“Okay,” he said, “let’s go.”
Balkis didn’t ask, she only forced herself to walk with him, lips pressed thin—but after a few steps a look of surprise washed over her face.
Matt could sympathize. The fluid feeling replacing the earlier friction did kind of take you aback, if you weren’t expecting it. “Still a little bit of a rash, but I’m sure it will fade fast.”
“It is … a most singular sensation,” Balkis said, blushing again.
“One I don’t remember ever having felt,” Matt agreed, “at least not consciously.”
They didn’t have any more trouble walking, though.
They followed the four steps of small footprints, Balkis watching the ground, Matt watching the forest until, quite suddenly, the trees opened out to reveal a little grotto. A tiny waterfall purled down the center of a series of rocky shelves to chuckle away as a brook. To either side of the tumbling fluid, wildflowers sprang from the rocky shelves. The spring ran through a dusky pink lawn, soft enough to cushion baby feet. Cushions of moss sprouted here and there about the clearing, and a tiny house, perhaps four feet high and ten wide, stood against the rocky wall. The whole was shaded by giant rosebushes, with just enough light from the pink sky overhead to make the whole grotto look comforting and cheerful.
“I could not have crafted a better nursery myself,” Balkis said, awed.
But Matt started toward the little house. “Suppose anybody’s home?”
He wasn’t even halfway there before a naked baby came toddling out, giggling. A six-year-old boy came charging after, waving a diaper and looking very harried. “Nay, nay, little Alley, you’ll catch your death of cold!” He managed to catch the toddler and twist the diaper about it, but before he could tie the comers, a little girl came somersaulting out of the house, giggling, and a little boy came running after, crying, “Gimme back! Gimme back!”
The six-year-old dropped the diaper and turned to run, managing to catch the little boy’s wrist before he could strike. “Now, now, little Hammy, you know ‘tis wrong to hit when you can talk! Sister, give back Hammy’s slipper!”
The little girl hid her hands behind her back, turning truculent. “Shan’t!”
“But Alice, you must!” the six-year-old cried in despair. ” ‘Tis not yours!”
Just then little Alley came charging past, waving his diaper and crowing with delight.
The older boy turned away from the incipient fight to chase, crying, “You will drive me out of my mind! Oh, Mama, why can you not come?”
“Will Papa do?” Matt asked.
All the children froze, staring at the intruder. Then with a glad cry, the boy and Alice came running to their father.
Matt knelt and caught them up, holding them close, very close. “There now, we’re together again, and we’ll go home and find Mama very soon.” He loosened the arm around the boy to tousle his hair. “Well done, Kaprin. You’ve been taking care of your little sister and the twins, huh?”
“Yes, and am almost out of my wits with trying to keep track of all three!” Kaprin said fervently. “Praise Heaven you have come, Papa!” He suddenly jumped away from Matt and turned to run back to his charges, crying, “The twins! What mischief—” Then he broke off, plowing to a halt and staring.
“They’ve found the world’s best toy,” Matt assured him.
The twins were laughing and grabbing at a little calico cat who was playing catch-me-if-you-can.
“Can that be Balkis?” Kaprin asked.
“Sure is,” Matt said. “She just decided to change clothes, that’s all.”
“I wish I could,” Kaprin sighed. “Two days in the same robes grows wearisome.”
“Only two days?” Matt asked in surprise, then turned quickly sympathetic. “Only two days, but it probably seemed like a month to you! How did you feed them, son? And where did you find the clean nappies?”
“There are three bottles in the house with leather teats on top,” Kaprin explained. “As soon as a babe sucks one empty, it begins to fill again. Apples grow on the trees, and there is an oven that always has warm bread. There is a pile of clean nappies that never seems to grow smaller. All three have been quite good about using the little chair, but accidents happen.”
Matt wondered who would have taken care of the children if one of them hadn’t been old enough to manage. Actually, at six, Kaprin wasn‘t old enough, but he had managed anyway. Matt said, his voice low, “I’m very proud of you, son. You’ve taken care of your sister and the twins excellently.”
He could almost see Kaprin expand with the praise—but the boy only said, “The twins must be magical, Papa, for when I chase them and almost catch them, they will disappear from my hands and reappear on the branch of a tree, and if they slip off the branch, they do not fall, but drift to the ground.”
“You guessed right,” Matt confirmed. “They’re baby djinn.”
“Djinn?” Kaprin’s eyes grew round. “Truly? But who are their parents, Papa?”
“Some friends of mine,” Matt said. “They came with us to find the four of you, but they had to fight some monsters who were trying to keep us away from this grove. They won the fight, but it, uh, tired them out horribly, so they’re sleeping now.”
“Will they come to us?”
Inspiration again. “I’ve got a better idea. How about we go to them, then we all go back to Mama!”
“Mama! Mama!” Baby Alice cried.
“Yes, darling, yes, we’ll go find Mama right away.” Matt cuddled his daughter, and she chirruped happily.
“Alley! Hammy!” Kaprin cried. “We go Mama!”
“Mama! Mama!” The twins left off playing with the cat and came running, arms wide.
Matt gathered them in. Out of the comer of his eye he noticed the cat going in through the little door. “Kaprin—would you go into the playhouse and see if my friend is in there?”
“Your friend?” Kaprin looked up in surprise. “Who, Papa?”
”Her name is Balkis, like the cat,” Matt said, “and she came along to help me find you … Oh, there she comes!”
Kaprin looked up and saw the veil-clad girl coming toward them. “What a pretty lady!”
Matt decided his son was growing up faster than he had realized. “Yes, isn’t she? Hold her hand, now, and hold Alley’s, too, and I’ll hold Hammy’s hand while I hug Alice … Got Hammy’s other hand, Balkis?”
“I have.” Balkis smiled, melting at the child’s touch.
Matt noticed she had taken the chance to discard the ragged remains of the yellow jacket. “Okay, then, back to Hammy and Alley’s mommy …”
He was about to improvise something about returning to djinn, but Balkis beat him to it, reciting a verse in Allustrian. Pink mist boiled up from the ground, hiding them from one another. Alice cried out in fright, but the twin djinn only laughed with delight. Kaprin called out, his voice trembling, “Papa, what is happening?”
“It’s how the magic works that takes us to Princess Lakshmi,” Matt explained.
Then the pink mist lightened, thinned, and pulled away in wisps to make a large sphere around them. At its bottom, Marudin was kneeling, looking very groggy but also very concerned as he held his wife’s shoulders in his arm, bracing her half sitting; she was holding one hand to her head.
“Mama! Mama!” cried the djinn twins, and lit into her full speed.
Lakshmi’s arms went around them automatically; then her face lit up as she realized what she was holding. She pressed her babies to her and spent a few minutes kissing and murmuring, then looked up at Matt and Balkis, eyes filled with tears. “Thank you, wizards! Thank you with all my heart! I shall never forget you for this!”
“Nor shall I,” said Marudin, but he didn’t look at them, he had eyes only for his family, and those eyes were glowing. “I thank you from the core of my being, and shall never forget what you have done.”