The Jinni Key

by Bethany Atazadeh

  Gideon’s brows arched skeptically, but this time when he took my hand and tried to travel, I felt myself shift with him. The world altered in an instant.

  “WE’VE BEEN WAITING FOR ages,” I whispered to Gideon. We lay in the tall grass on a hill above a small pool of water that Gideon called a ‘watering hole.’

  The flash of traveling from one place to another felt like slipping from beneath the water to the surface. So close together, yet so far apart. According to Gideon, we were about a full day’s travel south from where we’d spent the morning. He also refused to guarantee we’d even see elephants, which I refused to accept. “What’s the point of traveling all this way if we’re not going to stay until we see one?”

  He only shook his head at my logic. Those thick eyebrows of his were so expressive. Even without words the meaningful lift and twitch of a smile lifted my spirits. I found myself saying things just to get a reaction from him.

  “My sisters have never seen an elephant before,” I told him, wiggling my brows as well. “They’re going to be so terribly jealous when they find out.” And when I told them the story, I’d leave out all this ridiculous staring at a shallow pool.

  He just laughed. His eyes only landed on me for a moment, but the depths of blue made my heart sing. Such a gentleness behind those eyes. And so much pain. I could tell I’d only brushed the surface this morning. If I could make him laugh again, that would make this day a success, I decided.

  “What kind of noise does an elephant make?” I asked, thinking of whales and their deep bellows or the higher trills of smaller mammals. So many options. I thought through them quick and mimicked the chirrup of a dolphin calling to a lover. Though I highly doubted Gideon knew the meaning of the sound, I blushed.

  “Shhh,” he waved a hand at me, and I stopped, disappointed. “First of all,” he deadpanned, “they sound nothing like a dolphin.”

  My blush deepened. Did he know more than I’d thought?

  “And second, if they hear that, I guarantee they’ll run the other way, and then you’ll never get a chance to see them.”

  I sighed at his logic. I didn’t want to scare them away.

  Settling back into watching, I rested my head in my hands and let my eyes drift aimlessly across the grassland and the trees on the other side.

  Then, movement. So far in the distance I almost missed it. Gray shifting through the green of the trees. When it finally emerged near the edge of the watering hole on the far side, I frowned. “It’s so small,” I said, thinking of the great sperm whales back home. This creature didn’t even look to stand as tall as my horse.

  This earned me an unexpected smile and a soft laugh that made me nearly forget the elephant. I stared at him adoringly. “That’s a youngling,” he explained, still grinning.

  “Ahh,” I turned back with interest. So, this was a baby elephant. The creature waddled closer, splashing into the water, enormous ears flapping. Then, out of nowhere, he raised his trunk and sprayed a bucket’s worth of water over his back! I clapped my hands over my mouth to keep in my squeal of excitement.

  “How strange!” I hissed to Gideon. When I turned to catch his reaction, I found him watching me. My heart stopped. It only lasted for the space of a breath, before he returned his gaze to the baby elephant, but I studied his profile. I liked his long nose and strong jaw, such Jinni qualities. Thin lips too. They quirked in the tiniest smile that told me he was aware of being watched.

  “Look,” he pointed, whispering softly, “there’s the mother.”

  I spun to face the watering hole. At first I didn’t see her. Then at the edge of the trees, bits of gray and movement.

  I gasped. “She’s huge,” I murmured, jaw dropping. The mother stood over two times as tall as the baby, looming over it. My eyes grew as wide and round as a squid’s. Her head alone was larger than me.

  “That’s incredible,” I said, admiring the wrinkled gray skin and the way her trunk swung back and forth as she walked. Even from here, I could swear I felt the earth shake a bit with each step. My respect for the land whales increased quite a bit. They might not be as large, but they were clearly powerful. “Are those its teeth?”

  Another laugh. I could never get one intentionally, but seemed to come by quite of few of them by accident. “Those are called tusks,” he explained. “I believe they’re for protection, but for the most part they’re quite gentle creatures.”

