Jalia on the Road (Jalia - World of Jalon) (7 page)

He was an hour along the trail when he heard a voice cursing, coming from one of his donkeys. On closer investigation, he discovered the voice was coming from the lumpy sack. Drawing his dagger he moved closer to investigate.

Spilling the sack onto the ground brought forth another round of curses in a voice he recognized. On opening the sack he found Jalia, along with a third of the things he had packed in it.

“You didn’t have to be so rough,” Jalia complained as she wriggled her right elbow. It didn’t appear to be broken despite landing hard on it when the sack hit the ground

“You seem to have disposed of a lot of my property.” Daniel said a little angrily, despite being glad to see her again.

“I will pay you back, trader boy. I needed a quiet way out of the city.”

“What have you done to need such a thing? I noticed the Caliph’s guards were running around like angry ants.”

“They were searching for me.” Jalia admitted and smiled at Daniel. “I had a really good time yesterday, did you?”

Daniel sighed at her smile. She had something to do with the disposition of the guards. he was sure.

“I think we had better get back to moving down the road, my lady. We better put some distance between ourselves and the city, don’t you think? Before your good time comes out to bite us.”

That night they camped at the edge of the desert in a small gully. Jalia told Daniel what happened as they ate the delicious meal he had made. Jalia showed him the ring, which was finely engraved with runes and arcane symbols. Jalia put it on the third finger of her right hand where it fitted perfectly, much to her surprise. Sador’s fingers had been bigger than hers.

“Try it out,” Daniel suggested as he sipped at his tea.

“What do you mean? Do I rub it or something?” Jalia asked. She tried rubbing the ring with her left index finger, but nothing happened.

“Try saying ‘Magic Ring bring water’, we could do with some, as I wasn’t expecting to have you with me when I packed my supplies.”

“Magic Ring, bring me water!” Jalia said waving the ring around. There was a rumbling sound and they picked up their bags and ran as the gully began to fill up with water. The donkeys made their own way to safety and Daniel was lucky not to lose a trade sack to the flood.

“I was thinking more in the order of a couple of water skins full,” Daniel remarked as they looked down at the deep pool, “Do you always do everything to excess?”

“Very funny,” Jalia said irritably. She was wet from the experience and didn’t appreciate it. The desert was rapidly cooling as the sun set and she shivered.

Jalia looked at the ring in awe. She had never believed in the tales of the Magician Kings who, it was said, ruled the entire human world over a thousand years ago. Perhaps those tales were true after all.

The two companions settled down for the night in a camp they made on higher ground.

As they doused the fire and prepared to sleep, they were watched by a horde of eager sand fairies. The fairies had sensed the magic Jalia used and followed its emanations to its source. They waited patiently for the companions to go to sleep so they could kill them and take the ring.

The people of Jalon know little about the sand fairies of the Atribar el’Dou desert except that they are manifestly evil. Unlike the Fairie sometimes seen from a distance in the forests of Jalon, they do not wear pretty clothes nor do they possess wings. It is not known whether they wield magic.

They are the same size as other fairies, standing about nine inches tall. However, they are ugly with misshapen bodies and they often attack humans, who travel in or close to their home. They were considered dangerous creatures and possessed a fearsome reputation.

Nearly fifty sand fairies watched Jalia and Daniel prepare to sleep. To make sure the two humans didn’t see them, the fairies moved to behind a sand dune. They waited there patiently until they were sure the humans were asleep. It was not worth risking watch them closely as they might escape if they spotted them too soon.

It was well into the early hours when the fairies nudged each other to alertness. Their leader climbed to the top of the dune and looked down on the humans sleeping silently in their bed rolls. Each sand fairy drew a sword. Their swords were three inches long and glowed a dull dark blue in the pale moonlight. Sand fairy swords were coated with a deadly poison and a single cut would result in a slow and agonizing death for any human they struck. As one, the party of sand fairies descended the dune, intending to strike the humans without warning.

It was extremely dark as neither moon was in the sky and wispy clouds obscured the stars. It was only because the humans were so bulky that the fairies could find them. Using touch, they split into two groups and raised their swords, ready to strike.

As one, they plunged their swords into the humans who died without making a sound. The fairies relaxed and raised their weapons in triumph when Jalia’s voice floated across the camp.

“Magic Ring, bind the sand fairies tight with rope.” Tendrils of rope slid through the air, wrapping around each and every sand fairy, one to the other, until they were bound in a group, cursing and struggling to get free.

