in the garden he cannotplay,
let him in atnight
to avoid the forest’splight.
And whether he feel good orill,
the palace shall reflect hiswill.
Finally, by grace of the powersabove,
let this curse be broken by the blessing oflove.”
She opened her eyes and smiled with satisfaction. “That was rather a good one, was itnot?”
Rolfe could not confess to be in the least pleased by the djinn’s intervention. He thought he had won her assistance! Forest’s plight? Blessing oflove?
What manner of solution wasthis?
He did not believe in love. That was a whimsy favored by women, and truly not a condition for his release that wouldsuffice.
There was a shimmer beside him and Mephistopheles disappeared. Rolfe had been deprived of his possessions, afterall.
He barked in frustration, but it was too late. He ran upon all fours in the snow around the djinn. He could see that the sun was sinking and the shadows were growinglonger.
How could that be? What about her spell? Night was falling and he was still a wolf. Rolfe howled deliberately at the stars overhead, then fixed the djinn with an accusingglance.
The djinn’s lips twisted as she considered the hue of the sky overhead. “It is just a question of timing,” she assured Rolfe but he knew he was not the only one who was not convinced. “That is far and away the most complicated part of castingspells.”
Rolfe had thought it was the rhymes she found troubling, but he could hardly argue withher.
He heard his destrier nicker from inside the walls of the palace, then the stallion kicked the gates from the other side. How did the palace reflect his will if his horse was inside and he wasoutside?
The djinn smiled tentatively. “He is safe from wolves,” shesuggested.
The palfrey neighed then, the sound also coming from inside the walls. He had been robbed of both of hissteeds.
The djinn shrugged. “Both safe,” she offered. “You wanted a home.” She smiled. “We do advise that one should be careful of makingwishes.”
Rolfe snarled for the first time and liked the feel ofit.
He enjoyed the way the djinn jumped when he did it. She retreated behind her bottle, as if that small vessel could defend her, and watched himwarily.
“You know, it is not very fitting to have her flying freely,” she said. “There was a reason why she was confined to this bottle in the first place, as you can well imagine. It might be wise to see her thus confined again. You couldhelp...”
That was enough. Rolfe was finished with djinns and their curses. He could see no benefit to furthering theirassociation.
There was one good way to express hisopinion.
He lunged toward the djinn and bared his teeth. He snapped, and though his jaws closed on empty air, he was convinced he had made his feelingsclear.
“Well, well.” The djinn sniffed from several feet away. “I see I shall have to find someone else to assist me. It is a most inexplicable affection.” She snatched up the bottle she had vacated, then pivoted and stalked off into the forest. The red balls on her hat bounced indignantly as she walked. Her footsteps left no mark upon the surface of the snow, and in the twinkling of an eye, she had disappearedcompletely.
Rolfe was left alone in the forest outside the first djinn’spalace.
Were it not for his changed form and the palace wall behind him, the entire incident might not havehappened.
Wolves howled again, although they were closer, and Rolfe felt a primal urge to lift his voice along with theirs. The forest was more alien to him than it had ever been. He was snared and he wascursed.
Marcus had been wrong. This was a far cry from making his dreams cometrue.
Although Rolfe was uncertain what he could do aboutit.
And the knowledge that he was powerless in this situation was what bothered him most ofall.