  When the baby rose from the water, dripping, and returned to his mother, it was my turn to chortle through my fingers, trying to be quiet. “Look at that tail,” I said with tears of laughter in my eyes. It was absolutely ridiculous! Swishing back and forth, the tail looked like a tiny stick on the animal’s massive rear end with a tiny tuft of hair at the tip. Any creature in the ocean with a tail like that wouldn’t last a day. Of course, since we weren’t in the ocean, I supposed it wasn’t that funny to Gideon, but I couldn’t help giggling over it. Another juicy detail to share with my sisters when I returned home—I caught myself. If I returned home...

  I brushed the thought aside and grinned at Gideon again. “This is everything I’d hoped it would be,” I told him. “Thank you!”

  He nodded. “My pleasure.”

  I pressed my lips together in a smile, wishing it was more than a pleasantry. While I’d grown up with everyone saying exactly what they thought, the Jinni culture of secrets and constant civility left those words empty and meaningless.

  A quiet minute passed, comfortable this time, while we watched the mother elephant with her baby. I giggled when the little one sprayed her with water and she blasted him with twice as much in return. When he kicked up his feet and ran, big ears flapping in the wind, I laughed out loud. And when he returned to his mother and wrapped his little trunk gently around hers, my heart squeezed at the sight and I sighed. “They’re so beautiful.”

  “They are,” Gideon agreed quietly. The moment felt like coming to an understanding with him. We were worlds apart, and unfriendly worlds at that, yet in this, we felt the same. I let my hand fall to the earth between us, an open invitation.

  “Do you know,” he said, and I held my breath, hoping for another breakthrough. “In some parts of the world, humans ride these beasts.”

  Not what I was hoping for, yet it piqued my interest. “How?” I asked, eyeing the large animals. “You’d have to climb a tree to even mount them.” I thought of my little pedestal back at the castle for mounting a horse.

  “Do you want to see something?” Gideon asked.

  His playful expression surprised me so much that I just blinked, then nodded.

  Just like that, he vanished.

  In front of my eyes one moment, then the next Gideon was gone and I was staring into the grass behind him.

  I whirled to face the elephants just as the mother lifted her trunk in fright and trumpeted.

  Gideon stood on her back. As she panicked, he lost his balance and quickly flashed into a seated position on her neck instead. With a hand on her giant head, he soothed her somehow, while the baby came waddling up to them curiously.

  I stood and hurried down the hill, slowing as I came closer and saw the mother’s enormity for myself. She’d calmed under Gideon’s control, while the baby was fearless, shuffling toward me as I came near. I held out my palm, the way I would to feed a tiny seahorse, and his little trunk—not so little up close, since it was larger than my arm—stretched toward me. I startled. He was sniffing me; that water-hose on his face was also how he smelled. The little hairs on the end tickled my palm and his hide was surprisingly soft and gentle as he ran it down my arm, wrapping around. I jumped back, nervous, imagining him gripping me like a squid, but the little one let go of me immediately.

  “It’s okay,” Gideon said from atop the larger beast. I had to tilt my head back to look at him, shading my eyes against the sun, only seeing his silhouette. “They won’t hurt you.”

  “I’m not scared,” I said smugly. I’d encountered sharks and swam with wha
les. This little guy wasn’t nearly as terrifying as that. Besides, I’d worked on my protection spells so that they’d kick in immediately if anything really dangerous happened.

  I regretted my words, as the warmth between Gideon and I again grew cold. In an effort to move past it, I stepped closer to the baby elephant, reaching out my hand once more. This time, he was more hesitant, but I stepped forward boldly, until I could touch his forehead.

  I’d moved too quickly in my pride. His tiny trunk swung upward in fright at the foreign feeling on his hide. Though smaller than his mother’s, it was still larger than both my scrawny arms together. It knocked me flat on my back.

  This time when Gideon laughed, I didn’t enjoy it. I might have even yelled at him if I could catch my breath. The little guy was a few feet away now, hiding behind his mother.

