Part 9 (1/2)
Tony looked sharply at Ghail and at the Queen. Ghail was young and very desirable. The Queen was less young and contentedly undesirous. She laughed frankly.
”Very well, Ghail!” And to Tony she said: ”I think that even as a captive queen, though, I can amend my council's orders to say that it will not be necessary to exterminate thedjinnscompletely! I should think, in fact, that if they were suitably subdued, a few tame ones kept around the palace would be quite pleasant.
They'd be excellent for the prestige of the throne of Barkut, too!”
Tony said painfully: ”Majesty-”
”It's really too bad you came to Barkut at all,” the Queen said, though with no unfriendliness. ”Humans anddjinnsalike believe that if anybody can bring about a human victory, you can. So the humans won't consent to a compromise until they've tried for conquest. And if they would, thedjinnswould be sure they knew they couldn't win, and they wouldn't compromise until they'd tried for conquest. It's so silly! We really could get along without fighting, if we tried! I've been working on thedjinnking. He was willing to come to a compromise, but-male vanity again!-only on condition that the Queen of Barkut married him. And that seemed to be out of the question.”
”It was out of the question!” snapped Ghail, her eyes angry.
”I was wearing him down,” protested the Queen. ”After all, if he had his harem ofdjinnees, a private agreement that his marriage to a human queen would be a form and not a fact-”
”Absolutely out of the question!” repeated Ghail, her color high. ”Absolutely!”
The Queen sighed.
”I know it is, my dear . . . and it's too late now, anyhow. The Lord Toni has come. The humans think he's going to lead them to victory. Thedjinnsare sure that if he can't, the war goes to them.” She looked at Tony, frowning. ”Of course you've got to win, Lord Toni! Of course! Humans as the slaves ofdjinns would be in a terrible state! It would be like enslaved by apes or-children! And apes make nice pets-I had one once-and children are doubtless very well, but apes or children ordjinnswould be horrible masters! But thedjinnsare so amusing-”
”I'm getting a trifle confused,” admitted Tony.
The Queen nodded kindly.
”I know,” she said condescendingly. ”You men only really talk to each other. You don't often see things straight. If you only talked to women more . . . about things that really matter, that is-”
”May Allah forbid!” said Tony grimly. ”I've never yet talked to a woman who didn't try to make me apologize for being a man, or any who'd have bothered to talk to me if I hadn't been! You are a queen, Majesty, and you're giving me what I take to be rather complicated instructions. I'm only a man. So whatever I do-because I'm a man-you will explain should have been done differently. No man can ever do anything exactly the way a woman would like him to, but whatever he does, women will make the best of it. So I'm not going to try to do whatever it is you're trying to command. I'm going to handle this my way!”
He spoke hotly, through a natural a.s.sociation of their viewpoint with that of his conscience. Which had reason behind it, at that. But at the same time, he wondered rather desperately what his own way would be.
The Queen regarded him complacently.
”I know. Men are like that.” Then she added, ”I think you and Ghail will be very happy.”
Ghail turned crimson. She stamped her foot furiously. ”Majesty-” she cried. ”You go too far-”
There was a small-sized uproar outside. The voice of the stout woman, in alarm: ”Abdul! Abdul! You can't do things like that!”
Tony plunged to the door. At the foot of the wall which was thedjinnking's palace, almost a quarter of a mile away, there was a twelve-foot soldier-djinnwho by his gestures had just communicated some message of importance. In the stretch between the wall and the farmhouse, a charging rhinoceros raced at top speed. It plunged toward the small group of buildings. Fifty yards away it seemed to stumble, crash, and in mid-air turned into a round ball with spiral red-and-white stripes which made a dizzying spectacle as it rolled. It was five feet in diameter. It checked abruptly two yards from the Queen's door and there abruptly wrinkled itself, changed color, and collapsed into the short, fat, swaggeringdjinnwith a turban who was Tony's guide to this place, who was Nasim's friend Abdul, and who had awaited a summons to duty as a valet in the form of a c.o.c.kroach atop the window hangings of Tony's bedroom.
He bowed profoundly.
”Lord,” he said, ”there is a message from the king. Es-Souk, who was to have been executed today for your amus.e.m.e.nt, has escaped from his prison. He undoubtedly seeks you, lord, to attempt your murder before his own death, since he cannot live under the king's displeasure.”
