TEAM SPACE: honour among thieves, "Honor, Among Thieves"
Title: Honor, Among Thieves
Author: rinkafic
Team: Space
Prompt: honour among thieves
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard
Rating: G
Word count: 6,182
Warnings: None
Summary: Rodney has to prove he has honor. Magical AU.
Author's Notes: Thanks to my beta for the midnight read! I shall thank her properly after the reveal.
Once you've read the story, please take a moment to vote in the poll below. Ratings go from 1 (low) to 9 (high), so all you need to do is enter a single number in that range into each text entry box. You'll be able to see the prompt in the header above.
More details about the voting procedure can be found here.
**
Kav was jealous of Rodney, he always had been, since they were children and first started studying with the great Magi Harriman. He tried at every turn to discredit Rodney with their master. Usually, Rodney was able to see the traps and work his way around them. Usually. But there came a day when he did not see it coming, and was unprepared for Kav’s machinations to come to fruition.
There was to be a test for all of the students of Harriman, those that passed would move on to the next level of their training. This day came but once a year, and of all the students, only one would be granted the title of Magi, depending upon the outcome of the test. Most believed it would be Rodney or Kav that would be granted the title that year and be done with their apprenticeship.
Some people would do anything to get ahead, unfortunately, Kav was one of those. On the day of the tests after Rodney had successfully done a transmutation of sand into glass, Kav leapt up from where he had been sitting on the rug with the other students and pointed at Rodney with an accusatory finger.
“Master Harriman, Rodney cheated! He used a focus stone. I saw him put it in the pocket of his robe!”
Rodney’s hand immediately went to his pocket, he felt a lump and drew out a smooth, shiny stone. Shocked to see it, he held the stone up and looked past it at Magi Harriman with wide eyes. “Master... I...”
“You have acted without honor, Rodney. I am disappointed, I expected so much more from you. I thought I had instilled all the traditions into you.” Harriman shook his head sadly as he clucked his tongue. He didn’t rage, he didn’t get angry, he was just sad. Somehow, that was worse than his temper would have been.
“But...” Rodney looked over to see Kav grinning from ear to ear at Rodney’s predicament. Rodney remembered Kav brushing up against him as they entered the tent. He must have slipped the focus stone into Rodney’s pocket then.
Magi Harriman held up his hand. “I will hear no excuses. You must redeem yourself.” The Magi waved his hand in the air. The sand swept up from beneath the rug Rodney stood upon, swirling around him, blinding him and hiding him from sight. Through the roar of the wind that came up, he could hear the Magi chanting the words of a spell.
There was pain, Rodney bent double as his body felt as if it were being twisted from the inside. He was an excellent student and he immediately recognized the spell as one of transformation. He dropped to his knees, trying to breathe through the pain. He began to pant for breath, his tongue lolling out as he fell forward onto his hands.
When the small sand storm cleared and the pain subsided, Rodney heard the gasps and whispers of his fellow students as they saw his changed form. He clearly heard the braying laughter of Kav. He glanced down and saw that he had brown fur, and his hands were now paws. He looked over his shoulder and saw a furry back and a tail. This was terrible, he was a dog!
“You shall remain in this form until you have performed a truly honorable deed. Only then will you have redeemed yourself. I shall consider taking you back as an apprentice when you appear before me in your human form once more.”
‘Oh, this should be easy to undo,’ Rodney thought to himself. He would just need to go and find someone that needed assistance and help them and then the curse should be broken. Then he could get on with his studies. Kav’s treachery had not defeated Rodney, it had merely delayed him.
Magi Harriman looked down at Rodney and shook his head. “And just to ensure that you do not find the task too simple to accomplish before the lesson is learned, I think a change of location is in order.” The Magi waved his hands and Rodney felt a wave of disappointment as he felt another spell enveloping him. Of course his master would not let it be a simple spell to undo.
One moment, Rodney was in the luxurious tent of Magi Harriman and the next, he was in a tunnel leading to a large cavern. There was a flicker of torchlight from within the cavern beyond him. He heard raucous laughter and swearing. There was also the clang of metal against metal. Swords, perhaps? On two extra feet, he padded quietly to the entrance of the large cavern.
“Look, we have a visitor!” a male voice yelled. Others jumped to their feet, swords at the ready, only to laugh as they saw Rodney cowering in the doorway.
A heavyset bearded man with a golden hoop in his ear, gold chains about his neck and striped pants walked over to look down at Rodney. “What have we here? A mongrel?” He took a torch from the wall and looked down the tunnel behind Rodney. “All alone. And how did you get in, dog?”
A woman with golden hair and a long jagged scar across her cheek came over to stare down at Rodney and back at the tunnel which was dark behind him. “Magic? The door would not open without the phrase. A dog can not say the phrase, Kolya, so it must be magic that brought the creature here.”
Kolya glared down at Rodney and he instinctively cowered back from the large, imposing man with the frightening face. “Come to steal our treasure, dog? Think you can magic your way in and magic your way out again?”
The man shouted over his shoulder, “Radim!!! Bring me the Cuff of the Ancients!” As he said it, he reached down and seized Rodney by the scruff of his furry neck, lifting him to stare into his face. “You’ll see the treasure room, if that is what you came to see!” Rodney wondered if Kolya knew or just suspected that Rodney was more than a dog. Perhaps he was merely paranoid.
The man Rodney presumed was Radim rushed up and held out a golden cuff to Kolya. It was a bracelet, meant for a woman’s wrist. Kolya snapped the cuff closed around one of Rodney’s legs. It was too small to slide over his rather large paw, he would not be able to get it off.
“Take it to the treasure room. Let it guard there for its keep.” Kolya carelessly let Rodney drop to the dirt floor of the cave.
“Won’t he just try to run off?” The woman with the scar nudged at Rodney’s side with her knee to prod him into motion.
“No, Sora. That cuff is enchanted. There is another, a matching cuff somewhere in the vault. The two cannot be separated. One will always be transported to where the other is upon the rising of the sun,” Kolya waved his hand, dismissing them.
And so as the sun set on the day, Rodney found himself a guard dog, rather than the Magi he had hope to be named after his test. It was a very humbling realization. He sighed and dropped his chin to his outstretched paws as he stared at the gleaming piles of treasure around him. He was in a den of thieves, he had figured that out easily enough. The name of Kolya was well known enough even in Rodney’s homeland. This was their stronghold, their treasure vault and their hideout.
He had to perform an honorable act here? How was he going to do that? He foresaw a very long sojourn ahead of him as a dog.
~*~
The heavy wooden door at the entrance to the treasure room creaked open. Rodney leapt to his feet, sniffing the air. It was Cowen, the mean old man that brought Rodney his food and water each day. Cowen had been blinded in one eye and lost an arm in a fight. According to what Rodney had overheard since coming to the hideout of these Genii, these thieves, Cowen had once led the band, but Kolya took over when Cowen could not defend himself any more. It had made the old man bitter and cruel.
“Get in there!” Cowen growled and shoved a dark haired man into the room. “Keep your mouth shut. And mind the dog, he bites and he ain’t been fed in days.” Rodney heard Cowen’s brittle laughter as he slammed the door and left.
