“You told me you were the most powerful being on earth,” Hakem Rafi yelled at Aeshma, “that no one could challenge your authority to do anything you wanted. Yet today we must run from a mere wizard, a man who shouldn’t have even a tenth your power. Are all your promises merely idle boasts, as empty as the desert wind?”
Aeshma was a proud and fiery spirit, and it kindled his own anger to be yelled at by so insignificant a mortal. It took every drop of his self-restraint to avoid venting this anger on the man who’d freed him from his urn and whom he’d vowed to serve faithfully. He held his reply until his temper was under control, then said in a voice all honey and humility, “I spoke the truth as it should be, O master, but you must take the circumstances into account.”
“Circumstances?” Ha
