The Golden Arrow [ONC 2022]

Fourteen

For nearly a week, Robin was confined to his cell as Jafar tested the strength of the wish he'd cast. The sorcerer was creative. Robin had no choice but to admit that much as Jafar looked for ways to get around the wish's boundaries.

Some efforts were unsuccessful – like when Jafar had gone down into the trove below the temple and magicked a suit of armour to life and sent it into Robin's cell for him to fight, giving Robin only a single blade for defence. Even though Jafar hadn't been the one physically attacking him, the wish had held true and each blow the armour had tried to land was unsuccessful.

Other attempts – such as when Jafar opened a portal to a foreign land on the ceiling, far above where Robin could reach it, and let any creature which found it wander in had worked. Robin assumed it was because the sorcerer hadn't actually summoned the beasts. The only thing he'd done was open a door and let nature play out.

Robin had gotten particularly torn up by one, some kind of cat-like thing whose claws ripped through the skin of his forearm. Jafar had watched, a faint serpentine smile on his face that faded when Robin had regretfully killed the thing.

The sorcerer hadn't spoken afterwards. He'd merely vanished the beast with a flick of his wrist and closed the portal as he left, the blade he'd provided Robin disappearing with him.

Afterward, Robin supposed that Jafar had been hoping he'd summon the lamp and use his final wish to save himself. The blade had been a precaution to ensure that Robin wasn't killed before having the time to call for the genie. Had that happened, Karim would have most definitely been lost to Jafar. Forced back inside the lamp where it would disappear to a new spot in a different realm, far from where Jafar might be able to locate it.

It was clear to them both that Jafar needed Robin but perhaps less clear was the way that Robin needed the sorcerer too. The only way he and Karim might be safe was if Jafar was dead. And so even as it was clear that Jafar wanted nothing more than for Robin to drop dead, they were bound to each other by necessity.

Cat and mouse, playing a deadly game. One proven to be rather difficult considering they both perceived themselves to be the cat.

Jafar thought that he was winning. He had Robin locked up and what seemed to be a massive amount of power at his fingertips. What he didn't realize, though, was that Robin was comfortable where he was.

The confinement was a design of Robin's own making and that, coupled with the mocking jokes he sent Jafar's way, acted as a diversion so that the sorcerer merely thought Robin was idiotic and empty-headed, perhaps even enough to let his guard down. That was how Robin wanted Jafar. Calm and unexpectant so that he didn't have the time to go for his magic when Robin slit his throat.

By the end of the week, the first sign that Robin was working in the right direction came true. Jafar left the prison after subjecting Robin to another go-around with some beast – this one a large feathered thing – and didn't use magic to put the shackles back onto his wrists.

Robin approached the door, pulling from his pockets two small, sturdy sticks that had fallen through one of the portals Jafar had opened. He'd whittled them carefully these past few days with stones until they were the perfect lockpicking tools. Twisting, he shoved his arms through the bars and fiddled with the sticks inside the lock until the mechanism clicked and unlatched.

He grinned, sly and satisfied, as the lock clattered to the ground. Robin pushed the door to his cell open and stepped out, not bothering to bring any of the sharp rocks he'd gathered. He planned to head into the trove and find the most lethal weapons he could. Robin didn't care if he ended up cursed as Karim had. So long as he had the chance to slit Jafar's throat first and keep the people he loved safe, he'd gladly take on any curse this wretched place threw his way.