Gathering his wounded servants around him, the blind wizard turned and walked crisply down the cold stone stairway into his lonely castle.
***
Even though the wizard’s curse had broken Jafar’s concentration, the storyteller had propelled the carpet far enough by the power of his will that it continued to fly many parasangs through the Himali Mountains and beyond the thunderstorm before it gradually lost altitude and floated leisurely to the ground far below. With Akar’s castle now out of sight and the immediate threat gone, Cari unwrapped herself from around her master. Though she hadn’t the strength to keep the carpet flying by herself, she got under it and helped slow its descent, bringing it in for a gentle landing on the valley floor with the Himali Mountains towering around it. Here
