My Son, the Wizard

Chapter Five

“Let me get this straight,” Saul said, frowning. “You think some sorcerer has managed to con the emir of Aldocer into trying to conquer Ibile, then striking though the Pyrenees to conquer us, and that the same sorcerer has sent these genies to try to distract us?”

“Djinn, Saul, not genies.”

“Genies,” Saul said firmly. “I’ll take my djinn in a bottle, thank you.”

“Well, they are safer that way… “

“All right already! I don’t cotton to that ‘djinn,’ okay? Personally, I thought the genies were threatening to bring Bordestang and the castle down around our heads.”

“A threat as well as a distraction.” Matt nodded. “Comes to the same thing… keep Alisande from marching to help King Rinaldo, and soften up Merovence for invasion.”

Alisande looked surprised for a second, then nodded slowly. “That is quite true, husband. I must keep my army here to defend while my capital is under attack.”

“Not a bad strategy,” Saul said, “except that it warns us ahead of time.”

“Well, yes, but how could they know we knew about the Moorish Conquest?”

“You mean that King Rinaldo might well be under attack even now,” Alisande said, frowning. “Would not he have sent word?”

“Not if all his messengers were ambushed, and killed or captured,” Saul said grimly. “Rinaldo isn’t much of a wizard, from what you tell me.”

“No, more of a man of action,” Matt agreed. His heart was heavy for his friend. He turned to Alisande.

“We’ll send a magical messenger.”

“And a party of riders,” Alisande said grimly. “Might not these djinn waylay a magical messenger as easily as a mortal courier?”

“They might at that,” Matt said. “I really ought to go myself… “

“No!” Saul and Alisande snapped together, and Saul went on, “You really gotta do something about this martyr complex, man.”

“I cannot spare you, most of all.” Alisande took firm hold of his arm. “But tell me… what spells can we use to conquer this evil magic?”

“Hey, the Moors aren’t evil,” Saul objected. “They worship the same god as Merovence does, just in a different way.”

Alisande looked doubtful, but Matt said, “True, but if some sorcerer has conned them into attacking, there’s a very good chance that he’s evil. Certainly he’s using magic that predates Islam by at least a thousand years, if he’s compelling djinn and afrits to do his dirty work.”

“We haven’t seen any afrits yet,” Saul objected.

“No, and we don’t want to,” Matt assured him.

“What is an ‘afrit’?“ Alisande asked.

One of the things Matt loved about her… if she didn’t know something, she asked straight out, instead of trying to pretend she knew already. A lot of monarchs would have found that beneath their dignity.

“They’re sort of superdjinn… more powerful, and mean, very mean,” he summarized. “Some say they’re also very ugly, with features like fangs and boar’s tusks.”

“And I thought we only had to worry about Berber animism.” Saul hurried to explain before Alisande could look puzzled. “The Berbers are the people who lived in Morocco before the Arabs conquered them.”

“In Barbary,” Alisande corrected. “Yes, it makes sense that those who live there would be Berbers.”

“Sure, what’s a vowel shift between peoples?” Saul said airily.

“But what is ‘animism’?”

“Very primitive religion,” Matt explained, “where people believe that everything around them has a spirit … every rock, every tree, every brook.”

“Ah.” Alisande nodded. “Like the dwarves in the mountains, the dryads in the trees, and the nixies in the rivers.”

“Yes, organized religion is such a huge advance,” Saul said dryly.

Matt shot him a warning look and defused the remark by saying, “Right. Really primitive animism doesn’t have any gods… just local spirits. After a while, people invent gods, too, and after a longer while, they realize that their inventions are really only aspects of one universal God.” His look dared Saul to argue.

Saul chose the better part of valor for the moment. “Of course, in Merovence, you have all the creatures magic can support… and we’d have trouble enough if our enemies were just raising those kinds of spirits against us.”

“Would not our own creatures of magic defend us from these djinn?” Alisande asked, frowning.

“They might, if we asked them,” Saul said, “but I gather that’s what Matt has done for you before, and some of the elementals needed a lot of persuading.”

Alisande turned thoughtful. “An interesting way to describe a wizard’s role.”

“Well, part of it, anyway,” Matt amended. “Yes, that’s what I was braced for, mobilizing the dwarves in the mountains to help fight off the Berber spirits… but if we have sophisticated Arabic magic on top of that, we’re going to have even more trouble.”

“Trouble that you might be borrowing,” Saul pointed out. “We’re just guessing.”

“Yeah. We don’t really know anything.” Matt scowled. “We need some good, capable wizard-spies.”

“NO!” Alisande and Saul said together.

“Well, it doesn’t have to be me,” Matt said, disgruntled. “I just hate to ask anybody to do something dangerous for me if I’m not willing to do it myself.”

“I think I liked you better when you were a coward,” Saul commented.

“You did not,” Alisande countered, “but you did like the notion that he would live longer. Why must you always seek to thrust yourself into the midst of peril, my husband?” She softened, touching his face.

