Chapter 14: A Change of Scenery
"Holly?" Philippa asked. "Are you okay?" Holly nodded, still in tears.
"I'm alive, aren't I?" Holly sniffled. Then she took several deep breaths to calm herself, and Nimrod ordered Groanin to make a cup of strong tea.
"What happened, kiddo?" Mark asked his little sister, seating himself on a footstool opposite Holly's armchair. Holly took another deep breath before relating the events that seemed to be burned into her memory.
"Well, when Azazel kidnapped me and Cas," Holly began.
"Cas and I," Mark corrected automatically, and Holly made a face at him. Mark had the grace to look suitably cowed. "Sorry. Go on."
"... Kidnapped Cas and I, he took us to some hotel. I don't know what one, but Cas said that it was right by the Nile. That's how he had the opportunity to toss me out of the window, you see. In any case, I doubt that Azazel will stick around for very much longer once he finds out that Cas sent me on my way. I'm worried about Cas- Azazel will be furious!" Holly finished. Then she shook her head, just as Groanin came back with a steaming cup of tea and gave it to her. "How many weeks ago was it that I was kidnapped, anyway?" Holly asked.
Nimrod sighed. "I see I neglected to tell you about djinn bottles. It's actually only been about 24 hours, Holly."
"There that is again! I feel like it's been weeks and weeks- over a year!" Holly began to sip the tea that she had been given.
"It only felt like a year," Philippa explained. "A djinn entering a bottle or other container requires that they step out of three-dimensional space, and by doing this, they step out of the regular outside pattern of time. So when you entered the hip flask, you were probably spiralling in clockwise, in accordance with the normal hemispheric rotation, right?"
Holly nodded. "So you're saying that time has a different relation to the space I occupy in a bottle, is that it?" John, Philippa, and Nimrod all nodded.
"In the northern hemisphere, entering a container clockwise makes time go slower, and faster if you go in counterclockwise." John finished.
"You'll discover, Holly, that everything a djinn can do is the result of good, old-fashioned physics." Nimrod told his daughter.
Mark stood up. "This is all very well and good, Nimrod. But what about Cas? How are we going to find him?"
Holly nodded earnestly. "I can't bear to think what Azazel will do to him." She finished her tea and handed the teacup and saucer over to Mark, who took it without a word.
"But what is Azazel up to? It's obvious to me that he must have some great and/or horrible plan for his revenge on Jonathan Teer for stopping him up in a bottle." Philippa said, looking over to Nimrod, who nodded.
"And the question remains," He agreed, standing and striding over to the radiator upon which the jade-capped hip flask- Holly's prison- still rested. "Where is he heading to now? What does he intend to do with Cas?" He picked up the hip flask and examined it thoughtfully. "And why would he kidnap Holly as well?" He mused. He began to pace the length of the library in earnest, becoming deep in thought.
Azazel paced the length of the Persian carpet that decorated the floor of the hotel room. He had an air of utmost calm about him, an air that made Cas's heart crawl its way into his throat. A deafening silence permeated the room, and the only sounds that Cas heard were the soft padding of Azazel's expensive shoes on the carpet, and Cas's own heart thumping in his ears.
"I had hoped," Azazel began softly, somehow seeming more frightening than it would be had he flown into a rage. "I had so hoped that you would prove yourself. That you wouldn't take the chance I gave to you, Castiel. Silly of me, to suppose that you wouldn't."
"What... What are you talking about?" Cas asked, trying hard to feign innocence.
"You know very well what I am speaking of, Castiel. The hip flask in the freezer. It's gone, and so is the Marid." Azazel sighed. "Please, do understand that I hold you in the highest respect, brother. We're equals, you see. But you've made me dreadfully disappointed, and I don't much care for that."
Cas swallowed uncomfortably. "What are you going to do to me?" he asked, his voice cracking in fear. Azazel stopped pacing to look Cas directly in the eyes. Green eye met green eye, and Cas began trembling.
