Magical Mechanications (11 page)

Aladdin shook his head. “You are my servant?”

“I prefer the term valet. It sounds far more civilized, don’t you think?”

Giles was a peculiar contraption, Aladdin thought quietly, but he did make him smile.

“For something buried in the sand,” Aladdin said, looking up at the flickering face, “you certainly do not talk like a desert dweller.”

“Again, a trait of my creator,” he said. “She was inspired by some of the infidel explorers who touched upon our shores.”

“Which explains your strange tongue,” he added.

“One man’s ‘strange’ is another man’s refinement,” Giles huffed with a visible jet of steam.

“You are no man.”

Giles sat up straight on that, but then bowed his head to Aladdin. “This much is true.” He went quiet for a moment. “And, sir, should I call you, sir, or should I refer you by another term?”

“’Sir’ will suffice,” Aladdin replied, not quite certain what to make of this odd situation.

“Then Sir, if I may be so bold, I may give you my thanks.” Giles looked back in the direction they had come. “I was most relieved when you retrieved me from that other rather dodgy chap. I believe he would have employed me upon rather questionable pursuits.”

Aladdin nodded. “I would agree. The man would have me believe he was my uncle.”

“And he wasn’t?” 

“No.” Aladdin felt a sudden pang well inside of him. He refused to think of it as a longing or regret; he instead dismissed it as hunger.

“The cad,” Giles spat.

A growl from his stomach cut through the silence. Aladdin felt a heat rise in his cheeks, and he knew that it had nothing to do with the warmth coming from Giles.

“Oh dear, sir,” the creature said, “I have been most derelict in my duties to you.”

“What?” Aladdin asked. He suddenly grew aware that his hand was on his stomach. “What duties?”

“Forgive me, sir, but need I to look after you since you have freed me from my imprisonment.”

“I don’t think that is so great a service.” Aladdin motioned around them. “How is this freedom?”

Giles raised a metallic finger and spoke in a calm, even tone. “I was imprisoned in my dormant form. I couldn’t do much apart from keeping the shrine lit. Considering what talents my creator bestowed upon me, such a menial task is disappointing.”

The valet’s words seem to hang in the air around Aladdin. “What other things can you do?”

Giles stared at him with his green-fire eyes, and the flame that was his mouth curled into the most mischievous of grins.  “Follow me, Sir.”

Aladdin followed in the Giles’ wake; the heavy, pearlescent fog lingering around his own ankles and eventually disappearing off into the treasures around him. He followed one of the wisps, the æther slinking across the ground serpent-like and then finding passage between a collection of goblets, bracelets, and other…

“Sir?” came the voice of Giles.

It sounded far off in the distance, but Aladdin nearly fell over as he was within an arm’s reach of his automaton.

“You might want to walk to either my left or my right. Standing directly in my wake has a rather tranquilizing effect on organic matter.”

Aladdin furrowed his brow. “Organic matter?”

Giles nodded and gave a light shrug of his massive brass shoulders. “My apologies. Bodies of flesh and muscle.”

“Ah,” Aladdin said, stepping clear of the mist and walking to Giles’ right. He suddenly became aware of where they were walking. They were heading back to the sealed opening of the cave. He looked up at Giles now with new-found hope. His valet was tall. At least twenty feet tall. Perhaps thirty. This, along with the promise of talents yet seen, unsettled Aladdin as he felt the question tickling the tip of his tongue. “Giles, as you are such an amazing machine, why are you still here?”

The automaton chuckled lightly at the query. “Sir, did you not see? When I was left here in this vault, I had been left in a dormant state. My maker explained to me that her original intent faced corruption by those who would care to use me for ill ends.”

“What sort of ill ends?”

“Think of what would happen if I fell into the hands of another tinker, or a band of tinkers charged with the shared goal of understanding how I worked. I would have been taken apart and then others would have been created. Soon, instead of being a creation of unique and original make, I would be part of a larger, formidable force.”

