Part 20 (1/2)
Dahnash looked at the cone and edged away. ”Well-”
”You were the one who told me all about marids. How they sink s.h.i.+ps in the sea and blow away cities with a single breath. Now tell me about this Magma.”
”Mortal, maybe we'd better move away a s.p.a.ce while I explain. No sense asking for trouble.”
Hasan restrained his impatience and got his party mov- ing toward a mountain overlooking both the temple and the cone, and commanding a good view of the black plain between them where the kings were already conjuring legions into existence. He was at a loss to comprehend this reluctance on the part of the ifrits, who should have little to fear from one of their own number.
”I told you about the five orders of-” Dahnash began. ”Yes, I'm sure I did. Well, the power of the groups varies exponentially, not arithmetically, and-”
”I wish you'd speak intelligibly.”
”Yes, mortal,” Dahnash said, frustrated. ”Every group has its specialized members, and likewise the marids, but they're not so limited. Most of them used to be G.o.ds, you know. In modern times they've been demoted-but they still pack plenty of power.
”Now take Magma. He's mostly a fire spirit, now-but he can tear up the air and shake the ground something awful, too. If he were closer to the ocean, he could make a wave that would swamp every city on the coast. I mean, he's got power, straight, raw elemental force. He doesn't have to p.u.s.s.yfoot with inertia and centrifugal dynamics the way ifrits do. He-”
”Get to the point,” Hasan snapped, still unwilling to admit that he couldn't follow many of the ifrit's terms. ”Why can't we ask him to help us stop the Queen?”
Dahnash stared. ”Ask him to-mortal, are you out of your mind?”
Hasan waited in stony silence.
”Mortal, I've been trying to tell you. Magma is a marid. That's no ordinary spook. He doesn't help people.”
”Well, what does he do?”
”He sleeps.”
Hasan took a deep breath. ”I mean, when he isn't sleeping?”
”He destroys.”
He was getting nowhere. ”You're telling me we'd bet- ter leave Magma strictly alone?”
”I'm telling you.”
”Then I'd better appoint someone to see that he remains undisturbed. The battle may get a little noisy, and it's right on his flank.” He looked at Dahnash.
The ifrit retreated. ”Now hold on, mortal. I wouldn't dare go near-why, he'd abolish me like so much imagi- nation if-”
The chief appeared. ”I will watch him, Hasan. Magma knows me. I can probably look down his chimney every so often without bothering him.”
”Good. You keep me informed on Magma, and Dahnash will keep track of the progress of the battle.” Hasan had discovered that he rather liked the feeling of generals.h.i.+p.
By noon Queen Nur al-Huda's troops were ranked upon the plain. They were, Hasan noted with surprise, largely male; only the Queen's elite personal guard was amazon. Columns marched over the hill in seemingly endless array and spread like flowing water across the field, armor and weapons glittering. But once in place, the battle array opened in a monstrous flower, the bright s.h.i.+elds countless petals, spears like- A flower! Hasan had marveled more than once at the circular rafflesias, like bowls three feet or more in diame- ter, containing a central cl.u.s.ter of stamens. They were beautiful from a distance-but perfumed like offal.
One of these was growing on the plain. Five circular phalanxes, each ma.s.sed with hundreds of footmen, clus- tered around the outside: enormous leaves. A circular column represented the outer rim of the blossom, and a smaller circle was the inner disk. In the center stood cl.u.s.ters of men with spears held high, the stamens: twenty-five groups in the largest circle, fifteen more in the me- dium circle, five in the smallest.
The amazons stood in the very center, protecting the Queen.
The army of the seven kings, in contrast, was a motley horde. From this distance it was impossible to distinguish individual features, but Hasan could tell that the majority of the creatures was grotesquely unhuman. Some were small, like warty toads and hairy spiders; others were enormous like warty rhinoceroses and hairy ghouls; the remainder was similarly repulsive but less describable.
The ifrit organization had no beauty. There seemed to be no discipline, no unifying pattern.
It seemed so wrong to be on the ugly side. Hasan felt guilty, and he knew that Sana, standing beside him in silence, felt it too, for she turned away and entered the tent the ifrits had provided. Mansur, the younger boy, went with her, but Nasir stayed outside to gaze round-eyed at the preparations.
”We'll tear up that stinking flower soon enough,” Shawahi said with grim antic.i.p.ation, and Nasir clapped his little hands and grinned.
Dahnash appeared. ”They are sounding the charge!” He vanished.
There in the ravaged landscape the ravage of battle began. The clotted mobs of the ifrit army charged upon the living flower. Hasan saw the outer leaves sway as though ruffled by a cosmic breeze, then bend and dissolve into individual contests. He heard the clash of weapon upon claw and spear upon sh.e.l.l.
Dahnash appeared. ”Enemy units engaged,” he an- nounced. ”Aggressor casualties heavy; ours moderate.”
”Wait!” Hasan yelled before the ifrit left again. ”I can't follow all that. Isn't there some way I can see the battle for myself?”
”Mortal, it isn't safe. One of our own dogfaces might snap you up accidentally.”
”Couldn't I wear the cap and ride the back of one of the chief's ifrits? No one would know I was near, and the covenant doesn't apply to his subjects, does it?”
Dahnash remained doubtful. ”The flak is pretty heavy ...”
”Let me do it!” Shawahi said. ”I haven't got so long to live anyway, and I'm an expert military observer. Give me the cap.”
Hasan agreed reluctantly. He wanted to see the action himself, but Shawahi was right. She could learn a lot more in a short time than he could. He handed her the cap.
She selected a flying ifrit and was off. Hasan noticed that all of the ifrit remained in sight, though the old woman was totally invisible. Apparently there were limits to what contact with the cap-wearer would do. A small object disappeared, but not a second individual.
Another thought came. He had missed the obvious again! Why not- ”It wouldn't work,” Dahnash said, ”The chief's ifrits are bound to their homeland. They couldn't carry you home.”
The outer leaves of the flower pattern were locked in turmoil. It was impossible to tell from here who was winning or even what was happening. Was war always as confused as this?
The chief appeared. ”Magma is sleeping restlessly,” he reported. ”I'm afraid the noise of the battle is irritating him.”
”Can't be helped. We can't withdraw now.” Secretly, Hasan hoped the marid would wake. He wanted to see what would happen. But he also knew that this was a foolish desire. He was getting blase about magic, and that could be a fatal att.i.tude.
Shawahi's ifrit came in for a landing. ”What carnage!” the old woman exclaimed when she appeared, not at all put out. ”Our champions are locked in deadly combat with theirs. Heads are flying from shoulders, trunks are falling, blood is flowing in rills, and arms and legs are floating about disconnected. Beautiful!”
”I want to see!” Nasir cried.
”But who is winning?”
She thought for a moment. She evidently hadn't consid- ered the matter. ”I think we have the advantage,” she said uncertainly. ”It's rather confused in the melee. . . .”Then her face lighted. ”But you should see those jinn spout flames from their nostrils! That engagement is a-”
”A real scorcher,” Dahnash said as he appeared. He was gone again.
Nasir jumped up and down. ”I want to see! I want to see!” Hasan decided the boy would never have made a Buddhist.
All afternoon the conflict raged. Gradually the lovely flower on the battlefield broke down, as first the leaves withered and then the outer circles of the blossom dis- solved. But the ranks of the jinn were thinning also, and Hasan knew the issue wasn't settled yet.
At dusk the two hosts drew apart, and at either end of the field the flickering campfires blazed. It was beautiful- but the night breeze also brought the stench of gore. Dim light flickered as well from the smoke above the mountain. Magma was rolling about, perhaps annoyed by the odor.