Tales of the Djinn: The Guardian (38 page)

Aware that Luna’s third circumnavigation was
liable to spell our doom, once she’d made camp the second night, we
requested a parley. We led her to believe Iksander was
reconsidering his refusal, and that he’d appointed Joseph and
myself to discuss possible surrender terms with her. I suppose she
did love Iksander, in her way. The chance that we were being honest
tempted her too strongly to dismiss us.

We exchanged the usual binding ritual oaths
that neither party would harm the other. The empress’s magicians
dropped their charmed barrier long enough to allow us out the gate.
The diplomatic niceties taken care, Joseph dropped down onto one
knee.

“Glorious Empress,” he addressed her, “my
master the sultan wishes me to present you with a humble token of
his remorse, that you may be assured of his sincerity.”

Luna’s sorcerers went into a tizzy at the
silk-wrapped object he brought out. Finding no spells hidden in the
parcel, they conceded she might open it if she wished.

No matter what their station, djinn love
presents. Luna couldn’t help peeking at this one. She ordered one
of the sorcerers to unwrap the silk. Revealed within was a cuff
bracelet Philip had created, using only the purest gold and the
most precious of gemstones. The piece was so lovely everyone who
saw it gasped.

“It is not as beautiful as you, mighty
empress,” Joseph said, “but my master begs you to accept it.”

Luna was dazzled. As any woman would, she
slid the bracelet onto her arm to better admire it.

Joseph rose to his feet and grinned. He
didn’t quite say “gotcha,” but Luna understood the significance of
his reaction.

“What have you done?” she demanded.

“I have bound you to your magic,” Joseph
said. “What you do to us, you now also inflict on any who have
sworn allegiance to you—not excepting your own self.”

“That is impossible. My sorcerers searched
this gift for spells.”

Joseph examined his fingernails. “The spell
was very tiny. I enjoy shrinking things.”

“You swore not to harm us!” the empress
objected.

“I have not harmed you. I only made it
possible for you to harm yourself.”

The empress tried to remove the cuff, but it
was affixed to her as securely as her arm. Joseph warned her
severing the limb would also do no good. Still hoping to rid
herself of the thing, Luna shifted to her smoke form. Unfortunately
for her, the bracelet simply vaporized and re-formed.

Her fury when she realized she could not
escape was truly a sight to see.

She swore at us and ordered us from her
presence, an invitation we accepted while we could. When we were
within the walls again, we sobered. Luna had behaved as if she were
lost to sense. We couldn’t guess what she would do next, only that
admitting defeat and retreating seemed unlikely.

We had our answer when the sun rose the
following morning. As if we’d accomplished nothing, her troops
formed up and once more began marching. The chanting resumed, along
with the sacrifices. The blood Luna’s cauldron drank that day
belonged to farmers she’d caught outside the walls. Nothing she did
horrified her men. They’d become as degenerate as she was.

In our city, people drew together. We have an
awareness of the human “9/11.” I suspect our feelings were similar.
We were facing horrors, and it made us want to reaffirm our
closeness to those we loved. Ironically, the curse struck the
empress and her army first, turning them all to stone. Though our
mages tried, the spell was unstoppable. It swept inward in
concentric circles, taking one ring and then the next.

The palace district is our most central.
Within it, we have three portals. Iksander assigned us to different
ones, to maximize the chance that one of us would escape. We didn’t
have time to be emotional. Joseph prepared a survival cache for
each of us, a sack of miniaturized treasures with which we could
make our way in the human world.

We exchanged our last embrace and parted.
Together, Joseph and I flew to the portal we’d been assigned. This
was at the top of the Arch of Triumph, where the Avenue of Palms
begins. From that height, we had a bird’s eye view of the
sorceress’s curse progressing through our city.

“We must concentrate,” Joseph reminded
me.

He sat and composed himself as I spoke the
words to activate the portal. I’d decided on Manhattan, New York as
our destination. To improve our chances of reaching it, I gave
properly keying the nexus my full attention. Fortunately, this
wasn’t as complicated as it is in your dimension. The portals’
magic is natural to our plane, and no special sacrifice was
required, simply a strong mental grasp of the place I was aiming
for. When I was satisfied I’d got it as right as possible, I sat on
the opposite side of the glowing sphere from Joseph. Though I
couldn’t see it, I sensed the lattice of the mirror space he’d spun
around us.

