CHAPTER 21
“What are you doing?” Balkis cried, thrashing about in his arms. “She will need our help against his magic!”
“Not anymore she won’t!” Matt made it through the portal before the screaming started. He bolted across the square, then set Balkis down in the shadow of a marble-fronted building, but it wasn’t far enough—she could still hear the screams, hoarse and ragged. ‘She clapped her hands over her ears and sat trembling.
“Only what he deserved,” Matt reminded her. “You couldn’t know how many people he had butchered, how many he had weakened as the horde charged down, how many he had tortured.”
But Balkis clasped her head, still trembling.
Matt had to bring her out of it. He knelt as the screams faded and said, voice low but insistent, “Prince Marudin. While you have the ring, recite the spell! Free the prince, wherever he is, and you’ll weaken the horde enough so that they might retreat!”
“Do you really think so?” Balkis held out the ring on a trembling finger and began to recite once again in Allustrian—obviously one of the spells Idris had taught her. Matt doubted it had been invented solely for djinn, and wondered what kind of compulsions to obedience Idris had dealt with.
He caught the gist of the spell and could only admire the crafting of the verse—lines of alternating meters with an intricate rhyme scheme, ending in an imperative. No wonder it had freed Lakshmi from the sorcerer’s power … but bound her to Balkis’ spell, with deadly results.
Matt leaned closer. “Lakshmi, too! Command the ring to free Lakshmi, too!”
“I have,” Balkis gasped. “I should have before.”
“Believe me,” Matt said with total sincerity, “it wouldn’t have made the slightest difference.”
Balkis looked up at him with naked, vulnerable gratitude, then looked beyond him, horrified. “She comes!”
Matt turned to look. Lakshmi came striding across the square, long black veil whipping about her legs, angry eyes staring out above the cloth.
“It’s done!” Matt held up his hands to slow her down. “Princess, he’s dust! You’ve had a revenge you didn’t need!”
“Any who seek to enthrall the djinn merit revenge!” Lakshmi snapped. She looked past him and saw the little cat, now black and white, cowering in a comer of the marble. Instantly Lakshmi’s rage evaporated, and she knelt, reaching out a hand and crooning. “Ah, poor mite! Did I so afright you, then? Surely I had not meant to do so! Do not pity that old monster, for he suffered only what he had given, and that much only by his own magic come back upon him, for I turned around the spells that he had cast on others, so that they struck him. Nay, poor child, come hither, for I owe you only gratitude, never harm!”
Balkis began to relax. She stepped forward, nose twitching warily to sniff the djinna’s hand.
“Yes, I owe you my freedom, sweet child,” Lakshmi said, voice soft as velvet. “Never would I seek to harm you. Your enemies perhaps, as I have smitten my own, but never you!”
“I told her that last command she gave you didn’t make any difference,” Matt said, “that if she’d freed you to do as you wished, you’d have done just as you did.”
“Be sure of it.” But there was no anger in Lakshmi’s voice, only gentle reassurance. “He gained what he had given, no more. Indeed, left to my own devices, I should have done far worse.”
Balkis thawed enough to step forward, rubbing her head against the princess’ hand. Lakshmi murmured with pleasure, stroking the black and white fur, then rubbing gently behind the ears. Balkis raised her head, eyes closing for a minute of pleasure, and Matt knew the two had made friends again.
Lakshmi took up the cat’s paw, studying the emerald on her foreleg with a frown. “I cannot take it from you, though dearly I wish I could.”
“Really?” Matt stepped up to look more closely. “Why not?”
“See how its band has tightened to fit her—it knows it is hers now. Never shall she be separated from this gem while she lives, unless she comes across a magic greater than her own.”
“But the old priest’s magic must have been greater than hers!”
“You gave her a wand,” Lakshmi reminded him. “There is great power of magic within her, and the wand strengthened it tenfold. Nay, now the ring is hers by right, and I can think of few I should trust with it more.” She gave Balkis a rather bleak smile. “Or will you, too, seek to command me, little cat?”
“Never!” Balkis mewed indignantly.
Lakshmi laughed. “I believe you, as I would believe few mortals—but then, you are somewhat more than mortal yourself, are you not?”
Balkis gave a mew of doubt.
“Be sure that you are.” Lakshmi reached down to stroke the cat. “A thousand thanks for this fair rescue, sweet one! Three wishes shall be yours when this turmoil is done—three wishes and more, if I can free my Marudin!”
“He may be free already,” Matt said. “While we were waiting for you, she chanted a spell to give him his liberty, no matter where he was.”
“Let us hope the ring had so much power as that,” Lakshmi said fervently. “If indeed it has, we shall be ever in your debt, little cat.”
Balkis looked up wide-eyed. Then her look turned calculating.
Lakshmi laughed and scooped her up to hold opposite her face. “Aye, think what you can do with such a friendship, think of the wishes for which you shall ask, ponder long and carefully—for once a wish has come true, you shall have to live with it.”
Matt found that even a cat’s face could develop a thoughtful frown.
“Come, now!” Lakshmi said, all business again. “Let us take to the sky and see what effect this action has wrought upon the battle we passed on our way hither! If the horde was winning because of the magic of its sorcerers, then the slaying of this dotard should have turned the tide in the Caliph’s favor!” She began to grow, catching up Matt as she went.
In minutes they were high above the battlefield, and sure enough, the horde was retreating. The Caliph’s troops followed, but cautiously, wary that the barbarians might turn their own tactic upon them—retreating at full speed, waiting until the defenders had broken ranks to pursue, letting them get close, then suddenly turning on them and cutting them to shreds. Knowing that, the Muslims advanced without breaking their battle line.
“I see him!” Lakshmi cried. “Marudin! He rises above the battle, he fights for the Caliph!”
Sure enough, Matt could see a huge turban growing huger as it both rose and swelled, with a burgeoning set of shoulders beneath it. Prince Marudin rose high, scooping boulders from thin air and hurling them against his erstwhile masters.
“I must go to help him! Down, you two, where it is safe!” Lakshmi dove back toward the city. Matt cried out, then clung for dear life. So did Balkis—sinking her claws into Matt and yowling every foot of the way.
Lakshmi shrank as she descended, so that it seemed to be only a normal-sized woman who set them down in a back alley, then leaped into the sky again.
“Impetuous, isn’t she?” Matt tried to hide his shaking by kneeling down and holding out a hand to Balkis. “Care to ride for the first few blocks?”
Balkis spat and raised a claw.
“I know—I wouldn’t trust anybody’s arms after a trip like that, either.” Matt rose again, leaned against a wall for a minute, then started down the alley toward the little square at its end.
There were women around the well, but their water jars were mere excuses—they were all chatting with excitement about having seen a djinna descending toward the city, disappearing, then flying away from it. There was speculation about Lakshmi being a weapon of the Caliph in the battle the barbarians were even then fighting, some guesses as to why she might have come otherwise, more guesses as to why she would have left so quickly, but no real information. Matt kept walking, but glanced back—Balkis was just coming out of the alley, with seemingly lofty indifference to the world of mere humans, but Matt was sure that if the women mentioned anything about the missing children, the cat would know it in an instant.