Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [106]
The glance that the Queen sent toward the scholar was like a spear now. He coughed. “We, ah, already have, Majesty. The Leshii of Mosswood, the Shaman of the Cave of the Bones, and the Firebird of Aen Jar. The Firebird fled,” he added. “We do not know what the fates of the Leshii and the Shaman are.”
The Queen’s darkening expression did not bode well for those who had failed to call her attention to this. “I have no intention of going to war against this Jinn,” she said ominously.
Sasha put on an earnest expression. “That shouldn’t be needed, Majesty. There are Champions—my two dragon friends—who are going to attempt to take him. But this is where we do need your help. We need him weakened, we need to get the Sea King’s daughter out to help us, and the only way we can do that is if we get his hostages out of his hands.” He looked at her expectantly. “Without those young women to draw on, his power may well be halved.”
She drummed her fingers on the arm of her chair. “You have a plan.”
“We have one that requires your help, yes, Majesty.” He licked his lips, and hoped he didn’t look as nervous as he felt. “I told my friends that I would be very surprised if you had not had tunnels driven well into the Katschei’s grounds. For trading purposes. As is your right.”
“What of it?” she asked. “This Jinn knows nothing of them. We approached his gates rather than reveal our secrets.”
“All the better, Majesty.” He smiled weakly. “You see, I am fairly certain that the Jinn does not know of these tunnels, and he will be looking to the surface of the land or to the sky for any attempts at escape. If you were to drive those tunnels further, into his dungeon, we could free the hostages and weaken him by removing them from this source of power.”
She sat in silence a while. “I will think on this. I must speak with my advisers. Stay here.”
He bowed. She rose to her feet and swept out, pale green gown and long sleeves trailing after her, jewels chiming softly.
“Tea, sir?” asked the attendant. “And perhaps something more substantial than cake.”
Sasha sat down, feeling very weak in the knees. He could scarcely believe he had managed to get this far. Matching wits with the Queen made him feel like a man with a knife facing a man with a sword. “That would be welcome, yes.”
The attendant took away the cakes and placed buttered bread, cold beef, and pickles beside him. With a sigh of appreciation, Sasha helped himself. The view from that window was tremendous, and he had no doubt, had helped his case. She could see with her own eyes how the Jinn was encroaching on Copper Mountain. And being underground probably would not save her and her people if he decided he wanted what she had.
It wasn’t as if the Jinn would know how the girls escaped, either, not if she was clever and he and the dragons were fast enough. If her people collapsed the tunnels behind the girls, the Jinn would never know who had driven them. And if Sasha and the dragons could start an attack or a distraction so that the Jinn had his hands full at the time of the escape, he wouldn’t notice until his power began to ebb that they were missing, and by that point they would be long gone.
He repressed the urge to pace. Pacing would make no difference in how this came out. If she elected not to help, they would just have to make some other plan.
“Perhaps something a little stronger than tea, sir?” the attendant asked.
He thought about that a moment. “That might be a good idea.”
Without another word, a glass of vodka replaced the teacup, and Sasha downed it, feeling it burn all the way to his stomach, and light a fire there.
Fire—
If nothing else, now he had far more information on what a Jinn was than he’d had before. But fire and water…Katya was the Jinn’s “natural” enemy, and Sasha had the uneasy feeling that if it came to a need to consume one of the Jinn’s captives, she would be the first to go.
He had to get her out of there.
Had to.
Even if he had to fight his way in there alone.
Katya was reasonably pleased