He made it sound as though the barbarians had already overrun China and India. Saul devoutly hoped not. “And you? What are you going to get for being his errand boy?”
The sorcerer gave him a nasty grin. “I shall be vizier to the chieftain given governance of a conquered province—shall we say, Merovence?”
“Not when he finds out how you bungled it.”
The sorcerer, realizing Saul’s intention, opened his mouth for a scream of outrage—and Saul pushed the other apple in, to hold his teeth apart.
Jimena began to mutter to herself:
While she was chanting, the sorcerer gargled in fury. Saul, grinning, shoved his toes under the man’s hip, pried and lifted, and rolled him, howling, to jar against his assistant. Then he spread his hands and chanted,
But priest and acolyte, mouths free now, had been chanting in unison; they turned translucent, then solid again. The priest grinned, stabbed a finger at Saul and began intoning another verse in his native tongue.
Jimena called out the last line of her verse:
Still howling, the sorcerous duo turned into mist and blew away, joining the vapor around them.
Saul turned and came grimly back to Jimena. “Thanks for the save.”
“What would you have done here without me?” she asked simply.
Saul nodded. “Yeah, it was smarter to gang up on them.”
Jimena looked puzzled. “Two against two?”
“That’s what I meant. Sounds like we’re up against worse than we knew, milady.”
“Yes.” Jimena shivered. “Let us return to our own place and time, Saul, while we discuss this. I feel strangely vulnerable here.”
“Not strange at all,” Saul said. He looked around. “Which way did we come in?”
A giant spiderweb spread into sparkling life against the mist.
“I think we are being given a hint,” Jimena said.
“Seems so.” Saul proferred his arm. “Milady, shall we walk?”
Jimena took his arm, and together they stepped into the spiderweb.
The caterpillar, having finished the apple, started to follow them. The six-inch spider eyed it hungrily.
CHAPTER 18
Jimena staggered, but steadied herself on Saul’s arm. A moment later he stumbled, and she had to steady him.
Then Ramon was sweeping her up in his arms, pressing her close. “Mi corazon! I was so anxious!”
“That is good to hear.” Jimena let herself rest in his embrace for a few minutes; after the strangeness of that void between worlds, it was very reassuring.
Saul, however, felt otherwise. “No danger, Mr. Mantrell—no danger at all. Well, yes, there were dangers,” he corrected himself, “but nothing she couldn’t handle easily.”
“With your aid, of course, Saul.” Jimena stepped a little away from Ramon, touching her hair back into place. “It might be more correct, my dear, to say that Saul dealt with the kidnappers while I stood guard over him.”
“Kidnappers?” Ramon’s eyes fired. “There were more than one?”
Jimena nodded. “Two, a sorcerer and his assistant.”
“The sorcerer claimed he was a priest of Angra Mainyu,” Saul amplified.
“The evil principle of the Zoroastrians?” Lakshmi cried in surprise. “I knew them when I was a child—but while I slept the ages away in my bottle, the Arabs conquered their people! Where had this so-called priest heard of Angra Mainyu?”
“From his master, whose name is Arjasp,” Jimena said. “Judging by what the kidnapper said about him, I would gather he is a renegade magus.”
“A priest of Ahura Mazda who has turned against his god?” Lakshmi stared, flabbergasted.
Ramon asked his wife, “How do you deduce that, my love?”
“Partly because the kidnapper said he came from the northern mountains,” Jimena said, “and there are still a few communities of Zoroastrians there in the hills of Persia.”
Saul nodded. “The kidnapper said Arjasp was a true son of the old Persians who had decided Angra Mainyu wasn’t just a demon, but an actual god, and converted a bunch of Central Asian tribes to his worship by promising they would conquer the world.”
“Which, of course, they are likely to do by sheer numbers, if all their tribes and nations fight as one.” Ramon’s face darkened. “And you think he was one of the magi who went rogue?”
“I do,” said Jimena. “Who else would know enough about Angra Mainyu to concoct a counterreligion centering around him? And who else would know the old magic to teach his priests?”
“Or be able to invent a twisted version of it,” Saul agreed.
“Yes, I see.” Ramon nodded, “After all, ‘magi’ is the root word of ‘magic,’ is it not?”
“Last time I read the dictionary, yes,” Saul said. “But he’s no dumb-dumb—not our boy Arjasp, no siree! Him go out on campaign and risk his neck? No way! He’s staying out there in the middle of Asia, flattering the gur-khan and coordinating the conquests!”
Ramon managed a small smile. “After all, if your fate in the afterlife was to be the eternal victim of an evil god, would you chance death?”
“Not a bit,” Saul affirmed.
“I suspect Arjasp has persuaded himself that Angra Mainyu will make him a prince over the underworld,” Jimena said darkly.
“People’s capacity for self-deception sometimes amazes me,” Saul agreed, “particularly mine.”
“Even the princes of the demons live in eternal torment,” Lakshmi said darkly.
Saul couldn’t help wondering if she was talking from personal acquaintance.
Jimena clasped Ramon’s arm. “So if we wish to have the children back, it seems we must confront the evil genius of the horde directly.”
Ramon paled for a second, then reddened with anger. “Indeed we must! But one of us must stay here, as castellan.”
“I had forgotten that,” Jimena admitted.
“Lady Mantrell ought to go,” Saul said stoutly.
Jimena blinked, surprised that this opinionated young man had spoken for her instead of her husband. “What is the matter, Saul? Do you fear I cannot protect Bordestang by myself?”
“Oh, you’ve proved that well enough,” Saul said, “when Mister—excuse me, Lord—Mantrell went off with Matt to help King Rinaldo. Now it’s his turn to be castellan.”
“Thank you for your confidence,” Ramon said dryly. “But equal opportunity is not the only reason you choose Lady Mantrell as a traveling partner, is it?”
“Frankly, no,” Saul said, and frank he was, with a disarming self-honesty. “In spite of all my efforts, I’m a sexist at heart, and I can’t help believing that women are better with babies than men.”
“So you think my wife will be more apt to find the children than I.” Ramon kept his voice carefully neutral.
“I agree,” said Lakshmi. “This is women’s work. Come with us, Lady Mantrell.”