“How is it I have not noticed this?” Beidizam demanded.
“Because you hear only the words you intended to say,” Mama explained. “Others hear only the random noises your mouth makes instead.”
“Ingenious!” Beidizam’s eyes glowed with reluctant admiration. “But how is it you understand my words?”
“I made that one exception when I cast the spell, milord… that when you are in my presence, your tongue is straightened, and your lips once more do your bidding. When I am with you, your mouth speaks the words your mind intends.”
“If that is truly so… ” Beidizam said, and rubbed one hand over the other.
Saul saw, and leaped. “Stop that! Lady Mantrell, he’s rubbing his… “
Smoke billowed out of Beidizam’s hand, turning into a huge genie with bulging eyes and boar’s tusks.
“Who summons the Genie of the Ring?”
“I, Beidizam!” the Moor cried. “Take us from this place, O Genie! Take all in this room to my tent outside the city!”
Mama instantly chanted in Spanish.
“I hear and obey!” the genie thundered to Beidizam, then turned to Mama and Saul, gesturing.
Saul pulled a dried herb from his pocket and caught Mama’s shoulder with the other hand as he chanted quickly,
The genie finished his gesture, chanting in Berber. There was a blinding flash of light.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Saul held tight to Mama’s shoulder even as he swung his hand up to shield his eyes, staggering back against the wall. Then the glare was gone, and he lowered his hand to stare around at the cell, empty now except for its furniture, Mama, and himself… and some very large afterimages.
“How foolish of me!” Mama cried. “I should have foreseen this!”
“We didn’t know how clever he was,” Saul groaned, “or how quick. I should have seen it coming, too.”
Mama shook her head in reluctant admiration. “He may be a sexist beast, but he is a formidable adversary. I should have wondered why he wore so many rings! I should have realized that Beidizam could work a spell in my presence!”
“You realized that last part, at least,” Saul reminded her. “That’s why you brought me along, remember?
For backup. Turned out you were right, too.”
“But I should have suspected those rings!”
“Why?” Saul shrugged. “Neither of us is a jeweler, and Beidizam was so obviously vain that he would have seemed odd if he hadn’t had a ring on every finger. And neither of us is an expert on genie lore, either. Yeah, I remember the Slave of the Ring who got Aladdin out of the cave, but mostly you think of genies as living in lamps.”
“You are good to ease my feelings, Saul,” Mama said, a little less distressed, “but still I burn with anger that an enemy has outmaneuvered me. Worse, he shall now seek to outmaneuver us in war!”
She swept out the door toward the stairs, calling to the guards, “My compliments to Sir Guy and Sir Gilbert, and I would appreciate it if they would wait on me in my solar. We must have a council of war!”
The soldiers stared, then ran.
Saul caught up with her. “That bad, huh?”
“Worse,” Mama snapped. “The only question now is whether the Moors will attack tomorrow, or the next day!”
Under the railroad bridge, the air thickened, then thickened more, until it coalesced into Matt, blinking about him in surprise. He hadn’t really expected to arrive at night. Good thing, though, come to think of it … the cops might not be too understanding about somebody wearing doublet and hose, especially when they were so worn and travel-stained as Matt’s.
He took a step out, glancing to left and right to see if he was alone. He thought he saw movement under a streetlight, and turned back… to find Callio huddled against the wall, trembling.
Matt stared, then stepped up. “So it was you who grabbed my arm! Were you really trying to hold me back?”
“Who… ?” The thief looked up. “Oh no, Lord Wizard! But I made sure you would not leave without me … life has been so much more interesting since I joined you!”
“Not to say profitable, hm?” Matt shook his head. “Well, don’t try lifting anything here, Callio. We have a lot of thieves, and they resent anyone poaching on their territory. The citizens are also pretty careful.” he added, “and the shopkeepers are worse.”
“If… if you say so, Lord Wizard.” But Callio was clearly disappointed.
“I came here to fight a villain,” Matt told him. “This could get dangerous. You’d better stay here and wait; I’ll come back and get you if I can.”
“If you can?” Callio stared. “What could prevent you?”
“Death,” Matt snapped. “The outlaw I’m going up against is very mean, and he has some extremely tough bodyguards. They also have magical weapons, like the one Luco tried to use on us. You’re far safer staying here.”
“Yes, if you live! But if you don’t, I’m stranded here in a world that is foreign to me!” Callio crept out and took a quick look at the railroad station, the cobblestoned yard, the streetlights… and just then, a commuter train came roaring by. For a minute, the whole world was filled with its thunder, resounding and echoing under the bridge. Callio cried out in panic and clung to Matt.
“Okay, so you’re coming along,” Matt said, disgusted… but he also remembered that even if he got through this alive, he might not have time to come back to this bridge before he returned to Merovence.
“Thank you, Lord Wizard,” Callio whimpered.
“But if you’re going to come along, you’ll have to do as I say… and do it instantly, understand? There isn’t going to be time to explain.”
“Surely, Lord Wizard! Yes, surely!” Callio nodded so hard Matt was afraid his head would fall off.
“Okay, wait for magic,” Matt said, and stepped deeper into the shadow under the bridge, reciting,
He felt the magic field thicken about him, only a pale echo of the Merovencian phenomenon… but a counterforce sprang up to resist it almost immediately, and Matt found his whole body straining against it. As he finished the last couplet, he felt the whole field collapse, and staggered, leaning against the wall, gasping.
A hand touched his shoulder. “Are you well?” Callio asked, on the verge of panic.
“Just… peachy.” Matt pushed himself away from the wall, still panting. “It… worked. Just fine.”
“But nothing has happened,” Callio protested.
“Maybe,” Matt said. “Maybe not. We won’t know until we meet the man we’ve come to find.”
“How shall we find him, then?”
“I don’t think we’ll have to,”’ Matt said slowly. “If I have him figured right, he’ll find us… and fast, too.
Before that happens, though, we’ve got some other things to do. Let’s go.”
He started out, Callio right on his heels, staying near the retaining wall in hopes of shadow. “Brace yourself for a lot of odd things… “
“Odder than that dragon that roared over our heads?”