’I don’t bite,’ Rodney said as the man looked at him nervously, backing up against the door. Rodney gave a bored sigh and flopped down on his rear end. He let his tail thump on the floor a few times and tried to appear friendly.
The man tilted his head and stared at Rodney. He had the oddest hair, it was unfashionably short and stuck up all over the place. “You don’t bite, do you?” he said, sliding down to sit with his back to the door. His arm was being held at an awkward angle, and he looked as if he had been badly beaten. One cheek was swollen out and he had blood dripping down from cuts over his eye and on his cheek. His clothes looked to be of good quality, but they were torn and dirty, likely from the beating. As Rodney had quickly learned, Kolya and his cronies were not very kind, they enjoyed violence. Rodney was glad he was kept in the treasure room, he knew if he were out in the other caverns, where the rest of the Genii were, he would likely be kicked and beaten.
He got up and put his nose to the edge of his water dish, nudging it along across the floor to the injured man, who now had his head hanging low. He wore a ring, a golden ring with a symbol upon it that Rodney recognized easily. It was the royal seal of the neighboring kingdom, Pegasus. What had Kolya’s men done now? Had they abducted this man, a member of the royal household?
The man glanced at the water bowl, but did not understand what Rodney meant him to do. ’Clean those wounds before they fester,’ he would have said if he could talk. Rodney stared at him, willing him to understand. When the man just returned his stare, Rodney nuzzled his hand, trying to nudge him to the water. Aggravated when the dense man still didn’t get it, Rodney snuffed out a breath and gently, very gently, closed his mouth over the man’s wrist and dropped it in the water bowl.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, glaring at Rodney as he shook the water from his hand.
’Are you simple minded? Everyone knows you have to wash wounds,’ Rodney thought as he glared back. He didn’t really want to do it, it was rather disgusting, but maybe the man would get the idea if Rodney got him started. He took a few steps over and cautiously licked at the blood on the man’s cheek. It was salty and didn’t taste as bad to his dog-tastes as it would have in his human mouth, but he still didn’t want to do any more than that. He backed away and nosed the bowl again.
“Do you want me to wash myself?” the man asked after staring at Rodney. He gave a happy yip and wagged his tail. The tail was an unconscious gauge of his emotions; one he couldn’t really control, Rodney had learned.
The man struggled to pull off his shirt. Rodney saw even more cuts and bruises on his chest and arms. He used the clean water in the bowl and cleanest edge of the shirt to scrub away most of the blood. He was quite handsome. Rodney could see that now, despite the slight swelling of his wounds.
It seemed the man was to be a prisoner. Cowen came and brought a bowl of gruel for him to eat. It looked just as bad as the slop they fed Rodney. “So sorry, your highness, we don’t have anything fancy for you.”
“How long will I be here?” his highness asked as he looked down at the bowl in his hand with an expression of distaste. Rodney couldn’t blame him. It smelled awful from where he sat.
“Until your father pays the ransom.” Cowen threw a blanket at him. “Sleep well, Prince John.” He slammed the door behind him and the
Prince John? Kolya’s men had abducted the crown prince of Pegasus? This was terrible. Ruffians assaulting high born members of royal households! Prince John winced as he unfolded the ragged blanket and tried to spread it on the hard floor. Only having one working hand made the attempt awkward. Rodney put a paw down on the edge to hold it in place as John smoothed out the other end. He looked terribly weary and in need of sleep.
Remembering something he had glimpsed in the treasure pile, Rodney turned and ran to the back of the cavern. There was a trunk with the lid open, and luxurious fabrics spilled out of it. He picked up the edge of a red velvet cushion trimmed with golden tassels and carried it back to the prince, who was curled on his side on top of the blanket with his eyes closed. Rodney dropped the pillow near John’s hand. He didn’t move to take it, so Rodney picked it up and batted him on the shoulder with it a few times.
“What?” John opened his eyes and saw the pillow dangling from Rodney’s mouth. “Oh. Thank you.” He took the pillow and tucked it under his head. He yawned and as he closed his eyes he mumbled sleepily, “You’re a good dog.”
Rodney returned to the pile and dragged over a length of heavy velvet meant to be draperies. It took some effort, working without hands, but he managed to spread the fabric over the sleeping prince. Then he laid down alongside the prince and closed his eyes. Soon, he too was asleep.
~*~
When John woke, he was warm on one side and cold on the other. Merry, which John had taken to calling the dog, had slept beside him again, as he did each night.
John started calling the dog Merry because it seemed to be laughing at him all the time, and the dog was such a good companion, it seemed cold to keep calling him “dog.” He deserved some kind of name. He answered to Merry easily enough.
During the day - at least John thought it was the day, he could not tell since there was no way to see outside from within the cavern - the dog would wander around, weaving through and over the treasure piles. Once in awhile, Merry would find an object of interest and carry it over and place it in John’s lap. It broke up the monotony of the days. He had been here for eighteen days; according to the scratches he made each night on the wooden door using a dull brass cheese knife he had found in the trove.
John wondered why the dog was in the cavern. Cowen hated the beast, and the feeling seemed mutual. When Cowen moved to kick John awake one morning, when John was pretending to sleep, the dog had growled menacingly at Cowen until the old one-armed thief had left the vault.
The dog had found a book that contained a thousand and one stories. At first John had read silently to himself, but when the dog leaned over his arm, breathing wetly on his hand as he held the book, John had started to read aloud. Once he did that, the hound backed off and sat on his haunches. It seemed to John that Merry was listening intently as he read. Since it amused him to see the dog’s expressions change, John continued to read aloud. He was re-reading a story he had read aloud the previous day while Merry was off exploring in the furthest corners of the huge treasure cavern.
Hearing happy yipping from the other side of the cavern, John set aside the story book and wondered what Merry had found now. He was almost like a person, exclaiming over interesting things. When the brown mutt came around the corner near the statue of a naked woman pouring water from an urn, he had something golden held in his mouth. Unusual, because the dog tended to bring John things that were more practical and interesting than valuable.
A tug of war ensued. Sometimes Merry liked to make John fight for the items. There was a small gold ball that John sometimes threw for the dog to chase, which he would retrieve once or twice before apparently growing bored with the game and curling up for a nap or simply wandering away. Merry was the oddest dog John had ever met.
John tumbled backwards as the dog opened his mouth and let go. Then he sat there and John could swear Merry was laughing at him. “You did that on purpose!” John accused with a smile as he sat up. He looked at the item he now held in his good hand. His other hand was curled against his chest, useless. The bone had been broken and he feared it was healing properly, but there was nothing he could do about it. “Huh, looks like a bracelet,” John said and looked over at Merry. The dog was holding up one paw, the one with a gold bracelet on it.
Peering with curiosity at his canine companion, John scooted closer to the dog and held the bracelet up to compare them. “Well, it looks like you found a matching set. Aren’t you clever?” Part of the dog’s oddity was the intelligence that John kept seeing exhibited. Merry was smart. John could swear sometimes that he understood everything John said to him.