That made Aladdin pause. He looked over Giles. “But you’re a valet. A servant. What would you do—serve tea until the enemy submits?”

“Not quite.” Giles brought up one of his arms and pointed it upward to the overhead hatch. “You will want to stay close to me.”

The automaton thrust his arm forward, and Aladdin watched as his fingers and wrist slid backward. The digits that made up of his fingers locked into a forward position while braces rotated and locked into place. His arm went still and then his hand, which was now a ring of large, long barrels, began to spin. Faster and faster, until the hand and wrist were nothing more than a blur; and then jets of fire sprang from it, causing the vault ceiling to explode in rock and sand. Aladdin crouched, but knew he was safe at Giles’ side as he continued to assault the area around a hatch. Even by plugging his ears with his fingers, the cannons’ roar overwhelmed him, their thunder rattling his chest.

There was a moment’s silence, and Aladdin finally dared to look up. He did this just at the moment when the desert surrendered to Giles’ assault and the ceiling surrounding the hatch fell away, crashing into a large collection of gold coins, statues, and assorted gemstones.

“Now could you imagine the havoc an army of monsters such as I would wreck?” Giles asked.

Aladdin could only gape at the valet that apparently doubled as a war machine. His imagination easily pictured five such leviathans descending on Baghdad.  He tried to conjure a Giles-model automaton army, and a shudder passed through him.

“Yes, my mistress wanted me to serve upon her, but defend myself as well. Then, as my skills sharpened, my ability to fend for myself evolved as well. She noted this, and therefore brought me here. She deactivated me, and put me to rest within the shrine, hidden amongst her husband’s riches.”

“You were hidden in plain sight?”

Giles nodded. “Like great illusionists, many disappearing acts are done with the object never leaving your sight. After her death, I watched as her husband searched the vault to his final day.” He shook his head. “A cruel man who fell to his own infernal devices.” The pensive look swirled and crackled, and then he looked at Aladdin with a pleasant smile. “Now, Sir, shall we tend to your hunger?”

Above them, sunlight poured into their cave. The exit, however, still remained a good ten feet out of their reach; and there appeared to be no real leverage for them to manage escape.

“But, how?” Aladdin finally asked.

Giles looked up, then back to Aladdin and chuckled. “Oh, do forgive me, Sir. I lost my reason for a moment.” He extended an arm—an arm that Aladdin recognized as one of the cannons Giles had used against the vault ceiling—and motioned with his other arm to a hatch that curved around his inside forearm. “If you please, Sir?”

The hatch opened of its own accord, revealing a small cage, just big enough for—

“You want me to get inside your arm?” Aladdin asked.

“Only for a small time,” Giles assured him. “The space should accommodate you, perhaps not comfortably but adequately.”

Aladdin looked into the compartment again and then back at Giles.

When his stomach growled, Aladdin knew there were no other options apart from staying in the vault and starving to death.

The cage groaned a bit as Aladdin pulled the door shut. “Pardon the squeaks. I will have that tended to, Sir.” Giles then stepped under the open hole above them both. “Do hold on to the straps provided. This will be a bit bumpy, but a short flight nonetheless.”

A short flight?

Aladdin’s hands immediately shot for a pair of canvas loops as the cage around him began to shudder. Something was shaking Giles, or that was his first thought when he felt the metal clang and clatter against each other. He pressed his face against the cage’s bans and watched wide-eyed as from underneath Giles’ base a flower of flame blossomed and spread itself in every direction. His grip tightened on the straps overhead as he felt Giles’ body shift upward. The treasure slipped out of view, the endless riches supplanted by curtains of sand and then finally the Persian desert in all directions. Aladdin could see through the bars the morning rays now touching the dunes, the endless black above his head now surrendering to hues of purple and blue.

