Tall Tales, page 7
Again, Gwentell seemed like she wanted to say something else, but she just shook her head and quickly started humming a song. Lena turned away as she faded out, leaving the fairy alone in the library.
“I understand now,” Gwentell whispered to no one. “I get why they don’t want us reading the Tales. It makes it all hurt so much more.” She shook her head. “This isn’t right. Lena doesn’t deserve this. And neither does Jin.” She shuddered at the memory of his fate at the end of Tall Tales. “That poor, poor genie. Not even a final goodbye to Lena? Whoever wrote this Tale is just cruel!”
CHAPTER 12
Merriweather’s magic fell over Jin like a cloud of mist, and suddenly his thoughts dissolved into a weird sort of fog, along with all his stress and worries about Lena. It wasn’t entirely unpleasant, but it did make thinking clearly a bit… more difficult. Difficulter? More difficulter? Less non-difficult?
What was going on? And also, what was going on?
“Oh, hello!” he said to the fairy queen, who was leaning over him, probably to see how her spell had gone. “I liked your spell. It made my mind go all floofy!” He giggled. “I thought you were going to torture me or something, since you hate my whole existence. But this is so much better than torture! Like twice as better!”
Merriweather didn’t seem to be sharing his joy, which made Jin sad for her. “It was only a simple spell to release your inhibitions,” the fairy queen said. “It’s meant to keep you from having the wherewithal to lie. But it doesn’t usually have such a drastic effect.”
“You know what’s funny?” Jin told her. “The word ‘effect.’ So many people get it mixed up with ‘affect,’ which makes sense, because they’re basically like brother and sister. Or sister and cousin? So similar!” He giggled. “But one is the result of influencing something, and the other is the act of influencing it! Pretty clever, huh?”
“What is this gibberish?” asked a new voice from farther away. Merriweather looked up, and a less-bright light replaced the blinding one, helping Jin see her better. Oddly, Merriweather looked pretty unsettled. Even more oddly, there were ten more fairy queens floating behind Merriweather, all watching him intently.
Jin tried to wave to them in a friendly way, not wanting them to feel left out, only to realize he still couldn’t move. “Hullo!” he said instead.
“Perhaps I overdid the spell’s power,” Merriweather said. “I had thought the djinn’s natural defenses would be… stronger.”
“You know who’s strong?” Jin asked. “Lena. Strong, and so cute! But also fierce, and intimidating. Grr!” He growled. “You know what’s funny? The word ‘grr’ is an onomatopoeia, which is also funny.” He started repeating it in a sort of singsong voice. “Onomatopoeia! Onomatopoeia? Onomatopoeia, onomato—”
“Enough!” Merriweather shouted, and magical power crackled off her. Jin gasped, then gasped again, enjoying how it sounded. Not that “gasp” was an onomatopoeia, which didn’t seem fair to the word, but still. “Tell me the truth, genie: Have you been progressing in your challenge to be humbled? Do you bear any ill will toward the human world or its people?”
“Let me check,” Jin said, feeling like he knew the answer already, but not wanting to be wrong about it. Cosmic knowledge? How am I doing on… what she said?
Weirdly, the cosmic knowledge didn’t answer, which was definitely weirdly weird. And also strange. Hello? Jin thought again, then, for good measure, said the same thing aloud. “Hello?”
Merriweather growled. “Yes, hello. I’m still here, waiting for my answer.”
“Oh, sorry, I was just trying to talk to the sum total of all knowledge in my head,” Jin told her. “But it seems to be gone for now. You know, I wonder if it’s because—”
“For some reason, you not having any knowledge in your head comes as no surprise,” Merriweather said, sounding annoyed. “You still have not answered my question, djinn!”
“Right, your question!” he said, getting excited about the opportunity to say more answers. “Question. Your question.” He frowned. “What was it again?”
“Do you bear any ill will—”
“That’s it!” Jin interrupted. “I remember now! Nope, I have no bears, sick or well. Sorry about that. If you really need a bear, maybe I could find one for you?” He looked around conspiratorially, then whispered, “You might not know this, but I’m a genie and can grant wishes. Shh, don’t tell anyone!”