“Know who you are,” he said, guiding me to
the same meditative state he’d achieved. “Remember that your spirit
is your true essence. It is eternal. It continues when your body
dies. More than this, it contains the intelligence to create
another shell to house itself.”

I knew the new forms we made would be
imperfect. We weren’t as wise as our Creator. Because of this, it
was important to preserve our originals if we could. Consequently,
I had one more question.

“How much spirit should we leave behind in
our bodies?”

“A tenth part should be enough to keep them
from dying when the curse strikes.”

The curse was coming closer. We could feel it
pushing the air before it like a foaming wave running up a shore.
Joseph wouldn’t make his leap until I attempted mine. He didn’t
want to leave me to try alone. Realizing this, I focused on the
details of my physical being, hoping to make my copy as accurate as
possible. When it was set in my mind, I touched the symbol on my
ankle, murmuring the word we’d decided on. Half the mirror space’s
lattice lines jumped to me, the magic in the tattoo setting my
blood aflame. My edges blurred but I didn’t turn to smoke. Across
from me, I saw a second Joseph pull like taffy from his body. Half
a moment later, I did likewise. The new Joseph chanted at the
portal, which flared for him.

To our relief, the nexus sucked our
consciousness and our copies into it.

We rematerialized in your city on the roof of
a large post office, thankfully only scaring a few pigeons. Because
being shot through a nexus is a one-way trip, we began searching
for a portal to take us back as soon as we were able. The portal in
your brownstone was the likeliest candidate we found. You know the
rest of the tale from there.

* * *

Elyse had been listening attentively. As
Arcadius finished, she shifted on the step to face him more
directly. Seen in the sunlight of his world, her clear green eyes
were even more beautiful. Though he was aware she’d have preferred
straight locks, her hair was a mass of glorious deep black curls
with midnight blue highlights. Struck by how very attractive they
were to him, he had to force himself to pay attention when she
spoke.

“What happened to Philip and Iksander? Did
they get out?”

“We don’t know. They were headed to different
locations. The plan was for everyone to place an ad in the
New
York Times
classifieds, to let the others know they’d arrived
safely. We’ve had no response to ours, though we don’t assume the
worst. Many things could have prevented them from answering.”

“And now that you’re here?” she asked. “Do
you know how to free your people?”

“We believe destroying the sorceress’s statue
might accomplish it—or at least serve as the first step.”

“You
believe
it might.”

“We’ve never seen anyone pull off a curse of
this magnitude. It makes the process of undoing it inexact.”

“There was that palace whose residents were
turned to fish,” Joseph said.

Elyse started. She hadn’t noticed Joseph’s
approach. Arcadius recognized the servant’s bright blue robes and
yellow trousers as a set he kept in their private quarters in the
fort. Like Arcadius, Joseph was mentally preparing to become his
old self again.

“Fish?” Elyse asked.

Joseph smiled. Arcadius could feel how fond
of Elyse he was. “Very beautiful fish but only a few hundred were
transformed.” He looked at Arcadius. “I estimate we have an hour
until noon. We should probably make our attempt on the statue
then.”

“Because Luna ruled the City of Endless
Night?” Elyse asked.

“Yes,” Joseph said. “The sun reaching its
zenith should mark an ebb in her powers, whatever remain in her
current state. Samir has slipped away, by the way. When I awoke, he
was gone.”

Arcadius’s mouth pursed with annoyance.

“Should I have tried to hold him?” Joseph
asked.

“We don’t really have grounds for that. He’s
not our prisoner. And he helped get us here, as promised.” Arcadius
shrugged. “We’ll keep an eye out. Hopefully, he’ll find somewhere
far away to make mischief.”

He rose and offered Elyse his hand. She took
it and hopped up. She was endearingly eager. “Are we smashing the
sorceress now?”

“We’re damn well going to try,” he said.

