It was hot at hell. Literally. Schneider had been in hell on occasion and it was definitely just as hot there as it was here, in the midst of this damned inconvenient, damned uninteresting desert. He hated it. It had been tolerable up to a day ago, when they'd left all semblance of anything remotely habitual. Even the shrub grass which had grown up in stubborn clumps in the hard as rock, dry earth had served to grace the land with a little spice of variety. Now there was nothing but sand and more sand and more sand. Never ending. Boring. Hot. Uncomfortable. Grits of sand under one's robes was damned annoying.
No matter how many times changed outfits, or had one's djinni do it for one -- the sand still managed to work its way under. He didn't see how the damned desert dwellers lived with it. But no, they trudged along as if nothing were wrong. They steadily ate up the miles without so much as a complain or the constant motions of dislodging sand. So did Malice for that matter.
Schneider was starting to hate them all. The only person who was conceivably as miserable as he, was Kall-Su and Kall-Su was notoriously closed mouthed when it came to complaints. At least the ones regarding his own personal comfort. He had to wretched. He was an Ice Wizard after all. He was so totally out of his element. Yet he didn't say a thing. He didn't utter a word of complaint, which pissed Schneider off to no ends. He wanted company in his misery. He wanted to call down rain from the heavens, but he didn't think it was possible. There had to be weather patterns to draw from and they just weren't there.
"So can we make it rain in the desert?" He mused, riding along side Kall's evil eyed camel. He squinted up the considerable distance between them. Kall was bundled like a native. With the end of his turban wrapped about his face. He was silent for a while, then he shifted, looking down.
"It wouldn't be wise."
"Who said anything about wise. I'm hot."
"It would be a hot rain."
"Humm."
" I suppose with enough effort, you could pull a storm in from the coast. It would take a fair amount of power -- even for you and you'd probably wreak havoc with every weather system for a thousand miles." Kall knew better than to argue against him. It only made him want to do a thing all the more.
"Why don't you have your djinni summon up a cold wind?"
"Why don't you? You're the one with all the ice elemental connections."
Behind the cloth, Kall might have frowned. He shrugged, a shimmering ripple of light silk.
"I don't think they would pay me much heed here. If they would come at my summons at all. I'm rather hesitant to try. The heat -- the pure aridness of this desert might drive them away regardless of my hold over them -- and once loosened they might stray."
"That's when you kill them." Schneider said, as if he hadn't impressed that upon Kall decades ago.
"I'd rather not have to. They're all useful. You didn't answer the question about your djinni."
Schneider sniffed, not particularly wishing to answer it. "She's not that type of djinni." He grumbled.
"What type is she? What other types are there?" Kall leaned over his saddle, suddenly interested.
"She doesn't do war things. Or acts of nature. She's a pleasure djinn."
"A pleasure djinn? You mean all she's capable of is satisfying needs of the flesh?"
"Something like that." He'd finally gotten that bit information out of Malice. She seemed to think her skills profoundly useful. He would have too, if he'd been in position to use them. And god, he was getting more and more tempted every day.
"Why ever would the Moulay go to so much trouble to get such a useless creature?" Kall seemed honestly stumped. Kall was just obtuse when it came to some things. If he'd slept with more than one woman in the last six or seven decades he might have had a bit more of a clue.
Schneider gave him a disgusted look. "Maybe he wanted the perfect lay."
Kall blinked at him, large, uptilted blue eyes puzzled. "I didn't get that impression. He was desperate to have the bottle -- I think he was as surprised as we were when she popped out."
"Well I don't personally give a damn. She's mine now and that's that."
"How will you explain her to Yoko?"
Schneider tossed his head in irritation. "I don't answer to Yoko. She most certainly does not dictate what I can and can not do. You obviously have a very short memory if you think I'd ever let a woman rule me."
Kall didn't say anything. Kall looked at him curiously, then turned his gaze back to the featureless desert. Schneider fumed. But one could not help worrying over the event when he presented his djinni-- who was not in the least bit circumspect in her allure -- to Yoko.
He was working a variety of scenarios over in his head when the call drifted back from ahead that an oasis had been reached. The first such stop where their canteens could be refilled and their mounts thoroughly watered on this too long, hot journey.
