“Uh, sorry ‘bout that,” Matt said, shamefaced. “I was just trying to keep you from wiping us out.”
Her stare turned into disbelief. “Can you really feel sorrow for inflaming a woman with desire?”
“Well, if she didn’t want it… yes.”
“Most strange indeed!” she marveled. “Such human males as I have dealt with before would never have scrupled so!”
“My son is a rare man indeed,” Papa said proudly. “Rare and strange,” Lakshmi agreed. “Dare you truly free me from the bonds of these Moorish magicians, mortal man?”
“Of course I dare! Do you expect me to believe you’re going to turn on me the minute I liberate you?” In fact, Matt would have believed exactly that, if he hadn’t just given her a conscience.
“A mortal might well believe that of a djinna, yes.” Her eyes were calculating now, evaluating him.
“You would trust me, then?”
“I would. Is that so foolish?”
“Perhaps,” Lakshmi allowed, “but your flattery was most persuasive.” She came to a decision. “Well enough, then. He who enslaved me was a Persian magus, one Haziz al Iskander, and the token in which he bound me was a bracelet with a moonstone inset.”
“Persian?” Matt stared. “How long ago was this, anyway?”
The djinna shrugged. “I have slept long and often since then, within the prison of the gem… but from what free djinn have told me when I have been awake and done with whatever task my new master set for me, it has been perhaps three hundred of your years. Is Kaprin still King of Merovence?”
“I’m afraid not,” Matt said, then remembered that she might not have meant Alisande’s father. “Which Kaprin? There have been four of them.”
“Four?” The djinna stared. “I only know of one! How much time has been stolen from me? How long since the first Kaprin died?”
“About two centuries.” Matt braced himself for hysterics.
They didn’t come, but Lakshmi began to look very angry. “Five hundred years since Haziz enslaved me, then. I have slept through much of my life, mortal man. If you can free me, I shall be as grateful as a djinna can be.” For a moment, her sensuality gleamed its promise again.
Matt forced his mind back to the problem. “So you were bound into the moonstone by a Persian? Well, let me think.” He bowed his head.
The djinna’s eyes flashed with anger. She started to speak, but Papa forestalled her with a raised palm.
“Peace, milady. He makes magic.”
The djinna stared and bit off her rebuke.
Matt raised his head, eyes unfocused, and recited,
Lakshmi fairly glowed with allure, and stepped forward, hips swaying. Matt shot the next verse in quickly:
He ended, looking up at the djinna expectantly.
She frowned, gazing off into space, and moved her arms experimentally, then shook her head. “The ties still bind me. They are weakened, but still there.”
“I was afraid of that,” Matt sighed. “I can’t do anything more without knowing your name.”
“My name?” The djinna stared. “I told you… it is Lakshmi!”
“No, no! Not your public name… your true name, your secret name, the one that only your mother knew until you came of age, and she told it to you!”
Warily, Lakshmi demanded, “How did you know of secret names among the djinn?”
Matt could have answered that most primitive peoples had such names, and kept them secret specifically so that sorcerers couldn’t use them to cast hurtful spells over the people… but it was more tactful to say,
“Because your people have been around for a very long time.”
“What need have you of my secret name?”
“The magus used it to bind you to the moonstone, didn’t he?”
Fear touched the djinna’s eyes. “How did you know that?”
“It’s not your body that’s bound, really,” Matt explained, “it’s your inner self. There’s nothing outside of you that forces you to return to the moonstone or obey the wishes of the one who carries it… it’s a compulsion laid in your heart of hearts. The magus used your true name to bind you, and I can’t free you without it.”
“But if you know my true name, you will be able to work foul magics upon me, and will have power over me in any way you choose!”
“I know,” Matt said apologetically, “but that’s how it works. He bound you by your secret name, so I can’t free you without saying it. You’ll have to trust me.”
The djinna’s eyes hardened. “Can I trust you to forget the name as soon as you have said it?”
“Good thought!” Matt said, and chanted,
Papa nodded, eyes bright with understanding. “You may tell him your name now, sweet lady. He cannot remember it after he has spoken it once.”
She still looked doubtful, but she snapped at Papa, “Cover your ears and turn away your eyes.”
Papa did.
Lakshmi stepped very close to Matt, all business now… but the sheer impact of her sensuality still hit him like a hammer. Dazed and tingling with desire, he forced himself to focus on the single word she spoke, then nodded and snapped, “Step away.”
Anger lit in her eyes, but she stepped back anyway.
Matt drew a ragged breath as her effect diminished enough for him to remember his verse. He recited the song of separation again, but included the name she had given instead of the pronoun. Then he looked up, startled.
“What troubles you?” she snapped.
“Something’s missing,” Matt said. “From my memory, I mean.”
“Of course… my name!”
“Is that all?” Matt frowned, attention turned inward. “Yes, I can remember reciting the verse that told me to forget your name as soon as I used it, I can remember using it… but I can’t remember what it was!”
“That is good.” The djinna smiled. “You are a man of your word.” Then she frowned. “If you speak truly, that is.”
“Hey, you gotta trust me some,” Matt said, affronted. “How’re you feeling? Any strings attached?”
Lakshmi lifted her arms again, gazing off into space. Then her face lit with delight. “They are gone! The constraints and compulsions are gone! You have freed me indeed! I am no longer bound to the mission on which he sent me!”
“Great!” Matt smiled, elated. “What was your mission, by the way?”
“To slay a wizard named Matthew Mantrell.”
Matt stared. So did Papa. Then as one, they drew a deep breath.
The djinna frowned. “This troubles you?”
“You might say that,” Matt agreed. “You see, my name is Matthew Mantrell… and for once, I’m very, very glad I was willing to help out a stranger!”