She gritted her teeth and pushed in closer, staring him in the eye with an intensity that Jin tried to match, glaring right back at her. “Do you intend to hurt the human world, djinn? Yes or no?”
“No!” Jin shouted excitedly, enjoying how dramatic this was all getting. “I don’t like them much, even a little bit, but why would I hurt them? Unless they were mean to me, that is. Like the Golden King. Him, I’d totally hurt—”
“He must be telling the truth,” Merriweather said, turning back to the other fairy queens. “I cannot believe he’d be able to lie, not in his current state. And even a djinn has too much dignity to fake… this.”
“Ah, there’s where you’re wrong,” Jin said, and Merriweather turned back in surprise. “You see, I’ve got no dignity.” Her eyes narrowed in anger, but she didn’t interrupt, so he quickly continued. “But also, I’m not faking right now. Although…” He trailed off, lost in thought.
“Although?” Merriweather said, pulling Jin’s mind back to the fascinating conversation they were having.
“Yes! Although I do fake a lot of things!” Jin said happily. “So maybe I’m faking without knowing it? That seems unlikely, but would I know that I didn’t know? Probably not.” He tried to shrug but still couldn’t move. “Like I’m faking this whole body right now. Did you know I might look like a human boy, but genies don’t have a gender? I can be anything I want, and switch back and forth when I’m bored.” He shifted to a feminine form, a girl with short brown hair. “See? Hello!”
The fairy queen sighed deeply. “It would seem that things are progressing as intended, and this interrogation was not strictly necessary. So I would offer you my… apologies.” She seemed to almost choke on the last word.
“I can have your apologies?” Jin asked, shifting back to his boy form. “Yay! I’m going to keep them in a special place forever, and look at them whenever I’m feeling down.”
“I have no more time for this,” Merriweather growled. “I offer a warning, by way of apology: your friend Lena is our only chance of saving the human world from darkness, and will need your aid. You must keep her safe and help her locate the Prison of Light. But know that if you open the prison yourself, you will unleash the vast force of the shadow’s power upon the world and doom us all.”
Jin narrowed his eyes, wanting to sound all serious like she did. “That sounds serious, but exciting! Doom us all. Doom doom doom.” He grinned, not able to stay serious. “That’s a fun word, ‘doom.’ Did you know—”
“Enough of this, Merriweather,” one of the other fairy queens said. “You clearly used too much magic.”
“I assumed he was somehow hiding his true power!” Merriweather said, turning to look at the others. “I would have needed far more magic to break through the ifrit’s defenses, I promise you that!”
“And yet, this one is not as powerful as his sire,” said another. “Are you certain he can perform his task?”
“Will he keep the giant girl safe?” asked another.
“The Tales of All Things is very clear,” Merriweather said. She pointed down at Jin. “This is the djinn that will travel with Lena and do what needs to be done. It will all happen just as written.”
“Is someone writing something?” Jin asked. “Can I be in it? Maybe the hero who falls in love with a giant, and she totally loves him back, and—”
“Yes, he is indeed the foretold djinn,” said one of the other fairy queens. “We must not interfere with him any further, or we might risk changing the story.”
“I am not interfering,” Merriweather said, sounding annoyed at the fairy queens now. That was fun, not having her angry at him for once! “There’s no permanent harm done, and this… confusion will pass in a matter of hours.”
“Then send him along his way,” said another fairy queen. “To think, a djinn being allowed in the homelands!”
“He has seen nothing of the homelands beyond this room,” Merriweather said. “And we shall continue this discussion when he has gone!”
“Gone where?” Jin asked, but Merriweather was already humming. Before Jin knew it, the fairy queens had disappeared around him, replaced by the rooftop where Jin had threatened the smaller fairies.
“Jin!” shouted a familiar voice, and, finding that he could move again, Jin picked himself up to find Jill staring at him in surprise. “They let you go?”
