by J. R. Rain
We tried it. I seemed to have a better handle on easily lightening and weighing down my body—aw, men and their vivid imaginations. Jewel struggled a bit, sometimes sinking much deeper than me, or alternately rising much higher. Finally, I took her hand and together we crossed the open space in the bedrock. Shortly, we found ourselves on the dense rock, and we continued forward again, guided by the lamp.
“I’m hungry,” said Jewel, as we passed around a colony of long, furry creatures that lived in cozy burrows. I didn’t wish to disturb them, and so we skirted their labyrinthine tunnels as best we could.
I was hungry and thirsty, too. As her guide and escort, her hired hand, and as the male, I would be expected to find us food. But what would we eat in this world? We discussed this as we walked.
“Perhaps fruit,” said Jewel. I noticed that she often took my hand as we walked over the corrugated bedrock. She made it seem that she needed it to help keep her footing. I also noticed that she did not release it so readily. She held it tightly, and I found her touch reassuring as well. We were, after all, deep beneath a magical world so unlike our own.
“Would fruit nourish us?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it be like trying to eat smoke?”
“I would like to see you try to eat smoke,” said Jewel, and she swung our interlaced hands. “I could use a good laugh. It has been a long, long time since I laughed deeply. I do not think I can laugh again until I find my boy.”
I knew the feeling. I had not laughed deeply since I lost my boy.
I said, “If we raise ourselves to the density of the food, I suspect we can eat it.”
“And what happens if we lower our density later? Would the food disappear from our bellies?”
“There is only one way to find out.”
We traveled for what I believed were many more hours, although judging time was difficult for obvious reasons. In this respect, our hunger was our time piece, and judging by the way my own hunger gnawed at me, I concluded that a full day had passed since we first left Bakr and entered Djinnland.
By the time the bedrock sloped gently up, our stomachs were growling in unison. It might have been funny if it weren’t so uncomfortable. The air around us brightened as we approached the surface. I could only imagine the start we would give a person who saw two heads emerge from the ground. No different than the start spirits and demons gave humans in our physical world, flitting through doorways and walls.
My head appeared above ground first, and I saw that we were in the middle of what must surely pass for night in this world. The golden sky was replaced with a darker, silvery glow. The rocky incline we had been following formed a small, bare mound in the middle of what appeared to be woods. We were surrounded by narrow, translucent trees that pulsed with an inner light. On the ground near my face, presently my eye level, was an array of flat, multi-colored mushrooms. If anything, Djinnland was not lacking for color.
Near a particularly wide mushroom with a glowing purple cap, was Jewel’s head poking up through the earth. Her scanning eyes met mine. We were alone, wherever we were. I nodded, and we ascended onto the rocky hillock. As we went, I raised my vibration and lightened myself enough to gather some of the colorful mushrooms.
As we sat together on the hilltop in this strange world, with the silvery sky above and the translucent trees swaying nearby and the distant blasts of fire from what I assumed were more dragons, I probably should have felt fear or, in the least, apprehension. But I didn’t. I felt excitement. More excitement than I had ever felt before. I was in a strange and distant land, with a beautiful woman who needed help. What more could an adventurer want?
The air was cool, with a hint of something savory on it. Then again, perhaps anything at this point would seem savory. We both looked down at the mushrooms piled between us.
“Do you think they’re safe to eat?” I asked.
“There’s no way to know—wait, what’s that?”
She pointed to a patch of rock behind me. I turned and looked. It was more writing, written directly onto the stone surface. I stood immediately and moved to it, aware once again of the crushing weight that I brought with me. Already, my ankles felt swollen and the muscles along my legs and back ached.
“It’s from Faddy,” I reported. Like the first sign, this was a child-like drawing of a rotund man pointing forward. I looked in the direction he was pointing, squinting through the silvery night, and there, in the far distance, was the silhouette of a hulking fortress.
“We go that way,” I said motioning toward the fortress. “Lamprey’s in there. I’m sure of it.”
Indeed, I felt my lamp and it was glowing warmer. We were very, very close.
Jewel, who was standing next to me, pointed at the drawing. “Hey, look what’s in his other hand.”
I looked and I saw it, too. Jewel picked up a bluish mushroom and took a big bite.
“I guess these are okay, after all. You know, I might just need to get an ifrit of my own. Well, maybe not.”
“Why not?” I asked around a mouthful of the mushroom. Unfortunately, the bite didn’t last long. After just a few chews, the stuff disappeared in my mouth. I thought lighter thoughts and felt myself grow less dense. I tried another bite and this time I was sable to chew it completely and swallow. I could even feel it sitting there in my appeased stomach. So far, so good.
I could see that Jewel had dissipated slightly, too. In fact, I could even see through her in parts. What a strange world this was.
Jewel continued after adjusting herself enough to accommodate the food. “Well, first of all, they are not easy to come by. And it seems that you not only have one, but two. You must surely be a remarkable man.”
I shrugged, grinning. Life has been both kind and painful for me.
“Don’t be too pleased, Niddala. Those people I have known who owned such ifrits or djinns, always were lazy and incapable of dealing with life on their own. They came to rely too much on their magical slaves.”
