“You’re being childish,” said the genie. “Or heroic. Or possibly mad.”
“No—realistic,” said Abdullah. “Furthermore, I shall challenge you by wasting the wishes in a way that might do good somewhere to someone.”
The genie looked decidedly sarcastic at this. “And what is your wish today? Homes for orphans? Sight for the blind? Or do you simply want all the money in the world taken away from the rich and given to the poor?”
“I was thinking,” said Abdullah, “that I might wish that those two bandits whom you transformed into toads should be restored to their own shape.”
A look of malicious glee spread over the genie’s face. “You might do worse. I could grant you that one with pleasure.”
“What is the drawback to that wish?” asked Abdullah.
“Oh, not much,” said the genie. “Simply that the Sultan’s soldiers are camped in that oasis at the moment. The Sultan is convinced that you are still somewhere in the desert. His men are quartering the entire region for you, but I’m sure they will spare a moment for two bandits, if only to show the Sultan how zealous they are.”
Abdullah considered this. “And who else is in the desert who might be in danger from the Sultan’s search?”
The genie looked sideways at him. “You are anxious to waste a wish, aren’t you? Nobody much there except a few carpet weavers and a prophet or so—and Jamal and his dog, of course.”
“Ah,” said Abdullah. “Then I waste this wish on Jamal and his dog. I wish that Jamal and his dog both be instantly transported to a life of ease and prosperity as—let me see—yes, as palace cook and guard dog in the nearest royal palace apart from Zanzib.”
“You make it very difficult,” the genie said pathetically, “for that wish to go wrong.”
“Such was my aim,” said Abdullah. “If I could discover how to make none of your wishes go wrong, it would be a great relief.”
“There is one wish you could make to do that,” said the genie.
He sounded rather wistful, from which Abdullah realized what he meant. The genie wanted to be free of the enchantment that bound him to the bottle. It would be easy enough to waste a wish that way, Abdullah reflected, but only if he could count on the genie’s being grateful enough to help him find Flower-in-the-Night afterward. With this genie, that was most unlikely. And if he freed the genie, then he would have to give up challenging Fate. “I shall think about that wish for later,” he said. “My wish today is for Jamal and his dog. Are they now safe?”
“Yes,” the genie said sulkily. From the look on his smoky face as it vanished inside the bottle, Abdullah had an uneasy feeling that he had somehow contrived to make this wish go wrong, too, but of course, there was no way to tell.
Abdullah turned around to find the soldier watching him. He had no idea how much the soldier had overheard, but he got ready for an argument.
But all the soldier said was “Don’t quite follow your logic in all that,” before suggesting that they walk on until they found a farm where they could buy breakfast.
Abdullah shouldered Midnight again, and they trudged off. All that day they wandered deep lanes again. Though there was no sign of any constables, they did not seem to be getting any nearer to Kingsbury. In fact, when the soldier inquired from a man digging a ditch how far it was to Kingsbury, he was told it was four days’ walk.
Fate! thought Abdullah.
The next morning he went around to the other side of the haystack where they had slept and wished that the two toads in the oasis should now become men.
The genie was very annoyed. “You heard me say that the first person who opened my bottle would become a toad! Do you want me to undo my good work?”
“Yes,” said Abdullah.
“Regardless of the fact that the Sultan’s men are still there and will certainly hang them?” asked the genie.
“I think,” said Abdullah, remembering his experiences as a toad, “that they would rather be men even so.”
“Oh, very well then!” the genie said angrily. “You realize my revenge is in ruins, don’t you? But what do you care? I’m just a daily wish in a bottle to you!”
Chapter 14
Which tells how the magic carpet reappeared.
Once
again Abdullah turned around to find the soldier watching him, but this time the soldier said nothing at all. Abdullah was fairly sure he was simply biding his time. That day, as they trudged onward, the ground climbed. The lush green lanes gave way to sandy tracks bordered with bushes that were dry and spiny. The soldier remarked cheerfully that they seemed to be getting somewhere different at last. Abdullah only grunted. He was determined not to give the soldier an opening.
By nightfall they were high on an open heath, looking over a new stretch of the plain. A faint pimple on the horizon was, the soldier said, still very cheerful, certainly Kingsbury. As they settled down to camp, he invited Abdullah, even more cheerfully, to see how charmingly Whippersnapper was playing with the buckles on his pack.