"Arabian Nights"
Part 94
by Beryll
CRASH!
The beautiful vase meeting an untimely and fatal end as it collided with the wall was not the first and it would not be the last, Billy reckoned.
"I can't believe he just left!" Orli's voice was dangerously close to hysteria. "How could he do that to me?? Does he ever stop to think about what anybody else is feeling? Does he ever stop to think at all?!"
"He was just trying to protect Eric, Orlando, you know that." Jared's calming voice.
"Help Eric?? In getting himself killed??!"
With a soft sigh Billy brushed at the symbol he had been drawing. It was bloody hard to concentrate with the shouting and the thick emotions rolling off Orlando, Lij and Jared.
"It's always Viggo, Viggo, Viggo! He thinks he knows best and just walks into his death. Can't he just once - JUST ONCE - ask advice?? Allah..."
Now Orlando's voice was breaking and Billy knew what would be next. This had been repeating since the Prince had been discovered missing in various stages of despair. It tore at his heart to see Orlando reduced to this.
"He will die..." A defeated whisper followed by a quiet sob.
Jared's soothing voice murmuring meaningless consolation. Quiet shuffling as both Jared and Lij moved to comfort Orli in their warm hugs.
None of them had noticed so far that Dominic was missing from these scenes of despair and sorrow. Neither had Sean or Karl and Billy was glad about it. They might have assumed that Dom had had a hand in the plot to take the Prince, that he had been a spy in Viggo's household all along. But when Dom had slipped away quietly with silent fury in his eyes Billy had known that the young assassin and thief was leaving the palace to investigate. He knew Dom better than any of them and there were two things he was certain of: Orlando's pain was killing Dominic and he would do anything to see his friend smile again. And he had not forgotten that he had been fooled into trying to murder the Prince. His pride demanded revenge and Dominic was a vengeful soul.
Of course Sean and Karl were quite busy with working out their own problems. Which right this moment wasn't the missing Prince but the dark memories that Billy sometimes saw surfacing behind Sean's calm eyes. The warrior had been as close to breaking as Orli only an hour ago but Karl had put a stop to his madness. Or so Billy hoped. It was something he couldn't take care of right now and anyway wouldn't have known how to accomplish.
Completing the intricate pattern he had been working on for a good while now Billy surveyed his work. He could not be entirely sure his spell would work. As he was dealing with a mostly unknown foe he had been forced to improvise. He could not even be entirely sure his suspicions were right but he would find out soon enough. It was time for some investigation of his own.
He slipped through the beaded curtain separating the Prince's office from the central yard almost soundlessly. Since the room had been searched for additional clues to the Viggo's whereabouts it had been undisturbed and that was what Billy needed.
Lij and Jared were below the tree with Orlando, both hugging the crying young man just like Billy had envisioned. None of them noticed him as he passed them by in search of his quarry. They were too caught up in Orli's sorrow and their own worry.
Billy didn't have to search long. When he glanced inside the kitten's room he found the lion cub on their bed, head resting on his forepaws, eyes closed as if it was asleep but Billy noticed his ears were pricked up and alert, flicking at the small sound the beads of the curtain made when he slipped inside.
"Hello, little one." greeted the small creature with gentle cooing. No need to alarm him just yet.
David yawned cutely and rolled onto his back stretching in perfect cat-grace. Billy sat down on the bed next to him, first scratching his belly, then burying his face in the warm fur in a perfect show of seeking comfort.
"I just wish there was anything we could do." he whispered in quite credible despair. Obviously he had picked up some of Dom's skill in lying without even trying.
The lion cub responded in licking his face where it could reach skin. Billy picked him up, rolling him into the crook of his arm just like David liked. Giving a vigorous scratch to the spot under his chin that never failed to make the cub purr and relax he carried it from the room. He almost felt bad as David trustingly closed his eyes. But if it turned out he was just a lion cub after all no harm would be done to him, Billy reassured himself.
Silently he again crossed the yard where Jared and Lij were still trying to comfort Orlando. When he crossed the arched doorway to the training room the cub in his arms suddenly twisted as they had also crossed the first magic circle Billy had carefully laid out. That was prove enough to Billy and before David even started to struggle in earnest he dropped the cub into the circle he had prepared in the middle of the room. A quick gesture sealed the room, keeping all sound within and any interference outside.
David sat in the circle, blinking at Billy cutely, suddenly all harmless cub again. Billy watched him silently. Watched how he scratched an itch behind his ear, how he got up and then happily trotted towards Billy like noting was wrong a all - and how he collided with an invisible barrier as he reached the edge of the circle. A barrier that was designed to keep spirits trapped - not lion cubs.
The change was immediate. Where before David eyes had been void of any more thought than where to find the next nap or meal they crew calculating, intelligent and alien. With his senses extended Billy felt the spirit reveal itself involuntarily as it examined the spell that made up his prison. It was a creature like Billy had never seen before. So different from any spirit he had ever encountered in his lessons at home he was not sure if his spell would hold it. It was refined, brilliant but at the same time weaker than the primal energies of his home. As if too much consciousness had robbed it of it's natural powers. With a small smile Billy realized that the magic he had used to bind it was just as alien and incomprehensible to this spirit. It would take it a long time to unravel the spell.