I nodded. I knew the temptation well. It was why I had sent Lamprey off, and why I did my best to use Faddy only when I needed him the most.
“Such men I find slothful and disgusting.”
“Do you find me slothful and disgusting?” I asked.
She finished off her latest fat mushroom. “So says the man with glowing mushroom remnants in his beard.” She grinned at me, letting me know that she was playing. She shrugged. “Slothful? Perhaps not. I have seen you in action, and you need little prodding. Now, how much you have used your ifrit on this journey, I do not know, but you seem like a man capable of making his own decisions and following his own heart. Disgusting? So far, no, but that remains to be seen.”
“You have been studying me.”
“I have had no choice.”
I enjoyed being ribbed by her. “Fair enough,” I said.
We gathered more of the mushroom, storing them, of all places, in Lamprey’s lamp. We stood together on the stony hillside and looked down on the distant fort. As we stood there, Jewel slipped her hand inside my arm and held on. She had needed no support this time. Indeed, she was holding me because she wanted to. I took in a little air. Her touch was heavenly.
“We can walk there above ground,” I said, “if we lighten up.”
“But then we risk exposing ourselves to potential threats in this world.”
“Unfortunately,” came a voice behind us. “You’ve already done that.”
Chapter Ten
Both of us whirled, startled. There before the trees stood a swarthy jinn man wearing a scimitar and what appeared to be a coil of rope. I knew he was a jinn, because of the typical arrogant curve of his upper lip and a certain nebulosity of his countenance. Anyway, what else could he be, here in Djinnland? He seemed to be alone, but he looked dismayingly confident. I didn’t trust that. I needed to know why he was sure of himself, before I waded into what could be a treacherous encounter. That meant stalling.
“Run, Jewel!” I called. “Don’t let him ravi
sh you!”
She caught on instantly. That was another thing I liked about her. “Spare him, honored sir!” she pleaded. “I’ll do anything you demand, only let him go unharmed.” She opened her shirt, revealing her marvelous frontal curvature.
The jinn paused, as any man of any type would, eying her phenomenal exposure. He recognized of course that her structure was real, not illusion.
“Don’t do it!” I cried. “Don’t trust him. He’ll ravish you then kill me anyway!”
“Forgive me, beloved; I’ve got to,” she said. “I can’t bear the thought of you suffering.” She stepped toward the jinn, opening her shirt further.
“Forget it, wench,” the jinn said. “My master would make me a eunuch if I touched a piece like you. He’ll be using you himself, I’m sure, until you wear out.” Then he drew not the scimitar but the rope. Was he going to try to tie her up?
Jewel paused in place, bare bosom heaving provocatively, waiting for the man to come to his senses. That was bound to happen soon. Once he embraced her he would be a dead jinn, but he did not know that. How could any man know that, dazzled by her splendor?
The jinn lifted the rope and whirled a loop over his head. What mad game was he playing?
Then he flung the loop not at Jewel, but at me. Surprised, I was slow to react. All I did was step back a pace. But Jewel acted; she leaped to get before me, and the loop settled over her head and shoulders. It wasn’t a garrote; it hung on her body loosely. What was the point?
Her expression changed, becoming devoid of fake passion. She looked completely passive. “Do with me what you wish,” she told the jinn. “Your will is my will.” She did not seem to be pretending. This was extremely odd.
“I don’t want you, wench!” the jinn snapped. “I want him.” He hauled her to him and yanked the rope off her. He stepped back and raised it for another whirl of the loop.
That was when I grabbed him from behind, hugging him hard and lifting him off his feet. Distracted for key moments, he had taken his eyes off me, and I had gotten close enough.
“Grab the rope!” I told Jewel. “Put the loop on him!”
She did so, efficiently.
The jinn ceased all resistance. He had been pacified by the loop.
Jewel closed her shirt. It had served its purpose.
Now we were in business. “Who are you?” I asked.
“I am Morabec, lowly vassal to Prince Zeyn, lord of this kingdom.”
“Well, Moron Beck,” I said. “Why did you come after me?”
“Prince Zeyn sent me to investigate your appearance by the sacred grove. I was supposed to capture you and bring you to him for interrogation.”
“What is Zeyn’s interest in me?”
“You are likely the possessor of the Lamp that commands the Ifrit Iften, second in power only to Zeyn himself. If so, you are a key mortal man who will enable Zeyn to take control of the mortal kingdom as well as Djinnland.”
“Ludicrous,” Jewel exclaimed.
But it wasn’t ludicrous. The jinn prince evidently knew my identity as the former king who could return at any time to resume power. Now I knew why he had captured Lampry, or maybe Iften. It was to get control of me, put me back on the throne, and use me to work his will in the mortal realm.
“Assuming this nonsense is true,” I said carefully, “Why does he think I would cooperate in betraying my own kingdom?”
“Once you are spelled, your cooperation will be involuntary. If there were any doubt, he could simply torture your paramour here to force your compliance. If that did not suffice, he could cut off your manhood an excruciating sliver at a time. No one says no to Prince Zeyn.” He smiled a trifle bitterly. “Not for long, anyway.”