Daniel lit a lantern from beyond the confines of the camp and it cast stark shadows as they walked towards the fairies. Daniel picked up his blanket and shook the sand from it. In the light of the lantern, many sword cuts are clearly visible.

“That was my best sleeping blanket.”

“Just be thankful you weren’t in it at the time. These evil bastards killed my father. I’m glad I’m going to get the chance to repay the favor.” The lust for vengeance was clear in Jalia’s voice and the sand fairies cringed.

“So we kill them then.” There was regret in Daniel’s voice. He understood the need to kill, but it wasn’t in his nature to kill wantonly.

“I wonder if they’d prefer to drown. We have a big new pond down there.” Jalia walked towards the sand fairies and they attempted to shuffle away.

“Stop,” their leader shouted. “We have treasures beyond the imagination of humans. We can lead you to them if you promise not to kill us.”

Jalia laughed delightedly, she enjoyed a challenge and stealing treasure from sand fairies would be a major one. They were sneaky and there were known to be hundreds of them. Jalia grinned as she recognized that a new game was on

“I expect your buildings are filled with many just like you, and in any case they will be far too small for us to get into. If we let one of you go, he would fetch your brethren and they would overwhelm us before we could take the treasure from your vaults.” Jalia looked at the sand fairy that had spoken as she replied. He was clearly their leader.

The ugly creature stood out from his fellows despite being bound to them.

“I am Jurd t’Dall, King of the Sand Fairies and I will go with you to show you the way. You could gather all our treasure without fear of capture. Your magic ring could make you as small as us and his magic dagger could kill us easily.”

Jalia looked at the dagger on Daniel’s belt and Daniel grinned back. He didn’t try to deny the truth of the King words. Daniel looked hard at the King.

“What is this treasure you are talking about? Is it worth risking our lives for? I think it would be a lot safer for us to kill you and be on our way.”

The King raised his voice so the humans could hear him clearly, “We have a magic goblet that if water is drunk from it each day grants the drinker life eternal.”

“I prefer gold or gems to trinkets,” Jalia said and she laughed. “They are a lot easier to trade and much less trouble than goblets that might not work. I’m beginning to think you are right, Daniel. Let’s slit their throats and bury them in the sand.”

The King gulped and tried to tempt them again, “We have precious stones in plenty, of course. Gold coins and jewels, we have without measure. As well as magic objects, you understand. It is all part of our hoard.”

Jalia considered the King’s words and had an idea. “Magic ring bring the sand fairies treasure to me,” she said in a loud clear voice. Nothing happened except that a few of the sand fairies sniggered.

“The ring has limited range and power,” the King said with glee in his voice. He knew Jalia was hooked on the idea of stealing their treasure. That meant there would be plenty of time to spring a trap and reverse their fortunes.

“If there hadn’t been a river running underground just below where you pitched your camp, your first wish would not have been fulfilled,” he explained. Jalia looked at her ring in annoyance. A magic ring that could not be relied on was of little use to anyone.

Jalia motioned to Daniel and they walked out of earshot of the fairies. “I think we should go for the treasure,” Jalia told him. It was not a question.

Daniel shook his head. “That is certainly the suicidal option. Let’s kill them and be on our way. It was only blind luck we saw them in the first place. You don’t live a long life relying on your luck.”

“You’re such a cowardly little boy.” Jalia gave Daniel a push after she spoke. She wanted the treasure and was used to getting her way.

“And you are a girl who should have been beaten more as a child.”

“Hah! I doubt you have the guts to punish a child.” The sneer on Jalia’s face as she spoke was too much for Daniel.

“All right then. I agree. We will risk our lives on this madness, but on one condition.” Daniel said, his anger overriding his good sense.

“I understand. You want the biggest share, I suppose?”

“No, I will take just half of it. However, if we run into trouble and manage to survive, I want your bottom willingly over my knee. Then you will find out exactly how well I can punish a foolish child.”

Jalia stood speechless. She had been whipped many times in her life, on some occasions publicly, but she had never been spanked over a knee like a little child. Worse than the fact that it might hurt, was the humiliation she would face in submitting willingly to him.

Jalia blushed at the thought of it. However, the lure of fairy gold and gems was burning in her gut and she needed Daniel to help her if she was going to steal them.

“Very well, I agree to your terms. Though if things go wrong we shall probably be dead anyway,” she pointed out in a small voice.

