Page 31 of Dryad’s Treasure

Most of the day then. Considering the energy it had taken to find the wyvern eggs and then what had happened with the djinn, my body was exhausted. I was… “Jima. How’s Jima?” My memories were slowly catching up, but now they arrived in a flood of images.

“Elvira stopped by earlier. She said Jima is resting more comfortably. At that time, his heartrate had returned to normal and he’d woken but wasn’t moving much. Tabitha was able to get him to eat some. My understanding is that Jima is currently staying with Tabitha and Navarre.”

“Navarre?”

“A necromancer Tabitha is working with.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what else to say. I’d had very few interactions with necromancers in the past and the limited experience I did have wasn’t favorable. Finding a sane necromancer was like searching for a unicorn.

“And the djinn?” I nearly tripped over the word.

“To my knowledge, Helios has not returned. Hopefully, Aurelia will set him straight and we will not have a repeat of what happened today.”

“Aurelia?” I wondered if I was destined to simply repeat new names for the remainder of the evening.

“Another djinn.”

“Goddess. How many are there?”

“Only the two that I know of.”

Only two. One was more than enough, and I internally groaned at the thought.

It was odd, but I could feel Martin’s hesitance when he asked, “You are aware of djinn?”

“Unfortunately.”

There was a pause before Martin said, “Most are not. Many believe djinn are little more than a ghost story. That if they ever did truly exist, they vanished long ago.”

I mentally grunted. “If only. I suppose one could agree that they vanished. I’m not sure anyone can truly kill a djinn.”

Another pause. “There is a way.” Martin sounded even more hesitant. “Though I only know of one with the capability.”

My flame shivered. “I do not want to meet the creature that can harm a djinn.”

This time, I felt amusement. “Interestingly, I do not believe this individual would be harmful to you.”

“Do the djinn know of him?” I couldn’t imagine they would suffer this individual’s existence.

“They do.”

“And he is still alive?” I couldn’t hide my disbelief.

“Very much so. We can discuss Necromancer Boone at another time. As for now, I am curious how you are aware of djinn and recognized Helios as one.” There was no accusation in Martin’s tone. Merely curiosity.

“I’m a will-o’-the-wisp. We find treasure and there is hardly any treasure more coveted than djinn.”

“You’ve met one then? Found one?”

“Not personally, no.” I thought back to one of the many stories my aunt had told me. “But others have. Even will-o’-the-wisps are smart enough to let sleeping djinn lie. We do not retrieve that treasure. We leave it be and move on.” I’d been told that finding a djinn’s object of attachment was…odd. Or at least the feeling was odd. They sang; that was certain. Most treasure wanted to be found and djinn weren’t necessarily different in that respect. What was different was that once found, they didn’t want to be retrieved. At least that’s what I’d been told. Having never felt one or heard its song, I didn’t have any personal experience to bring to the table.

Martin was quiet as I contemplated before he finally said, “Helios doesn’t sing.”

“No.” I took a moment to consider. “Perhaps I didn’t hear his song because his object of attachment wasn’t near, but I don’t think so. I’m not sure why, but I really think he no longer sings.” I couldn’t really wrap my head around that one. “The only way I’d know for certain is if his object of attachment was closer.”

“Hmm, I doubt that will be possible. To my knowledge, Helios’s object is on the East Coast, and since djinn can’t touch their own object of attachment without being sucked back inside…”

“His master would need to bring the object closer,” I finished.