Naturally curious, John opened the bracelet and slid it onto his uninjured wrist. It fit snugly when he closed it by pressing it down on his thigh. “I think this was meant for a woman.” He held his wrist up to the torchlight. His captors kept the chamber lit with three torches that were refreshed daily. “This symbol here is an ancient one for fidelity,” he said as he examined the glyph. He had found that talking to the dog helped to pass the time. Even if Merry couldn’t answer him back properly, he did seem to listen intently when John spoke to him.
The bracelet glinted in the light, he turned it back and forth, admiring the ancient designs on it. Then he pressed it to his belly to try to get it off. The catch would not open again. He tried several different ways to open it, but it would not come off. He couldn’t slide it off over his thumb, it was too tight. Merry was watching his attempts and John was sure the dog was amused. His tail was thumping against the floor and the dog’s tongue was lolling out.
“I think we’ll have to wear our matching bracelets until someone comes along and takes them off, eh, my furry friend?” John stretched out his good hand and the dog came over and allowed John to scratch behind his ears.
Another ten days passed.
Lacking anything else to do during his captivity, John had started following Merry around the large vault cavern. Awkwardly, having only one hand to use, he dug through trunks and barrels and began to sort things into little piles, simply to amuse himself. He had a lovely pile of gemstones stacked against the wall under one of the torches. He was arranging them so that the colors caught the light and reflected in patterns around the cavern. John was very bored.
He found an old brass lamp. Thinking he might be able to use it for light after the torches had burned out for the day, John took it along with him as he went back to his little niche near the door to the cavern where he and Merry slept. He sat on the floor and began to rub the lamp with the cuff of his long-sleeved shirt.
Smoke began to pour out of the lamp’s spout and John carefully set it on the floor and backed away from it. The smoke was green; unnatural. John had enough respect for magic that he knew to back away and search for a place to hide. He scrambled back behind a large trunk and peeked over the edge.
When the smoke cleared and his eyes stopped tearing , he looked up to see a blonde haired woman, clad in a brief choli top and harem pants standing there, tapping her foot. Her pony tail swayed as she looked around the cavern with an expression of disgust. Then she scowled at John.
“Did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Rub the lamp and interrupt me?”
“I don’t understand... I rubbed the... were you in the lamp? How did you get in there?” He stood up and leaned against the trunk, staring at her with interest.
She crossed her arms over her bare belly and glared at him with open hostility. “I wasn’t actually in there. It was a conduit, I simply passed through it. I was meditating in preparation for a very important spell and you broke my concentration and now I’ll have to start all over again.”
“I’m sorry?” John was confused, but he apologized anyway. Merry had come over and was staring at the woman. He didn’t growl at her. That was unusual; Merry growled at everyone except John.
“Who are you?” John asked.
“Jeannie. You do know what you’re supposed to do now?” she was really angry at him. “Would you just make your wish and let me get back to finding my brother? I almost had it, I was sure I was going to make it work this time.”
Merry did the oddest thing. He let out a weird howl and dropped down on his belly, then rolled back and forth, looking for all the world as if he were laughing. His tail thumped the floor madly when he stopped rolling and stared up at Jeannie. She just glowered at the dog and then ignored him.
“I get a wish?”
“Yes, one wish, so make it good.”
“I thought I got three?”
She sighed heavily. “Only if you’re royalty.”
He grinned and examined the fingernails of his good hand. “I’m a prince.”
“Fine, then you have three wishes. Make them and let me go, I am a very busy apprentice to a very busy and powerful Magi.”
John smiled. He really only had one wish. “I wish I was home in my father’s citadel.” And just like that, he found himself on the marble floor of the entryway. He turned a circle, sighing happily. He ran to find his father.
The greeting he got was not the one he had expected. His father frowned deeply at him as he explained what had happened and where he had been. King Patrick had a deep distrust of magic and Magi. After he had told his story, John was sent off to see the healer. Carson clucked his tongue and proclaimed that the arm was ruined. There was nothing he could do for John, the damage was too severe.
Going to his chambers, John noticed that a lot of his things were missing. He was too tired to wonder exactly what they were. He would make a list and inquire in the morning. He bathed, dressed in a soft, comfortable tunic and loose trousers and went to his bed of soft cushions.
When he woke, he was back in the treasure chamber. Merry was sitting at his side, staring at him. He sat up and looked down at himself. It had not been a dream; his sleeping clothes were clean. Feeling guilty for not even thinking about Merry when he had made his wish the day before, he patted the dog’s head apologetically.
He grabbed the lamp and rubbed it harshly. “What did you do?” he demanded when the green smoke cleared away and the woman stood there once again.
“Me? What did you do?” Jeannie retorted. John just shrugged. She too was dressed in sleeping clothes, a simple shift that barely reached her knees. John averted his eyes from her bare skin. She looked over at Merry and snapped, “You do know that isn’t a dog, don’t you?”
“What?”
“That is not a dog. I’m an apprentice to a Magi, I can tell, there’s a spell around the dog, a first year apprentice could see it.”
John looked at Merry thoughtfully. The dog had helped him and been good company. He was sort of a friend. “Then I’ll use one of my wishes to break the spell on him.”
With a sigh, Jeannie dropped a hand to her hip. “I cannot do that, I can’t break another Magi’s spell, especially not a major working the likes of a transformation spell. Make a different wish.”
Looking over at Merry, John said to the dog, “I’m going to come back for you and get you out of here, I promise.” He looked back at Jeannie. “Send me home. I wish to be home!”
Once again, he was in his city, staring up at the high walls that surrounded the city and protected it from the wraith. Once again, his father was displeased to see him. His brother Dave glared at him as John went to his chambers after speaking to King Patrick and being denied soldiers to take back to go after Kolya and his men.
Home did not seem to be quite the refuge that it had once been. He heard a noise outside his bedchamber door and when he went to investigate, he found the door barred from the outside. He was a prisoner in his own home!
Regretting that he had not thought to wish Merry away with him, John curled up on the pillows that made up his bed and slept.
He woke with Merry sleeping with his shaggy head on John’s belly, drooling. He was in the vault once more. Merry sat up and wagged his tail. At least someone was happy to see him. He vowed to take Merry with him the next time he escaped.
After patting the dog, John reached for the lamp and rubbed it. Jeannie was yawning as she looked at him. “Again?”
“Yes. I was home and I went to bed there.”
“Something is obviously not right here. You must be bound to this place, don’t waste your last wish!” she held a hand up as John opened his mouth to speak. Merry whimpered and held up a paw. John shook it and then rubbed the dog’s ears. Merry flopped down on the floor and covered his face with his paws.
What to wish for? Since going home seemed impossible by magical means, he needed a really good wish. He didn’t want to waste it. “I need time to think about it. Go back to your studies, I’ll rub the lamp when I think of something.”
He thought about it for three days and nights but each wish seemed frivolous or pointless or selfish. None would get Merry and him out of the vault permanently.
The wooden door opened and Kolya and Radim came in with grim expressions on their faces and swords drawn. Sensing something was about to happen, John picked up the lamp and stuck it into the waistband of his sleeping pants, behind his back where the Genii couldn’t see it.
