The Paladin of the Night Read online

  “Pulled inside an ‘efreet’ s house! Who’s the fool here now? Certainly not me!” Pukah appeared amused.

  “Bah! I might as well be talking to the seaweed!” Shoving Pukah aside, Sond swam past him, diving down toward the cave on the ocean floor where the ‘efreet made his home.

  Pukah cast the djinn a scathing glance. “At least the seaweed would provide you an audience on your own mental level! Come on, Asrial.” Catching hold of the angel’s hand, he led her down to the very bottom of the sea.

  Kaug’s cave was hollowed out of a cliff of black rock. A light glimmered at the entrance, the eerie luminescence coming from the heads of enthralled sea urchins gloomily awaiting their master’s return. The long greenish brown moss that hung from the cliff reminded Asrial of the squid’s tentacles.

  “I’m going in there alone,” whispered the angel, reminding herself of Mathew’s plight and trying very hard to be courageous. “I’m going in there.” But she didn’t move.

  Sond, biting his lower lip, stared at Kaug’s dwelling as though mesmerized by it.

  “On second thought, Asrial,” Pukah said in a bland and innocent voice, “I think it might be better if we did accompany you.”

  “Admit it, Pukah! You feel it, don’t you!” Sond growled.

  “I do not!” Pukah protested loudly. “It’s just that I don’t think we should let her go in there alone!”

  “Come on then,” said Sond. “If we’re not barred at the threshold, then we know something is wrong!”

  The two djinn floated ahead to the entryway of the cave, their skin shimmering green in the ghostly light emanating from the sea urchins, who were staring at them with large, sorrowful eyes. Slowly Asrial swam behind. Her wings fanning the water, she paused, hovering overhead as the djinn stopped—one standing on either side of the entryway. ‘Well, go on!” Sond gestured.

  “And get a jolt of lightning through my body for breaking the rule. No thank you!” Pukah sniffed scornfully.

  “This was your idea!”

  “I’ve changed my mind.”

  “You’re not going to be stopped and you know it. I tell you, we’re being invited inside there!”

  “Then you accept the invitation!”

  Glaring at Pukah, Sond cautiously set his foot across the threshold of the ‘efreet’s dwelling. Cringing, Pukah waited for the blue flash, the crackle, and the painful yelp from Sond, an indication that the established rule among immortals was being violated.

  Nothing happened.

  Sond stepped across the threshold with ease. Pukah sighed inwardly. Despite what he’d told Sond, he, too, had the distinct feeling that he was being urged to enter the ‘efreet’s home. No, it was stronger than that. Pukah had the disquieting impression that he belonged inside the eerily lit cave.

  “What nonsense, Pukah!” Pukah said to himself with scorn. “As if you ever belonged in a place where fish heads are an integral part of the decor!”

  Sond was staring at him in grim triumph from the entryway. Ignoring him, Pukah turned to give Asrial his hand. Together, they entered the cave. The angel stayed quite near the djinn. The feathers of her wings brushed against his bare back, and despite his growing sense of uneasiness, Pukah felt his skin tingle and a pleasurable warmth flood his body.

  Was Asrial right? he wondered for a moment, standing in the greentinged darkness, the angel’s hand held fast in his. Is this sensation something I’ve tricked myself into experiencing to become more like humans? Or do I truly enjoy her touch? Leaning near him, looking around but not letting go of his hand, Asrial whispered, “What is it we’re searching for?”

  “A golden egg,” Pukah whispered back.

  “I doubt we’ll find the egg,” Sond muttered unhappily.

  “And if we did, my lovely djinniyeh would not be inside. Remember? Kaug said he had taken Nedjma to a place where I would never see her again until I joined her.”

  “Then what are we doing here?” Pukah demanded. “How should I know? It was your idea!”

  “Me? You were the one who said Kaug was holding Nedjma captive! Now you change your tune—”

  The djinn sucked in a furious breath. “I’ll change your tune!” Sond laid his hand on the hilt of his sword. “You will sing through a slit in your throat, you—”

  “Stop it! Just stop it!” Asrial’s tense voice hissed in the darkness. “Now that we’re here, it can’t hurt to look! Even if we don’t find Nedjma, we may find something that would guide us to where this afright has taken her!”

