Castle In The Air Part 16

The echoes in the hall picked it up, doubled the screams, and rolled it all back at the throne.

"Echo at those djinns," Sophie was saying in her conversational magical way. "Don't just double it. Treble it."

The hall was a madhouse. Both djinns clapped their hands over their pointed ears. Dalzel hooted, "Stop it! Stop them! Where did that baby come from?"

To which Hasruel howled, "Women have babies, fool of a djinn! What did you expect?"

"I WANT MY DOGGY BACK!" stated Valeria, beating the seat of the throne with her fists.

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Dalzel's trumpet voice fought to be heard. "Give her a doggy, Hasruel, or I'll kill you!"

At this stage in Abdullah's plans he had confidently expected- if he had not been killed by then-to be turned into a dog. It was what he had been leading up to. This, he had calculated, would also have released Jamal's dog. He had counted on the sight of not one dog but two, das.h.i.+ng from beneath the Paragon's petticoat, to add to the confusion. But Hasruel was as distracted by the screams, and the triple echoes of screams, as his brother was. He turned this way and that, clutching his ears and yelling with pain, the picture of a djinn at his wits' end. Finally he folded his great wings and became a dog himself.

He was a very huge dog, something between a donkey and a bulldog, brown and gray in patches, with a golden ring in his snub nose. This huge dog put its gigantic forepaws on the arm of the throne and stretched an enormous slavering tongue out toward Valeria's face. Hasruel was trying to seem friendly. But at the sight of something so big and so ugly, Valeria, not unnaturally, screamed harder than ever. The noise frightened Morgan. He screamed harder, too.

Abdullah had a moment when he was quite at a loss what to do, and then another moment when he was sure no one would hear him shout. "Soldier!"he roared. "Hold Hasruel! Someone hold Dalzel!"

Luckily the soldier was alert. He was good at that. The Jharine of Jham vanished in a flurry of old clothes, and the soldier leaped up the steps of the throne. Sophie rushed after him, beckoning to the princesses. She threw her arms around Dalzel's slender white knees, while the soldier wrapped his brawny arms around the neck of the dog. The princesses stampeded up the steps behind them, and most of them threw themselves on Dalzel, too, with the air of princesses badly in need of revenge-all except Princess Beatrice, who dragged Valeria out of the brawl and began the difficult task of shutting her up. The tiny Princess of Tsapfan meanwhile sat calmly on the porphyry floor, rocking Morgan back to sleep.

Abdullah tried to run toward Hasruel. But 183 move than Jamal's dog seized its chance and got away. It burst out from under the Paragon's petticoat to see a fight in progress. It loved fights. It also saw another dog. If anything, it hated dogs even more than djinns or the human race. No matter what size the dog was. It sped, snarling, to the attack. While Abdullah was still trying to kick his way out of the Paragon's petticoat, Jamal's dog sprang for Hasruel's throat.

This was too much for Hasruel, already beset by the soldier. He became a djinn again. He made an angry gesture. And the dog went sailing away, end over end, to land with yelp on the other side of the hall. After that Hasruel tried to stand up, but the soldier was on his back by then, preventing him spreading his leathery wings. Hasruel heaved and surged.

"Hold your head down, Hasruel, I conjure you!" Abdullah shouted, kicking free of the Paragon's petticoat at last. He leaped up the steps, wearing nothing but his loincloth, and seized hold of Hasruel's great left ear.

At this Flower-in-the-Night understood where Hasruel's life was, and to Abdullah's great joy, she jumped up and hung on to Hasruel's right ear.

And there they hung, raised in the air from time to time when Hasruel got the better of the soldier, and slammed to the floor when the soldier got the better of Hasruel, with the soldier's straining arms wrapped around the djinn's neck just beside them and Hasruel's great snarling face between them. From time to time Abdullah caught glimpses of Dalzel standing on the seat of his throne under a pile of princesses. He had spread his weak golden wings. They did not seem much use for flying with, but he was battering at the princesses with them and shouting to Hasruel for help.

Dalzel's trumpet shouts seemed to inspire Hasruel. He began to get the better of the soldier. Abdullah tried to get a hand loose so that he could reach out to the golden ring, dangling just by his shoulder, under Hasruel's hooked nose. Abdullah freed his left hand. But his right hand was sweating and slipping off Hasruel's ear. He grabbed-desperately-before he slipped off.