Just so. “How did you sneak up on us unawares?”
“I used the magic conduit from the castle to the sacred grove, then stepped out from behind the trees.”
“This rope you have—what is it?”
“It is a magic lariat, that my master acquired from a future far western land. It compels any person roped to obey the will of its possessor without resistance or evasion.”
I nodded. That could be one useful rope.
“Where is the Ifit Iften imprisoned? In the deepest dungeon?”
“Not at all. Solidified mortals could readily reach that. He is in the topmost turret of the castle, where mortals can’t readily go, protected by all manner of traps.”
“So how can Iften be rescued?”
“That is beyond my expertise,” Morabec said.
“You have no idea?”
“I don’t think it can be done.”
Aladdin was curious how far the rope would make its captive go. “If you were assigned to do it, how would you proceed?”
“I would send in the lady to persuade Zeyn to let Iften go. But I doubt she could succeed.”
That was probably a true assessment. Was their mission doomed?
“What else do we need to know?” Jewel asked Morabec.
“That your time is brief. Soon Zeyn will realize that I am taking too long, and will investigate. Then you will be doomed.”
I looked at Jewel. “Do you want to give it up?”
“No! My life is over if I do not save my son.”
“Even though you risk sexual slavery if we continue?”
She shook her head. “If Zeyn puts that loop on me, I will be his slave. I have felt its power. He surely has other ways. If he puts the loop on you, you will serve him loyally, and betray the mortal realm.” She took a breath. “I will risk it if you will.”
It was one huge gamble. But not following up was probably almost as bad, because the jinn prince would track us down before we could escape Djinnland. “We’ll try it,” I said.
“You have a plan?”
“I have a plan,” I agreed, marshaling my lagging brain.
“That’s a relief. I would have gutted our captive.”
“Sometimes there are better uses for a man than gutting,” I said with the thought of a smile.
She responded with her own thought of a smile. “Oh? I am surprised to learn that.”
My cudgeled brain began to function. Desperation helped. “Morabec will take us in as captives.”
She stared at me. “That’s your plan?”
“All will not be quite as it appears,” I said. “The loop I wear will be a fake. Morabec will wear the real one, concealed. You of course will be bound by the threat to me, willing to do anything to spare me my fate.”
“And what do we do when we are hauled before Zeyn?”
“I haven’t worked out that detail yet.”
“Well, work it out!”
I drew her away from Morabec. “My suspicion circuit is working. This is too pat. I don’t fully trust that loop. It may work on mortals, but may not work on ifrits. If that is the case, Morabec will play along to get us into the castle, then betray us to his master. So when we get there, I want you to slip away while attention is on me, take the flying carpet and sail quietly up to the topmost turret, jam Lamprey into the Lamp, and take off for home. If you get in trouble, densify to the max and try to plow through to the exit.”
She nodded. “I suspect similar. But what about you?”
“I’ll manage one way or another. I can densify too.”
“Allah smite you for a liar! Even so, how would I manage without you?”
“You will have Lamprey. He obeys the holder of the Lamp. He will be all you need to rescue your son.”
Her mouth worked for a moment before anything came out. “You—you are sacrificing yourself to enable me to escape and rescue my son?”
“I am trying to enable you to complete your mission. I will take care of myself. Maybe my bluff will be effective, and I’ll escape Zeyn’s clutches. Meanwhile I’ll distract him so you can get the job done.”
“I could distract him better.”
“Surely so. But you need to be free to rescue your son.”
“Why are you doing this, you
idiot?
“Because I’m an idiot, as you say.”
“Not because you’re smitten with me?”
“That too, maybe,” I agreed.
She bit her lip, then decided. “We’ll try it. If it works, and I rescue my son, I will return for you.”
“With luck you won’t need to. I’ll return on my own.”
“With luck,” she repeated. “How much luck have you had in the past year?”
“Not much. So I’m about due.”
“You’re impossible.” Suddenly she kissed me. It was amazing how potent she was able to make such a brief experience. “I will make it worth it, for you, if I have the chance.”
“Wrap the carpet about your body so it doesn’t show. Here is the Lamp.”
She wrapped, and took. We were almost ready.
We returned to the captive ifrit. Jewel examined the magic rope, then harvested some fibrous weeds and wove what appeared to be a similar rope. She fitted a loop of this around my waist. It looked authentic. Then she worked the genuine lariat loop under Morabec’s shirt so that it did not show. It seemed the ifrit might use illusion to enhance his appearance, but not for actual clothing; the shirt was real. We were ready.
“Act as you normally would, with prisoners,” I told Morabec. “Take us to your leader.”
“I must say, you have nerve,” the jinn said. “You’re doomed, but impressive in your folly.”
We went to the copse, and found the magic conduit. Morabec spoke the words, and we were suddenly swept across the landscape to the distant fort.
We were there. Now what?
Chapter Eleven
We were in a wide tunnel. Torches flickered on the stone walls, mounted in small nooks. Behind us was a massive iron gate, and before us, perhaps a hundred feet away, was a heavy wooden door. Standing to either side of the door were heavily armed guards. All were watching us closely.