A Logic Named Joe Part 6
Tony strangled on his first spoonful of orange pulp. They pounded his back anxiously. He coughed and blinked at them.
"You mean-"
"You came to Barkut without attendant, lord," said Esir, happily, "and it was not fitting. So the Council gave us to you, with horses and other slaves, that you might be suitably served. And all of us, your slaves, wished to kneel to you immediately, but Ghail the slave girl said that you had told her you did not wish to be disturbed last night, and therefore we only waited your summons-which did not come."
Tony absorbed the statement. It required considerable absorbing. He opened his mouth, and they hung upon his impending words, and he closed it without saying anything. So, Ghail had kept him from having these two girls to dance and sing for him last night, eh? His conscience said something half-hearted about Ghail doubtless having his best interests at heart, but it had said too much in the past about her nonchalantly displayed bare legs. He did not heed it.
"Tonight," said Tony with decision, "things will be different."
They gave him the brightest and most joyous of smiles.
"And may we watch, lord," said Esim hopefully, "when you slay the otherdjinnswho will doubtless be sent to murder you tonight?
Tony choked again. That was something he had been trying not to think about. The people of Barkut were, apparently, rather casual aboutdjinnsin spite of the long-continued war and the captivity of their official ruler. On the two occasions whendjinnshad turned up to Tony's knowledge, the people had not run away, but had come howling with rage to attack them. Flintlock muskets had bellowed after the djinneeNasim as she fled in the form of a whirlwind. Palace guards had been spoiling for a fight and were actually breaking down the door of Tony's apartment when he opened it for them after Es-Souk's departure. These people would put up a battle, and were not averse to it. But still they said that no one man had ever before conquered adjinnin single combat.
It was something that needed to be looked into. And then Tony had an idea. Rather strangely, he had altogether failed to use his ten-dirhim piece for guidance since his arrival in the city of Barkut itself. The reason was simply that he hadn't needed it to decide anything. He'd been quite content with things as they were. Even imprisonment in the dungeon-and-courtyard had not been bad. He'd been busy learning Arabic, with Ghail around to look at appreciatively- But now thedjinnswere after his neck. Now he needed to know what to do.
He finished his breakfast and stood up. The two girls brought him a golden basin and water to wash his hands. They watched his every movement with a breathless absorption which was almost childlike and was certainly flattering. Dismissing them, he patted one on her bare shoulder. She made a little movement as if cuddling against his hand while she smiled at him. He patted the other- They went out the door, smiling worshipfully back at him. He found himself whistling as he dug in his pocket for the ten-dirhim piece. He regarded it affectionately. When he was a brisk young executive with a residence in Barkut suitably staffed with male and female slaves, it would all be due to this coin! And now this coin would give him some needed advice.
He flipped it. He flipped it again. And again and again.
Half an hour later, when Ghail came into his apartment-and he noted disapprovingly that she was wearing more clothes than ever-he was sunk in abysmal gloom. The ten-dirhim piece was no longer informative. It turned up heads and tails completely at random. It contradicted itself. It had no longer any special quality at all. It was at home. It was in its own world. The attraction; the gravitation; the singular force which prevented the indiscriminate mixing-up of objects of different worlds by causing coincidences which kept them at home-that force was gone. Because the coin was back where it belonged and was no longer endowed with any property urging its return.
Ghail regarded Tony with an enigmatic expression.
"Greeting, lord," she said in a tone which had all the earmarks of suitable slave-girl humility, but somehow was not humble at all, "there is news of great moment."
Tony felt inclined to groan. Among other things, he foresaw that he would be in for a bad time with his conscience presently.
"What is the news?" he asked drearily.
"The King ofdjinnshas sent an emba.s.sy," Ghail told him. "He offers greetings to the prince beyond the farthest sea. He admires your prowess and desires to look upon the champion who defeated Es-Souk in single combat. He has punished Es-Souk for attempting to slay a human in a merely private quarrel. He offers a truce, safe conduct, and an escort of his private guard."
Tony's conscience said indignantly that when an important message like this was at hand, Tony should be ashamed to be looking at Ghail and mooning about how much better looking she was in less costume.
"What should I do?" asked Tony. "As I recall it, I pledged myself to destroy him, the other day.
Yesterday, in fact. Do I tell him I'm in conference?"
Ghail shook her head frigidly.
"You should accept," she told him with no cordiality at all. "If you refused, he would think you were afraid."
"To be honest about it," said Tony, "I am. Have you any idea how I chased thatdjinnaway last night?"
