by Tia Reed
Arun. Oops, er, Minoria, Vinsant called over the mind link.
Vinsant. Are you in trouble? came the immediate reply.
His indignant No brought the sensation of a raised eyebrow. I don’t always get into trouble.
You are flirting with punishment the like of which will see you a grown man before you set foot in Tarana again.
Tell me about it! But the Majoria is occupied. Actually, I think he’s dishonouring a girl and Mahktos is watching me like I should do something.
Where are you?
A temple in the Crystalite Range.
The Temple of the Rift. Vinsant, she belongs to the old religion. She follows Mahktos, not the Vae, and for her there will be no greater honour than serving the Majoria in this way.
But, but… Mahktashaan are sworn to protect the people. And Kordahla. Levi makes such a fuss about her showing an elbow to someone outside the family. How can he do that when he brings shame on women? Just because she’s a poor mountain dweller doesn’t mean –
Vinsant, Arun interrupted, we do not vow to be celibate. Leave your judgement until you know more of our ways. And from all I’ve seen and heard, Mahktos is likely to be watching you. Now sever the link before Levi notices you’re up to mischief. We’ve already been connected too long.
Well I doubt he’s going to notice anything for a while, Vinsant grumbled. On the verge of severing the link, he felt the temperature plummet. Djinn! he yelled as indigo smoke curled and thickened into a corporeal form. There was no question Levi had heard the panicked call.
“What a perfect mahktashaan apprentice. Obedient before Mahktos while he flouts his master’s rules,” the indigo djinn said. His muscled arms and legs were crossed as he floated at the far side of the shallow cave. Behind him, more djinn materialised, taupe and mauve, and a saffron genie with a long ponytail, all with the glowing crystal joints and shimmery skin that marked their kind.
“What do you want?” Vinsant said backing away. One djinn he might be able to outsmart, but three?
From below, a clamour arose as the few people who had drifted into the village gathered at its stony heart. Levi dashed from the hut, pulling his hood over his head. Behind him, the young woman stood in the doorway, the straps of her slip off her shoulders, the neckline low on her breasts.
“From you, flea? What could a lowly apprentice have to offer me?”
“Then why are you here?”
“It is what I can offer you. Go on, ask.”
Vinsant chanced a look down. Levi was only just starting up the path. “Kordahla, is she safe?”
“And sound in Myklaan. But for how long? Your brother is on his way, and the blood honour runs strong in his veins.”
“You want to make a deal. To keep her there.”
The djinn zipped across the cubits. He was a typical show off to recline on air while he whispered in Vinsant’s ear. Hideous too, with his greasy black hair, big nose and fishy smell. “It’s not what I want, now is it?”
Vinsant levitated himself into a cross-legged position. “So you don’t want anything? You’ll help her without obligation?” The cheeky djinn had better watch out because he had learnt a thing or two and he had just possibly outwitted the creature too.
“Insect,” the djinn said, flicking a finger off his thumb. Vinsant crashed to the rock amid the laughter of the other djinn.
“Hey!” Vinsant said, looking up at Indigo. The big, bad bully was floating over him.
“Excrement of a parasite on the butt a scumhopper. Do you presume to think your puny power can match mine?”
“Eh, no,” said Vinsant. Okay, he had been hoping just that, but he was wiser now, or would be if the other three djinn would stop flitting around him in a dizzying haze of colour. They moved so fast they whipped the flowers the little girl had thrown to the edges of the cave.
“Then make the pact. That trinket you wear around your neck for your sister’s honour.”
Vinsant blew a petal off his nose, propped himself up on his arms, and looked up at the statue. Its eyes were welcome to life as long as the darkness of djinn was hanging around. It had to mean Mahktos was looking out for him. “No.”
The djinn whirled on the statue. The eyes were grainy, black hollows. Which meant Mahktos was watching him and not the djinn. Which couldn’t be an entirely good thing.
“You are going to a mine, flea. There are plenty of other crystals to be had.”
“Then I’ll get you one of those. But Mahktos gave me this one.” He shut his mouth as Levi appeared at the top of the path.
“Begone, filthy creature.” The peculiar black light spread from the Majoria’s crystal.