“Your father refuses to pay the ransom,” Kolya said with a sneer.
Refused to pay? That message had to have been sent a long time ago, before John had been magically transported for a night to Pegaus. Why wouldn’t his father pay the ransom?
“We’ve no need for you any more, little prince.” Merry began to bark madly, leaping at Kolya as the leader of the Genii took a step towards John.
“Mangy mutt. You will not interfere. You will not cost me my gold.” Kolya kicked out at the dog.
His gold? Kolya was being paid to do this. He was being paid to kill John. Things fell into place now. His father’s angry surprise at seeing John. His brother’s open hostility. John’s missing personal belongings. They had never expected him to return to Pegasus.
Radim swiped at Merry with his sword. Merry dove in and clamped his teeth around Radim’s wrist, biting down and making the man scream in pain as blood sprayed out from the wound as he shook his arm to try to dislodge the dog. “I’ll pay you more!” John said desperately.
“Oh, no, I don’t think so. You have nothing to pay me with. You cannot return my men to me, the one held prisoner in King Patrick’s dungeons. No, your head is the trade. The bargain is already struck. Stand still and accept your fate. It was truly your misfortune to be born a second son.” Kolya advanced on John, swinging the big sword. It made a whipping sound as it cut through the air.
John heard Merry snarling and snapping off to his right. He backed up, tripping over a small casket of gemstones and falling back onto the pile of coins. Moving forward, Kolya raised the sword high and began to bring it down. There was a blur of brown and Merry was suddenly there, between John and the sword. Rolling to the side, John heard a pained yelp as the sword hit the dog, slicing his side and belly. Thrown by the impact of the sword, Merry landed in a heap on the floor a short distance away from John. John looked up to see Kolya coming towards him again.
Suddenly, Kolya gasped. John saw the tip of a sword protruding from Kolya’s middle. The Genii looked down at the sharp end of the blade with surprise. Then he toppled forward. Radim stood there, blood on his hands as he stared at Kolya’s body. He stepped forward and put a booted foot on Kolya’s back for leverage and withdrew his sword.
“You, get out. I don’t care where you go. Just get out. Don’t come back. I’m gifting you with your life,” Radim said to John. “If I see you again, I will kill you, so will any Genii.” John started to go to Merry, bleeding heavily from the sword wound. “Leave the dog. Get out before I change my mind.”
With a last sad glance at the dying dog that had given his life to save him, John went to the door and out into the cavern. He could hear the other Genii moving about in the hideout. How was he going to get past them? Feeling the press of metal at his lower back, he pulled the lamp out and rubbed it frantically.
When Jeannie appeared, he said quickly, “Merry is hurt, in there. I don’t know if magic can save him. I want us both out of here. Send us to Merry’s home, let him die with his own people, this is my last wish.”
She nodded and John felt the transportation spell grab him. He opened his eyes to find himself in a large tent. A balding man in a robe was getting up from his pile of cushions, a worried look on his face as he looked at John’s feet. Merry was crumpled there, barely breathing. John knelt down and awkwardly lifted the shaggy head onto his knee with his good hand. “You’re a good dog. Such a good dog,” John crooned as the beast struggled to breathe. “You saved my life, you didn’t have to do that. Thank you, Merry.”
“Ah, what’s he gone and done to himself?” the strange man asked, gathering his robes and kneeling down beside John. Sand suddenly picked up around them, swirling up, carried by invisible hands. The man clapped his hands together happily as he exclaimed, “Oh look, he’s broken the spell. Good. Very good.”
John had to close his eyes against the flying sand. When the noise died away and he no longer felt the bite of the sand hitting him, he opened his eyes and looked down. Merry the dog was gone. In his place was a man with sandy hair the same shade as Merry’s fur had been, curled on his side with his head pillowed in John’s lap, blood gushing from a gash across his bare middle.
“Help him, please!” John looked to the stranger, who was already moving his hands in the air and chanting words. The blood stopped flowing. As John watched, the wound closed up and disappeared. “Magic,” John whispered. “Real magic.”
“He should recover,” the Magi said.
The man rolled onto his back and opened his eyes slowly, blinking up at John. His eyes were very bright blue. As a dog, his eyes had been the same color. “Hello,” John said.
“Hello. Master Harriman?”
“Welcome back Rodney. I see you learned a lesson. I wondered how long it would take before you returned. I decided to leave you there as your final test.”
“Final test?” Rodney sat up slowly, scratching at the place the wound had been.
“Stop that, no scratching.” Then the Magi explained, “It came to light that the focus stone had been charged by Kav. When questioned, he admitted his dishonesty. He has been cast out. Your test was nullified because you had the stone on your person, influencing you even though you might not have known it. You needed a new test.”
“You’re a Magi, Merry?” John asked.
“He is,” Master Harriman said. “He has shown he has honor, which is far more important than any spell he might have memorized from a book. I know Rodney knows many, many spells. I am satisfied that my apprentice is worthy of the title Magi.” Harriman got to his feet and walked away. “Oh, Rodney, you’ll need to do something about unbinding your sister from that lamp.”
John stared after the master as he left the tent. “He knows about the lamp?”
With a chuckle Rodney nodded and looked over at John. “That lamp has been on a shelf in the workroom for all the years I have been an apprentice here. I recognized it immediately. I’m not entirely certain how Jeannie fits into it, but I suspect Master Harriman sent the lamp to the vault, just as he sent me to the Genii.”
Turning towards John, Rodney crossed his legs. He intertwined his fingers and cracked his knuckles. “Now then, my friend. Let me see what I can do about your arm. I am sorry I couldn’t do more in the vault, but no fingers for casting, no voice for spelling. It was terribly limiting, being a dog.”
“The healer back at the citadel said he couldn’t do anything.” John clutched his good hand around the twisted one.
“Your citadel doesn’t invite magic. Magic needs faith to work.” Rodney held his hands out and mumbled a chant under his breath. John felt his bad arm tingle and then felt pain flare up as feeling returned to the deadened limb. He bit down on his cries of pain and waited. When Rodney opened his eyes, John was turning his wrist and waggling his fingers. His arm was healed!
“Thank you!”
Rodney smiled and nodded. “Well, what do you want to do now, Prince John?”
Shaking his head, John sneered at the title. “Just John. I’m not going back to Pegasus. I heard there’s an ancient city sitting empty on an ocean on Lantea. I’ve always wanted to explore it. Maybe I’ll start a new life as a thief, now that I’ve had a chance to observe them first hand,” he grinned at his joke.
A sad look crossed Rodney’s face. He reached down and started to undo the clasp on the golden bracelet that was around John’s wrist. “I should remove this before I send you along or you’ll be right back here at dawn. They’re a charmed pair, the one on your wrist kept bringing you back to me.”
It made sense, now that Rodney said it. John reached out and stopped Rodney before he could take it off, closing his hand around Rodney’s. “I was hoping perhaps you might come with me. Would you come with me, Rodney? I’d like to have a friend along. Someone I could trust.”
“I would be honored to accompany you. But let’s stick to exploring, I have had enough of thieves to suit me a lifetime.”
