Red Magic
The hours Randy and Kabumpo spent waiting for Jinnicky to summon them
to his throne room were the longest and most anxious they had ever
endured.
"Even if he does restore them," groaned Randy, pacing feverishly up and
down one of the garden paths, "he'll have to send them straight back
to Anuther Planet." Rumpling up his hair, he looked wildly back at the
Elegant Elephant, who was just behind him. "And if they go," declared
the young King in a desperate voice, "I warn you, Kabumpo, I shall
jump on Thun's back and go with them."
"What? And leave ME?" gasped the Elegant Elephant, putting back his
ears, "and your Kingdom and friends and all your responsibilities?
No, no, Randy, this won't do. Besides, you'd probably perish in that
outlandish metal wilderness with nothing to eat and no place to rest
your head. You can't do it, my boy, and furthermore, I won't let you."
Snatching Randy up in his trunk, he held him as tightly as if he were
already running away instead of threatening to do so. In the course of
this bitter argument and as the young monarch began pummeling Kabumpo
futilely with his fists, they were both lifted bodily into the air and
set swiftly down in the Red Throne Room.
"The Master has good news for you," explained Ginger. "LOOK!" With his
flashing white grin the little bell boy pointed to the throne itself
and then, as was his wont, inexplicably vanished. What he saw made
Randy rush forward and fling both arms round the Red Jinn's neck.
"Oh, you did it! You really did it!" he cried, embracing Jinnicky all
over again. "How can I ever thank you enough?"
"Where am I?" murmured the clear silvery voice that Kabumpo and Randy
knew so well. "Oh, what a netiful, netiful castle. Randy! Randy! And
there you are, Big Bumpo, and Thun! But how did we come out of that
debasement?"
Without bothering to answer, Randy seized Planetty's hands and looked
and looked at her as if he were never going to stop.
"You're the same, and yet different," he mused, scarcely able to
believe what he saw. "And Thun is the same, yet different, too."
"I am Thun the Thunder Colt, now, then, and always!" announced Thun,
and gave a frightened jump, for he had actually spoken the words at the
same time they went spiraling up into a sparkling sentence over his
head. "Oh, Princess, Princess!" he whinnied joyously. "Do you hear? Do
you see? I can talk, I can hear, I can see and hear myself talking!"
At each word Thun gave an ecstatic bound and then began racing madly
round and round the throne room, in and out between the red pillars,
leaping over chairs and tables in a positively hair-raising fashion.
"Oh, my! Oh, my mercy me!" faltered Jinnicky, and scooping up the
Nonagon Cat, he jumped up on a red tabouret. "Stop him, somebody! Stop
him!"
"Whoa, there! Come back here, Thun, come back; we want to look at you!"
Running after the Thunder Colt, Randy caught him by his plumy tail and
hung on till he actually did stop.
"And he doesn't make a sound when he gallops--not a sound," marveled
Jinnicky, edging nervously over to his throne and taking a seat beside
Planetty.
"A sound but soundless steed! Har, har, har! And do not mind his
breath, Randy, it cannot burn you now; it's cold fire and will not
singe a thing!"
"But how did you do it?" demanded Kabumpo, touching Planetty lightly
with his trunk.
"Oh, partly by my red incense, partly by my red reanimating rays, and
partly by an old incantation against entrancery," explained Jinnicky,
as Randy brought Thun back and handed him over to Planetty. "Do you
feel all right now, my dear, and as beautiful as you look?"
"Oh, yes! Oh, very yes!" answered Planetty, smiling shyly round at the
Red Jinn. "And you, I know it now, you must be the Wizard so wonderful
of Ev?"
"Wonderful! Wonderful? Well, I should say hay hurray!" Randy threw his
crown up in the air and caught it. "Wonderful enough to save himself
and us too. Oh, SO many things have happened, Planetty, since you and
Thun turned to cold metal in that awful cellar!"
"I must make a note," muttered Jinnicky, patting Thun rather cautiously
on the neck. "I must make a note to clean and cheer up that cellar. My!
mercy! me! I haven't been down there for years!"