"Our path diverges from that of the caravan from here on out." Abu scurried up to announce, shifting uneasily from foot to foot, nervous of their presence. He would not quite look at Malice. Malice ignored the little man, wondering away and into the midst of the caravan, which was setting up camp. Schneider had the notion that in lue of satisfying herself with him, she had made certain liaisons among the members of the caravan. He didn't particularly begrudge her -- he hadn't banned her from such a thing -- but it still rankled somewhat. He eyed her sashaying figure as it disappeared in amongst the camels and packs. Abu took their mounts, seeing to them himself. Malice had already created their tent.
He went to the spring with Kall-Su. It was a shallow impression in the hard earth. A few small shrubs and a bit of tough grass grew around it. There were rocks that shielded the area from the wind and blown sand. The beasts watered on one side and the men took their leisure on the other.
Kall-Su knelt at the edge, unwinding his turban, carefully laying the cloth behind him and away from the mud at the edge of the pool. He dipped his hands in the water and ran them through his hair. He'd let it grow out since he'd left Sta-Veron chasing after his little bard, traumatized over the mangling of his magic. Tousled and almost to his shoulders; such a loosening of personal standards was just --- unnerving.
The desert men were staring at the golden thing among them, wide eyed and whispering among themselves. Schneider gave them something else to gawk at when he ripped his head gear off and leaned forward to immerse his whole head in the warm water. He reared back, shaking water from his hair, enjoying the simple feel of it running down his back and dripping under his robes.
"It's too damn warm." He complained then leered at Kall and commanded. "Chill it down."
Kall rolled his eyes.
"Go ahead, call a little elemental and see if it'll come and cool this spring."
"And distress these men more than they already are by our presence?"
"Who gives a fuck about them? We're talking my convenience here. Besides, we don't have to travel with them anymore after this anyway."
He leaned in, drawing an arm around Kall's shoulders, pulling him conspiratorially close. "Wouldn't a little ice cold water to chase away the heat be a wonderful thing? I'd do it -- if I could."
Kall sighed, shrugging out from under Schneider's arm. "Isuki," He said softly. The smallest and most servile of his elemental servants. The first he'd ever mastered, Schneider had been there when he'd bent the thing to his will. Kall had been nineteen and full of the quiet determination that had never left him through out the decades.
Kall-Su's lashes fluttered in concentration. His brows, two shades darker than the pale gold of his hair drew down. A little swirl of dust kicked up. A few of the camels tossed their heads in alarm. Their human masters, deaf and dumb to the presence of something more than mundane went to calm them.
Schneider felt a cool draft of air. Saw the faint, shimmery movement of air that signified the passing of -- something. Kall's eyes followed the flow, seeing things that Schneider had not the sensibility to discern. Ice magic was anathema to him, who commanded the elementals of fire. But he was not immune to its effects. He felt the cold air caress his skin. Saw the ripple as the water in the pool was altered. His hand, trailing in the water, was suddenly blessed with coldness. A caravan guard down the way from them yelped in surprise as the water he'd been filling his canteen with drastically changed temperature.
"Oh, lovely." Schneider purred, dipping both hands into the water and bringing them to his lips. "You are so convenient to have around at times, Kall."
Kall-Su frowned at him. "It didn't want to come. Only the presence of the water convinced it. I think once out into the desert they won't appear."
"Hummm. There's no ice in the desert, huh?" Schneider mumbled, water dribbling down his chin. Kall blinked at him.
"What did you say?"
"What? No ice in the desert?" He pulled off his boots and stuck his feet into the cold water. "Why?"
Kall opened his mouth. Shut it and shook his head. "Just something --- something I thought I'd heard before. It doesn't matter."
The caravan left early the next morning. Abu and Kall-Su watched them go. Schneider and Malice were still abed within the tent.
"Which way do we travel?" Kall asked the little man, though why he bothered was a mystery since all directions looked dismally similar. Sand and sand colored rocks, all of it shimmering with heat even so early in the morning. Abu pointed a way, and Kall absently nodded.
He shut his eyes, trying to chase away the headache that had been plaguing him for two days now. The heat was traumatic and overwhelming. He had never imagined it could be so unbearably hot and life still thrive. But these, small, dark desert men obviously did thrive here. Life adapted. Magic was not so easily convinced. It was unsettling to feel the reluctance of his, before this, loyal elementals, when he called. They wanted to do his bidding, they wanted to respond -- but the heat and the dryness repelled them. An ice elemental could not survive with no moisture to feed it.