"Me? Hm. Good question. I'll tell you what: I'll be kind. I'll take the Sesquipedalian binding off of you and put a djinnhibitor on you instead. You still have much to learn, and you can't do that when you don't have your focus word. Besides, without furnishings, a bottle is going to be very uncomfortable. Here, MACKINTOSH!" Cas stumbled backwards as a blast of hot air hit him, full on. He suddenly remembered exactly how to pronounce his focus word, but Azazel spoke again before Cas had time to act. "Don't waste your breath trying to turn me into a flea. It won't work- that's the point of a djinnhibitor binding. I did it so that you can make yourself quite comfortable in here." Azazel smiled, rather nastily, Cas thought. "You've caused my plan to fast-forward, Castiel. You haven't stopped me. Now, give me your cell phone. It has served its purpose."
Shaking violently, Cas reached into his pocket and pulled out his iPhone, which he handed over to Azazel, flinching as Azazel's hand brushed his own. Azazel smirked, and crushed the cell phone to dust in his hands. Then, taking a small but strange-looking blue glass bottle, Azazel uncorked it and brandished the neck at Cas. "Goodbye, brother. MACKINTOSH!"
Cas tried to resist, but found that he had no choice but allow himself to be turned to black smoke and spiral into the bottle.
He heard the sound of a dull thudding as Azazel tapped the cork back into place.
Cas was well and truly trapped.
"I do hope that Azazel hasn't bottled Cas up!" Holly said, and winced. Her arm, which hadn't bothered her at all before, was beginning to remind Holly what exactly it meant to be 'shattered in several places.'
Philippa put an arm around her newly discovered cousin's shoulder. "It'll be all right, Holly." She soothed. "We'll find Cas no matter what, I promise."
Holly sniffed tearfully and tried to rub the tears from her eyes, only succeeding in making her face puffier and more flushed than it had already been. "Yes, but Cas could be being tortured right now for all we know!" she said hysterically, "and we have no idea where they could be- I don't even know where we were to begin with!"
"Hey! Kiddo! Calm down, it'll be fine." Mark knelt down before his sister and placed a comforting hand on her head. "We can find Cas, all we have to do is think." He glanced at Nimrod. "Right, Nimrod?"
Nimrod nodded, and walked over to the tall oak bookshelf and ran a finger across the spines of the many books. "To speak the truth, I'm not entirely sure myself what research we can do. At this point, it's all guesswork." he said.
"Maybe you overheard something, Holly." John suggested reasonably. "Could you hear anything of what was going on outside when you were in the hip flask?"
Holly nodded. "Until Azazel put me in the freezer, I could hear most everything, I think." She looked at the floor.
"He put you in the freezer?!" Nimrod turned from the shelves, aghast. Then he shook his head. "No matter. You're still alive, and that's what matters. We can worry about that later. Meanwhile, while you try to remember anything you overheard, the rest of us will try to glean all the information we can about Azazel and what he's been up to since he resurfaced."
"What about researching where Azazel popped up again?" Philippa asked. "Do you have any idea where that was, Uncle?"
"Didn't you say something about the Balearic Islands?" John said, continuing in the same vein as his twin sister.
"Yeah, couldn't Azzy have resurfaced somewhere in Spain?" Philippa asked, and John looked at her in surprise.
"What does Spain have to do with islands in the Caribbean?" He asked.
Philippa rolled her eyes. "The Balearic Islands are off the east coast of Spain, dummy. In the Mediterranean? Jeez, didn't you take geography?"
John scowled at his sister. "Well, excuse me for not knowing everything."
Holly wasn't paying attention to the twins' squabbling. She wasn't paying any attention to anything but the floor at her feet. Something was bugging her, and she couldn't quite remember what exactly that something was.
A word? Two words? There were two, yes... No. Not two, three. Three words that had been whispered in her ear by some mysterious person.
"Vidrio, Madrid, Diego." She whispered to herself. Had those been the three words? "Vidrio, Madrid, Diego."
"What's that you're saying, Holly?" Nimrod turned, a book already in hand. Mark, too was gazing curiously at his sister.