He had reckoned without Jamal's dog. After lying dazed for most of a minute, it stood up, angrier than ever and full of hatred 184.

for djinns. It saw Hasruel and knew its enemy. Back across the hall it raced, hackles up and snarling, past the tiny princess and Morgan, past Princess Beatrice and Valeria, through the princesses eddying around the throne, past the crouching figure of its master, and sprang at the easiest piece of djinn to reach. Abdullah s.n.a.t.c.hed his hand away just intime.

Snap! went the dog's teeth. Gulp went the dog's throat. After that, a puzzled look crossed the dog's face, and it dropped to the floor, hiccuping uneasily. Hasruel howled with pain and sprang upright with both hands clapped to his nose. The soldier was hurled to the floor.

Abdullah and Flower-in-the-Night were flung off to either side. Abdullah dived for the hiccuping dog, but Jamal got there first and picked it up tenderly.

"Poor dog, my poor dog! Better soon!" he crooned to it, and carried it carefully away down the steps.

Abdullah dragged the dazed soldier with him and put them both in front of Jamal. "Stop, everyone!" he shouted. "Dalzel, I conjure you to stop!

We have your brother's life!"

The struggle on the throne stilled. Dalzel stood with spread wings and his eyes like furnaces again. "I don't believe you," he said. "Where?"

"Inside the dog," said Abdullah.

"But only until tomorrow," Jamal said soothingly, thinking only of his hiccuping dog. "It has an irritable gut from eating too much squid. Be thankful-"

Abdullah kicked him to shut him up. "The dog has eaten the ring in Hasruel's nose," he said.

The dismay on Dalzel's face told him that the genie had been right. He had guessed correctly. "Oh!" said the princesses. All eyes turned to Hasruel, huge and bowed over, with tears in his fiery eyes and both hands clasped to his nose. Djinn blood, which was clear and greenish, dripped between his great horned fingers.

"I should hab dode," Hasruel said dismally. "It wad right udder by dose."

The elderly Princess of High Norland detached herself from the crowd around the throne, felt in her sleeve, and reached up to 185.

Hasruel with a small lacy handkerchief. "Here you are," she said. "No hard feelings."

Hasruel took the handkerchief with a grateful "Thang you" and pressed it to the torn end of his nose. The dog had not really eaten much except the ring. Having mopped the place carefully, Hasruel knelt ponderously down and beckoned to Abdullah up the steps of the throne. "What would you have me do now I am good again?" he asked mournfully.

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In which the castle comes down to earth Abdullah did not need to give Hasruel's question much thought. "You mustexile your brother, mighty djinn, to a place from which he will not return," he said.

Dalzel at once burst into melting blue tears. "It's not fair!" He wept and stamped his foot on the throne. "Everyone's always against me! You don't love me, Hasruel! You cheated me! You didn't even try to get rid of those three people hanging on to you!"

Abdullah was sure Dalzel was right about that. Knowing the power a djinn had, Abdullah was sure Hasruel could have flung the soldier, not to speak of himself and Flower-in-the-Night, to the ends of the earth if he had wanted to.

"It wasn't as if I was doing any harm!" Dalzel shouted. "I have a right to get married, don't I?"

While he shouted and stamped, Hasruel murmured to Abdullah, "There is a wandering island in the ocean to the south, which is only to be found once in a hundred years. It has a palace and many fruit trees. May I send my brother there?"

"And now you're going to send me away!" Dalzel screamed. "None of you care how lonely I shall be!"

"By the way," Hasruel murmured to Abdullah, "your father's 187.

first wife's relatives made a pact with the mercenaries, which allowed them to flee from Zanzib to escape the Sultan's wrath, but they left the two nieces behind. The Sultan has locked the unfortunate girls up, they being the nearest of your family he could find."

"Most shocking," Abdullah said. He saw what Hasruel was driving at.

"Perhaps, mighty djinn, you might celebrate your return to goodness by fetching the two damsels here?"

Hasruel's hideous face brightened. He raised his great clawed hand.

There was a clap of thunder, followed by some girlish squealing, and the two fat nieces stood before the throne. It was as simple as that.

Abdullah saw that Hasruel had indeed been holding back his strength before. Looking into the djinn's great slanting eyes- which still had tears in the corners from the dog's attack-he saw that Hasruel knew he knew.

"Not more princesses!" Princess Beatrice said. She was kneeling by Valeria, looking rather hara.s.sed.

"Nothing of the sort, I a.s.sure you," said Abdullah.

The two nieces could hardly have looked less like princesses. They were in their oldest clothes, practical pink and workaday yellow, torn and stained from their experiences, and the hair of both had come unfrizzed.