"And if I never see it again, it will still be too soon," grunted
Kabumpo, leaning up against a red pillar. "Look, Jinnicky," he muttered
out of a corner of his mouth as Randy and Planetty moved over to one
of the windows and Randy began to tell the little Princess all that
had happened on Nonagon Isle and Thun began kicking up his heels and
talking to himself just for the fun of the thing. "Look, will these two
have to go straight back to their own planet?"
"That is what is worrying me," Jinnicky said, speaking behind one
hand and patting his hound, also released from its enchantment, with
the other. "I managed to reawake and reanimate them, but, as you've
probably noticed, they are changed. Most certainly they are alive, but
no longer of living metal, see? The girl's hair is no longer of fine
spun metal strands, but it is real hair, still silvery in color as
her skin retains its iridescent sheen, but I'm very much afraid, as
things are, that the Princess and her colt are unfitted for life on
that far and rigorous planet of theirs. Yes," Jinnicky nodded his head
emphatically, "I'm very much afraid they'll have to content themselves
down here and live, eat and behave generally as natives of Oz or Ev."
"WHAT?" trumpeted Kabumpo so fiercely Nina jumped out of Jinnicky's
arms and hid under the red throne. "Oh, say it again!" he begged,
swallowing convulsively. "Great Grump, why this is the best news I've
heard since you've come up out of the sea."
"You mean they won't care?" exclaimed the Red Jinn, rubbing his palms
nervously together.
"Care!" spluttered Kabumpo, waving his trunk toward the small red
sofa where Randy and Planetty sat in rapt and earnest conversation.
"They care for nothing but each other, old fellow. Right there, my
dear Wizard, sits the future Queen of Regalia, or I'm a blue-bearded
Nannygoat!"
"Oh, my, mercy me! You don't say! Oh, har, har, har! How delightful!
Why, this calls for a celebration, a feast and a fiesta." Beaming
with interest and benevolence, Jinnicky banged on the side of his
throne with both fists and his elbows. "Prepare a feast," he ordered
breathlessly, as Alibabble, his Grand Advizier, entered in a calm
and dignified manner, showing no ill effects from his long months of
servitude in the ruby mines. "Prepare a feast, Old Tollywog, there's
to be a wedding, with rings, bells, palms, presents and all the fruity
fixings."
"A wedding?" Alibabble looked sternly at his master, whom he instantly
suspected of being the groom, then as the Red Jinn, grinning wickedly,
waved to the engrossed pair on the red sofa, he nodded briefly.
"In that event," he remarked, backing rapidly away as he spoke, "I
earnestly advise your Majesty to have a hair cut."
"Oh, my mercy me! Did you hear that?" screamed the Jinn, as he turned
to Kabumpo, his face very red and angry.
"I certainly did," roared the Elegant Elephant, giving Jinnicky a
playful little push. "Hasn't changed a bit, has he? And neither have
you. The last time I was in this castle he was advising the very same
thing."
"That's all he ever thinks of," fumed Jinnicky, fingering his long
locks lovingly. Then as his eye rested again on the happy little
Princess and the prancing Thunder Colt, his expression grew milder.
"Randy! RANDY!" he called, jerking his thumb imperiously at his royal
guest. "See here, my boy," he explained, puffing out his cheeks
importantly, as Randy came to stand beside the throne. "I have done
MY part to save your little Princess and now you must do yours!
Unfortunately," Jinnicky's face grew long and dolorous, "unfortunately,
Planetty and Thun, from this time on, will be unable to exist on
Anuther Planet, so now, without a home or country, what will become of
them?" In mock distress the Red Jinn stared down at his young friend.
"Oh, Jinnicky! How wonderful! Oh, Jinnicky, do you mean it? Thank you!
Thank you! THANK YOU!" Pressing the little Jinn's hands, Randy went
racing across the throne room.
"Planetty," he whispered breathlessly in the little Princess' ear. "How
would you like to be Queen of Regalia, to go back to Oz with Thun,
Kabumpo and me and live in my castle for always?"
"Oh, I think--" Planetty's soft yellow eyes fairly danced with surprise
and happiness--"I think that would be very nite. Oh, Randy, that would
be netiful, netiful!"