She looked at him in amazement.
"I haven't either," said Tony. "He was strangling me, so I broke a couple of his fingers and he let go, howling. Then he swelled up to the size of a gigantosaurus, bellowing, while I coughed my head off. He was just about to come for me again when he started to sneeze, and he went into a panic and flew out the window like his tail was on fire. I haven't the least idea why."
The slave girl looked at him strangely.
"He sneezed? Butlasfsometimes causes that! Not always, but sometimes. Had youlasf?"
"Not unless it was on my breath-which isn't unlikely," Tony said gloomily. "It's foul stuff and the aroma lingers on. I had a drink of it yesterday. You gave it to me."
"Lasfis poisonous to thedjinnbut not to human beings," said Ghail with some reserve. "We anoint our weapons and bullets with it before we go out to fight thedjinn.It is very poisonous to them. They run away. Sometimes they sneeze. Butlasfis very rare. Thedjinnpay the Bedouin of the desert to uproot and destroy it wherever they find it."
"Like DDT," said Tony morbidly, "with bugs hiring rabbits to sabotage the whole business." He had to use English words where he did not know the Arabic equivalents. She listened, uncomprehending.
"Never mind. If you don't know how I did it, n.o.body knows, so that's that. So-I have to visit thisdjinn king, eh? If it's under safe-conduct, I suppose I'm safe from further strangling until I get back?"
"Oh, yes," said Ghail. "You and your attendants are safe until you return. Of course you will be offered bribes to betray us, and persuasion, and he may try to frighten you, and"-her voice grew suddenly angry-"he will have hisdjinneestry to beguile you. He does not want you to lead our armies against him."
"I'll try to resist the bribes and the beguilings, too," said Tony. Then he shuddered. "If what I had yesterday was a fair sample . . . Tell me, where do I get this reputation as a general?"
Ghail said coldly: "I told the Council about the war you were in. Also, thatdjinneein the courtyard may have been listening for days. One way or another, it would get back to thedjinns."
Chapter 8.
Tony had been standing. Now he sat down. He looked at Ghail. He said, changing the subject: "What's the matter, Ghail? You act as if I had bleeding gums or something equally repulsive. When you thought I was adjinnyou didn't act this way."
Ghail said: "There's nothing the matter." Then she added pointedly, "Did you enjoy your breakfast this morning?"
"That roasted sheep wasn't necessary," admitted Tony. "The coffee and fruit would have been enough.
Did you arrange it?"
"It was thought," said Ghail coldly, "that since I had talked to you often I might know your likes and dislikes."
"Hm. . . ." said Tony. "You picked out those slaves-the two girls who were part of the present made by the Council?"
Her lips tensed. "I did. I hope they please you."
"It evidently didn't occur to you," said Tony in gentle reproach, "that you could have included yourself in the gift. That is the only criticism I could offer."
She stamped her foot.
"I am the personal property of the Queen!" she snapped. "The Queen is a prisoner of thedjinn.I cannot be bought or given save of the Queen!"
"It would be nice," Tony submitted, "if you could be persuaded."
She turned her back on him and started for the door. Tony said: "By the way-when do I start for the djinnking's court? And you said the safe-conduct includes my attendants. Do I tell Esir and Esim to pack up for a trip?"
"You do not!" Ghail said shortly. "You will have but one attendant. You will start before nightfall. The djinnwill provide mounts and accommodation for you and one other only!"
"I suppose-"
"You will go," Ghail said shortly, "because thedjinnking invited you. I go as your pretended slave, but actually to take necessities to our captive Queen."
Tony looked at her. He raised his eyebrows.
"The journey," said Ghail haughtily, "will be made on the camels of thedjinn,which are actuallydjinnin the form of camels. They travel like the wind. What would be four days' journey by human travel will be accomplished in no more than three hours."
"I was sure," said Tony in some regret, "that somehow you would manage to make it unsatisfactory. All right! Thank you."
He watched gloomily as she went out the door. Life, he reflected, had been a great deal more simple when he was a prisoner in a dungeon with a courtyard, instead of a general of armies he hadn't seen yet and a prince who had to make journeys to the courts of nonhuman ent.i.ties he hadn't believed in before yesterday morning. At least, while he was a prisoner, Ghail had been around a lot, in a costume of limited area, and she'd been interested in him, if scornful. Now she seemed scornful of him and not interested.
She rather resembled his conscience.