They took one look at Dalzel stamping and weeping above them on the throne, another look at the huge shape of Hasruel, and then a third look at Abdullah wearing nothing but a loincloth, and they screamed. Then each tried to hide her face in the other's plump shoulder.

"Poor girls," stated the Princess of High Norland. "Hardly royal behavior.""Dalzel!" Abdullah shouted up at the sobbing djinn. "Beauteous Dalzel, poacher of princesses, be peaceful a moment and look upon the gift I have given you to take with you into exile."

Dalzel stopped in mid-sob. "Gift?"

Abdullah pointed. "Behold two brides, young and succulent and sorely in need of a bridegroom."

Dalzel wiped luminous tears from his cheeks and surveyed the nieces in much the same way that Abdullah's cannier customers used to inspect his carpets. "A matching pair!" he said. "And won 188.

derfully fat! Where's the catch? Are they perhaps not yours to give away?"

"No catch, s.h.i.+ning djinn," said Abdullah. It seemed to him that, now the girls' other relatives had deserted them, they were surely his to dispose of. But to be on the safe side, he added, "They are yours for the stealing, mighty Dalzel." He went up to the nieces and patted each on her plump arm. "Ladies," he said. "Fullest moons of Zanzib, pray forgive me that unfortunate vow which prevents me forever from enjoying your largeness. Look up instead and behold the husband I have found you in my place."

The heads of both nieces came up as soon as they heard the word husband.

They gazed at Dalzel. "He's ever so handsome," said the pink one.

"I like them with wings," said the yellow one. "It's different."

"Fangs are rather s.e.xy," mused the pink one. "So are claws, provided he's careful with them on the carpets."

Dalzel beamed wider with each remark. "I shall steal these at once," he said. "I like them better than princesses. Why didn't I collect fat ladies instead, Hasruel?"

A fond smile bared Hasruel's fangs. "It was your decision, brother." His smile faded. "If you are quite ready, it is my duty to send you into exile now."

"I don't mind so much now," Dalzel said, with his eyes still on the two nieces.

Hasruel stretched out his hand again, slowly, regretfully, and slowly, in three long rolls of thunder, Dalzel and the two nieces faded out of sight. There was a slight smell of the sea and a faint noise of sea gulls. Both Morgan and Valeria started crying again. Everyone else sighed, Hasruel deepest of all. Abdullah realized with some surprise that Hasruel truly loved his brother. Although it was hard to understand how anyone could love Dalzel, Abdullah could hardly blame him. Who am I to criticize? he thought, as Flower-in-the-Night came up and put her arm through his.

Hasruel heaved up an even heavier sigh and sat down on the throne, which fitted his size far better than Dalzel's, with his great 189wings drooping sadly to either side. "There is other business," he said, touching his nose gingerly. It seemed to be healing already.

"Yes, there certainly is!" said Sophie. She had been waiting on the throne steps for her chance to speak. "When you stole our moving castle, you disappeared my husband, Howl. Where is he? I want him back."

Hasruel raised his head sadly, but before he could reply, there were alarmed noises from the princesses. Everyone at the bottom of the steps retreated from the Paragon's petticoat. It was bulging and bellying up and down on its hoops like a concertina. "Help!" cried the genie inside.

"Let me out! You promised!"

Flower-in-the-Night's hand leaped to her mouth. "Oh! I clean forgot!"

she said, and darted away from Abdullah, down the steps. She threw aside the petticoat in a roll of purple smoke. "I wish," she cried out, "that you be released from your bottle, genie, and be free forevermore!"

As usual the genie did not waste time in thanks. The bottle burst with a resounding smack. Inside the rolls of smoke a decidedly more solid figure climbed to its feet. Sophie gave a scream at the sight. "Oh, bless the girl! Thank you, thank you!" She arrived in the vanis.h.i.+ng smoke so fast that she nearly knocked the solid man there over. He did not seem to mind. He picked Sophie up and swung her around and around.

"Oh, why didn't I know?. Why didn't I realize?" Sophie panted, staggering about on broken gla.s.s.

"Because that was the enchantment," Hasruel said gloomily. "If he was known to be Wizard Howl, someone would have released him. You could not know who he was, nor could he tell anyone."

The Royal Wizard Howl was a younger man than Wizard Suliman, and a good deal more elegant. He was richly dressed in a suit of mauve satin, against which his hair showed a rather improbable shade of yellow.

