1633880583 (F) by Chris Willrich Read Free Book Online

require that Haboob be released from his imprisonment, that he may gather his full powers from the aether. Now, the standard contract since time immemorial is for three requests, which I encourage you to word carefully. . . .”
    Gaunt called out, still shooting arrows, “I can help you word it, Haytham! But it had better be fast.”
    Haytham smiled. “Oh, I don’t think that will be necessary. Katta, could you drop the lamp into the brazier?”
    “The brazier?” asked Katta. “Are you sure that’s wise?”
    “At this altitude, my friend, wisdom is a relative concept,” Haytham said. “Please proceed.”
    “Wait!” the efrit called from the lamp. “What do you mean to do?”
    The deed was done. The magic lamp tumbled and clanked into the magical brazier, to contact the eldritch fire. The lamp began to glow with the redness of newly forged metal.
    “Do you seek to thwart the traditional contract by applying torture?” boomed the efrit. “Have you fallen from the ways of the Testifier of the All-Now?”
    “Have you not, O efrit?” Haytham asked.
    “Long ago did I learn religion and bend my knee, or the bodiless entity equivalent! My titles, such as Haboob of the Horrid Howls, were obtained in ancient times. I would be better known as Haboob the Herald of Hilarity, but I have been unable to demonstrate my change of heart, trapped as I was in this rapidly heating lamp.”
    “So, too, am I a devotee of the Testifier and his holy book,” Haytham said. “I will not torture, nor cheat, nor do violence save at the most urgent need. I am a man of knowledge, and that scholarship has led me to you. Hear me, O efrit, primal creature of the universe! I sent my friends to Amberhorn to find you, for I believe we can help each other. I ask for no wishes, but a year of simple service. Your lamp is now within a brazier that empowers this flying craft. It is currently fueled by a magical feather that is nearly consumed. In the past it was empowered by demons, but it has developed a flaw that allows an intelligent entity to escape. And in truth I do not wish to treat with demons any longer. But if you consent to power my Al-Saqr for one year, I will release you from the lamp.”
    “To be trapped within a brazier?”
    “Ah, but from the brazier you can perceive all that we perceive, from high above the ground. You will see many far places, O Haboob. Surely that is better than your dark hovel. But! If you prefer, we will drop you again among the Amberhornish, in whose basilica you languished as a curiosity.”
    “Your offer intrigues me. Very well, man of knowledge! I consent. One year.”
    Even as the efrit spoke, Gaunt shouted, “The envelope—I think they’ve hit it!”
    “It’ll catch fire!” Snow Pine said.
    Haytham snatched an iron poker and jabbed at the lamp’s lid. “I release you, Haboob.”
    What rose from the brazier struck Bone as the most dignified and majestic pillar of smoke the world over. It rose nearly the full height of the ger, and tendrils of it tickled the opening overhead. The top of the smoke column gave an impression of wind-blown curly hair. Below that, persistent eddies in the cloud suggested a wise yet imperious face. Extensions of the cloud farther down implied two folded arms, and a curving tendril sketched a sheathed scimitar. The hem of a sooty robe seemed to flutter at the level of the brazier’s rim.
    Blazing eyes like torchlit rubies narrowed, as the efrit Haboob faced them all. “It seems my engagement with you may be shorter than expected, for my contract will not survive your death, O wise Haytham ibn Zakwan.”
    “Bone,” Haytham said, “do what you can with the fire. Haboob, you will not harm him or anyone in this crew.”
    “As you wish,” said the efrit, as Bone grabbed a waterskin from the ceiling and shimmied up a rope to the roof opening. Although nearing fifty, Haytham’s voice normally had an eager, boyish quality. But not where the safety of his balloon was