The End
**
Poll
Author: rinkafic
Team: Space
Prompt: honour among thieves
Pairing(s): McKay/Sheppard
Rating: G
Word count: 6,182
Warnings: None
Summary: Rodney has to prove he has honor. Magical AU.
Author's Notes: Thanks to my beta for the midnight read! I shall thank her properly after the reveal.
Once you've read the story, please take a moment to vote in the poll below. Ratings go from 1 (low) to 9 (high), so all you need to do is enter a single number in that range into each text entry box. You'll be able to see the prompt in the header above.
More details about the voting procedure can be found here.
**
Kav was jealous of Rodney, he always had been, since they were children and first started studying with the great Magi Harriman. He tried at every turn to discredit Rodney with their master. Usually, Rodney was able to see the traps and work his way around them. Usually. But there came a day when he did not see it coming, and was unprepared for Kav’s machinations to come to fruition.
There was to be a test for all of the students of Harriman, those that passed would move on to the next level of their training. This day came but once a year, and of all the students, only one would be granted the title of Magi, depending upon the outcome of the test. Most believed it would be Rodney or Kav that would be granted the title that year and be done with their apprenticeship.
Some people would do anything to get ahead, unfortunately, Kav was one of those. On the day of the tests after Rodney had successfully done a transmutation of sand into glass, Kav leapt up from where he had been sitting on the rug with the other students and pointed at Rodney with an accusatory finger.
“Master Harriman, Rodney cheated! He used a focus stone. I saw him put it in the pocket of his robe!”
Rodney’s hand immediately went to his pocket, he felt a lump and drew out a smooth, shiny stone. Shocked to see it, he held the stone up and looked past it at Magi Harriman with wide eyes. “Master... I...”
“You have acted without honor, Rodney. I am disappointed, I expected so much more from you. I thought I had instilled all the traditions into you.” Harriman shook his head sadly as he clucked his tongue. He didn’t rage, he didn’t get angry, he was just sad. Somehow, that was worse than his temper would have been.
“But...” Rodney looked over to see Kav grinning from ear to ear at Rodney’s predicament. Rodney remembered Kav brushing up against him as they entered the tent. He must have slipped the focus stone into Rodney’s pocket then.
Magi Harriman held up his hand. “I will hear no excuses. You must redeem yourself.” The Magi waved his hand in the air. The sand swept up from beneath the rug Rodney stood upon, swirling around him, blinding him and hiding him from sight. Through the roar of the wind that came up, he could hear the Magi chanting the words of a spell.
There was pain, Rodney bent double as his body felt as if it were being twisted from the inside. He was an excellent student and he immediately recognized the spell as one of transformation. He dropped to his knees, trying to breathe through the pain. He began to pant for breath, his tongue lolling out as he fell forward onto his hands.
When the small sand storm cleared and the pain subsided, Rodney heard the gasps and whispers of his fellow students as they saw his changed form. He clearly heard the braying laughter of Kav. He glanced down and saw that he had brown fur, and his hands were now paws. He looked over his shoulder and saw a furry back and a tail. This was terrible, he was a dog!
“You shall remain in this form until you have performed a truly honorable deed. Only then will you have redeemed yourself. I shall consider taking you back as an apprentice when you appear before me in your human form once more.”
‘Oh, this should be easy to undo,’ Rodney thought to himself. He would just need to go and find someone that needed assistance and help them and then the curse should be broken. Then he could get on with his studies. Kav’s treachery had not defeated Rodney, it had merely delayed him.
Magi Harriman looked down at Rodney and shook his head. “And just to ensure that you do not find the task too simple to accomplish before the lesson is learned, I think a change of location is in order.” The Magi waved his hands and Rodney felt a wave of disappointment as he felt another spell enveloping him. Of course his master would not let it be a simple spell to undo.
One moment, Rodney was in the luxurious tent of Magi Harriman and the next, he was in a tunnel leading to a large cavern. There was a flicker of torchlight from within the cavern beyond him. He heard raucous laughter and swearing. There was also the clang of metal against metal. Swords, perhaps? On two extra feet, he padded quietly to the entrance of the large cavern.
“Look, we have a visitor!” a male voice yelled. Others jumped to their feet, swords at the ready, only to laugh as they saw Rodney cowering in the doorway.
A heavyset bearded man with a golden hoop in his ear, gold chains about his neck and striped pants walked over to look down at Rodney. “What have we here? A mongrel?” He took a torch from the wall and looked down the tunnel behind Rodney. “All alone. And how did you get in, dog?”
A woman with golden hair and a long jagged scar across her cheek came over to stare down at Rodney and back at the tunnel which was dark behind him. “Magic? The door would not open without the phrase. A dog can not say the phrase, Kolya, so it must be magic that brought the creature here.”
Kolya glared down at Rodney and he instinctively cowered back from the large, imposing man with the frightening face. “Come to steal our treasure, dog? Think you can magic your way in and magic your way out again?”
The man shouted over his shoulder, “Radim!!! Bring me the Cuff of the Ancients!” As he said it, he reached down and seized Rodney by the scruff of his furry neck, lifting him to stare into his face. “You’ll see the treasure room, if that is what you came to see!” Rodney wondered if Kolya knew or just suspected that Rodney was more than a dog. Perhaps he was merely paranoid.
The man Rodney presumed was Radim rushed up and held out a golden cuff to Kolya. It was a bracelet, meant for a woman’s wrist. Kolya snapped the cuff closed around one of Rodney’s legs. It was too small to slide over his rather large paw, he would not be able to get it off.
“Take it to the treasure room. Let it guard there for its keep.” Kolya carelessly let Rodney drop to the dirt floor of the cave.
“Won’t he just try to run off?” The woman with the scar nudged at Rodney’s side with her knee to prod him into motion.
“No, Sora. That cuff is enchanted. There is another, a matching cuff somewhere in the vault. The two cannot be separated. One will always be transported to where the other is upon the rising of the sun,” Kolya waved his hand, dismissing them.
And so as the sun set on the day, Rodney found himself a guard dog, rather than the Magi he had hope to be named after his test. It was a very humbling realization. He sighed and dropped his chin to his outstretched paws as he stared at the gleaming piles of treasure around him. He was in a den of thieves, he had figured that out easily enough. The name of Kolya was well known enough even in Rodney’s homeland. This was their stronghold, their treasure vault and their hideout.
He had to perform an honorable act here? How was he going to do that? He foresaw a very long sojourn ahead of him as a dog.
~*~
The heavy wooden door at the entrance to the treasure room creaked open. Rodney leapt to his feet, sniffing the air. It was Cowen, the mean old man that brought Rodney his food and water each day. Cowen had been blinded in one eye and lost an arm in a fight. According to what Rodney had overheard since coming to the hideout of these Genii, these thieves, Cowen had once led the band, but Kolya took over when Cowen could not defend himself any more. It had made the old man bitter and cruel.
“Get in there!” Cowen growled and shoved a dark haired man into the room. “Keep your mouth shut. And mind the dog, he bites and he ain’t been fed in days.” Rodney heard Cowen’s brittle laughter as he slammed the door and left.
