, rescue your son, then discover how well you like me when you’re grateful.”
She laughed. “You would like me very well. But first you have to accomplish those other things.”
“I will do my best.” Then I remembered something. “You made me bring the lamp with me. Why?”
“Lamprey must normally live inside the lamp, to be immediately at hand when you summon him.”
“True,” I agreed. I had not thought of that before. “He is bound magically to the lamp, unless I send him off.”
“And you sent him off?”
I thought of my dead wife and child. After their deaths years ago, I had abandoned everything. Yes, I had sent my genie off. I wanted solitude and peace, and I would have sent Faddy off, too, if I hadn’t forgotten about the ring. It had been months later into my self-exile that I had come upon the ring among my limited belongings. Turns out, Faddy makes for a halfway decent companion.
Jewel seemed about to ask why I had sent the genie off, but thought better of it. Perhaps she would ask at another time. Instead, she said, “So the lamp must be a safe place for him.”
“It must be,” I agreed. What was she getting at?
“He must be able to zero in on it at all times, so he doesn’t get lost when performing some foolish distant task you set him to.”
“Yes.” Again I had not thought of that.
“So maybe it also orients on him. Maybe you can use it to get a line on him.”
My stupid jaw dropped. “Maybe so,” I agreed.
I brought out the lamp. It was a dull brass, really rather ordinary. I touched its side.
The side was warm. Startled, I touched the other side. It was cool. “I’ll be an infidel’s grandson!” I swore. “It’s signaling his direction!”
“I thought it might. Now how are we going to get to him without being discovered? I don’t want to be caught and bound to a horny jinn stud forever.”
It was time for me to strategize. “First, concealment,” I said. “Are you claustrophobic?”
“What does that have to do with this?”
“Trust me.”
“No, I’m not claustrophobic.”
“Good. Because it will be close and dark where we’re going.”
“Where is that?”
“Underground.”
“I don’t understand.”
I was pleased to be leading her mind, instead of having her lead mine. “First, we revert to full solidity. That means we can’t be harmed by their weapons, which is good. It also means we have to walk on bedrock, because nothing else will sustain us.”
“And your point is?”
“Bedrock generally runs some distance below ordinary ground. You can’t see through ground. It’s excellent concealment.”
“How will we breathe?”
Good question. Maybe too good. “I’m betting that in our solid state, ordinary ground will be almost as tenuous as air, and there is air between the clods. I’m betting we can breathe. If not, I’ll think of something else.”
“How will we find any castles when we’re below ground?”
“Castles generally sit on bedrock.”
“If we locate Lamprey, how will we get him out of there?”
“We’ll bash out a wall and break his manacles and turn him loose. We don’t need to take him anywhere, just free him; I can summon him later with the lamp.”
She gazed at me with something that on a better day might almost be mistaken for approval. “You have a mind like a fox.”
“Thank you.” I really did appreciate her respect.
“But wouldn’t it be easier and safer simply to put him in the lamp? It’s as solid as we are, so should be protection against their efforts to recover him, as long as we protect it.”
Now I stared at her. “And you have the mind of a vixen.”
“Thank you.” Then we both smiled. I liked that.
We solidified, which was our natural state here, and waded off the raised path and into the slop that was the ground. Jewel did not seem to feel the dark closure, but I discovered it did bother me. Then my eyes adjusted, and I found there was very dim light that enabled me to see a short distance around me. It was like peering through extremely heavy fog. Mainly I saw the roots of trees reaching down from above, and the rough contours of the bedrock below, with some suspended blobs that were dislodged chunks of bedrock.
And I felt the small warmth of the side of the lamp. I headed that way, stepping carefully because I did not know how treacherous this nether terrain could be. Suppose there were a hole in the bedrock? How deep would it go? How bad could a long fall hurt?
Then the bedrock angled up. That was a relief. When it was near the surface, I signaled caution to Jewel, who was following close behind, and then poked my head carefully up through the surface tension of the ground.
I was amazed. We appeared to be in a rise in a field near a farmstead. What looked like herbivorous dragons were grazing on bright b
lue grass. The fences were sparkling silver. The house was a lovely tower with multicolored minarets.
“What a beautiful picture,” Jewel murmured beside me. Only her head was visible, like mine, above the blue turf. “It must be mostly illusion.”
“Illusion?” I asked blankly.
“It’s probably an ordinary ratty farm, enhanced to make it look splendid. That’s what I would do if I had illusion to spare.”
“Every peon becomes a prince,” I agreed, seeing it in more than one sense.
“What’s that?” Her hand poked out of the ground and pointed to a marked stone.
I looked.
On the surface of the stone was drawn a crude circle containing a crude tower. A line slanted through it. “That’s a no-signal,” I said. “Meaning stay away from there.”
“Why?”
I suffered a flash of brilliance. “Because that’s not where we’re going. Lamprey is not there. We must look elsewhere.”
“How can you tell it means that?”
“Because it has Faddy’s signature.” I pointed to the crude little fat man drawn below the circle. “He is on duty, informing us without ever leading the enemy to us. He knew we’d pass this way, so he left a message. When we find a signal that tells us to go there, we’ll know we’ve found it.”
“I am getting to like Faddy,” she said, this time pronouncing it correctly.
Chapter Nine
We had been traveling along the bedrock for some time, slogging through ethereal dirt and tree roots and even glowing subterranean worms that shivered when we passed through them. I shivered, too, fighting my revulsion.
It was hard to believe that just yesterday I had been lounging lazily in my tent, idly wondering if I would ever find work again. Well, I surely found work. And what strange work it was.
We continued for some time. Since it was easy to get lost down here, I kept the lamp in hand, touching it often, adjusting our direction based on the heat signature. Once, we came upon what appeared to be a deep ravine where the bedrock dropped steeply away. Standing on the edge of the bedrock cliff, we debated what to do. We could parallel the edge of the cliff, and search for a section that would ford the bedrock ravine. Or, as Jewel suggested, we could lighten our bodies enough so as not to drop down into the ravine, but not so much as to float entirely up to the surface.