There is no ice in the desert. That phrase rang in his memory. What had been the rest of it? The prophesy from the gypsy fortune teller Lilly had stopped at the fair. He could not recall. He had paid it dubious heed at the time. Odd that he should be in a situation that struck so close to its truth. Odd that Schneider should utter the same words.
"Should I ready the animals, oh great lord?" Abu always bowed and scraped. Kall wasn't quite certain he trusted the little man because of it. Anyone that tried that hard was generally after something -- or was trying to save face.
He nodded. "I'll get them up."
Malice had gravitated into Schneider's arms while they slept. It might have been an unconscious thing, but Kall-Su rather doubted it. Neither of them, it seemed, liked to sleep alone.
By the time he'd gotten them up and willing to prepare for another day's travel, Abu had the camels loaded and the horses saddled. Malice had whipped up breakfast. Fruits and honeyed wine and bread so fresh it smelled as if it had just come from the oven. Cheese just as fresh lay atop it in slabs. He could not say he quite trusted her food, drawn out of thin air as it was, but it was by far more appetizing than the dried fare that Abu had packed. There was only so far he was willing to inconvenience himself out of pure dislike of the djinni.
He missed the small spot of comfort that had been the oasis as soon as it was out of sight. While they rode, immersed in endless, featureless landscape, he worked at countless mental chores to keep his mind from straying to dark musings about what was happening to Lily. Anything from reciting little used spells and histories, to inciting debates with Schneider. The latter was generally a loosing proposition. Schneider was never wrong. Schneider refused to loose arguments. But it passed time. Until the Djinni would come up, tired of not being the center of someone's attention and insert her moronic views into a perfectly intelligent conversation. He marveled that anything with as much creative power as she had could be so stupid.
Schneider didn't seem to mind. Well, not much. He occasionally caught a look of exasperation.
The second night away from the company of the caravan and all they had seen all day were rolling dunes. Not even rocky outcroppings marred the horizon. It felt as if they were delving into the heart of the desert, not towards a distant coast. But he could not trust his senses on such things. The desert was not his element and his desire to hasten to his destination made him impatient.
After dinner, with the night sky a sprawling vista of stars overhead he sat on the slope of a dune over their camp, distancing himself from Schneider and Malice's overt flirtations. She even played the tease with him now, bereft of other victims to ply her charms. His disregard irritated her greatly. Which pleased him.
Something along the unchanging, rolling line of dune on the far side of the camp shifted. He blinked into the darkness, not certain if his vision were betraying him. But yes, something undulated on the ridge of the dune. Something that grew in length, covering several hundred yards. Quietly, he sent out magical senses and felt --- horse minds. The quiet, focused goal of human presence intent on a single purpose.
He took a breath, and rose slowly and smoothly, wiping sand casually from his robes as he walked back towards the small camp. Schneider and Malice were inside, of Abu there was no sign, but the guide never slept in the tent with them. Always outside with the animals. Schneider was drinking wine and playing some board game with Malice. She was attempting to explain the rules to him and he was intent on making his own.
"It appears that we have callers." He said softly.
Schneider looked up, his hand poised over a marble game piece. "Really? Where?"
Kall-Su gestured through the back of the tent. "Along the ridge. A good many of them, in fact."
"Another caravan?" Malice suggested excitedly, missing the company of so many men willing to sample her charms.
"I don't believe so. They've a more -- foreboding sense about them."
Schneider tossed the game piece down and rose gracefully to his feet. "It seems there are more interesting games afoot." He grinned, quite content with the notion of conflict.
The two of them went outside, stood beyond the flap of the tent as if they were merely taking in the night breeze.
"Company on both sides." Schneider said. Kall glanced to the left, atop the dune he had been sitting on minutes before. There too a gathering of men and horses appeared, shielded by the night, muffled by the sand.
"Charming." He murmured.
"Yes. Where's your little ass kissing guide?"
"Good question." A little taste of despair crept up on him, as the thought that they had been led astray by Abu occurred. That the man had duped him and led them far off their track for his own purposes. He would kill the little miscreant if that were the case. Painfully.
"Well, shall we welcome them?" Schneider gestured to the right, where the greater numbers of shadowy forms resided. "I'll take those." And he left the ground with a whispery surge of power.