’I don’t bite,’ Rodney said as the man looked at him nervously, backing up against the door. Rodney gave a bored sigh and flopped down on his rear end. He let his tail thump on the floor a few times and tried to appear friendly.
The man tilted his head and stared at Rodney. He had the oddest hair, it was unfashionably short and stuck up all over the place. “You don’t bite, do you?” he said, sliding down to sit with his back to the door. His arm was being held at an awkward angle, and he looked as if he had been badly beaten. One cheek was swollen out and he had blood dripping down from cuts over his eye and on his cheek. His clothes looked to be of good quality, but they were torn and dirty, likely from the beating. As Rodney had quickly learned, Kolya and his cronies were not very kind, they enjoyed violence. Rodney was glad he was kept in the treasure room, he knew if he were out in the other caverns, where the rest of the Genii were, he would likely be kicked and beaten.
He got up and put his nose to the edge of his water dish, nudging it along across the floor to the injured man, who now had his head hanging low. He wore a ring, a golden ring with a symbol upon it that Rodney recognized easily. It was the royal seal of the neighboring kingdom, Pegasus. What had Kolya’s men done now? Had they abducted this man, a member of the royal household?
The man glanced at the water bowl, but did not understand what Rodney meant him to do. ’Clean those wounds before they fester,’ he would have said if he could talk. Rodney stared at him, willing him to understand. When the man just returned his stare, Rodney nuzzled his hand, trying to nudge him to the water. Aggravated when the dense man still didn’t get it, Rodney snuffed out a breath and gently, very gently, closed his mouth over the man’s wrist and dropped it in the water bowl.
“Why did you do that?” he asked, glaring at Rodney as he shook the water from his hand.
’Are you simple minded? Everyone knows you have to wash wounds,’ Rodney thought as he glared back. He didn’t really want to do it, it was rather disgusting, but maybe the man would get the idea if Rodney got him started. He took a few steps over and cautiously licked at the blood on the man’s cheek. It was salty and didn’t taste as bad to his dog-tastes as it would have in his human mouth, but he still didn’t want to do any more than that. He backed away and nosed the bowl again.
“Do you want me to wash myself?” the man asked after staring at Rodney. He gave a happy yip and wagged his tail. The tail was an unconscious gauge of his emotions; one he couldn’t really control, Rodney had learned.
The man struggled to pull off his shirt. Rodney saw even more cuts and bruises on his chest and arms. He used the clean water in the bowl and cleanest edge of the shirt to scrub away most of the blood. He was quite handsome. Rodney could see that now, despite the slight swelling of his wounds.
It seemed the man was to be a prisoner. Cowen came and brought a bowl of gruel for him to eat. It looked just as bad as the slop they fed Rodney. “So sorry, your highness, we don’t have anything fancy for you.”
“How long will I be here?” his highness asked as he looked down at the bowl in his hand with an expression of distaste. Rodney couldn’t blame him. It smelled awful from where he sat.
“Until your father pays the ransom.” Cowen threw a blanket at him. “Sleep well, Prince John.” He slammed the door behind him and the
Prince John? Kolya’s men had abducted the crown prince of Pegasus? This was terrible. Ruffians assaulting high born members of royal households! Prince John winced as he unfolded the ragged blanket and tried to spread it on the hard floor. Only having one working hand made the attempt awkward. Rodney put a paw down on the edge to hold it in place as John smoothed out the other end. He looked terribly weary and in need of sleep.
Remembering something he had glimpsed in the treasure pile, Rodney turned and ran to the back of the cavern. There was a trunk with the lid open, and luxurious fabrics spilled out of it. He picked up the edge of a red velvet cushion trimmed with golden tassels and carried it back to the prince, who was curled on his side on top of the blanket with his eyes closed. Rodney dropped the pillow near John’s hand. He didn’t move to take it, so Rodney picked it up and batted him on the shoulder with it a few times.
“What?” John opened his eyes and saw the pillow dangling from Rodney’s mouth. “Oh. Thank you.” He took the pillow and tucked it under his head. He yawned and as he closed his eyes he mumbled sleepily, “You’re a good dog.”
Rodney returned to the pile and dragged over a length of heavy velvet meant to be draperies. It took some effort, working without hands, but he managed to spread the fabric over the sleeping prince. Then he laid down alongside the prince and closed his eyes. Soon, he too was asleep.
~*~
When John woke, he was warm on one side and cold on the other. Merry, which John had taken to calling the dog, had slept beside him again, as he did each night.
John started calling the dog Merry because it seemed to be laughing at him all the time, and the dog was such a good companion, it seemed cold to keep calling him “dog.” He deserved some kind of name. He answered to Merry easily enough.
During the day - at least John thought it was the day, he could not tell since there was no way to see outside from within the cavern - the dog would wander around, weaving through and over the treasure piles. Once in awhile, Merry would find an object of interest and carry it over and place it in John’s lap. It broke up the monotony of the days. He had been here for eighteen days; according to the scratches he made each night on the wooden door using a dull brass cheese knife he had found in the trove.
John wondered why the dog was in the cavern. Cowen hated the beast, and the feeling seemed mutual. When Cowen moved to kick John awake one morning, when John was pretending to sleep, the dog had growled menacingly at Cowen until the old one-armed thief had left the vault.
The dog had found a book that contained a thousand and one stories. At first John had read silently to himself, but when the dog leaned over his arm, breathing wetly on his hand as he held the book, John had started to read aloud. Once he did that, the hound backed off and sat on his haunches. It seemed to John that Merry was listening intently as he read. Since it amused him to see the dog’s expressions change, John continued to read aloud. He was re-reading a story he had read aloud the previous day while Merry was off exploring in the furthest corners of the huge treasure cavern.
Hearing happy yipping from the other side of the cavern, John set aside the story book and wondered what Merry had found now. He was almost like a person, exclaiming over interesting things. When the brown mutt came around the corner near the statue of a naked woman pouring water from an urn, he had something golden held in his mouth. Unusual, because the dog tended to bring John things that were more practical and interesting than valuable.
A tug of war ensued. Sometimes Merry liked to make John fight for the items. There was a small gold ball that John sometimes threw for the dog to chase, which he would retrieve once or twice before apparently growing bored with the game and curling up for a nap or simply wandering away. Merry was the oddest dog John had ever met.
John tumbled backwards as the dog opened his mouth and let go. Then he sat there and John could swear Merry was laughing at him. “You did that on purpose!” John accused with a smile as he sat up. He looked at the item he now held in his good hand. His other hand was curled against his chest, useless. The bone had been broken and he feared it was healing properly, but there was nothing he could do about it. “Huh, looks like a bracelet,” John said and looked over at Merry. The dog was holding up one paw, the one with a gold bracelet on it.
Peering with curiosity at his canine companion, John scooted closer to the dog and held the bracelet up to compare them. “Well, it looks like you found a matching set. Aren’t you clever?” Part of the dog’s oddity was the intelligence that John kept seeing exhibited. Merry was smart. John could swear sometimes that he understood everything John said to him.