Holly looked up at them. "I don't understand it, but for some reason, the words 'Vidrio, Madrid, and Diego' are important. They mean something."
"Madrid? Like the city, maybe?" Philippa offered.
"Can't think of anything else. Is this something that you overheard when you were in Azazel's clutches, Holly?" John asked. Holly furrowed her brow.
"I can't quite recall. I think so, though."
Nimrod, meanwhile, had gone quite pale. "Do you recall the glass shop I was telling you about on the carpet ride here?"
"I remember that," John said, nodding.
"What about it?" Philippa asked.
"I'm not sure. But 'vidrio' Is the Spanish word for glass. The glass shop I was referring to is owned by a man named Diego Ramirez."
"It does seem to fit, doesn't it? But how do we know that this is where Azazel is headed for?" Mark asked reasonably.
"Hm." Nimrod pondered, then seemed to think of something. "Excuse me for a moment, please." He hurried out of the library with considerable haste.
"Holly, can you try and remember where you heard those words?" Philippa coaxed again. Holly thought harder for a moment or two, then sighed.
"I haven't the faintest clue," she admitted gloomily. "I just hope that it helps us find Cas."
"Eureka!" Nimrod shouted from wherever he had vanished to, loud enough to be heard throughout the entire first floor of the house.
John and Philippa sprinted towards Nimrod's voice, with Groanin close on their heels, while Holly, Mark, and Creemy followed at a more sedate pace.
"What did you find, Uncle Nimrod? Something about Azazel?" Philippa asked breathlessly, just moments after she and John had barreled through the double doors of Nimrod's room.
Holly, keen on finding out what Nimrod had discovered, did not pause to look at the twin statues of Anubis outside the doors, nor at any of the strange and rather fascinating possessions that were cast rather untidily about Nimrod's room.
"Perhaps." Nimrod nodded. He was at his computer, looking at an internet news website with keen interest. "I'm not sure why no one caught this before, but there was a disappearance from Diego Ramirez' shop just a few weeks ago. A disappearance that has Azazel's fingerprints all over it."
Holly picked her way past the little piles of books and other possessions scattered around on the floor- somewhere in her mind, Holly realized that her habitual untidiness was yet another trait she must have inherited from Nimrod, since her room in New York had been similarly messy, or at least it had before the fire, though untidiness is not particularly linked to genetics- and towards Nimrod's computer to look over his shoulder at the news article he had found. Naturally, it was in Spanish.
"Madrid- Professor- Missing-" She translated clumsily aloud.
"Yes. Alphonso de la Rez, 42, went missing a month ago. Apparently, he was last seen heading for Diego Ramirez' glass shop with not inconsiderable excitement. There was an investigation, but the Madrid police found nothing. Currently, the top suspect is Diego himself."
"So are we going to Madrid now?" Philippa asked.
Nimrod nodded. "Yes. That seems to be the best option at this point. I know Diego well, and I'm sure he'll be willing to speak with me."
"Are we going by flying carpet again?" Mark asked.
"Yes. There's no time to catch a plane." Nimrod told him.
Holly felt slightly sick.
"Awesome!" John grinned.
Nimrod frowned. "Keep in mind that these are very desperate circumstances, all of you. Generally, Holly, you want to keep your usage of djinn power to a minimum, since using your power costs some of your life force each time."
"To Madrid, then." Mr. Groanin said, and led the way out of Nimrod's room. "It'll be nice to get out of this bloody heat and into a more sensible climate, I say it'll be pleasant."
Nimrod frowned. "You, Groanin? I would have thought that you'd be less than excited to go to another foreign country rather than back to London."
Mr. Groanin shrugged. "Comparatively speaking, I'd much prefer Spain to this dreadful heat."
"I'm going to be rather sad to leave Egypt." Holly sighed. "I didn't even get to see the pyramids."
John, Philippa, and Mark, however, seemed to be looking forward to the change of scenery.
"I've never been to Spain," Mark commented, glancing at Holly, and noticing her smile at his reference.
"Well, what are we standing around here for? We've got to get going!" Nimrod said, and began to concentrate.