Djinn (The adventures of Hanover and Singh Book 4) by Chris Paton

Author:Chris Paton [Paton, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Steampunk Alternative History
Publisher: Chris Paton
Published: 2016-12-25T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

The Russian Border

Imperial Russia

July, 1851

The mountains shrank into the pine forests of northern Russia and Hari Singh retched the last remaining contents of his stomach onto the treetops below. He clung to the djinni's arm as the landscape beneath blurred into an endless cushion of green pins and needles. Najma, Hari noticed, was sleeping again, curled within the djinni's oversized palm, conjured for the purpose. Hari closed his eyes and let the wind cool his brow as the waves of nausea receded. He knew they would return. But, for the moment at least, the furious peaks of air sickness were calmed.

“Not far now, little man,” said the djinni. It had taken Hari some time to adjust to Jamie's alter ego. The two were inextricably combined, and yet their differing traits allowed for some distinction. The djinni was far more impulsive than Jamie, lacking the Englishman's restraint. Jamie, on the other hand, dwelled far too much on matters beyond his control, whereas the djinni was not restricted by such thoughts and could act faster and with greater effect. Hari had need of both and he hoped he could control the one while he appealed to the other. He would find out soon enough.

“Tell me, djinni,” he said, “what part of you hails from the other dimension, and can you sense it or connect with it?”

“You want to know?” the djinni said, the deep resonant boom of its voice contained a hint of surprise.

“Truly, I do.”

“You bear the anti-djinn mark. Were you not schooled in djinn lore?”

“Not nearly enough. That is why I ask.”

The djinni grew quiet, thinking. As the landscape whistled beneath them, Hari felt a tapping upon his mind, as if the djinni was knocking on the door and asking to be allowed in.

“What do you want, djinni?”

“I want to show you that dimension – my world. It is far too difficult to explain. Will you allow it?”

“What will happen to me if I do?”

“Nothing,” the djinni said.

A wave of gratitude seemed to flow over and through Hari, as if the djinni was surprised to be asked to reveal its origins. The emotion left Hari with the feeling that the djinni was more interested in answering Hari's question than penetrating his mind with a horse like the one used in Troy. Hari answered the knock and opened his mind to the djinni.

All traces of motion sickness were expelled from Hari's body as the djinni entered his mind in a pall of thin smoke, spinning with tiny lights and flashes of memory. Hari reached out with his mind and cupped the flash closest to him and was transported into a cave of water, the walls swirling into a form that could be pressed and touched but not penetrated. The walls curved as Hari walked on the sheet of water rippling between them, altering direction as he changed his course as the memory flash in his hand blistered with an impulse of tiny pricks against the palm of his left or right hand leading Hari deeper inside the water cave.

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