Naturally curious, John opened the bracelet and slid it onto his uninjured wrist. It fit snugly when he closed it by pressing it down on his thigh. “I think this was meant for a woman.” He held his wrist up to the torchlight. His captors kept the chamber lit with three torches that were refreshed daily. “This symbol here is an ancient one for fidelity,” he said as he examined the glyph. He had found that talking to the dog helped to pass the time. Even if Merry couldn’t answer him back properly, he did seem to listen intently when John spoke to him.
The bracelet glinted in the light, he turned it back and forth, admiring the ancient designs on it. Then he pressed it to his belly to try to get it off. The catch would not open again. He tried several different ways to open it, but it would not come off. He couldn’t slide it off over his thumb, it was too tight. Merry was watching his attempts and John was sure the dog was amused. His tail was thumping against the floor and the dog’s tongue was lolling out.
“I think we’ll have to wear our matching bracelets until someone comes along and takes them off, eh, my furry friend?” John stretched out his good hand and the dog came over and allowed John to scratch behind his ears.
Another ten days passed.
Lacking anything else to do during his captivity, John had started following Merry around the large vault cavern. Awkwardly, having only one hand to use, he dug through trunks and barrels and began to sort things into little piles, simply to amuse himself. He had a lovely pile of gemstones stacked against the wall under one of the torches. He was arranging them so that the colors caught the light and reflected in patterns around the cavern. John was very bored.
He found an old brass lamp. Thinking he might be able to use it for light after the torches had burned out for the day, John took it along with him as he went back to his little niche near the door to the cavern where he and Merry slept. He sat on the floor and began to rub the lamp with the cuff of his long-sleeved shirt.
Smoke began to pour out of the lamp’s spout and John carefully set it on the floor and backed away from it. The smoke was green; unnatural. John had enough respect for magic that he knew to back away and search for a place to hide. He scrambled back behind a large trunk and peeked over the edge.
When the smoke cleared and his eyes stopped tearing , he looked up to see a blonde haired woman, clad in a brief choli top and harem pants standing there, tapping her foot. Her pony tail swayed as she looked around the cavern with an expression of disgust. Then she scowled at John.
“Did you do that?”
“Do what?”
“Rub the lamp and interrupt me?”
“I don’t understand... I rubbed the... were you in the lamp? How did you get in there?” He stood up and leaned against the trunk, staring at her with interest.
She crossed her arms over her bare belly and glared at him with open hostility. “I wasn’t actually in there. It was a conduit, I simply passed through it. I was meditating in preparation for a very important spell and you broke my concentration and now I’ll have to start all over again.”
“I’m sorry?” John was confused, but he apologized anyway. Merry had come over and was staring at the woman. He didn’t growl at her. That was unusual; Merry growled at everyone except John.
“Who are you?” John asked.
“Jeannie. You do know what you’re supposed to do now?” she was really angry at him. “Would you just make your wish and let me get back to finding my brother? I almost had it, I was sure I was going to make it work this time.”
Merry did the oddest thing. He let out a weird howl and dropped down on his belly, then rolled back and forth, looking for all the world as if he were laughing. His tail thumped the floor madly when he stopped rolling and stared up at Jeannie. She just glowered at the dog and then ignored him.
“I get a wish?”
“Yes, one wish, so make it good.”
“I thought I got three?”
She sighed heavily. “Only if you’re royalty.”
He grinned and examined the fingernails of his good hand. “I’m a prince.”
“Fine, then you have three wishes. Make them and let me go, I am a very busy apprentice to a very busy and powerful Magi.”
John smiled. He really only had one wish. “I wish I was home in my father’s citadel.” And just like that, he found himself on the marble floor of the entryway. He turned a circle, sighing happily. He ran to find his father.
The greeting he got was not the one he had expected. His father frowned deeply at him as he explained what had happened and where he had been. King Patrick had a deep distrust of magic and Magi. After he had told his story, John was sent off to see the healer. Carson clucked his tongue and proclaimed that the arm was ruined. There was nothing he could do for John, the damage was too severe.
Going to his chambers, John noticed that a lot of his things were missing. He was too tired to wonder exactly what they were. He would make a list and inquire in the morning. He bathed, dressed in a soft, comfortable tunic and loose trousers and went to his bed of soft cushions.
When he woke, he was back in the treasure chamber. Merry was sitting at his side, staring at him. He sat up and looked down at himself. It had not been a dream; his sleeping clothes were clean. Feeling guilty for not even thinking about Merry when he had made his wish the day before, he patted the dog’s head apologetically.
He grabbed the lamp and rubbed it harshly. “What did you do?” he demanded when the green smoke cleared away and the woman stood there once again.
“Me? What did you do?” Jeannie retorted. John just shrugged. She too was dressed in sleeping clothes, a simple shift that barely reached her knees. John averted his eyes from her bare skin. She looked over at Merry and snapped, “You do know that isn’t a dog, don’t you?”
“What?”
“That is not a dog. I’m an apprentice to a Magi, I can tell, there’s a spell around the dog, a first year apprentice could see it.”
John looked at Merry thoughtfully. The dog had helped him and been good company. He was sort of a friend. “Then I’ll use one of my wishes to break the spell on him.”
With a sigh, Jeannie dropped a hand to her hip. “I cannot do that, I can’t break another Magi’s spell, especially not a major working the likes of a transformation spell. Make a different wish.”
Looking over at Merry, John said to the dog, “I’m going to come back for you and get you out of here, I promise.” He looked back at Jeannie. “Send me home. I wish to be home!”
Once again, he was in his city, staring up at the high walls that surrounded the city and protected it from the wraith. Once again, his father was displeased to see him. His brother Dave glared at him as John went to his chambers after speaking to King Patrick and being denied soldiers to take back to go after Kolya and his men.
Home did not seem to be quite the refuge that it had once been. He heard a noise outside his bedchamber door and when he went to investigate, he found the door barred from the outside. He was a prisoner in his own home!
Regretting that he had not thought to wish Merry away with him, John curled up on the pillows that made up his bed and slept.
He woke with Merry sleeping with his shaggy head on John’s belly, drooling. He was in the vault once more. Merry sat up and wagged his tail. At least someone was happy to see him. He vowed to take Merry with him the next time he escaped.
After patting the dog, John reached for the lamp and rubbed it. Jeannie was yawning as she looked at him. “Again?”
“Yes. I was home and I went to bed there.”
“Something is obviously not right here. You must be bound to this place, don’t waste your last wish!” she held a hand up as John opened his mouth to speak. Merry whimpered and held up a paw. John shook it and then rubbed the dog’s ears. Merry flopped down on the floor and covered his face with his paws.
What to wish for? Since going home seemed impossible by magical means, he needed a really good wish. He didn’t want to waste it. “I need time to think about it. Go back to your studies, I’ll rub the lamp when I think of something.”
He thought about it for three days and nights but each wish seemed frivolous or pointless or selfish. None would get Merry and him out of the vault permanently.
The wooden door opened and Kolya and Radim came in with grim expressions on their faces and swords drawn. Sensing something was about to happen, John picked up the lamp and stuck it into the waistband of his sleeping pants, behind his back where the Genii couldn’t see it.
