“Such was my aim,” said Abdullah. “If I could discover how to make none of your wishes go wrong, it would be a great relief.”

“There is one wish you could make to do that,” said the genie.

He sounded rather wistful, from which Abdullah realized what he meant. The genie wanted to be free of the enchantment that bound him to the bottle. It would be easy enough to waste a wish that way, Abdullah reflected, but only if he could count on the genie’s being grateful enough to help him find Flower-in-the-Night afterward. With this genie, that was most unlikely. And if he freed the genie, then he would have to give up challenging Fate. “I shall think about that wish for later,” he said. “My wish today is for Jamal and his dog. Are they now safe?”

“Yes,” the genie said sulkily. From the look on his smoky face as it vanished inside the bottle, Abdullah had an uneasy feeling that he had somehow contrived to make this wish go wrong, too, but of course, there was no way to tell.

Abdullah turned around to find the soldier watching him. He had no idea how much the soldier had overheard, but he got ready for an argument.

But all the soldier said was “Don’t quite follow your logic in all that,” before suggesting that they walk on until they found a farm where they could buy breakfast.

Abdullah shouldered Midnight again, and they trudged off. All that day they wandered deep lanes again. Though there was no sign of any constables, they did not seem to be getting any nearer to Kingsbury. In fact, when the soldier inquired from a man digging a ditch how far it was to Kingsbury, he was told it was four days’ walk.

Fate! thought Abdullah.

The next morning he went around to the other side of the haystack where they had slept and wished that the two toads in the oasis should now become men.

The genie was very annoyed. “You heard me say that the first person who opened my bottle would become a toad! Do you want me to undo my good work?”

“Yes,” said Abdullah.

“Regardless of the fact that the Sultan’s men are still there and will certainly hang them?” asked the genie.

“I think,” said Abdullah, remembering his experiences as a toad, “that they would rather be men even so.”

“Oh, very well then!” the genie said angrily. “You realize my revenge is in ruins, don’t you? But what do you care? I’m just a daily wish in a bottle to you!”

Chapter Fourteen

WHICH TELLS HOW THE MAGIC CARPET REAPPEARED