“Your Princess is safe in Myklaan. Does that goad you to unleash your fury on the disrespectful renegade? I can see she is delivered into the just arms of your second.”
“Hey! You just offered to keep her in Myklaan.”
The djinn shrugged. “Terlaan, Verdaan, Myklaan. It’s all the same to me. It’s you plague-riddled grubs that places matter to.”
Levi rounded on Vinsant. “Do you suffer no regret?”
“I didn’t deal!” Vinsant protested. “I didn’t even suggest a pact.” He scrambled to his feet.
“Begone, you wretched creature. Take your duplicity elsewhere,” Levi commanded.
The djinn yawned. “I don’t think I shall.” His vermillion eyes flashed pure malice.
“Begone, I say.” Levi stepped forward.
“Um,” Vinsant started.
“You will not move from that spot, or I will flog you until the skin peels from your back.” Step by step, Levi approached the djinn, a pointed finger outstretched, a chant on his lips. The man was brave, considering Indigo towered above them. He was floating just above the ground, arms and ankles crossed. Mahktos help them, but his joints were starting to glow.
“Begone, I tell you,” Levi said.
The djinn lowered his face into Levi’s. “Make me.”
The Majoria resumed his chant. The mauve djinn glanced about and popped out of sight.
The genie tossed her long pony tail. Her sharp features were kind of handsome, but she smelled a bit like boiled rice. “A single mahktashaan against a djinn?”
The taupe djinn laughed. His face was flat, his cheeks were slack, and he smelled of horse sweat. “Against three.”
Levi’s chanting grew louder. The two strange djinn whirled around the Majoria, their crystal joints aglow. Levi’s voiced cracked.
“Ooh,” Vinsant said. Just his luck the genie changed direction to twirl around him.
“Well little boy, do you want to deal? Do you want to save your sister?” Saffron’s face transformed into Kordahla’s, and the taupe djinn became a gigantic knife.
Mahktos, help us, Vinsant pleaded. He turned his head but the statue was solid rock. At least he could recognise a pattern to the chant. He added his voice to Levi’s. The quartz at his chest grew warm. Pink rays burst from it, hitting the genie. She cried out and disappeared in a fizzle of smoke.
“I got her!” Vinsant said.
Levi’s voice grew strong. Vinsant picked up the chant. He had to be helping because the taupe djinn regained his true form.
“Will you deal, you selfish boy? Does that trinket mean more to you than your sister?” Indigo asked.
Vinsant stumbled over the words.
“Hah!” the taupe djinn cried in glee. “It’s easy. Hand it over.”
He couldn’t give his quartz away again. Mahktos would never forgive him. Levi would skin him alive. “Not the quartz,” he said. He had to become a mahktashaan. It was the only way he would gain enough power to protect Kordahla.
Maybe the Majoria thought he was wavering because he rounded on the djinn. The impossible blackness that issued from his crystal brushed Taupe’s arms. With a throaty yell, the creature vanished, all honour to the Majoria!
Indigo smirked. “You will have to do better than that, leader of nobodies. Your inconsequential magic cannot touch me.”
Levi raised his voice to a song. The blackness surged out of his crystal. Vinsant stood so straight, paying full attention. Indigo was in trouble now. Except the blackness bounced right off the creature. The djinn threw his head back and laughed, which kind of made Vinsant feel as big as a flea. About as strong, too, since Indigo sent him flying into the wall of the cave with a puff that flipped the wreaths off the statue. He twisted to avoid them, because the battering had left him too winded to get up.
“Majoria?”
The Majoria was bracing himself against the buffeting. His robe whipped against his body. His hood flew down. His foot slipped back. “You will not plague this boy,” Levi said. With a grunt, he lunged far enough forward to place a hand on the djinn’s chest. The djinn pinned it there with his own.
On his backside, Vinsant summoned the Myklaani sword. It was heavy in his hand, but maybe with the help of a little magic he could wield it well. He started the chant again.
“That flea? What would I want with him? His sister is the more useful bug by far. Don’t pretend you don’t covet her flesh, filthy dog of a mahktashaan. You purport to protect her when what you want is to break her. As. I. Will. Break. You.”