It seemed to come to the same conclusion as it's attention turned back to Billy to look at him. It's eyes were unreadable now, guarded.
"We need to talk," Billy politely told it, "I suggest you take on a form more fitting for the occasion."
For a moment they looked at each other and Billy could almost feel the spirit's thought, considering if it was to it's advantage to give up his disguise.
Then it changed. Not the slow, stretching change Billy had once witnessed with a shape shifter of his homeland, allied to his master, but an instant switch to another form as if the lion cub had been brushed aside. Now a seemingly young man crouched inside the circle, wearing the cream coloured robes of a desert dweller but missing the headcloth, exposing sand coloured hair and a face that would have looked open and friendly if it hadn't been for the eyes. They had not changed at all, they still were much too intelligent and alien.
"Your spell will not hold me long, little shaman." the young man said, his voice pleasant but Billy still recognized the open threat.
He didn't let his nervousness show as he got comfortable opposite the circle, sitting cross-legged on the floor.
"It will hold you long enough to listen to my questions and be assured it is not the full extend of my power." he said with a confidence he did not really feel.
This circle was the most intricate bit of magic he had ever worked and he was quite proud of it. If the spirit broke free there wasn't much more Billy would be able to throw at him. His words seemed to have the desired effect though, as the creature slowly forced himself to relax, taking up a position mirroring Billy's. The young druid could feel it constantly tearing at the web of his spell but so far it was not finding any opening and it was showing an effect, even though his eyes betrayed no emotion he was starting to sense frantic despair in the spirit he had trapped. Interesting.
"I have known for a while what you are," Billy lied smoothly - it had only been a vague suspicion after all, "but I was willing to let you live with us undisturbed. I can however not permit you to harm those under my protection." He waited for a moment to let his words sink in. "Where is Prince Viggo?" he then asked.
He was surprised at the reaction he got.
"I can't tell you." the spirit answered, breaking eye contact and looking at the floor instead. David sounded sincere but of course that could be just a clever deception but Billy was willing to go along with it for now as long as the spirit kept talking.
"And why is that?" he asked.
Amazed he watched as the spirit squirmed uncomfortably.
"I thought you liked Orli," Billy ventured, trying to coax more of a reaction, "do you enjoy watching him suffer?"
"No!" The pain in the David's eyes was entirely genuine and deep. He was not here of his own free will, Billy realized intrigued.
"Someone sent you here..." he spoke more to himself than to the spirit, "someone controls you." The thought was frightening. He looked at the spirit with fear in his eyes. "A powerful wizard indeed to control a creature such as you." Someone entirely more powerful than Billy could hope to best. This was dire news indeed.
Again the David surprised him. "No," he hissed, his voice so full of raw hatred Billy recoiled from it, "not powerful at all, just lucky..."
Billy blinked at the spirit slowly. So he hated the master who had bound him somehow and that man held no magic power over him. It was a mystery. But a mystery that might be solved to his advantage and that would mean the prince's advantage. Billy leaned forward again.
"It would seem to me we share an enemy," he said, "maybe we can defeat it together."
The spirit drew breath deeply, calming himself and shaking his head. "No, there is nothing I can do." he said with open regret.
"Let's say there is nothing you can think of you can do," Billy replied with a smile, "we both know my spell will not hold you forever as you have stated already. So what harm is there in telling me how this lucky master of yours is controlling you? Perhaps I can think of something you have overlooked." The doubt in the David's eyes gave Billy hope. "After all I think you did not want to harm any of us. You want to help."
The spirit closed his eyes, obviously struggling to come to a decision. Billy gave him time, noticing that the tearing at his spell had stopped. He had been right it seemed. David wanted to help, he just needed a way how to.
Finally David spoke again, his voice low and filled with pain. "I have been a prisoner for a long time," he said, "I was bound to an object a long time ago like most of my kind. You may have heard of the Djinni? I am one of them. I am forced to grant my powers to the mortal who finds my lamp. Being captured is torture but being separated from my soul-brother, my lover is much worse. The man who has my lamp also owns that of my beloved. He allows us to be together after centuries apart - for our continued service. If we misbehave or disobey we are confined back to our lamps. It is in his power to part us again, maybe forever..."
Billy had listened with growing horror. The thought of binding a spirit permanently was an affront to everything he had ever been taught - it was plain wrong. To use them like a cheap witch's charm - unthinkable.
"What kind of wizard would do such a thing?" he exclaimed, "and has never anyone had the decency to set you free??"
David blinked at him in honest surprise. "No, why should they?"
"Because..." Billy flayed his arms in exasperation, "because it would be the right thing to do! Honourable!"
"I'm afraid your sense of honour is not shared by the magic workers of this land." David answered with a hint of wry amusement.
Billy growled in annoyance. "Can you not break that spell binding you?" he asked.
The spirit shook his head sadly. "It is of simple make but cleverly crafted. I can not touch it."
For a long moment they looked at each other in silence and then the same thought crossed their minds.
"I on the other hand..." Billy said.
"You could." David completed the sentence with a malicious smile growing on his lips.
If you enjoyed this story, please send feedback to: Beryll
go to PART 95