“Judge by that handful, then! Can you honestly say that even one of them was virtuous?”
“They could have been… “
“Could have been, but chose not to be! They sought their own dooms, they deserved their own fates! I have been as merciful as a conqueror may be, exploiting only those who deserved it, rewarding only those who did my work, turning human cruelty against itself in order to conquer the world and establish peace and order!”
“What about Papa and Mama?” Matt demanded.
“Ah!” Nirobus turned instantly from acid cynic to sympathetic mourner. “That, I regretted, and deeply, for they are scholars, and two of the very few really good people, whose happiness comes from helping those about them.”
“Well, if you like them so much, how come you sidetracked Papa into buying the store, then drove him into bankruptcy?”
“Why, because it was the only way.” Nirobus spread his hands. “You are their son, and I needed to lure you into the world of your birth so that I could trap you there. Besides, your father was blocking me from addicting more than a dozen young folk by making his store a haven. No, if my scheme was to succeed, your parents had to go.” He glanced at Papa with a sardonic smile. “How could I have guessed that they themselves would prove to be wizards so powerful as to tip the balance, and send me sliding toward a temporary defeat?”
“Oh, surely not!” Mama protested. “Matthew would have triumphed without us!”
“Thanks, Mama, but I think he’s right.” Matt kept his gaze on Nirobus. “He was prepared for anything I might do, and watched me like a hawk. But he never thought to watch you two, until you’d already fouled up his plans good and proper.”
“I fear it is so.” Nirobus bowed to Mama and Papa. “Your pardon, lord and lady. I underestimated you severely.”
“De nada,” Mama said automatically, then blushed.
“I think we will be more happy here than in New Jersey,” Papa said, “so it has all worked out for the best.”
“Besides, here we have not only our son, but also his wife and child,” Mama said with a happy smile.
“Yes, best for you.” Nirobus still wore the sardonic smile. “But I? I shall have to flee to the barren lands and begin my plans anew.”
“Oh, and come back with a small horde, to start killing people and burning their means of livelihood?”
Matt asked grimly. “Begin plans to leave people victims to the famine and plague that always follow war? Plans to slaughter a hundred thousand or so?”
“My warriors slay no more than they must, to conquer,” Nirobus said, affronted. “Is this not so, Lord Tafas?”
“I have made sure that my soldiers treat all enemies with courtesy, even when defeated,” the Mahdi admitted.
“Okay, so you’re only going to slay fifty thousand,” Matt said, “and let famine and plague finish off the other fifty.”
“I have told you that the people I have hurt are only those who would willingly have injured others!”
“Interviewed each one of them personally, have you?”
“I have no need… I know the breed!” Nirobus snapped. “I have hurt only those who are too ignorant and too vicious to matter, Lord Wizard!”
“No,” Matt said softly. “You have slain thousands of good people along with the wicked, Doctor. Even you have admitted that they exist, though they are rare. If you let people die wholesale, as they always do in war, you murder those few good ones along with the rest.” He shook his head. “You have become the oppressor and exploiter you claim to despise. I’m sorry, but we can’t let you go free to start this all over again.”
“No,” Alisande said, with total conviction. “We cannot.”
King Rinaldo nodded.
“Fools, do you think you have any choice in the matter?” With a vindictive smile, Nirobus raised a hand to his forehead in salute… and rubbed the ruby in his turban.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Everyone back!” Matt shouted, and started his anti-genie chant… but too late. Smoke boiled from Nirobus’ ruby and jetted high into the air, thickening and condensing into a gigantic human form. A genie with mammoth muscles and haughty, noble mien towered above them… and the women gasped, for he was so handsome as to freeze them in place.
“We are lost!” Tafas cried, staring upward, finally actually afraid. “He is a Marid, a veritable prince of the djinn! He wields power too great to comprehend!”
Papa started muttering.
The genie’s huge voice rolled out, like a melody played on the deepest bells of a carillon. “What would you have me do… ” His mouth twisted, and the last word came hard: “… master?”
“Clear this hillside for me, O Genie!” Nirobus waved a hand at the officers gathered before him. “Send them back to their troops, back to their homes!”
“To hear is to obey,” the genie ground out, obviously hating every word he was saying. He raised huge hands, palms forward, fingers spread wide, chanting in Arabic.
Mama chanted just as firmly.
The genie made a circling gesture with each hand, ending by clenching his fists as his voice thundered out the last syllables of the spell. A gale blasted the line of officers.
Mama finished the rhyme and caught her breath.
The gale died on the instant.
The genie stared. “This cannot be!”
“What cannot be?” Nirobus asked in a tone of foreboding.
“Someone has countered my magic!” He glared down at the host, thundering, “Who has bound my spell?”
Nirobus’s eyes widened. “The spellbinder!” He pointed at Mama. “It is she, O Genie! Remove her at once! Slay her, crush her!”
Papa finished his verse, then leaped in front of Mama, crying, “Do not dare!”
“Dare?” The genie roared laughter. “And who will stop me, little man?”
Dust boiled up in front of Papa, up and up till it was almost as tall as he, then thickened and coalesced into a beautiful woman, clad in her usual harem pants, bolero, slippers, and crown… and a very exasperated expression. “What now, mortal man?”
For answer, Papa only pointed upward.
Mama glanced at Papa, frowning.
Lakshmi turned, puzzled… then stared upward. “Prince Ranudin!”
The genie stared, too, eyes wide, then filling with fascination as a slow smile spread over his features.
“Yes, I am Ranudin, Prince of the Djinn! But who are you, most beautiful creature?”
“I am Lakshmi, Princess of the Djinn!”
“Lakshmi?” Ranudin gawked. “But you were tiny, nearly a babe in arms when last I saw you!”
Lakshmi glanced at his chest and arms, and her face took on a look Matt knew only too well, a look that intensified as she looked up into Ranudin’s face. “That was half a thousand years ago, Prince, and I was not a babe, but a girl on the verge of womanhood.”
Now it was Matt who began muttering.
“You have crossed that verge indeed,” Ranudin breathed, with a glance that virtually caressed every inch of her.
Lakshmi felt his appreciation, and smiled lazily as her eyelids drooped. A moan swept through the officers of both nations as the full extent of her allure manifested.
“But all of this, O Prince, was before you disappeared from the sight of the djinn,” Lakshmi said. “Now, at least, we know why… some foul mortal sorcerer captured you in that jewel!”
“There have I slept away the centuries, wakened only twice before this to perform irksome tasks for midget mortals… then to sleep again, though my dreams have been restless.” Ranudin’s voice went husky. “And you have the shape of my dreams! Some magic bore your image to my sleeping mind!”
“As you have always been vivid in mine,” Lakshmi said from her throat.