  “She’s right,” said Pukah hastily, backing up and stumbling over a sponge. “We should search this place,”

  “Well, we’d better hurry,” Sond grumbled. “Kaug may be back any moment. Let’s separate.”

  Repeating Mathew’s name over and over to herself to give her courage, Asrial drifted deeper into the cave. Pukah slanted off to the right, while Sond took the left.

  “Ugh! I just found one of Kaug’s pets!” Rolling over a rock that the ‘efreet used for a chair or a table or perhaps just liked to have around, Pukah grimaced as something black and ugly slithered out from underneath. “Or maybe it’s a girlfriend.” Setting the rock back hastily, he continued on, poking his long nose into a bed of lichen: “Asrial is right you know, Sond. Hazrat Akhran believes that Quar is responsible for the disappearance of the immortals, including his own. If that’s true, then Kaug must know where they are,”

  “This is hopeless!” Asrial waved her hands helplessly. “There’s nothing here but rocks and seaweed.” Turning, she suddenly recoiled. “What’s that?” She pointed to a huge iron cauldron standing in a recessed area of the cave.

  “Kaug’s stew pot!” Pukah’s nose wrinkled. “Can’t you smell it?” The djinn drifted over near the angel. “The place has changed,” he admitted. “Last time I was here, there were all sorts of objects sitting about. Now there’s nothing. It looks as if the bastard moved out. I think we’ve searched enough. Sond! Sond? Where are you!”

  “But there must be something!” Asrial twisted a lock of her hair around her finger. “The fish said I should come with you! Maybe we could talk to your God. Perhaps he knows something?”

  “No, no!” Pukah grew pale at the thought. “That wouldn’t be wise. I’m sure if Akhran knew anything He would have informed us. Sond! Sond! I—”

  A hoarse, ragged cry came from the inner depths of the cave.

  “Sul’s eyeballs! What was that?” Pukah felt the hair beneath his turban stand straight up.

  “Promenthas be with us!” Asrial breathed.

  The terrible cry rose again, swelled to a shriek, then broke off in a choking sob.

  “It’s Sond!” Pukah sprang forward, overturning rocks, shoving through curtains of floating seaweed. “Sond! Where are you? Did you step on a fish? Is it Kaug? Sond . . .”

  Pukah’s voice died. Rounding a corner, he came upon the elder djinn standing by himself in a small grotto. Sickly green light, oozing from slimy plants clinging to the walls, was reflected in an object Sond held in his hands. The djinn was staring at it in horror.

  “What is it, my friend? What have you found? It looks like—” Pukah gasped. “Akhran have mercy!”

  “Why? What’s the matter?” Asrial tiptoed into the grotto behind Pukah and peered over his shoulder. “What do you mean scaring us half to death? It’s only an old lamp!”

  Sond’s face was a pale green in the light of the plants. “Only an old lamp!” he repeated in an anguished voice. “It’s my lamp! My chirak!”

  “His what?” Asrial looked at Pukah, who was nearly as green as Sond.

  “It is more than a lamp,” Pukah said through stiff lips. “It is his dwelling place.”

  “And look, Pukah,” Sond said in a hushed whisper. “Look behind me, at my feet.”

  “Mine, too?” Though Pukah’s lips formed the words, no one could hear them.

  Sond nodded silently.

  Pukah sank slowly to the cave floor. Reaching out his hand, he took ho
ld of a basket that stood behind Sond. Made of tightly wrapped coils of rattan, the basket was small at the bottom, swelled outward toward the top like the bulb of an onion, and curved back in toward the center. Perched atop it was a woven lid with a jaunty knob. Lovingly drawing the basket close, Pukah stroked its woven coils.

  “I don’t understand!” Asrial cried in growing fear, looking from one despairing djinn to the other. “All I see is a basket and a lamp! Why are you so upset? What does it mean?”

  “It means;” came a deep, booming voice from the front of the cave, “that now I am their master!”

  Chapter 3

  The ‘efreet’s shadow fell over them, followed by the hulking body of the gigantic immortal. Water streamed from the hairy chest, the ‘efreet’s pugnacious face was split by a wide grin. “I took your homes several weeks ago, during the Battle at the Tel. A battle your masters lost, by the way. If that old goat, Majiid, is still alive, he now finds himself without a djinn!”

