“Of course!” Alisande smiled with relief. Mama looked out over the field. “They are riding back now, and I think they have taken a prisoner. Saul, have you tried conjuring up modern gadgets?”
“No, I haven’t,” Saul said, startled at the thought “I assumed they wouldn’t work, so I cobbled up magical equivalents.”
“It would not hurt to be sure.” Mama held her hands in front of her eyes, cupping fingers and thumbs and looking through the closer hand to the farther, chanting in Spanish. A spyglass appeared in her hands.
Saul stared. But Mama shook her head and lowered the telescope “No, you were right It does not make things look bigger. We shall have to employ magic after all. How did you craft your enchanted gadgets, Saul?”
Saul shrugged “I made them look like the real thing from our universe, then told them what to do.”
“Told objects what to do?” Mama raised her eyebrows “Well, well!” She turned and spoke a stern verse to the spyglass, then held it up to her eye again “Yes, now it works indeed.”
Alisande glanced at Saul in surprise. He shrugged and spread his hands. “The prisoner is one of the sorcerers.” Mama collapsed the telescope with a snap and pointed at the war party, intoning a verse in dire tones. Then she lowered her arm with a nod of satisfaction. “That should hold him.”
“What did you do?” Alisande asked, wide-eyed. “Bound his spells, of course. If that sorcerer attempts any magic, he will find it recoils upon him.” She held up the spyglass again, then smiled. “I do not know what he tried, but he jerked most unpleasantly in his saddle.” A minute later, she said, “He tried again.”
“I would like something left of him to question,” Alisande said “Then let us hope he is not too trying.” Mama told her. Alisande eyed her warily. “Do you not mean, ‘Does not try too hard?”
“Is that how you say it in your language?” Mama asked, all innocence “Well, I shall remember.”
Alisande was sure she would. Somehow she was very glad the older woman was on her side… and likely to stay so, because of family ties. The queen resolved to treat her husband more kindly. The horses trotted into the courtyard, and Matt dismounted, grinning up at Alisande. Her eyes glowed as she smiled down at him, and Mama, watching, smiled, too, behind her hand. Papa was more open about it. He raced up the stairs to catch Mama in his arms, whirling her about and laughing. “See the trophy I have brought you, mi corazon! But what did you do to him?”
“Only made his own spells rebound upon him,” Mama said, laughing. “Put me down, Ramon! The children are watching!”
Alisande and Matt were watching indeed, then shared a glance as Papa put Mama down.
She tucked her hair back into place, smiling and saying, “If your sorcerer had tried to do anything to favor himself, he might have managed it… but since he only sought to hurt you, he hurt himself instead.”
Papa looked up in surprise, then called down to Matt, “Block his magic!”
Matt turned to find the sorcerer had become transparent. He sang,
The sorcerer grew more opaque, then cursed. “What foul magic made you able to keep me here?”
Matt lifted his head slowly. “So. You speak our language.”
The sorcerer’s eyes became hooded, wary. “And a most barbarous dialect it is, that flows like water and seeps through the understanding!”
“Yes, not a single guttural to recommend it,” Matt said with irony. “But if you can converse, Master Sorcerer, you can answer questions.”
Fear showed in the sorcerer’s eyes, but he blustered, “I shall never answer one single demand!”
“I can’t go on calling you ‘sorcerer’ or ‘prisoner,’ ” Matt said. “What’s your name, anyway?” Then, as the shadow of dread passed over the Muslim’s face, “Your public name, not your secret one.”
“Achmed,” the sorcerer said warily.
“See? You answered one of my questions already.”
Achmed went red with anger. “I shall answer not one single other, pork-fattened unbeliever!”
“Hey, pork isn’t bad if it’s cooked hot enough,” Matt objected. He called to a soldier, “Guard! Run to the kitchens and bring a slice of that ham we had for supper last night, will you?”
“At once, my lord,” the soldier said, grinning. He turned and ran.
Sweat sprang out on the sorcerer’s brow. “You wouldn’t!”
“Why not?” Matt said. “We must be hospitable, after all… couldn’t see a guest go hungry.”
“You swine!”
“Careful, there,” Matt cautioned. “You might be advocating cannibalism.”
“I shall never touch a morsel of that foul meat!”
“No,” Matt said softly, “it will touch you.”
Papa frowned. “My son, I had never thought to see such ruthlessness in you.”
“I’m a knight now, Papa,” Matt said simply. “I can do what I have to do.”
“But such disrespect for another man’s religion!”
“It’s kinder than torture, isn’t it?”
“You could visit no worse pain on me than forcing me to sin!” the sorcerer accused.
“Don’t be so sure.” Matt turned back to his father. “What do you suppose would happen if you rubbed your lamp and told the genie he could do whatever he wanted to his former master?”
“You could not be so barbarous!” the sorcerer gasped.
“No, you could not,” Papa said, and it was a command.
“See?” Matt asked the sorcerer. “Sinning is much less painful… but it’s even kinder to let you decide to commit the sin of your own free will.”
“I could never so oppose my own conscience!”
“I suppose your conscience doesn’t trouble you when it comes to enslaving djinn and conquering Christians?”
“What is done for the Faith is no sin!”
Matt looked up at his father. “Seems to me that every time I’ve heard a religious man say that, he’s coming up with an excuse for breaking the most fundamental doctrines of his own faith.”
Papa nodded grimly. “Murder and looting. I trust you will not try to tell me that the ends justify the means?”
“Sometimes they do.” But Matt winked with the eye the sorcerer couldn’t see.
The soldier came pounding up with a ham bone that had quite a bit of meat left on it. “I thought you might wish to threaten him with this club, my lord.”
“Not a bad thought.” Matt took the ham bone and held it out to the sorcerer. “Have a bite.”
“Never!” the sorcerer snapped.
” ‘Never’ is such an absolute term,” Matt sighed. He brandished the ham, chanting,
The sorcerer’s mouth began to water “What corrupted magic do you seek to practice on me’” he wailed
“Only the transformations any good cook can bring about,” Matt answered “Never knew pig meat could be so good, did you’”
The aroma of the meat drew Achmed into lifting his head closer to the ham bone “This is most immoral of you! To make me lust after forbidden food!”
“Hey, it’s not a sin in my religion ” Matt turned to the guard and called, “Light a little fire. Let’s warm this roast up a little and let Achmed get a whiff of its full aroma “