THEY didn’t have far to search for the
sorceress. The stone army was at the city’s gate, having finished
their last lap around the wall before the curse took hold. Elyse
found the sight of the soldiers intimidating, even knowing they
couldn’t move. Their marble expressions were very fierce, their
frozen postures determined. Had the sorceress warned them of the
fate they faced, or had they walked blindly into it?

“Here’s the palanquin,” Joseph called.

He’d picked his way through the ranks to find
it. Lena’s sorcerer-porters must have set it down before they were
petrified. The carrier hadn’t turned to stone. The black silk
awning that shaded it seemed especially animated in the light
wind.

“Someone got here before us,” Joseph
said.

The empress’s body was in pieces. Her lower
half was separate from her upper, one arm had been struck off, and
her head had rolled a short distance from her neck to rest face
down in the trampled dirt. A thick steel pipe lay nearby, clearly
the implement that had caused the damage.

Along with Elyse, Arcadius gazed down at the
stone remains. “One of the soldiers posted at the fort could have
done this. I suppose he gave up hacking her when it didn’t do any
good.”

“We could smash her more,” Joseph said.
“Maybe she needs to be smithereens.”

“Hm,” Arcadius said, the way men do when they
have no idea. Suddenly his attention sharpened. He strode to the
severed head. He lifted it, bouncing it on his palm until it was
face up. The stone eyes stared, the feminine lips covered by a half
veil. Elyse noticed the nose was cracked.

“That’s not her,” Joseph said.

“No, it’s not,” Arcadius agreed.

“Well, heck,” Elyse said, deflated by this
turn of events. “Oh, look: there’s no bracelet on either arm.”

The men were way ahead of her.

“An imposter?” Joseph asked.

“But why bother?” Arcadius responded. “The
bracelet ensured she’d turned to stone, wherever she ran to.”

“Maybe she wanted to see Iksander one last
time,” Elyse suggested.

Both djinn turned glowing eyes to her. Like
the fluttering palanquin, the men seemed especially alive amidst
the stone soldiers.

“That is an excellent guess,” Arcadius said.
“We’ll search the palace first.”

Though she was a full-grown woman, Arcadius’s
praise warmed Elyse. She understood how he’d risen to commander.
Anyone would go the extra mile to earn his approval.

~

Walking through the Glorious City was eerie
and fascinating, like visiting Pompeii if the bodies were standing
up. The residents had been caught in their last moments. Some wept.
Others appeared resigned. Many hugged their children or held the
nearest person’s hand. Nothing had been harmed but the djinn. Dogs
and cats roamed the alleys, and birds in every imaginable hue
darted overhead. Small flying carpets had settled to the ground and
stopped with their stone passengers. In other cases, the stalled
vehicles were wheeled carts, pedaled by more marble folks. They
passed some statues that had toppled over and shattered. Joseph
assured her the people’s spirits would have departed before this
happened.

“They’d be extremely hard to break
otherwise,” he said. “Probably they died of heart attacks from
shock.”

Though she believed him, she did her best to
avoid bumping anyone.

She also noticed, once she was able to see
past the pathos surrounding her, that perhaps two thirds of the
women wore head veils. Those who didn’t seemed to be less affluent,
though that was relative in this treasure-laden place. Observing
the women’s dress made her realize Arcadius had faced quite a bit
of adjusting in New York—quite a bit of adjusting to her, for that
matter.

With no moving traffic to hinder them, they
reached the sultan’s palace in about half an hour. The golden domes
of the huge white complex dominated the upper portion of one of the
city’s hills. Inside, the palace was museum big, with long echoing
corridors and voluminous arched ceilings. The abundance of
embellishments astonished: intricate mosaics and murals and
fist-sized gems sparkling from every surface that would take them.
The result was overwhelming and beautiful. Elyse would happily have
spent a week peeking in every door.

The numerous too-realistic statues reminded
her they weren’t here for sightseeing.

Despite searching every face, they failed to
find the empress in either the grand reception hall or the main
corridor.

“Maybe we should go to the treasure room,”
Joseph said. “That’s where the portal Iksander chose for himself is
located.”