Then he felt himself tip and Aladdin gave a cry of wonder and, perhaps, a touch of fear as Giles was now flying level with the ground. He was a massive creation and yet, somehow, the valet managed to stay in the air. Aladdin was high enough to tell they were moving at a great pace, far faster than he and Jaha did in their evening’s long trek.

Giles began to tip upward, and from underneath them Aladdin heard the engine’s roar angrily. Aladdin could see very little through the smoke and fire, but it was apparent that Giles was descending back to the desert. The odd sensation of flying, of floating above the earth ended abruptly, and Aladdin would have been knocked off his feet had he still not kept a strong grasp on the loop above his head. The engines underneath grew softer, and softer. There was only the sound of wind in his ears as Giles’ arm lowered.

“There you are, Sir,” Giles the Genie spoke cheerily as he undid the latch to his forearm. “I told you it would be a short flight.”

Aladdin pulled himself free of the cage and looked around him. He was within a ten-minute walk of his home city. “Amazing.”

His servant tipped his bowler. “Thank you, Sir. I hope you don’t mind my saying, but yes, quite impressive considering how dormant I’ve been of late.”

Aladdin let out a delighted laugh, but it faded into the growing sunlight of morning. “Giles, I do not think it would benefit either one of us if I walk into the city with you, being in the—” He motioned up and down the massive automation. “—form you are in now.”

“Oh dear, Sir,” Giles said, looking over himself. “I would wholeheartedly agree with you.” The twin fires in his face winked out and then Aladdin heard the grinding of metal and gears again. Pipes and pistons were retracting, collapsing on themselves. Aladdin stepped back from the clatter and suddenly found himself in sunlight. That was when he noticed Giles’ shadow.

Giles was getting…shorter?

The clamor began to settle and emerging from the steam and smoke was Giles, now eye-to-eye and in every proportion the same size as he.

With one noticeable difference, “How is this, Sir?” he squeaked.

Aladdin furrowed his brow, “What happened to your voice?”

“Well, Sir, with a larger body there are larger pipes and more voluminous spaces, giving my voice a deeper resonance and output. Reduce my size, passages are constricted, and there is very little for the sound to resonate from.” He gave a shrug and smiled. “The science of acoustics, Sir.”

And this marvel was his to command? “Giles, exactly what can you do?”

“Actually, Sir, I have yet to test my limitations in this form.” He gave a bow and said, “Once I refill my boilers, perhaps we can discover them together?”

He nodded. A plan was forming in Aladdin’s mind. “Yes, I believe we can. Tonight, perchance.”

Six

Jaha was taking a deep bow at the ovation his illusion earned. He had, effectively, parted one of the Sultan’s harem in half. Impressive, as it was one of his ladies and not someone directly under the influence of power of the All Powerful. Aladdin had to admit that.

What had he told him?
You hardly believe in such nonsense as magic, séances, and the like? A Frenchman named Robert-Houdin that opened my eyes at what many perceived as ‘magic.’

The boy took a deep breath. He would have one chance, one moment. He had to make certain it was the right moment. An eye-opening moment.

“And now, for my final trick of the evening,” Jaha announced, raising his arms at the soft protestations—only an illusionist of his caliber could hush a Sultan. He then motioned to the ruler. “Tonight, though, I turn to you, Your Majesty, to assist me.”

The Sultan clapped his hands. “Excellent. What is my part in your grand magic, All Powerful Jaha?”

He raised his hands and slowly pulled from his cabinet a pistol, one of the more modern ones no doubt brought from his European travels. The Sultan’s guards immediately stepped forward, their hands working the bolts on their own antiquated rifles.

“Oh please, you believe the All Powerful Jaha would dare to assassinate me in a theatre full of people?” Aladdin watched as the Sultan parted the guards and slapped them both in turn. “If you did not kill him where he stood, I believe my people love me enough that they would tear him apart.” Hefting his belly, the Sultan proceeded from where his harem and guards watched the performance and joined the magician on the stage, motioning for his subjects to rise. “Arise, my subjects, lest you miss the magic.”