His conscience said sternly that though an untutored slave girl, reared in a highly unfavorable atmosphere, she at least showed a devotion to duty and a sense of moral values which Tony was not displaying. Only Heaven knew, said Tony's conscience, what enormities he might commit at any time, now that he had ceased to heed his proper mentor-it was fortunate that this poor slave girl had a sense of duty!
To this Tony replied that Ghail's sense of duty had led her to pick out two very attractive slave girls as presents for him, and since he was going off somewhere and didn't know when he'd be back, he might as well call them in and have some music while he waited.
He stood up to pull the bell cord.
Then he saw a stirring down at floor level out of the corner of his eye. He whirled with something like a gasp. After the affair of the dungeon courtyard and the windowsill last night, he was becoming jumpy when bugs and frogs and other small objects moved in his neighborhood.
Two of the marble tiles of the floor were rising where they joined, as if something swelled beneath them.
Tony stared, momentarily paralyzed. A green shoot appeared and grew. Leaves appeared at its tip as he watched. Branches spread out, and more leaves, and then a bud. The bud swelled. It opened into an enormous lush blossom of a violent magenta hue. And then the flower rearranged itself. It became a miniature head-and there was the beaming, sentimental face of Nasim thedjinnee,wearing her explicitly minus-I.Q. expression of amiability.
"Sh-h-h-h!" said the face in the flower, coyly.
Tony gulped. "I'm sh-sh-h-h-shed," he said. "What's up?"
"I'm sorry about Es-Souk," said thedjinnee,beaming. "He's so jealous! He can't help it, poor thing! The king has put him in jail and it serves him right!"
Tony said: "Oh!"
"I felt that I had to tell you I was sorry," said thedjinnee,almost simpering. "You're not angry with me?"
"Oh, no," said Tony. "It wasn't your fault."
"That's so good of you!" said Nasim. She regarded him with adoring, cowlike eyes from the flower bush.
"I've been hiding in a crack as a little moth's egg, waiting to tell you how sorry I am. But there's been somebody around all the time."
"Yes," said Tony. "There has been."
"Would you like me to take the form of a human woman?" asked Nasim hopefully-and giggling-"for a while?"
"You'd better wear some clo-" began Tony in apprehension. Then he said desperately, "Better not.
Somebody might come in."
Nasim beamed. "All right. But you're going to our king's court. I'll see you there! I'll be around!"
"I'm sure you will be," said Tony dismally.
"I'm watching over you," said Nasim beatifically. "Since I heard about what Es-Souk tried to do on my account, I made up my mind to watch over you night and day. And I will! Night and day!"
Tony stared at her, appalled. There was a small noise outside the door. Nasim said sentimentally: "I hate to go like this, but somebody's coming." She beamed. "I'll be a little grease spot on the floor.
Mind, now," she added archly, "don't step on me!"
The flower and blossom and all the leaves and branches seemed to contract smoothly. Suddenly they were not. The marble floor tiles fell together with a clink.
A delicate tapping on the door. Esir and Esim poked their heads around the door frame. Their faces were hopeful, and at the same time distressed.
"Lord!" said Esir plaintively. "We hear that you go on a journey! Do we go too?"
Tony sighed.
"I'm afraid not," he admitted. "Affairs of state, and all that. I'm taking only one attendant, and I've not choice of that one."
"But, lord," protested Esim, "we have just been given to you and we do not even know if we please you or not!"
They came into the room. They were young and shapely. They pleased him very much. They were openly eager for experimental evidence of this fact, and looked at him imploringly.
I like you both very much," said Tony. "In fact-" He thought back along a lifetime in New York, spent on subways and in automats and over double-entry ledgers, with only one interlude pounding a typewriter in an army camp. "In fact, I think I could be perfectly happy here in Barkut but for one thing."
They said anxiously: "Lord, what is it that keeps you from happiness?"
Tony sighed deeply. He said in deepest gloom: "Dammit, there's no privacy!"
Chapter 9.
Thedjinncamel was twenty feet tall, and it ambled through the night over the desert with monstrous strides. There were bright stars overhead, and a low-hung moon to cast long shadows; there was a camel-guard ofdjinnsriding otherdjinncamels on every hand. Altogether the picture was one of barbaric magnificence. Wind swept past the contrivance which did duty as a cabin on the huge ship of the desert.
The contrivance reminded Tony forcibly of the inside of a British miniature car, minus the instrument board. But it did not ride so smoothly. The size of the camel did not change the nature of its gait, and it would not be wise to burp while the animal was in motion.