Abdullah stared at the wizard's light eyes in the wizard's bony face. He had seen those eyes clearly, one early morning. He felt he should have guessed. He felt himself altogether in an awkward position. He had used the genie. He felt he knew the genie very well. Did that mean he also knew the wizard? Or not?

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For this reason, Abdullah did not join in when everyone, including the soldier, gathered around Wizard Howl, exclaiming and congratulating him.

He watched the tiny Princess of Tsapfan walk quietly among the exclaiming crowd and gravely put Morgan into Howl's arms.

"Thanks," said Howl. "I thought I'd better bring him along where I could keep an eye on him," he explained to Sophie. "Sorry if I gave you a fright." Howl seemed more used to holding babies than Sophie was. He rocked Morgan soothingly and stared at him. Morgan stared, rather balefully, back. "My word, he's ugly!" Howl said. "Chip off the old block."

"Howl!" said Sophie. But she did not sound angry.

"One moment," said Howl. He advanced to the steps of the throne and looked up at Hasruel. "Look here, djinn," he said, "I've a bone to pick with you. What do you mean by pinching my castle and shutting me up in a bottle?"Hasruel's eyes lit to an angry orange. "Wizard, do you imagine your power is equal to mine?"

"No," said Howl. "I just want an explanation." Abdullah found himself admiring the man. Knowing what a coward the genie had been, he had no doubt that Howl was a jelly of terror inside. But he showed no sign of it. He hoisted Morgan over his mauve silk shoulder and glared back at Hasruel.

"Very well," said Hasruel. "My brother ordered me to steal the castle.

In this I had no choice. But Dalzel gave no orders concerning you, except that I ensure you could not steal the castle back again. Had you been a blameless man, I would simply have transported you to the island where my brother is now. But I knew you had been using your wizardry to conquer a neighboring country-"

"That's not fair!" said Howl. "The King ordered me!" He sounded for a moment just like Dalzel, and he must have realized that he did. He stopped. He thought. Then he said ruefully, "I daresay I could have redirected His Majesty's mind if it had occurred to me. You're right.

But don't ever let me catch you where I can put you in a bottle, that's all."

"That I might deserve," Hasruel agreed. "And I deserve it the 191.

more as I took pains to let everyone involved meet with the most fitting fate I could devise." His eyes slanted toward Abdullah. "Did I not?"

"Most painfully, great djinn," Abdullah agreed. "All my dreams came true, not only the pleasant ones."

Hasruel nodded. "And now," he said, "I must leave you when I have performed one more small, needful act." His wings rose, and his hands gestured. Instantly he was in the midst of a swarm of strange winged shapes. They hovered over his head and around the throne like transparent sea horses, completely silent except for the faint whisper of their whirling wings.

"His angels," Princess Beatrice explained to Princess Valeria.

Hasruel whispered to the winged shapes, and they departed from him as suddenly as they had appeared, to reappear in the same swarm, whispering around Jamal's head. Jamal backed away from them, horrified, but it did no good. The swarm followed him. One after another, the winged shapes went to perch on different parts of Jamal's dog. As each landed, it shrank and disappeared among the hairs of the dog's coat, until only two were left.

Abdullah suddenly found these two shapes hovering level with his eyes.

He ducked, but the shapes followed. Two small, cold voices spoke, in a way that seemed for his ears alone. "After long thought," they said, "we find we prefer this shape to that of toads. We think in the light of eternity, and we therefore thank you." So saying, the two shapes darted away to perch on Jamal's dog, where they, too, shrank and disappeared into the gnarled skin of its ears.

Jamal stared at the dog in his arms. "Why am I holding a dog full of angels?" he asked Hasruel."They will not harm you or your beast," said Hasruel. "They will simply wait for the gold ring to reappear. Tomorrow, I believe you said? You must see that I am naturally anxious to keep track of my life. When my angels find it, they will bring it to me wherever I am." He sighed, heavily enough to stir everyone's hair. "And I do not know where I shall be," he said. "I shall have to find some place of exile in the far deeps. I have been wicked. I cannot again join the ranks of the Good Djinns."

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"Oh, come now, great djinn!" said Flower-in-the-Night. "It was taught to me that goodness is forgiveness. Surely the Good Djinns will welcome you back?"

Hasruel shook his great head. "Intelligent Princess, you do not understand."

Abdullah found that he understood Hasruel very well. Perhaps his understanding had something to do with the way he had been less than polite to his father's first wife's relatives. "Hush, love," he said.