The Jinn of the Qirnyz Gate
Nazarr Csaba

The center of the golden mithril cover depicts a hyper-realistic onyx triumphal arch carved with miniature mythical beasts and birds, while in each of the book's corners is a piece of onyx cut to resemble a round star ruby. Curved above the arch, in jet black stylized letters edged in bluish white flames, is the title "The Jinn of the Qirnyz Gate." Below the triumphal gate, printed in smaller but still flame-edged letters, are the words "by Nazarr Csaba."
You open the golden mithril book.

Once there was a king who had no luck.

His treasury was empty of all but echoes. The few soldiers he had were so stupid, they routinely grabbed swords by the pointy end. Soil soured beneath his feet, and any well in which he dipped his cup instantly ran dry. He could find none, Arkati or mortal, who could shatter this curse.

So, one night beneath jewel-encrusted stars, the king slipped away from his palace. Since curses oft befell regicides, he had decided to journey deep into the desert near his kingdom and perish of hunger, thirst, or heatstroke. His subjects, he hoped, would be free.

But the desert was harsher than he had imagined. Wind-blown sand scoured the skin from his body, and the glare of the sun on the sand seared his eyes. He begged Phoen to be merciful and slay him.

To his shock, he heard a voice say, "Blind and sun-flayed mortal, who are you and why do you trouble my exile?"

You turn to page 2 of your golden mithril book.

The king introduced himself as Sudeiman the Sorrowful and explained he was accursed and his nation would never be free until he was dead.

But when he was done, the voice only snorted. "You are not accursed. Rather, you are beloved of the twin of Imaera--Armoede, the Patroness of Poverty. She has sent her attendants Famine, Ignorance, and Despair to attend you most royally. It is not her fault that you dislike her gifts.

"Take me to your kingdom, for I am a jinn, a being of thought and smokeless flame, and Armoede and her handmaidens loathe my kind. They will flee my very presence--and since I will be dwelling with the king at his invitation, they will have to flee the land as well."

Sudeiman protested that he was too injured to find his way back. "Bah," said the jinn, "follow my voice until you feel a round stone beneath your fingers. When you find it, say, 'Son of my mother, I welcome you home.' Then we shall both be home, and all will be well."
You turn to page 3 of your golden mithril book.
Sudeiman, eager for the jinn's assistance, felt about for the stone which, though he did not know it, was a star ruby. When he found it, his tongue almost tripped over itself repeating the jinn's words. There was a flash of bluish white light, an anguished scream--and then the jinn, now in the king's form, stood up.

"You invited me in," said the jinn, brushing the blindness and burns from Sudeiman's body, "for what home has a mortal greater than the body that holds his soul? But I cannot leave that ruby here, for my people might find you and learn I've escaped. You must come with me, Sudeiman, and I must be your jailer." He stuffed the ruby into his pocket and headed back to Sudeiman's kingdom.

Whether the jinn had orchestrated all the ills of the kingdom from a distance (for assuredly the goddess of poverty could be no more than a fable) none can say.

You turn to page 4 of your golden mithril book.

But when the jinn entered the kingdom, fortune came with him. Rivers of gold, silver, and gems flowed from mines, and the finest of crops sprang from fertile earth. Rumors began about the king wrestling with demons in the desert and freeing the land from their control. The jinn laughed in secret, for none of these miracles were being done for his subjects' benefit.

Only one person came to suspect the king wasn't the king: Sudeiman's sixteen-year-old heir, a half-Tehir girl named Amuma--"Lightning" in a language now lost.

One day, when the jinn was in his workshop, crafting weapons that drained life from the target and will, mind, and soul from the wielder, Amuma used a spare key to slip into his chambers, seeking evidence that the king was anyone but Sudeiman. But though she searched until not one grain of dust lay on another, she found nothing. At last she cried out, "What has he done to you, Father?"

You turn to page 5 of your golden mithril book.

Amuma asked if nothing could restore her father to his body and trap the jinn once more.

"Only," said Sudeiman, "if you could persuade him to say, 'Son of my mother, I welcome you home.' But that he will never do."

A light kindled in Amuma's eyes. Swiftly, she tidied up the chamber, erasing any sign she had been there, and bid farewell to her father. Then she went to the castle smith and said, "I need a duplicate of the king's scepter, but hollow within, and so well-padded that if a medium-sized stone was placed within it, no one would hear or feel it move."

You turn to page 6 of your golden mithril book.

"It shall be done," said the smith, "but first the stonemason and I must complete a triumphal gate for your father in the Khan'Kel Bazar--one so great, he says, that every man, woman, and child that passes beneath it shall feel compelled to serve the king with all their mind and soul."

Thinking of the jinn's soul-draining weapons, Amuma shuddered, for she could well imagine how much could be conquered by those who were will-less liches and flesh golems in all but name.

"Then let the work on gate and scepter be simultaneous," she said, "but let the scepter be complete and in my hands before the last gate stone is place. Let the last stone be carved with wards, binding spells and prayers on the side fitting into the gate, while on the side all will see, let it bear this warning." She whispered in the smith's ear, his expression growing grave as he nodded.