“Jill!” he shouted, and threw his arms out to give her a hug, only to stumble right through her and almost fall off the roof. He frowned, then whirled around. “Jill!” he shouted again, and threw his arms out to hug her, only to trip and fall on the roof.
“Um, okay,” Jill said as he pushed back to his feet. “Clearly they removed your brain before sending you back.”
He frowned, then pushed a finger through his head and out to the other side. “I guess they did! Weird!”
Jill sighed deeply. “This is going to be one of those kinds of days, isn’t it? Did you at least find Lena?”
His eyes widened. No, he hadn’t! Lena was back in the fairy homelands, most likely, so there was nothing for it, he’d just have to figure out how to get back there and rescue her. He opened his mouth to tell Jill just that, when a voice shouted up from below.
“Jin? Is that you?”
“Lena?” Jin said, then glanced down over the roof to find the giant girl waiting below, next to her enormous cat. “You’re here!” He glanced back at Jill. “Look at me—I did find her!” He shook his head in amazement. “Sometimes I’m so great, I even surprise myself.”
CHAPTER 13
Lena waited impatiently while Jin floated down to her. She was glad she’d heard his voice, or she might never have found him. What had he been doing on the roof, anyway?
“Lena is back,” Rufus repeated for what must have been the tenth time, purring loudly as he continually headbutted her. He hadn’t given her more than a few inches of space since she’d reappeared in town, which was fair: after disappearing on him like that, she must have worried her poor boy.
Fortunately, she’d reappeared in the same spot the fairies had taken her from, and Rufus came bounding at her the moment she called his name. She hoped he’d at least been off with Mrs. Hubbard, getting treats. Though now that she thought about it, there was no one around in the city. Were the residents just hiding from her again?
I get it, she thought at them. You don’t trust giants. I finally understand why. You think we’re all made of evil. But maybe I can prove to you that we’re not. Just… just let me try, okay? Let me try to beat these challenges and show you giants can be trusted.
“Hullo!” Jin said, grinning widely as he reached the ground finally. “I found you! You’re back!”
Lena tilted her head, not sure what he was talking about. “Um, I found you. And how did you know I was gone?”
“Because I’m on my third wish!” he said brightly. “I’m third-wishing all over the place.”
Okay, that made no sense. But she didn’t have time for this. They needed to stop the Golden King and only had a few days to do it. “Um, fair enough. I need your help, but first, I have to admit something.”
Jin’s eyes widened into dinner plates. “Admit… something? Like, a feeling you’re having?” He looked down, toeing the dirt between them.
What was going on with him? “Not really. You know how I said you were right about the Last Knight before? I was just… upset at the time.” And still was. “But it turns out you really are right. He’s going to try to use the shadow magic himself, and it’ll apparently make him do all the things the Golden King means to, only worse.”
Jin’s face initially fell, only to light up as she continued. “Yay! I’m so glad we agree on this finally! You’re the best, Lena. And the Last Knight isn’t. You know, the best.” He stopped as if considering this. “In fact, he might be the worst, because he sort of called you a monster, and you’re not—”
“Don’t,” Lena said, cringing at the reminder of Thomas’s words. Somehow, they hurt just as much with Jin saying them as they had when she’d first heard them.
“ ‘Don’t’ is a funny word,” he told her. “Where does the second o go? Does it just disappear?”
She just stared at him. “What is wrong with you? Are you okay?”
“The most okay!” Jin said brightly. “Why? Oh wait, I’m being talked to.” He glanced over her shoulder, then nodded. “Jill says to tell you that the fairy queens captured me and probably cast some sort of magical spell on me.” He leaned in closer, conspiratorially. “Jill’s right,” he whispered.
What? The fairy queens had taken Jin, too? “Are you all right?” she asked, grabbing him by his shoulders anxiously. “Did they do anything to you? I know fairy queens don’t like genies….”
He shrugged. “Oh, I’m pretty sure they liked me! We asked each other lots of questions, and talked about mirrors and ifrits and funny words. The only thing is now I can’t hear my knowledge, so that’s odd. Odd odd odd.” He paused again, then laughed. “Ha, Jill is funny! Mean, but funny.”
