Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [107]
That much pleased her. The trouble was, still there was no sign of the bottle.
Guiliette had, however, found one hidden way out. There was a tunnel leading out under the walls from one of the cellars full of old and broken furniture that came out in what had probably once been the other side of the lethal hedge-maze that had surrounded the Castle. But, the maze was gone, vanished, leaving behind only desert. There wasn’t a hint of cover out there; the Wili had cautiously investigated and come back to report that anyone using that exit would be quickly spotted by the Castle guards. No hope for it; unless something provided a powerful distraction, there would be no escaping that way.
She wondered if there was any way the girls could hide in the walls. Would that make the Jinn go looking for them, and leave an opening for them to escape?
But that would really accomplish nothing. As long as the girls were around the Jinn, he could leach their magic. That was probably why he allowed them to roam at will. As long as they were within the walls, he was going to be satisfied. It wouldn’t matter that he couldn’t see them, as long as he knew he had them.
On the other hand, if he decided he needed to consume one—those secret passages might come in very handy. Even if he could find the passageways—which, eventually, he probably could—he wouldn’t know them the way the girls did.
Of course, that supposed that he wouldn’t just blast a hole in the wall to get to the one he wanted….
In the tales, solutions were always so much simpler.
All right. She knew that Sasha was out there with the dragons. It was time to tell him what was going on. This time she found a real pen so that she could write as much detail as would fit on the inside of the bird. She told him how many girls there were, about the secret exit, that they were trying to find the Jinn’s bottle and why. She included everything they knew about the Jinn, which was, sadly, not much. When she was done, she had room for exactly one letter, and after much trepidation, she made a neat little heart.
Then she let the bird fold itself up, and went in search of some of the other girls. She found Klava deep in conversation with the gypsy over a handful of herbs, in a small square tower room with a window overlooking what was now desert. The other half of the tower floor was dark, and she couldn’t see what lay in the room. This one was furnished with four chairs, a table, and chests lining the walls.
They both looked up at her entrance.
“We were discussing whether or not it is possible to poison a being of fire,” said the gypsy, without preamble. “Am thinking not, but is good to discuss anyway.”
“I’m about to send the bird off again, and the Jinn will surely come looking for the source of the spell he senses when I do,” she replied. “Twice now he’s sensed it around me, and I think a third time—”
Both the others nodded, and the gypsy grinned. “I give him something to think about, I think. You send bird, then hide—” She cast around, and pointed at a chest. “Is empty, yes?”
Katya raised the lid. It was empty and big enough for two of her.
“Klava, you getting ready to close lid on her. I start spell.” The gypsy took out a pack of cards and began to shuffle them. Katya stood in the chest, and whispered the words of the spell to the bird, thinking hard about Sasha. The bird shot out the window, she dropped down into the chest, Klava shut the lid on her, and she felt the Jinn approaching quickly from a distance. Within moments he was practically on top of her, as if he had flown in through the window. She knelt, all bent over, inside the chest, and hoped he would not think to look there. She would have a hard time explaining why she was hiding.
Flickering light played through the cracks in the chest as the Jinn’s presence filled the room in a way she could feel even inside the chest. “I told you—” he roared.
Then stopped. The light dimmed immediately.