“Don’t think I don’t know it,” Daniel muttered as he strode past her and back to the sand fairies. He was furious with himself for agreeing to this madness, and with Jalia for putting him into this situation.

They moved the donkeys to a place where they would be hidden and not be spotted by travelers on the road. Daniel made sure his donkeys had plenty to eat and to drink while Jalia removed and hid her money belt. The last thing she wanted to do was take her own gold to the fairies.

They stripped the fairies of their swords and gathered them up. They put them in a cage that Daniel quickly wove from the course desert grasses around the camp.

Before leaving the campsite, Daniel commanded his magic dagger to cut the fairy swords into tiny slivers. He buried the remains deep in the sand. The fairies groaned as they watched him destroy their weapons. Poisoned swords were not easy to come by.

They took the King out of the cage, cutting him from the other fairies. He would guide them to the treasure and be their hostage if they were discovered.

“You need to use your magic ring to shrink us to fairy size,” Daniel said and sighed. Dawn was still an hour or two away and the more he thought about this plan, the worse the whole thing became.

“Magic Ring, shrink us to the size of sand fairies,” Jalia commanded.

They shrank, unfortunately without their clothes shrinking with them. Daniel struggled to get out from clothes that threatened to smother him. Jalia had a different problem as she found herself standing naked in view of the jeering fairies who could see her clearly from their cage. Daniel kicked himself out of his clothes to ribald comments from them.

Jalia wondered if this was a sufficient mistake to force her over Daniel’s knee. She planned to argue it was not, because from the look on his face it wasn’t going to be something she would enjoy. However, she spent more than a few seconds looking at his naked body and was impressed with what she saw. She had been right about the size of his muscles.

“Magic Ring, make our clothes the right size to fit us,” she said hurriedly and busied herself with getting dressed and avoiding eye contact with Daniel.

Daniel found himself staring at Jalia, which had inevitable consequences. This brought more ribald laughter from the fairies. Daniel received a lot of unwanted advice from the creatures, along with critical comments.

Daniel’s face became bright red from embarrassment. The sand fairies didn’t let up with their comments for a second. They spent considerable time on what they considered the shortcomings of his body. In fact, comments on shortness were pretty much their main insult.

The King was feeling pleased with the way things were going. Unlike the humans, he could sense the magic ring was out of power and that it would fail the next time someone tried to use it. He also knew the cage they had constructed would not hold his men for more than a few minutes once the humans were safely out of sight.

‘Things are undoubtedly looking up,’
he thought as Jalia and Daniel dragged him to his feet and made him lead them. They cut the bonds on his legs but they left his hands bound behind his back.

Jalia wondered about Daniel’s magic dagger as they followed the King across the trackless sand. He had kept the fact it was magic secret from her when she had happily told him about the magic ring. Jalia noticed his dagger had shrunk with him, just as her ring stayed about her finger and shrank with her. Magic objects seemed to have a degree of intelligence as well as a robust sense of humor, at least, that was how Jalia saw it.

The King talked jovially as they walked. Telling them the Fairie had not always been small creatures and could still change to their original forms for short periods of time, despite what they Magician Kings had done to them. He told them the castle he was taking them to predated the curses laid upon them by the Magician Kings.

If Jalia hadn’t known the King’s men were caged behind him, she would have suspected he was trying to distract them. A glance at the boy told her that Daniel suspected the same thing. He was looking increasingly nervous and his head jerked around at the smallest sound.

The King led them up a steep sand dune and when they reached its summit the fairy castle came into view.
 
Its stones glowed dark blue, much the same as the fairy swords and the castle itself was awe-inspiring.

It was circular in shape with four tall stone spires spaced around its outer walls. The spires looked as if they could only be used as lookout positions. Certainly there were far too slender to make good living quarters. An outer wall rose thirty feet high and surrounded the castle in a perfect circle. The stone was smooth as if carved out of a single piece of stone. The castle design was made up of circles and curves with the front gates in the shape of an ellipse. The gates were massive, rising to the top of the wall and being at least twenty feet across.

The gates were shut and the two humans could not imagine how creatures as small as the sand fairies could ever move something so massive. As if reading their minds, the King answered their unspoken question.

“There is a small door in the left hand side of the gate. It is too small to see from here. Come on, we are nearly there. Let us hurry.”

The King ran down the far side of the dune, paying no notice of the rope binding his hands behind his back. Jalia and Daniel were forced to chase after him, stumbling through the soft sand in their efforts to catch him.