Fortune's Fool - Mercedes Lackey [99]
“Second to none,” the Sea King said with pride.
“Then a clever girl would arrange to have herself carried off just like the others. I think we can assume that is what she did.” The green dragon Gina looked at her mate, and Sasha could have sworn that she smiled at him. Could dragons smile? “It is what I would have done.”
“You are clever and rather too inclined to charge in before reconnoitering,” said Adamant, but there was amusement in his voice.
“A dragon can afford to do that,” she pointed out, and laughed.
“You did it when you were a knight, too.” Adamant shook his head at her. “Don’t forget, I was there. I remember it very well, you charging up to the cliff, and shaking your fist at me.” He pitched his voice higher. “Come back here, fell beast! Coward! Scum! Wretched thing of evil! Come back here and taste my steel!”
Sasha looked from one dragon to the other, and couldn’t help but feel any vestige of control over this situation slipping away. And—the dragon was once a knight? This was seeming evermore impossible. “Ah, excuse me please, but my betrothed is in danger—”
“Ah—I beg your pardon.” Adamant immediately became all business, and Gina sobered. “I don’t think this girl—”
“Ekaterina—” said the King, and “Katya,” Sasha said at the same time. They looked at each other.
“Katya,” said the King.
“Katya is not in immediate danger, but that could change. Do either of you know what a ‘Jinn’ is?”
Sasha shook his head. “A Fire Spirit,” the King said. “It lives in deserts. Some are good, some are bad, and I think we can assume this one is bad.” He shrugged. “That is all that I know, I am afraid. We’re not much given to deserts around here.”
“Any reason why it would kidnap maidens?” asked Gina.
The King shook his head. “From the little I know of them, this is not the sort of thing that Jinni do. They can’t be bothered with humans, much. They despise mortals.”
But several disparate pieces of information clicked into a whole in Sasha’s mind at that moment, and he spoke up with the answer. “Because it is living in the Katschei’s castle,” replied Sasha. “The Tradition is trying to make it fit.”
“Aha. That makes perfect sense.” Gina looked at Adamant again. “Are you thinking what I am thinking?”
“That the Jinn is making the best of what it is being forced to do by taking maidens inherently magical so that it can use their magic?” Adamant hazarded. “That means they will probably be safe for now if they don’t go making trouble.” He pondered again. “Time to reconnoiter. And look for allies. They should be easy to come by. Even the nastiest of creatures native here is going to object to having this Jinn drop a desert in their garden.” He pondered again. “Do you think we need the bird anymore?”
Gina shook her head. “We know where the castle is. I think we can let it go.” And before Sasha could say anything, she lifted a rock, and a brightly colored paper bird shot up into the sky and was gone.
He looked after it wistfully. If they hadn’t been so hasty, he could have written something on it. Even just We’re coming and his own name. He rather doubted the dragons had been able to write on something that small.
Well, it was done. At least now she would know she wasn’t alone. He took comfort in that, and turned his attention back to the planning.
Katya worked at the ground around the roots of the roses. Whoever it was who had built this place first, it was not the Katschei. The original plants here had all been lovely, not the nightshade, the belladonna, the spider-lilies that the Katschei had favored. This bed of roses in particular was responding to her ministrations, and those of Klava, with a vegetable gratitude. New shoots were forming, the bushes were covered