Tony felt himself growing just a little pale. He remembered fingers closing on his throat, and an elephant-sized monster in his bedroom in the palace at Barkut, beating its breast before falling upon him to demolish him utterly.
That-irrelevantly-suggested the only possible source of action. Tony gulped and said: ”Thank you, Abdul. Tell the king I am very much obliged for the warning. But tell him not to worry about it. I won't need any extra guards. I'll handle Es-Souk. In fact, I'll help hunt for him as soon as I've-as soon as I've refilled my cigarette lighter.”
Chapter 13.
He went back into the house. His knees felt queer. He fumbled in his pockets. He brought out the lighter, and then brought out one of the small gla.s.s phials Ghail had given him in the camel cabin on the way across the desert-one of those containinglasf.
Ghail looked pale, too.
”What are you going to do?” she demanded. Her voice trembled.
”Attend to Es-Souk, I hope,” said Tony, with quite unnatural calm. To the Queen he said: ”Your Majesty, if you have any petdjinnsaround at the moment, you'd better chase them out. I'm opening up a phial oflasf.”
”But-”
”I've got an idea.” said Tony. ”It doesn't make sense, but nothing makes much sense any more. I'm going to take advantage of what I think is a generally occurring allergic reaction amongdjinns.” The words ”allergic reaction” had no Arabic equivalent, so he had to use the English ones, and to Ghail and the Queen of Barkut they sounded remarkably learned and mysterious. ”And just to make sure, I'd appreciate it enormously if you'd draw me a picture of the leaf of thelasfplant.”
He unscrewed the seal of the cigarette-lighter tank. It was bone-dry of fluid, of course. It hadn't been filled since Suakim. And while confined in his later cell it had been extremely annoying to have to get a light for an occasional cigarette, rolled from local tobacco, from a brazier kept burning by the guards outside his gate. Now the lighter was a G.o.dsend. If he was right aboutlasf,a cigarette lighter was the ideal weapon in which to use it.
He extracted the stopper of the small gla.s.s phial. With not especially steady fingers he poured the liquid into the tank. It soaked up and soaked up. Its odor was noticeable. Presently the wick was moist. He re-sealed the tank and snapped down the lighter's cover. He re-stoppered the phial and put it away.
”Now I'd like to wash my hands,” he said unhappily, ”and-is that the picture of thelasfleaf?”
The Queen had stooped and traced an outline on the clay floor of her dwelling. She said: ”I'm quite sure. Yes.”
Tony stared at it and sighed in enormous relief. Ghail brought a bowl of water. He washed his hands with meticulous care. He dried them on a cloth she handed him.
”If you keep petdjinnsaround,” he observed, ”better burn that cloth. Right away. And I'd empty the water on soft earth and throw more earth on top of it. No use revealing that you've gotlasfaround, until you need it. The faintest whiff would give it away to them.”
Ghail said again: ”But wh-what are you going to do?”
”I'm going to hunt Es-Souk,” said Tony. ”I think thedjinnking is putting something over on me. I had a fight with Es-Souk in my bedroom in Barkut. He ran away. There's been talk of atomic bombs and the king thinks I can make them. But he wants to make sure. I'm under safe-conduct, of course, but if a condemned criminal-Es-Souk-breaks loose and kills me, the king can't be blamed. He'll apologize all over the place, of course. He'll probably offer to pay reparations and indemnity, and salute the Barkutian flag, and all that. But I'll be dead. And the war will go on merrily. You see?”
”But that's-dishonorable!” protested Ghail.
”Nothing's dishonorable,” said Tony, gloomily, ”unless you can prove it. And you'd never prove that!
Just helping hunt for Es-Souk is no good. I've got to meet him in single combat, somehow, and whip him again so the king will know I do it without mirrors or outside help. If I do that, maybe we'll get somewhere.”
He turned to go out the door. Ghail caught at his sleeve.
”P-please!” she said shakily. Her eyes were br.i.m.m.i.n.g. Tony saw the Queen regarding them critically. He was embarra.s.sed.
”What is it?” he asked.
”Last-last night-”
Tony sighed deeply.
”Listen,” he said. ”If you want to sign a pledge that the lips that touchdjinnees, shall never touch yours, you go right ahead! It won't interfere with my plans in the least. Is that satisfactory?”