  “Still alive? If you have murdered my master, I swear by Akhran that—”

  “Sond! Don’t! Don’t be a—” Pukah bit off his words with a sigh. Too late.

  Swelling with rage, Sond soared to ten feet in height. His head smashed into the cave ceiling, sending a shower of rock crashing to the floor below. With a bitter snarl, the djinn hurled himself at Kaug. The ‘efreet was unprepared for the suddenness and fury of Sond’s attack. The weight of the djinn’s body knocked the hulking Kaug off his feet; the two hit the ground with a thud that sent seismic waves along the ocean floor.

  Clutching at a rock to keep his balance on the heaving ground, Pukah turned to offer what comfort he could to Asrial, only to find that the angel had vanished.

  A huge foot lashed out in Pukah’s direction. Crawling up on the rock to be out of the way of the combatants thrashing about around him, Pukah considered the matter, discussing it with himself, whom he considered to be the most intelligent of all parties currently in the room.

  “Where has your angel gone, Pukah?”

  “Back to Promenthas.”

  “No, she wouldn’t do that.”

  “You are right, Pukah,” said Pukah. “She is much too fond of you to leave you.”

  “Do you really think so?” asked Pukah rapturously.

  “I do indeed!” replied his other self, although his statement lacked a certain ring of conviction.

  Pukah almost took himself to task over this, then decided, due to the serious nature of the current crisis, to overlook it.

  “What this means is that Asrial is here and in considerable danger. I don’t know what Kaug would do if he discovered an angel of Promenthas searching through his underwear.”

  Pukah glanced at the combatants irritably. The howling and gnarling and gnashing was making it quite difficult for him to carry on a normal conversation. “Ah, ha!” he said suddenly, hopefully, “but perhaps he didn’t see her!”

  “He heard her voice. He answered her question.”

  “That’s true. Well, she’s gone,” said Pukah in matteroffact tones. “Perhaps she’s just turned invisible, as she used to do when I first caught a glimpse of her in camp. Do you suppose she’s powerful enough to hide herself from the eyes of an ‘efreet?”

  There was no answer. Pukah tried another question. “Does her disappearance make things better or worse for us, my friend?”

  “I don’t see,” came the gloomy response, “how it matters.”

  Taking this view of the situation himself, Pukah crossed his legs, leaned his elbow on his knee and sat, chin in hand, to wait for the inevitable.

  It was not long in coming.

  Sond’s rage had carried him further in his battle with the ‘efreet than anyone could have expected. Once Kaug recovered from his surprise at the sudden attack, however, it was easy for the strong ‘efreet to gain the upper hand, and Sond’s rage was effectively punched and pummeled out of him.

  Now it was the ‘efreet who carried the djinn, and soon a battered and bloody Sond was hanging suspended by his feet from the cracked ceiling of the cave. Dangling head down, his arms and legs bound with cords of prickly green vine, the djinn did not give up, but fought against his bonds—struggling wildly until he began to revolve at the end of his tether.

  “I wouldn’t do that, Sond,” advised Pukah from his seat on the rock. “If you do free yourself, you will only come down on your head and you should certainly take care of what brains you have.”

  “You could have helped, you bastard son of Sul!” Sond writhed and twisted. Blood and saliva dripped from his mouth.

  Pukah was shocked. “I would not think of attacking our new master!” he said rebukingly.

  Turning from admiring his handiwork, Kaug eyed the young djinn suspiciously. “Such loyalty, little Pukah. I’m touched.”

  Sliding down from his rock, the young djinn prostrated himself on the cave floor before the ‘efreet, his head brushing the ground.

  “This is the law of the immortals who serve upon the mortal plane,” recited Pukah in a nasal tone, his nose pressed flat against the floor. “Whosoever shall acquire the physical object to which the immortal is bound shall henceforth become the master of said immortal and shall be due all allegiance and loyalty.”

  Sond shrieked something vile, having to do with Pukah’s mother and a male goat.

  Pukah appeared pained. “I fear these interruptions annoy you, My Master. If I may be allowed—”

  “Certainly!” Kaug waved a negligent hand. The ‘efreet appeared preoccupied; his gaze darting here and there about the grotto.

  Believing he knew the quarry the ‘efreet was hunting, Pukah thought it best to distract him. He picked up a handful of seaweed, grabbed hold of Sond by his turban, and stuffed the pale green plant into the djinn’s yammering mouth.

