Chapter 7: The King of the Winds
The travelers were startled by the suddenness with which the Afrits obeyed Jafar’s command. The spirits of the air grabbed them in arms that seemed little more than wisps of cloud and carried them off the ledge into open air. The instinctive fear of falling gripped all of them, even Jafar who’d thought he had the situation well under control. Selima could be carried because she was still seated on her horse; it whinnied in fright and tried to rear, as did the other horses, but it could gain no purchase on its hind legs—which only made it more frightened.
Though the Afrits were huge, they looked too insubstantial to carry the weight of a man, let alone a horse. They turned out to be soft and billowy, like being surrounded by cold, wet pillows. The group fe