“Am I so loathsome that you must constantly flee me?”

“You know that’s not true!” Matt said fervently, and took her in his arms. He tried to reassure her with a long kiss.

“Watch the tonsils,” Saul muttered.

They broke apart, laughing and blushing, and Matt told his wife, “Sometimes it’s my yearning for you that manages to pull me out of a magical morass. But I won’t try to shift my responsibility onto somebody else just because I don’t want to suffer the pain.”

“Ah, but we know you are willing to undergo the trials,” Alisande countered. “Therefore may you send another with a clear conscience, for you do not send him to do what you shirk.”

There spoke the executive, expert on delegating authority. “Well, maybe we won’t have to send a living being,” Matt said. “We can start with crystal-gazing… but I don’t expect much luck. Anybody who can command genies can shield himself from magical spying.”

“Until you can learn, we must plan in darkness,” Alisande summarized. “I ask again: What spells can you use to send these djinn packing? What enchantments to shield us from a Moorish army, if one indeed marches upon us?”

“Something involving lamps, bottles, rings, and the Seal of Solomon,” Matt said. “I’ll have to give it some thought.”

“I’ll start by writing down as much of The Rubaiyat as I can remember,” Saul offered.

“Might help. Please do.”

“Then there are verses from Chesterton and Ariosto,” Saul said. “Chesterton had a poem about the battle of Lepanto, and… “

“Ariosto!” Matt’s head snapped up. “The Madness of Roland! It didn’t happen in our universe, but it might happen here!”

Wife and friend both turned to him, puzzled.

“The Siege of Paris,” Matt explained. “The Moors are going to strike into Merovence so far that they’ll besiege Bordestang, if we don’t stop them in Ibile!”

“What is Paris?” Alisande asked, bewildered.

“Our universe’s analogue to Bordestang,” Saul explained, and Matt clarified, “The capital of France, the country that takes up the same territory in our world that Merovence takes in this.”

“Is it not then Merovence by another name?” Alisande asked.

“No, there’s a host of cultural differences,” Matt told her, “not to mention historical facts happening in different order.”

Saul frowned. “You don’t suppose poets can see into universes besides their own, do you?”

“Only in their inner visions,” Matt said, “and if they can, what they see is so jumbled and unclear that they mix it in with what they know of their own world… so Ariosto had our universe’s Hardishane defending Paris from the Moors, instead of one of his descendants.”

“Of course,” Saul pointed out, “there might be a universe in which it did happen.”

“This multiplicity of universes is most confusing,” Alisande protested.

“Tell me about it! I’m just glad I don’t have to worry about more than two!”

“I rejoice that I only need worry about one,” Alisande countered “What do you advise I do, to prevent the Moors from streaming into Merovence while my capital is under siege by these djinn?”

“Make alliances with the mountaineers in the Pyrenees,” Matt said, “then fortify the passes.”

“We could get Stegoman and Narlh to fly in a squad of relatives to help out,” Saul suggested “A clan of dragons can be very persuasive ” Matt nodded “Good idea, especially since we’re probably going to have to cobble up a defense without any of the royal army “

“I shall send straightaway to the lords of Anjou,” Alisande said “They shall ready themselves to withstand an army.”

“They’ll be outnumbered,” Matt warned, remembering his history courses “Tell them to avoid pitched battles,” Saul suggested, “just nibble away at the army’s flanks. Hit ‘em hard and fast, then fade back into the woods and swamps.”

“I have heard of bands who fought thus,” Alisande said slowly “It goes against chivalry, but it is the wiser course. However, I shall also bid them reinforce their strongholds.”

“They’ll need it,” Matt agreed “Anything we can do instead of wait for the next magical surprise?” Saul asked Matt shrugged “Ransack the library, I guess. Maybe somebody wrote something about Moorish magic.”

“Each to his own station, then,” Alisande said. She gave Matt a quick kiss that left him wanting more, then stepped away. “I shall see you at supper. Let it be done!”

“Don’t I wish,” Matt muttered as he watched her sweep out of the room. “Maybe we oughta check out your laboratory first,” Saul suggested, “not that I can think of anything you can brew to chase a genie.”

Matt lifted his head slowly “I can send a servant out for some juniper berries and brew some gin. Maybe what you said about bottles could really do some good.”

“It might at that!” Saul said, grinning “Maybe we can cobble up some oil lamps.”

“Can’t hurt,” Matt said “Let’s go.”

They hurried up to the tower room Matt had commandeered. He unlocked the door, opened it, and stared taken aback. “Well, we couldn’t let anybody in to sweep or anything,” Saul said defensively.

“I was gone awhile, wasn’t I?” Matt looked around at the layer of dust. “Nothing’s even out of place, though I take it the djinn left this tower alone?”

“We lucked out, yeah.” Then Saul frowned “You don’t suppose that wasn’t just coincidence?…

“They might not like my kind of magic,” Matt said He looked out the window. “I chose better than I knew. I should have a fine view of them getting up to tricks from here.”