Indigo’s hand erupted into flame. Levi screamed as, under it, his own hand caught fire. The djinn pushed the Majoria away. Levi dropped to the ground, his face screwed up in agony. He rolled on the dirt, but the magical blaze wouldn’t douse.
“Do not seek to challenge me, you speck of dirt on the sole of my shoe. When I am done with you, I will snuff out your life with the flick of my finger. Until then, live in the fear I will call on your puny powers to serve my own ends.”
“No,” Vinsant yelled, charging towards the djinn. His pointed sword had to be a threat. “Stop it. Leave him alone.”
Levi’s hand was turning to a charred skeleton. The djinn needed to put the fire out right now.
“Turd of a scumhopper. Have you no sense?” The djinn jerked his chin and the sword went flying out of Vinsant’s hand.
An uncanny knack for finding himself in the scums did not preclude common sense. Vinsant pulled up before he pummelled into the djinn. On his chest, his quartz was burning. Random rays of light burst in every direction. As hard as he concentrated, he couldn’t form the spreading halo the mahktashaan crystals emitted when they worked their magic. One of the rays hit Levi. The Majoria sighed and his face relaxed. Vinsant edged closer to his mentor. He had to get more rays to fall on the burning hand. They seemed to be going everywhere but where he hoped they would. Levi was groaning again, his hand shrivelling. A hunk of flesh sloughed off his fingers. It was time to panic because it sure looked like the Majoria was going to die. What chance would he have against the djinn then?
“I’ll deal. What do you want?”
“Oh you’ll deal, will you, flea?” the djinn said, poking Vinsant in the chest. The force drove him back. “Give me that pretty trinket you’re so fond of.”
“I order you to silence,” Levi groaned.
Vinsant clapped his mouth shut and shook his head. The quartz was his whole future. Kordahla’s too. He needed magic if he was going to save her.
Indigo sneered right into his face. “Would you see your precious Majoria burned? Would you face the mahktashaan and admit the Majoria perished because you refused to relinquish a piece of stone?”
“You-will-keep-that-quartz,” Levi said. He exploded into a series of gasps. The djinn wagged a finger at Vinsant and the flames that danced on Levi’s hand crept past his wrist and onto his arm. The Majoria screamed.
“Stop it!” Vinsant said. More rays of reddish light burst from his stone. He rushed at the djinn, concentrating beyond thought. The random rays bounced off the djinn. He concentrated harder, willing them to strike the djinn. And one did. Right on the foot. The djinn flicked his vermillion slipper, as though stung. One side of his mouth curled into a snarl. Vinsant backed up. This was probably going to turn out to be one more example of his reckless behaviour.
“You dare!” the djinn roared, grabbing his robe between thumb and forefinger, and picking him up as though he were a dirty rag. His feet were way off the ground. He tensed as the djinn released him. A fishy puff hurtled him past the statue and into the rock. Again. He landed among the wreaths, cracking the twisting sticks, bruised but not broken. He didn’t think. He picked himself up to make sure.
“When I’m a mahktashaan–” he started.
“What is this?” the djinn demanded, floating back. “What trick do you dare play with those eyes?”
“Mahktos gave me these eyes,” Vinsant said. He stomped forward. “When he gave me this quartz. Which you can’t have.”
The djinn pointed a finger at Vinsant. “I could burn you to a crisp.”
Rock ground against rock. Mahktos reopened his crimson eyes.
“You’ll have to do it, then,” Vinsant said. He sure hoped his faith in Mahktos was warranted. His knees were knocking together, but under his robe the djinn might not notice.
A wonderful perfume mix, drifted through the cave: exotic jasmine, sweet frangipani, heady lavender and fragrant rose.
“Indigo djinn,” said a melodious female voice. Her golden form was taking shape behind the indigo djinn, and was she ever beautiful with her heart-shaped face. The sparkling diamond tiara on her head paled in comparison to the radiance of her skin. The djinn and genies appearing behind her – a whole darkness of them, ten darknesses even – looked dull despite their shimmer.
“Graaaah!” The djinn whirled. His mouth twitched up in a snarl but he bowed to her. It was about as deep as Lord Swine had bowed to Father, but it was an actual bow.