You turn to page 7 of your golden mithril book.

Then she went to the stables and said to the ostler, "Teach me to ride the finest and swiftest of beast, one that could outrace thought itself." The ostler agreed.

Finally, she went to the castle lockpicker and said, "Teach me to be the finest of pickpockets--one who could steal a magical item from a magical being or a prison from a prisoner and not be noticed." The lockpicker agreed.

On the day the duplicate scepter was complete, Amuma pickpocketed Sudeiman's ruby, replacing it with an empty orb gem. She also slipped Sudeiman's stone inside the false scepter and swapped the false scepter for the true without even the most perceptive courtier noticing. But still, she had to make him say the words that would free her father.

That day there came to the palace an acting troupe. Amuma announced before all the court that she had summoned them to perform a play that the king had always loved.

You turn to page 8 of your golden mithril book.

There were no problems until, according to Amuma's plan, the actor playing the king "swooned" and didn't awaken. A doughty dwarf, plainly the manager of the minstrel troupe, stepped forward, saying, "Your Majesty, this is a tragedy, but--you know the lines well. You could play the part!"

"Don't worry, Father," Amuma whispered in the jinn's ear. "If you forget a line, I'll help."

And so, with the jinn understudying for the play's king, the performance continued. All went well until they reached the play's third act, where the rich brother and the poor, homeless brother appear before the king, seeking justice. Amuma whispered the jinn his lines: "You have borne all you need bear. Son of my mother, I welcome you home."

You turn to page 9 of your golden mithril book.

Seeing no way out, he jinn secretly removed a ruby from his pocket--the very orb gem Amuma had slipped into his pocket earlier--and dropped it into the shadow of the throne. Then he spoke his lines, gripping the hollow scepter containing Sudeiman's gem. He smiled triumphantly for a moment--and then the scepter burned the blue-white of agonizingly hot flame.

The jinn wailed in agony--and then abruptly stopped. Sudeiman, dropping the scepter, had returned to his body and was whispering over and over, "I'm free. I'm free."

Amuma scooped up the scepter and pelted from the great hall to the stonemason's workshop, begging for the arch's last stone, and the smith and stonemason bound it on her back. Then she flew to the stables, saying that she needed the swiftest of beasts, which the ostler gave her.

You turn to page 10 of your golden mithril book.

Amuma jumped onto the camel's back and headed for Khan'Kel Bazaar on Turtle's Egg Island. The camel moved fast--but Amuma could sense the jinn trying to shatter the binding spells on his prison for she had not been able to reinforce the spells. She had only tricked him into re-entering a cell he had once escaped.

The camel leapt over the DragonSpine Mountains, tore across Vornavis's plains, and ran across the surface of the ocean. But as they alit on the island, an entity summoned by the jinn manifested.

You turn to page 11 of your golden mithril book.

You feel at full magical power again.
Neither she nor anyone else ever knew what the monstrosity the jinn had crafted was, but it was an ill-formed grotesque, like a jigsaw puzzle of multiple bodies with the parts all put in the wrong places. The eyes of a hairy black tarantula, doubled and redoubled, speckled six giantish hands. Vultures' wings sprouted atop a direwolf's skull where the ears should have been. The tusks of a mammoth spiraled from the muzzle. Within its lupine jaw lay the jagged teeth and long black tongue of an oculoth. Its torso was that of an immense vathor, its skin the color of dried blood and coated with razor spikes of jet black stone. Its legs were unnaturally elongated and bent backwards, terminating in venomous talons. It whispered curses in a serpentine hiss, and bone-chilling hatred gleamed in its myriad eyes.


You turn to page 12 of your golden mithril book.

But, as Amuma ordered her camel toward the Khan'Kel Bazaar, she paid no mind to either the jinn's monstrous champion or its rage. Her eyes were fixed on the Qirnyz Gate. In the center of the gate's carvings was a gap, for one stone was missing. However, as she drew near, the camel sank to its knees, exhausted, and a ravenous bellow reminded her that the jinn would soon be free once more.

Staggering under the weight of the stone, Amuma climbed the Gate, opened the scepter, and then dropped the jinn's ruby into the gap. Then, removing the stone from her back, she slid it into the hole.

Some say they heard a shriek of rage and beheld a ball of fire, but that is probably no more than a bard's tale.

Shortly after this, Amuma became queen, for Sudeiman abdicated in her favor.

You turn to page 13 of your golden mithril book.

The Qirnyz Gate stands to this day in Khan'Kel Bazaar, in what is now called River's Rest, and bears the message that Amuma ordered carved on it so many centuries ago: "Legend holds that every soul passing the Qirnyz Gate would be wise to recite the opening prayer of the One Scroll against the jinn living within the Gate's black heart." She meant for that jinn to be imprisoned so long that he passed into legend.

The One Scroll is now a mystery, and its contents, including its opening prayer, have been lost to time. Even so, the next time you're in River's Rest, say a prayer before you pass through that Gate.

Why tempt Fate, eh?
You flip back to the first page of your book.
You gently close the golden mithril book, taking care with its pages.