“I’m sure she is,” Lena said, giving him a worried look. The fairy queens had taken his knowledge? That raised even more questions. At least Jin still remembered her, and apparently the Invisible Cloud of Hate that he kept calling Jill, too, so that was something. “We’ll figure out what the fairy queens wanted with you later, okay? Hopefully when your knowledge comes back. In the meantime, I need you to focus.”
He squinted at her. “Done. I can even extra focus if I just change to eagle eyes—”
“That’s okay!” Lena shouted, already too late as his eyes turned a golden yellow. “I meant concentrate. Can you do that?”
He scrunched up his forehead and closed his eyes. “Of course! I’m concentrating so hard right now.” He began to whisper “concentrate, concentrate” over and over, and Lena sighed loudly.
“Just come with me,” she said, and grabbed his hand. He squealed in delight for some reason but floated along just behind her as she pulled him toward Thomas’s house.
“You know, I was going to tell you something about your big cat in boots,” he said from behind her. “Something big. Monumental. Giant, even!”
About Rufus? “What was it?”
“He can talk!”
“I can talk,” Rufus confirmed. “Lena knows this.”
“Yes, Lena does,” Lena said, shaking her head. “I hope that wasn’t the big secret.”
“No, he can talk talk!” Jin said, sounding frustrated. “Talk all by himself!”
“For a long time now,” Rufus said. “Treats to celebrate Lena coming back?”
“Not right now, little man,” Lena said, deciding to ignore Jin, as he was clearly going through something at the moment. And that was disappointing considering she’d half hoped Jin might be able to teleport them to the shadowlands, because then The Tales of All Things would have been wrong: they wouldn’t have needed a guide, this Boy Who Was Freed. And if that part was wrong, maybe so was the rest? Maybe she didn’t have anything to prove and could still save everyone?
But no, Jin was in no state to use magic. Not at the moment, anyway. If he tried it now, he might teleport them in the opposite direction, or to the glowing white rock the moon giant carried across the sky. And they didn’t have time to wait for him to recover.
Which meant that at least so far, the fairy queens’ story was coming true. The thought made Lena want to throw up.
At least she knew where to find the guide, thanks to Gwentell. They reached the knight’s house a few moments later, and Lena reached out to open the door, only to find it locked. Without even thinking, she pulled back her arm, preparing to punch the door down.
But then the fairy queens’ words came rushing back to her, and she froze. Breaking down a door was something a destructive creature would do. Yes, she didn’t have the time to waste on unlocking it, and this almost certainly wasn’t one of the trials, but wasn’t she trying to show she could stay calm and not destroy things? That giants could be just as gentle as any other being?
Okay, try just this once to act more like a human. It can’t be that hard. To open the door, humans would… humans would…
Actually, she had no idea what humans would do to get through a locked door. Probably come back later? But that wasn’t exactly an option.
She raised a hand, then knocked gently, trying not to damage the door at all. “Hello, may we come in?” she asked, trying to sound as polite as possible.
“Jill says the knight is gone,” Jin pointed out.
“I know he is,” Lena said, gritting her teeth to keep from yelling at him. “I’m just trying not to be such a giant about it all.”
“Why?” Jin asked. “You are a giant about it all.”
“I know, and it’s because of that… Listen, just stop asking questions, okay?”
Jin nodded, then moved to her side and also knocked. “Hello, we may come in,” he said, changing her question to a statement, just as she’d apparently ordered him to. He leaned in as if listening, then smiled. “The door says yes, we can!”
And then as Lena stared at him in confusion, Jin turned one of his fingers into a key shape, stuck it in the lock, and turned it. The lock clicked, and he turned the knob with his other hand, pushing the door open in front of her.
“Um, thank you?” she said, then quickly moved inside before he could talk about how fun the word “welcome” was.
Thomas’s home had just been built in the last month, after the attack by the Faceless, so everything still looked new and organized. The house’s main room was cozy, with dark wooden walls and a fire crackling merrily in the fireplace.