“You should not presume with a vassal of the god.”
“My Queen, I would never,” he said and disappeared with a whoomp of air and a hint of indigo smoke. Several of the djinn winked out with him, while the others faded from sight, thank Mahktos. That left the Queen. Vinsant could not help bowing. Nice and deep.
“Mahktos plays with our lives,” Tiarasae, Queen of the Genies, said. Her fame was well deserved, for even with the crystals in her joints, a more wondrous being could never exist. She bore a resemblance to Kordahla, as though his sister’s beauty were indeed the gift deq Ikher had proclaimed it to be, but Kordahla would not pull a second glance if she curtsied before this genie. “My court will abide by my rules,” she said, her voice sweet as a harp, “but will you abide by those of your order, young apprentice?”
Vinsant opened his mouth but found himself unable to speak.
And then she was gone. No smoke, no wup, just the lingering scent of flowers, and the thud of his heart. Vinsant stared at the spot she had occupied. Levi’s moan brought him back to his senses. He skidded to his knees beside the Majoria.
“I didn’t move, I swear, Majoria, all honour to you, all praise to Mahktos, all honour to you,” Vinsant said biting a fingernail. The flames had gone, but Levi’s hand was a blackened mess of bone and sinew, and his fingers were curled into a claw.
Vinsant stood and looked at the villagers down below. “We need a physic. A healer,” he shouted but they were on their knees, staring up at the cave like the djinn were coming to wreak vengeance on them. He turned back to Levi. “Teach me the healing word. I’ll concentrate until I get it right.”
Levi exhaled through clenched teeth and got to one knee. Grasping Vinsant with his good hand, he pulled himself up. “Healing is not in my power.”
Arun, Vinsant called across the leagues.
“Do not trouble the Minoria. There is no salve for the sting of the djinn. Sever the link and draw your hood. You will speak to no one of what occurred here.”
Bent double with pain, Levi staggered toward the path.
Chapter Forty-four
Kordahla took a deep breath and smoothed the front of her impeccable skirt as the guards admitted her to Shah Ordosteen’s study. Her walnut hair hung loose, the ends curling over the puffed sleeves of her dusky-pink kameez. The garment covered her midri
ff and legs, but left her arms bare, not quite the epitome of demure she had requested from the bubbly lady-in-waiting Jordayne has assigned her. It put her at a disadvantage before the conversation had begun.
“Princess Kordahla,” Ordosteen said, rising from behind his plain but stately mahogany desk. It had been positioned with care. The window behind it framed a view of the traditional cultured gardens, of the flowering frangipane for which the palace was famed, while the eastern vases on the flanking pedestals reminded the visitor of this realm’s reach. She curtsied. He came around the desk and kissed her lightly on both cheeks. “Please, take a seat,” he said with a warm smile. The strain she had noticed yesterday had dissipated, and his white hair suited him well. “Your friends will be here shortly. Captain deq Lungo is bringing them, so they should not be alarmed. From what I hear they are a unique group. The mages will want to talk to them.”
“Timak is reticent with strangers, and the Ho’akerin do not speak our language,” she said, too quick, as she sat on a well-used couch. The emerald brocade was in good repair, but the stuffing had dipped into comfort. She clasped her hands in her lap.
His smile turned indulgent. She bowed her head to hide her blush. Of course the mages required no words.
“I was wondering if your accommodation pleases you,” he went on, polite to overlook her ignorant comment, standing yet.
“It is more than I could wish for, Your Majesty,” she replied, looking up.
“I trust Jordayne is not persuading you to do anything you are uncomfortable with.” The smile and raised eyebrow suggested he was intimate with the foibles of his niece.”
“Lady Jordayne has been very kind.”
“I realise you may find our ways somewhat strange, and our garb a little daring,” he said, opening a drawer behind the desk and pulling a length of fabric out. “I wondered if this might make you feel a little more at home?”
Kordahla gasped as she took the green veil he offered her. Impossible that this was the one she had lost at the Tarana souk. Yet every stitch down to the pulled thread in the fraying corner was identical.
“Is something wrong, my dear?” the Shah asked.