Free Jalia on the Road (Jalia - World of Jalon) by John Booth

groaned as they watched him destroy their weapons. Poisoned swords were not easy to come by.
    They took the King out of the cage, cutting him from the other fairies. He would guide them to the treasure and be their hostage if they were discovered.
    “You need to use your magic ring to shrink us to fairy size,” Daniel said and sighed. Dawn was still an hour or two away and the more he thought about this plan, the worse the whole thing became.
    “Magic Ring, shrink us to the size of sand fairies,” Jalia commanded.
    They shrank, unfortunately without their clothes shrinking with them. Daniel struggled to get out from clothes that threatened to smother him. Jalia had a different problem as she found herself standing naked in view of the jeering fairies who could see her clearly from their cage. Daniel kicked himself out of his clothes to ribald comments from them.
    Jalia wondered if this was a sufficient mistake to force her over Daniel’s knee. She planned to argue it was not, because from the look on his face it wasn’t going to be something she would enjoy. However, she spent more than a few seconds looking at his naked body and was impressed with what she saw. She had been right about the size of his muscles.
    “Magic Ring, make our clothes the right size to fit us,” she said hurriedly and busied herself with getting dressed and avoiding eye contact with Daniel.
    Daniel found himself staring at Jalia, which had inevitable consequences. This brought more ribald laughter from the fairies. Daniel received a lot of unwanted advice from the creatures, along with critical comments.
    Daniel’s face became bright red from embarrassment. The sand fairies didn’t let up with their comments for a second. They spent considerable time on what they considered the shortcomings of his body. In fact, comments on shortness were pretty much their main insult.
     
    The King was feeling pleased with the way things were going. Unlike the humans, he could sense the magic ring was out of power and that it would fail the next time someone tried to use it. He also knew the cage they had constructed would not hold his men for more than a few minutes once the humans were safely out of sight.
    ‘Things are undoubtedly looking up,’ he thought as Jalia and Daniel dragged him to his feet and made him lead them. They cut the bonds on his legs but they left his hands bound behind his back.
    Jalia wondered about Daniel’s magic dagger as they followed the King across the trackless sand. He had kept the fact it was magic secret from her when she had happily told him about the magic ring. Jalia noticed his dagger had shrunk with him, just as her ring stayed about her finger and shrank with her. Magic objects seemed to have a degree of intelligence as well as a robust sense of humor, at least, that was how Jalia saw it.
    The King talked jovially as they walked. Telling them the Fairie had not always been small creatures and could still change to their original forms for short periods of time, despite what they Magician Kings had done to them. He told them the castle he was taking them to predated the curses laid upon them by the Magician Kings.
    If Jalia hadn’t known the King’s men were caged behind him, she would have suspected he was trying to distract them. A glance at the boy told her that Daniel suspected the same thing. He was looking increasingly nervous and his head jerked around at the smallest sound.
    The King led them up a steep sand dune and when they reached its summit the fairy castle came into view.   Its stones glowed dark blue, much the same as the fairy swords and the castle itself was awe-inspiring.
    It was circular in shape with four tall stone spires spaced around its outer walls. The spires looked as if they could only be used as lookout positions. Certainly there were far too slender to make good living quarters. An outer wall rose thirty feet high and surrounded the castle in a perfect circle. The stone was smooth as