They must have seen him coming. For a cry rose from a hundred or more throats as if from one, and the shadows which had been still suddenly surged to life, pouring down the dune from both sides. And not totally mundane either. There was the sense of magic about them. They had magic users. He felt the shields protecting the force that slid with a cascading wall of sand towards him. Not particularly powerful shields.
First impulse was to summon an elemental. It was his specialty. He had to fight it back, unwilling to cast a spell that he was not certain would work. It limited his repertoire considerably, since he was still not up to commanding his total aggregation of magics. He felt before he heard a billowing flare of explosion from behind. The very air shook with one of Schneider's energy blasts. He cries of men and horses became shrill with pain and surprise.
He had no time to lend attention to what Schneider was doing. The mass of dark riders was almost upon him. He called up a force spell, sent it rippling outwards, pushing sand and air before it with a rushing, booming vibration. It encountered the shield, trembled against it a moment, then overcame it and bowled horses and men over, toppling the lot of them, sending them cascading down the dune along with the sand his spell had shoved up before it. Not as patently destructive as Schneider's work, but then Kall-Su held a curiosity about the men that would attack them in such mass in the dead of night. There was no such thing as a random attack out in the middle of nowhere. It had to be purposeful.
Another deafening crack of explosion. The night sky flared with the wrath of a fire elemental. The flames blazed, cast everything into harsh orange relief, then died out, having nothing concrete to consume. Like ice, there was little to feed them in the wasteland. Sand didn't burn. Flesh did. Men ran screaming, living flags of flame.
Men righted themselves from the tangle of human limbs and equine and came at Kall-Su. He sent them sprawling with a swipe of his arm. Did not take the lot of them out with a concussive blast of his own when he could have. The horses were too exceptional. Like the creatures Malice had made, they were fine boned and beautiful and not to be destroyed out of hand, despite their rider's intent towards him. He rather wished he wasn't smelling burning horseflesh along with the acrid odor of human on the wind. Schneider had never been so selective in his destruction's.
He looked beyond the confusion he had made of his attackers, to the top of the dune where a group of riders still were, observing the tumult below.
The root of the evil. He rose into the darkness, regardless of the men below overrunning the camp. There was only Malice there and he feared little for her. She had proved unusually difficult to kill.
Four large, black robed guards, wicked curved swords naked upon their thighs. The white bearded, weather beaten face of an old man he knew at their fore. So the Moulay had followed them. Perhaps even paid his erstwhile guide to led them into this trap. Quite, quite determined to have Schneider's little djinni.
"Little honor in attacking under the cover of night." He said it softly, hovering over their heads. The lot of them started, swords came up. The old man gasped, loosing composure momentarily, then quickly regaining it. They found him, where he was not expected, in the darkness over their heads.
"What know you of honor, foreign thief."
"Very little, according to some. But it appears to me, you are the one acting the part of thief in the night. What is so important about her that you would throw away so many lives? Surely you realized we were not so easily taken from our first encounter."
"It is not a thing you need to know. You need only to hand her over."
"She's not mine." Kall said. "And I'm tiring of this conversation. I've business of my own to attend."
"You'll not find her."
He narrowed his eyes, a surge of anger rising. "What do you mean?"
His feet touched ground. He stalked up to the Moulay's horse, catching its reins. The black robed guards made to force him away and with a snarl he sent them tumbling backwards, blasted off their mounts with concentrated ripples of force energy.
"What do you mean by that?" he repeated.
The hard as diamond old eyes gazed down upon him. There was passion there. The fervor for something unspecified. And a hint of victory. This was a man who believed in something very strongly it was only a matter of discovering what.
"I've sent the captain, Amir to track down his comrades who took her. He will succeed where you would fail."
"And what will he do with her once he has found her, old man?"
"Why nothing, if you give me what I wish."
"You seek to threaten me? I could kill you here."
"And your woman would disappear into the desert and you would never find her. All I ask is a small thing. You can keep the djinni if she means so much. I only need her to perform a task that only she can, and I've not further use for the creature."
There were fading explosions from the neighboring dune. Schneider was running out of enemies. The Moulay followed his stare.
"Tell him to stop and let us parlay. Perhaps there are things to be discovered that will be of interest to two men of magic in what I seek as well."