  With another flash between unknown spaces, Gideon appeared in front of me, kneeling to take my hand and help me up. I was lighter than he’d expected, and as I tried to help pull myself up on my own, the combination of our strength pulled me directly into his arms, crashing into his chest. He steadied me at the waist, and my hands naturally gripped his shirt. I forced my fingers to loosen, slowly flattening my palms on his chest.

  Lifting my gaze from his chest to peer up into those cool blue eyes, I licked my lips. Gideon’s hands on my waist made me shiver. This was my moment. I’d waited over a year for this. I would confess my love to him, and he would return it.

  “This day has been a dream,” I began breathlessly. His eyes stared into mine, so unreadable. I couldn’t remember what I’d rehearsed to say next.

  In the space of a blink, he let go of my waist and stepped back. My hands slipped down his chest and fell away. “It hasn’t been all bad,” he said in response, indifferent. “I suppose the Mere have some redeeming qualities.”

  A high compliment I supposed, in his mind, but far from the passion I’d dreamed of for so many months. It felt too unbalanced to continue with my plans. I dug deep to find a smile, trying to be grateful that at least he was speaking to me.

  “We still have a few more hours,” he added. “Any other strange creatures you’d like to see?”

  I could wallow in my disappointment... or I could take advantage of the Jinni in front of me, offering a unique, once in a lifetime tour.

  “There is one more creature I’ve heard of,” I said, nodding, a new wave of excitement sweeping over me at the hope he might agree. It was no small request.

  “Tell me.”

  I took a deep breath. “I’d like to see a dragon.”

  Chapter 28

  Arie

  “THIS IS WHY I’VE decided to invite King Amir to return to Hodafez,” I finished my speech, startling myself with the words. I stood in the middle of the castle courtyard with the late morning sun beating down on me. The sole audience member for my speech was the town crier, memorizing my words to carry them out into the city. Enoch hovered nearby.

  Normally, I would have delivered such an important announcement to the public myself. Stranger still, my gut reaction to inviting the King of Sagh back to Hodafez seemed almost akin to terror. My pulse raced and my skin felt clammy, but I couldn’t pin down why.

  What else had I said? My memory was fuzzy. Anxiety swirled in my stomach. My mouth moved on its own. “Thank you, that will be all for today.” The crier nodded, making his final notes, while my feet carried me out of the square and back inside the castle. He would carry the gist of my announcement throughout the rest of my kingdom until everyone had heard. But who would tell me?

  I found myself in my chambers minutes later with no memory of getting there. I couldn’t understand how I was losing time like this. Was it something to do with my Gift? That didn’t make any sense. My breathing started coming faster as I remembered what I’d said about King Amir—I would never in my right mind have invited him back here! Something was deeply wrong. I wanted to talk to my father about it, but then I remembered he was in a coma. No. Wait... As scenes from his funeral flashed before my eyes, I crumpled, unable to stand, rocking back and forth as my body shook with sobs.

  Nothing made sense. My eyes were swollen and I had no idea how much time had passed, when a hint of ink on my foot caught my attention.

  Lavatory, towels.

  I jumped out of bed, practically running across the room.

  Right where I’d written it would be, there was a parchment with hurried scribbles in my own hand. I didn’t remember writing them. The inescapable feeling that I was somehow lost within my own mind terrified me.

  My eyes flew through the words. Enoch. Using his Gift—I took deep breaths, feeling equal parts relieved that I wasn’t going crazy, while at the same time more anxious now that I knew what was going on. The short lines about my father were almost illegible, as if I’d been shaking. Tears blurred my eyes once more, but I forced myself to read everything.

  Another small line further down the page, added later: Kadin is working on finding Gideon. He will save me.

  I didn’t remember writing that either. Though there was a vague memory of a dream...

  For some reason, just knowing Kadin was aware of my dilemma made me feel better.

  I wrote myself another short note about how I’d invited King Amir into the castle—just in case I forgot again. I wanted to add instructions for myself, for what I should do, but my hand only hovered over the page. I prided myself on always finding a way out of difficult situations, but no matter how long I stood there, nothing came to mind.