  “His offensive outbursts will no longer disturb you, My Master!” Pukah threw himself on his knees before the ‘efreet.

  “Allegiance and loyalty, eh, little Pukah?” said Kaug. Stroking his chin, he regarded the djinn thoughtfully. “Then my first command to you is to tell me why you are here.”

  “We were drawn here, Master, by the physical objects to which we are bound according to the law that states—”

  “Yes, yes,” said Kaug irritably, casting another searching glance around the cave once more. “So you came here because you couldn’t help yourself. You are lying to your master, little Pukah, and that is quite against the rules. You must be punished.” Lashing out with his foot, the ‘efreet kicked Pukah under the chin, snapping the djinn’s head back painfully and splitting his lip.

  “The truth. You came here in search of Nedjma. And the third member of your party. What was her reason for coming?”

  “I assure you, Master,” said Pukah, wiping blood from his mouth, “there were only the two of us—”

  Kaug kicked him in the face again.

  “Come, come, loyal little Pukah! Where may I find the lovely body belonging to that charming voice I heard when I entered my dwelling this night?”

  “Alas, My Master, you see before you the only bodies belonging to the only voices you heard in your dwelling place. It depends upon your taste, of course, but I consider my body the loveliest of the two—”

  Nonchalantly, Kaug drove his foot into the young djinn’s kidney. Real or imaginary, the pain was intense. Pukah doubled up with a groan.

  “I heard a voice—a female voice, little Pukah!”

  “I have been told I have a most melodious ring to myughh!”

  Kaug kicked the djinn in the other kidney. The force of the blow rolled Pukah over on his back. Drawing his sword, the ‘efreet straddled the young djinn, his weapon poised above a most vital and vulnerable area on Pukah’s body.

  “So, little Pukah, you claim the female voice was yours. It will be, my friend, if you do not tell me the truth and reveal the whereabouts of this trespasser!”

  Covering himself with his hands, Pukah gazed up at the enraged ‘efreet with pleading eyes. “
O My Master! Have mercy, I beg of you! You are distressed by the unwarranted attack on your person by one who should, by rights, be your slave”—a muffied shriek from Sond—”and that has thrown a cog (ha, ha, small joke) in the wheel of your usually brilliant thought process! Look around, Great Kaug! Could anyone or anything remain hidden from your allseeing gaze, O Mighty Servant of the Most Holy Quar?”

  This question stumped the ‘efreet. If he said yes, he admitted he wasn’t allseeing, and if he said no, he granted that Pukah was right and that he—Kaug—hadn’t really heard the strange voice after all. The ‘efreet sent his piercing gaze into all parts of the cave, dissecting every shadow, using all his senses to detect a hidden presence in the dwelling.

  Kaug felt a thrill in his nerve endings, as if someone had touched his skin with a feather. There was another being in his cave, someone who had the ability to enter his dwelling without permission, someone who was able to hide herself from his sight. A film of white mist blocked his vision. Kaug rubbed his eyes, but that did nothing to dispel the odd sensation.

  What should he do? Castrate Pukah? The ‘efreet pondered. Other than providing a bit of mild amusement, it would probably accomplish little else. Such an act of violence might actually frighten the creature into disappearing completely. No, she must be lulled into a sense of wellbeing.

  I will give Pukah the hemp and watch him weave the rope that will go around his neck, said Kaug to himself. Aloud, he intoned, “You are right, little Pukah. I must have been imagining things.” Sheathing his sword, the ‘efreet kindly helped the djinn to his feet. Kaug wiped slime from Pukah’s shoulder and solicitously plucked fronds of seaweed from the djinn’s pantalons. “Forgive me. I have a quick temper. A failing of mine, I admit. Sond’s attempt on my life upset me.” The ‘efreet pressed his hand over his huge chest. “It wounded me deeply, in fact, especially after all the trouble I went to in order to rescue both of you.”

  “Sond is a beast!” cried Pukah, casting Sond an indignant glance and congratulating himself on his cleverness. The young djinn’s sharp ears pricked. “Uh, what do you mean. . . rescue us? If it’s not asking too much of you in your weakened condition to explain, Most Beneficent and LongSuffering Master.”