“Your father refuses to pay the ransom,” Kolya said with a sneer.
Refused to pay? That message had to have been sent a long time ago, before John had been magically transported for a night to Pegaus. Why wouldn’t his father pay the ransom?
“We’ve no need for you any more, little prince.” Merry began to bark madly, leaping at Kolya as the leader of the Genii took a step towards John.
“Mangy mutt. You will not interfere. You will not cost me my gold.” Kolya kicked out at the dog.
His gold? Kolya was being paid to do this. He was being paid to kill John. Things fell into place now. His father’s angry surprise at seeing John. His brother’s open hostility. John’s missing personal belongings. They had never expected him to return to Pegasus.
Radim swiped at Merry with his sword. Merry dove in and clamped his teeth around Radim’s wrist, biting down and making the man scream in pain as blood sprayed out from the wound as he shook his arm to try to dislodge the dog. “I’ll pay you more!” John said desperately.
“Oh, no, I don’t think so. You have nothing to pay me with. You cannot return my men to me, the one held prisoner in King Patrick’s dungeons. No, your head is the trade. The bargain is already struck. Stand still and accept your fate. It was truly your misfortune to be born a second son.” Kolya advanced on John, swinging the big sword. It made a whipping sound as it cut through the air.
John heard Merry snarling and snapping off to his right. He backed up, tripping over a small casket of gemstones and falling back onto the pile of coins. Moving forward, Kolya raised the sword high and began to bring it down. There was a blur of brown and Merry was suddenly there, between John and the sword. Rolling to the side, John heard a pained yelp as the sword hit the dog, slicing his side and belly. Thrown by the impact of the sword, Merry landed in a heap on the floor a short distance away from John. John looked up to see Kolya coming towards him again.
Suddenly, Kolya gasped. John saw the tip of a sword protruding from Kolya’s middle. The Genii looked down at the sharp end of the blade with surprise. Then he toppled forward. Radim stood there, blood on his hands as he stared at Kolya’s body. He stepped forward and put a booted foot on Kolya’s back for leverage and withdrew his sword.
“You, get out. I don’t care where you go. Just get out. Don’t come back. I’m gifting you with your life,” Radim said to John. “If I see you again, I will kill you, so will any Genii.” John started to go to Merry, bleeding heavily from the sword wound. “Leave the dog. Get out before I change my mind.”
With a last sad glance at the dying dog that had given his life to save him, John went to the door and out into the cavern. He could hear the other Genii moving about in the hideout. How was he going to get past them? Feeling the press of metal at his lower back, he pulled the lamp out and rubbed it frantically.
When Jeannie appeared, he said quickly, “Merry is hurt, in there. I don’t know if magic can save him. I want us both out of here. Send us to Merry’s home, let him die with his own people, this is my last wish.”
She nodded and John felt the transportation spell grab him. He opened his eyes to find himself in a large tent. A balding man in a robe was getting up from his pile of cushions, a worried look on his face as he looked at John’s feet. Merry was crumpled there, barely breathing. John knelt down and awkwardly lifted the shaggy head onto his knee with his good hand. “You’re a good dog. Such a good dog,” John crooned as the beast struggled to breathe. “You saved my life, you didn’t have to do that. Thank you, Merry.”
“Ah, what’s he gone and done to himself?” the strange man asked, gathering his robes and kneeling down beside John. Sand suddenly picked up around them, swirling up, carried by invisible hands. The man clapped his hands together happily as he exclaimed, “Oh look, he’s broken the spell. Good. Very good.”
John had to close his eyes against the flying sand. When the noise died away and he no longer felt the bite of the sand hitting him, he opened his eyes and looked down. Merry the dog was gone. In his place was a man with sandy hair the same shade as Merry’s fur had been, curled on his side with his head pillowed in John’s lap, blood gushing from a gash across his bare middle.
“Help him, please!” John looked to the stranger, who was already moving his hands in the air and chanting words. The blood stopped flowing. As John watched, the wound closed up and disappeared. “Magic,” John whispered. “Real magic.”
“He should recover,” the Magi said.
The man rolled onto his back and opened his eyes slowly, blinking up at John. His eyes were very bright blue. As a dog, his eyes had been the same color. “Hello,” John said.
“Hello. Master Harriman?”
“Welcome back Rodney. I see you learned a lesson. I wondered how long it would take before you returned. I decided to leave you there as your final test.”
“Final test?” Rodney sat up slowly, scratching at the place the wound had been.
“Stop that, no scratching.” Then the Magi explained, “It came to light that the focus stone had been charged by Kav. When questioned, he admitted his dishonesty. He has been cast out. Your test was nullified because you had the stone on your person, influencing you even though you might not have known it. You needed a new test.”
“You’re a Magi, Merry?” John asked.
“He is,” Master Harriman said. “He has shown he has honor, which is far more important than any spell he might have memorized from a book. I know Rodney knows many, many spells. I am satisfied that my apprentice is worthy of the title Magi.” Harriman got to his feet and walked away. “Oh, Rodney, you’ll need to do something about unbinding your sister from that lamp.”
John stared after the master as he left the tent. “He knows about the lamp?”
With a chuckle Rodney nodded and looked over at John. “That lamp has been on a shelf in the workroom for all the years I have been an apprentice here. I recognized it immediately. I’m not entirely certain how Jeannie fits into it, but I suspect Master Harriman sent the lamp to the vault, just as he sent me to the Genii.”
Turning towards John, Rodney crossed his legs. He intertwined his fingers and cracked his knuckles. “Now then, my friend. Let me see what I can do about your arm. I am sorry I couldn’t do more in the vault, but no fingers for casting, no voice for spelling. It was terribly limiting, being a dog.”
“The healer back at the citadel said he couldn’t do anything.” John clutched his good hand around the twisted one.
“Your citadel doesn’t invite magic. Magic needs faith to work.” Rodney held his hands out and mumbled a chant under his breath. John felt his bad arm tingle and then felt pain flare up as feeling returned to the deadened limb. He bit down on his cries of pain and waited. When Rodney opened his eyes, John was turning his wrist and waggling his fingers. His arm was healed!
“Thank you!”
Rodney smiled and nodded. “Well, what do you want to do now, Prince John?”
Shaking his head, John sneered at the title. “Just John. I’m not going back to Pegasus. I heard there’s an ancient city sitting empty on an ocean on Lantea. I’ve always wanted to explore it. Maybe I’ll start a new life as a thief, now that I’ve had a chance to observe them first hand,” he grinned at his joke.
A sad look crossed Rodney’s face. He reached down and started to undo the clasp on the golden bracelet that was around John’s wrist. “I should remove this before I send you along or you’ll be right back here at dawn. They’re a charmed pair, the one on your wrist kept bringing you back to me.”
It made sense, now that Rodney said it. John reached out and stopped Rodney before he could take it off, closing his hand around Rodney’s. “I was hoping perhaps you might come with me. Would you come with me, Rodney? I’d like to have a friend along. Someone I could trust.”
“I would be honored to accompany you. But let’s stick to exploring, I have had enough of thieves to suit me a lifetime.”
The End
**
Poll