Adnan frowned at the genie. “Yes, Sir Genie, the plan has its virtues, but I dislike my son being put up as bait.”
“Oh, father—” Aladdin started.
“Don’t ‘Oh father’ me! I am your father and you are still too young to be here! Your safety still weighs on my mind. I consent to consider anything with you present here only because of your powerful friend.” He nodded to the genie.
“Servant,” the genie corrected. “I am Aladdin’s servant until this affair is settled. And part of my duty is to protect him. I would not propose this plan if I didn’t feel it was the best way to deal with these people, given the resources we have available.
“So let us see if we are agreed otherwise. Our goal is to get the Iron Men to go away, rather than attacking Induslan once again, right?”
“Right,” the men agreed.
“Having just finished a difficult desert crossing, they are now refreshing themselves and regrouping. They soon will move again. In the meantime, they have sent scouts into the hills to size up the opposition they will face when they come up the valley. Right?”
“Right,” the men agreed again.
“If we make them nervous and uncertain enough not to come up the valley, we win.”
“Right!”
“So the heart of our campaign is to make them nervous. We will do this in several ways. One, we will drive their scouts out of the hills so they are blind about what lies in front of them. Their iron is too heavy to wear sneaking up and down hills so one-on-one there your men should be equal to theirs. The main job of the brave soldiers of Induslan is to make the hills unacceptably unpleasant for Iron Men soldiers and scouts.”
“Right!” they all said when the genie paused.
“… But what if they rush up the road while all our forces are scattered in the hills?” one added.
“The same thing that will happen if all the Induslani men are lined up in front of them: They will smash you and ride through. That’s why you are so nervous now and why we have to do something smart, not brave. And again, the smart thing we can do is make the Iron Men so uncertain that they won’t do that.
“Meanwhile Prince Aladdin and I will use some genie Magic to convince the Iron Men to go elsewhere. I won’t go into the details of that, but the magic will work only if you are successful at keeping scouts out of the hills. And … don’t believe everything your eyes tell you,” the genie winked.
“So you will be using illusion?” asked Adnan. He had become the leader that he was by being straightforward and leaving nothing to chance or confusion.
“I will, indeed. Much of war-making is about illusion.”
Briefly, Adnan’s face carried a look of deep disgust. He hated illusion, which is why he was a sub-chieftain and not a chieftain himself.
“I will leave that aspect of war-making to you, O servant of my son. But I approve of this plan. It has some chance of success. Men, we had best be about clearing the hills.”
And with that the meeting broke up. Adnan and his men rode off to explain the plan to the other chiefs of the Induslani, leaving Aladdin and the genie to work their own mischief.
“For a playground genie, you apparently know a lot about war,” remarked Aladdin.
“I didn’t say I was ignorant or incapable,” Al-Gebra responded. “Just not a specialist.
“Now, we should give your people encouragement. “And to do that, we are going to change our form of transportation.”
This time it took the genie more than a few simple waves of his hands. He stood gesturing and chanting for some time, and all that appeared was one richly patterned carpet. The genie motioned for Aladdin to get on.
“Sit, please,” he said. “It’s more comfortable.”
As the genie sat down on the carpet beside Aladdin it rose into the air!
“A flying carpet?” said Aladdin. “Ohhh, this is really neat!”
“I’m glad you think so. It’s slow but easy to maneuver, and the view is wonderful,” said the genie.
“Where are we going now?”
“We are flying over the Induslani troops to encourage them. This way they will all know for sure that they have a magic prince fighting on their side.”
“If that is the goal, I will stand,” said Aladdin. It was a little tricky to keep his balance as the wind pulled his long robes behind him, but he looked very princely indeed. The genie flew the carpet over the various Induslani camps and detachments of soldiers. At first, Aladdin waved and shouted to them, but then he decided that looking Princely and Commanding was a better choice, so he did that instead, and waved only a little, with grave dignity.
The first time they flew over the men below were dead quiet.
“Is it working?” muttered Aladdin.
The second time there were thunderous cheers.
The genie smiled. “I think so.”
He flew them to a natural rock tower that overlooked the road, a 30-meter column with a broad, fairly flat top. Only a person who was half-monkey could climb to the top but the carpet flew there easily. The genie landed and quickly put up another lunch pavilion.
“What I do next will take some serious conjuring on my part and it will take time. I suggest you have lunch and rest.”
“I want to help … or watch,” said Aladdin.
“You can’t help and there’s not much to see. You can watch me think, because that’s what I’ll be doing, mostly. Watch or not, what I do need you to be is fresh and rested for what comes next. It will be a long and difficult adventure.”
“I understand.”
Aladdin went into the tent and found he was all alone … except for the six manservants who said, “We are here to freshen your clothes and feed you for this evening’s activities.” And the six nubile maidservants who said, “We are here to see that you are relaxed, refreshed, and well-rested.”
Aladdin’s jaw dropped.
“Are you for real?”
The chief manservant replied, “Umm … how do I put this in human terms … We are part of the genie’s imagination. We are real as long as he wishes us to be real. We disappear when he is done with us, then reappear when he wants us again. So … yes! I am real!”
He smiled. “Please, let us help you slip into something more comfortable, my Prince. It will be many hours before the genie finishes his work outside.”