  Striding out into the bedroom, I ignored the guard stationed by the balcony and moved through the front room to the door to the hall.

  I opened it to leave, but the two guards stationed outside stopped me. “I’m sorry your majesty, you need to stay in your rooms right now.”

  The tiniest flicker of a memory told me this had happened before. Maybe more than once.

  I closed the door without a word, moving instead to the corner of my front sitting room that held my desk and writing tools. At least here I was alone and unsupervised.

  I ripped off the top of the inkwell, dipping the quill in, not caring if I dripped spatters on the page or not, as long as the letter was legible.

  Kadin,

  I’m afraid it’s more urgent than I’d first realized.

  King Amir is returning to Hodafez—I’m not sure how soon, it could be as early as tomorrow.

  I paused. A tear dripped onto the page, surprising me. I swiped the back of my hand across my eyes and forced myself to keep going. I didn’t know how much time I had. Taking a deep breath, I wrote what I’d never expected to say to him:

  I’m so scared and I don’t know what to do. I’m sorry for everything I’ve said in the past... I need you here. I wish I’d never told you to leave.

  I bit my lip. Dipping the quill into the inkwell again until it was soaking, I drenched the last few lines, crossing them out until they were one large smear of ink, no longer readable.

  Anyone could intercept the letter, after all.

  Swallowing hard, I rewrote a new last line.

  Please hurry.

  - A

  Blowing on the ink until it was dry, I quickly folded the note and sealed it with the wax from a nearby candle.

  Now was the difficult part. I held the letter behind my back as I opened my front door to speak with the two guards outside. “Could you please send Havah or Farideh up to see me?” My ladies-in-waiting were loyal. They would be most likely to keep a secret.

  “The Jinni told us they were needed in the kitchen,” the guard on the right replied. “They’re not supposed to see you right now.”

  Under his helmet, I recognized Soroush by his dark brown eyes and graying beard. His thoughts were strangely silent, which meant he most likely wasn’t aware of the mind control any more than I had been.

  “Of course he did,” I muttered, thinking fast. “What else did Enoch say?”

  “He said you can’t leave. You’re not feeling well,” t
he second guard replied in a monotone. He was younger and unfamiliar to me; most likely he’d never been on rotation inside the castle before.

  I cleared my throat and decided to work with what they knew. “That’s true,” I agreed, “I’m not well and need to stay in my rooms, so I was hoping you’d be able to deliver a note for me? To someone in town?”

  Soroush’s thoughts slipped to worries about his queen not feeling well, as if he was hearing the news for the first time. Meanwhile the other guard started thinking about his fiancée in town and how he could use this errand as an excuse to see her.

  If there was ever a time to take advantage of my Gift, it was now. Pulling the letter out from behind my back, I stepped out into the corridor to take his hand and place the letter into it firmly. “Give this to a man named Kadin,” I said, describing the inn where Kadin had last been staying. Hopefully someone would know how to get it to him. I winked at the young guard as I added, “Take as much time as you need to see your girl.”

  He grinned, and with a nod to Soroush, he set off down the hallway with my letter in hand. It was a long shot. I had no way of knowing if Kadin would even get it. But it was better than doing nothing.

  Soroush started to wonder what was in my letter. I needed to distract him. “I know you can’t leave your post,” I said, hoping he wouldn’t until the other guard had returned, “but I’d like a pot of tea if you can send someone on an errand. I think it might help me feel better.”

  “Of course, your majesty,” Soroush replied immediately, returning to his original thoughts about my health.

  I coughed for good effect as I closed the door.

  Now all I could do was wait.

  HOURS PASSED, AGONIZINGLY SLOW.

  When a knock sounded on the door, I jumped up eagerly. Maybe the guard had found Kadin after all.

  The door swung open to reveal Enoch standing on the other side. He stepped past me without waiting for an invitation, closing the door with a soft click behind him.