“Thanks.” Matt swallowed, then grinned, trying to put a brave face on it. “I’ll save that favor, if you don’t mind, until I really need it.”
“Only call for Kamar of the Djinn.” But the genie was staring in disbelief. He looked up at Lakshmi.
“What manner of man is this, Princess? Any other would have taken the offer of a wish on the instant, and called for wealth or luxury!”
“He is a most exceptional example of his kind.” Lakshmi didn’t sound completely happy about it. “But since you are freed and no longer a threat to him, Kamar, fare you well.”
“Farewell?” Kamar dropped Matt like a hot potato, eyes showing the misery of learning he’d guessed right the first time. “Do you not still wish me to dally, O Pearl?”
“With you? Be not absurd!” Lakshmi turned away, scooping Matt up, and called back over her shoulder,
“Earn greater fame among the djinn if you would seek to speak to me again!” But she rolled her hips as she went, just to rub it in. Behind her, Kamar groaned.
“Well, you sure know how to motivate males,” Matt called up to her
“Aye, except for the one I wish to move, or the other who would do in his place,” Lakshmi said with a sardonic smile. She leaned down to set Matt on the ground next to Stegoman. Matt felt sheepish “I can’t thank you enough, O Princess.”
“You can,” she said, shrinking down to human size, blazing with every erg of allure she possessed. Matt staggered back, gasping, and Lakshmi’s smile turned bitter. “You can thank me as I wish, but you will not.”
“Well, you know the rules about interspecies dating.”
“I know quite well that it has been done,” she answered tartly, “though rarely, and even more rarely to both partners’ satisfaction. To be plain, your kind lacks endurance, Lord Wizard.”
Matt fought down the urge to prove her wrong. “Well, we intellectuals are apt to be a bit absentminded.”
“Not at all,” Lakshmi countered. “Your mind is entirely too present. Were it absent, your body would do as it wished… and as I wished.” Her smile turned sardonic again. “But since your mind is present, and you will not act upon my desires, then find me some mate worthy of me, mortal man… one who will make me forget you quite. Now, farewell.”
She disappeared suddenly and completely, and reaction made Matt sick and weak inside. He dropped to his knees, gasping for breath. “Papa maybe we could find some way to break a love spell.”
“Better men than we have sought that cancellation, my son,” Papa sighed, “and have learned that an obsession is far more easily begun than ended. Come now, let us ride.” He clasped Matt’s forearm and braced him as he stood up, then turned away to climb aboard Stegoman.
“They’re okay, Lady Mantrell!” Saul assured her. “Believe me, Matt has done this kind of thing before… four times before, and he’s still in one piece!”
“Yes, but with how much pain?” Mama countered She looked around the royal library, at a loss.
Bookshelves climbed to the ceiling, filled with huge leatherbound parchment volumes. “Certainly there must be something here that can tell us how to protect him!”
“Believe me, milady, the only things that can hurt your son are so thoroughly evil that only a saint or an angel can help him any.” Saul spoke from personal experience. “And he rides under the protection of St. Moncaire, at least. I suspect, being in Ibile, that he also has St. Iago looking out for him.”
“Oh, I have asked the good saint to intercede for him, every night!” Mama said fervently. “If only I could know he is safe!”
“All right, we’ll look again,” Saul said, exasperated. He leaned down over the writing desk and pulled the inkpot over. It was heavy-duty, four inches wide and three high. Saul took off the cover and passed his hand over it three times, muttering,
Slowly, a picture appeared in the small pool. Mama stared “That spell works most amazingly, Saul!”
“You mean it’s amazing that it works,” Saul said with a grimace. “I think it’s only because the magic associates pixels with pixies.”
They saw a dragon gliding low under the morning sun with Matt and Papa on his back. Around them stretched a flat and dusty plain with rows of small trees marking watercourses. “What remarkable transportation!” Mama stared.
“Transportation? That’s a friend, a dragon named Stegoman. You see, Lady Mantrell? He’s alive and well.”
“Yes, but for how long?” Mama frowned. “There must be some aid I can send them.”
Saul forced a smile. “You really don’t believe those silly men can take care of themselves without a wise woman to watch over them, do you?”
“Don’t be ridiculous, Saul.” Mama sniffed. “I know they’re not silly.” She carefully didn’t comment on the rest of his statement. Saul frowned. He started to say he could see she was planning something, but caught himself in time… Mama’s gaze was so intent that he felt sure she was either working magic, or thinking some up.
“That landscape around them,” Mama said. “What does it look like to you?”
Saul frowned, studying the image for a minute, its flatness, emptiness, the broadness of its reach…
“Nebraska.”
Mama nodded. “I thought so, too. But this is Ibile, not America, so it must be La Mancha.”
Saul gave her a leery glance.
She watched Stegoman’s slow glide for a minute more… and on the horizon ahead, a windmill appeared, its sail turning lazily.
“No doubt of it,” Mama said. “It is La Mancha.” Saul caught his breath, then recited, almost without thinking,
Mama looked up, nodding, pleased. “So you know of him. Yes, Saul. I think that, in this world, that is a name to conjure by.” She turned back to stare into the inkpot, intoning a brief, singsong chant, then sat back, relaxing.
Saul waved a hand over the inkpot, muttering quickly. It went dark, and he covered it. “Satisfied, Donna Mantrell?”
“I am not a donna,” she said automatically, then caught herself, wide-eyed. “But I suppose I am… here, am I not? If my son is a lord.”
“Not officially,” Saul told her, “but I’m sure that’s just an oversight Alisande will get around to fixing as soon as she’s back. Think your men are safe now, Donna?”
“Oh, yes,” Mama said, with a little smile. “As safe as they can be. I have sent them what aid I can, at least.” She frowned suddenly. “Pray Heaven it is enough!”
Gliding over the plain, they saw another small town appear ahead of them. Matt pointed. “Down there, Stegoman. It’s bigger than the other towns we’ve come to. Maybe there’ll be somebody left to sell us dinner.”
“Or perhaps a stray cow,” Stegoman grumbled. “These people seem to have been remarkably efficient in taking their beasts with them, Matthew!”
“Can’t leave food behind for the enemy, you know. Besides, I think Rinaldo’s planning on making the whole northern coast into one big castle, and they’re going to need every calorie they can find for the siege.”