He bowed to the ground and vanished. The parade formed almost immediately after. It set out across the desert with the celerity of djinn traffic. The elephant litter maintained a forty-mile speed principally because the elephants were nearly five stories tall. Whirlwinds went on before, spreading out as scouts on all sides, and overhead some dozens of rocs cruised at different altitudes for an air umbrella against possible attack by the former king and his half dozen malcontents. It was all quite preposterous. The elephant litter itself was the size of an eight-room house and actually contained two floors and different compartments on each floor. The Queen sat gracefully underneath the canopy on the sun deck on top. Ghail sat beside her, her lips tightly compressed. Despite the speed of their journeying, the litter was hot. Ghail, however, remained wrapped up in all the voluminous wrappings of a respectable woman during travel.
“Listen,” said Tony, “aren’t you hot?”
“I’ll do,” said Ghail composedly.
“As a slave,” said Tony, “the Queen can give you permission to make yourself comfortable. Why not?”
Ghail regarded him ominously. But the Queen said:
“He’s right, my dear. Why don’t you slip out of that dreadfully hot cloak?”
“He,” said Ghail in even tones, “is very fond of looking at legs. My legs, or anybody else’s legs. And he hasn’t any djinnees with him to sit around like the hussies they are—for instance, that djinnee who held his coat while he fought Es-Souk! So he is unhappy!” Then she flared out at Tony. “Why don’t you get another litter for yourself? All you have to do is command it! Or we’ll get out of this litter and ride on camels, and you can have as many djinnees around you as you want! You can—”
Tony scowled. “If you’re thinking of Nasim… wait a minute!”
He stood up and went to the rail of the gently swaying sun deck. Alongside, a few hundred yards away, a smaller litter kept pace with this. That was the traveling carriage of Abdul, who had explained blandly that as grand vizier to Tony who was king of the djinn a certain amount of state for himself was desirable. But Abdul’s litter was merely carried by two thirty-foot camels, and the litter slung between them was no larger than the cabin of an eight-passenger plane. It was suitably less stately than Tony’s equipage. When Tony bellowed at it, its interior was completely hidden by silken draperies.
“Abdul!” roared Tony.