“Not at all,” Cimorene assured him fervently. She saw him to the mouth of the cave and pointed him toward Gornul’s cave, then returned to the kitchen. She gathered up the jars and bottles she had been planning to check, except for the copper jar with the jinn inside, and took them back to the treasure vault. Then she fetched an ink pot, a quill pen, and a sheet of paper from the library and began writing out a warning to attach to the copper jar. She didn’t want anyone else to open it until the eighty-three years were over and the jinn could go home without killing anyone.

She was just finishing when she heard Alianora’s voice calling from the rear of the cave. “I’m in the kitchen!” she shouted. “Come on back!”

“You’re always in the kitchen,” Alianora said when she poked her head through the door a moment later. “Or the library. Don’t you ever do anything but cook and read?”

“Look at this, Alianora,” Cimorene said, handing her the warning she had been writing. “Do you think it’s clear enough?”

“‘WARNING: This jar contains a jinn who will kill you if you let him out too soon. Do not open until at least one hundred and five years after the date when the Citadel of the Yellow Giant was destroyed,’” Alianora read aloud. “That’s, let’s see, eighty-four years from now. It seems clear to me. You’d have to be pretty stupid to ignore a warning like that.”

“Maybe I ought to show it to Hallanna and see what she says,” Cimorene said, frowning. “I wouldn’t want anyone getting into trouble by accident, just because I didn’t make it plain.”

“It’s plain, it’s plain,” Alianora said. “Cimorene, what on earth have you been doing? How do you know there’s a jinn in this bottle?”

“Therandil,” Cimorene said, waving a hand expressively. “I was looking through some of the bottles from Kazul’s treasure room, to see if any of them happened to have hens’ teeth in them, and Therandil came in and wanted to help.”

“And he opened it?” Alianora said. “Oh, dear.”

“Exactly,” said Cimorene. “But it came out well in the end. I think I’ve gotten rid of him for good. I sent him off to rescue Keredwel.”

“You did? What if he doesn’t beat Gornul?”

“Oh, he’ll win. The jinn gave him a wish, and he wished to defeat a dragon.” Cimorene looked apologetically at Alianora. “I suppose I ought to have sent him to rescue you, but . . .”

“That’s quite all right,” Alianora said hastily. “Getting rid of Keredwel will help a lot. And after everything you’ve told me about Therandil, I don’t think I’d want to have him rescue me.”