“Where’s the dust rag?”

“Hook on the wall.” Matt felt a stab of conscience… house work reminded him of his mother.

“Unfinished business first, though.”

“Unfinished? You haven’t even started anything!”

“Yeah, but I’d better check my mail.”

“Oh, yeah? You know a carrier who goes between universes?”

“No, but I think I can take advantage of a space time anomaly…

“That would be singular,” Saul admitted “or would it be a singularity?”

“The magical equivalent, anyway,” Matt said. “You know, someday we’re going to have to work out how closely the laws of magic parallel the laws of physics.”

“Some day you’re going to have to learn physics,” Saul grumbled. “Why, when I’ve got you? You know, you never did explain to me why a philosopher took so many physics courses.”

“I was trying not to graduate,” Saul retorted “Besides, once you get far enough into mathematics, the relationships between the three fields get to be too strong to ignore.”

“You’ll have to explain that to me, too.”

“I’ll try,” Saul sighed, “but it seems ridiculous, when you have such a great intuitive grasp of it yourself.”

“All right, so you’ll have to explain me to me. Besides, how can you have an intuitive grasp of physics and math?”

“How were you going to get your mail?” Saul retorted.

“Like this ” Matt frowned, concentrating, then folded a piece of parchment and tucked it into a jar, reciting,

Saul said, “Not the world’s best… “

An envelope appeared in midair and floated down to land on the workbench.

“Okay, so it was good enough,” Saul grumbled.

“Well! That was fast! Mama and Papa must have started writing the second I left the house!” Matt picked up the envelope… and stared, his face blanking.

“It’s not from your folks?” Saul guessed.

“No, it’s not.” Matt yanked out his dagger and slit the envelope. “It’s from Mrs. Gussenhoven… a neighbor. She must have started writing the second I stepped out the door. But how did she get my address?”

“Asked your mother?” Saul guessed.

“Yeah, over the back fence.” Saul unfolded the page of stationery and started reading. Silence stretched.

“Good job of face camouflage,” Saul said, “if you were in a snowbank. Share!”

” ‘Dear Matthew,’ ” Matt read, ” ‘I got your address from your mother because I think you ought to know.’ “

“Uh-oh.”

“Yeah.” Matt’s face finished blanching to maximum paleness and started reddening with anger. “I don’t think they let you know how bad things are. They’re proud, God bless them, but maybe too proud. Your papa’s store doesn’t have any business anymore, except he delivers for some of us old folks himself. The bad boys won’t let anybody else deliver. They scare the customers away so they go to the supermarket. They don’t dare try to stop your papa yet, but they’re getting bolder. They’re mad at your papa because he won’t let them turn his store into their hangout and crack drop. He will have to close for good pretty soon, and he doesn’t have unemployment, because he is in business for himself. The bank is going to foreclose on their house.

“I do not know what you can do, but please do it anyway. Send them some money somehow. I know that is hard, because your papa won’t take it, but find an excuse…

… It was good to see you walk by again, and I hope your new job makes you happy… Then the ‘Yours truly,’ and that’s it.” Matt slammed the letter down on the desktop. “She’s right… the state doesn’t pay unemployment benefits if you’re self-employed.”

Saul nodded. “Even if you go broke and have to shut down.”

“And neither of them is old enough to apply for Social Security yet. Damn! What the hell can I do?”

“Same as people have been doing for centuries,” Saul said. “Invite them to move in with you.”

“Of course!” Matt looked up, eyes alight. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Because you’re not a genius, like me.”

“Right! Thanks!” Matt was gone out the door in a whirl, pounding away down the stairs.

Saul stared, blinking, then ran after him, calling, “Hey, wait a minute! What about the genies?”

“A room in our castle? Your parents? Of course!” Alisande glared. “They may have a suite! Fetch them at once!”

“Thanks, dear, uh, Your Majesty, uh…” Matt caught his breath. “Why are you angry?”

“Your own parents, and you did not discover they were in need before this? Why, what an undutiful son you are! Get you hence, Lord Wizard, and bring them home at once!”

“You’re so beautiful when I’m wrong.” Matt darted a loud kiss onto her cheek. “And you’re right, I was a louse.” Then he stepped back, smile vanishing, becoming formal. “My liege, may I have leave to leave and bring back my parents?”

“Of course you may! I command you to be off at once, to save your mother and father!” But the wife’s anxiety shone through the cracks in the queen’s emotional armor. “Yet I will insist you take with you at least one knight, for from what you have told me, there is danger in your world. Now be off with you!”

“Yes, Majesty! See you in a week or so!” He spun on his heel and strode back to his tower.

He slammed into the laboratory, fuming, “Blast and fusion! How am I going to manage anything in twentieth-century America with a medieval knight hanging around my neck?”

“I think I know just the man,” Saul said slowly.