“You know what I want, Gaia.”
His voice was low, and yet, I could hear him even with the space between us. Even that was carried by magic. I looked around, hoping that someone would walk into the street, but it was unusually quiet, even for Kisbu’s back streets.
“You want me. Why?”
“I believe I told you why when we were fortunate to cross paths in Urbis,” he said, taking a slow step forward. With each step, he moved closer. I stumbled a step backward.
“You told me that my siblings and I defeated you. How do you know so much about me?”
“I know everything there is to know about you, Princess Gaia, you and your mother. It’s an interesting story. It’s a shame that you’ll never get to know it.”
He pulled his arm back and sent a jet of purple light in my direction. Instinct had me ducking just in time. I fell to the ground and rolled into a narrow alley. The second I was out of his view, I jumped to my feet and ran. I’d fought him before. I had no intention of doing it again. The alley took me into a residential district away from the airship station I’d been heading toward. Clothes hanging on lines crisscrossed the street forcing me to duck every few feet, slowing me down. I could no longer see The Vizier behind me, but his magic remained as strong as ever. At the end of the alley, I skirted a building and turned into a street I hoped would take me to one of Kisbu’s main streets in the hope that he wouldn’t follow me if there were witnesses.
After fifteen minutes of running, I stopped and allowed myself a rest. Taking a few deep breaths, I looked back. The Vizier was nowhere to be seen, but I knew he was behind me somewhere. The street I was on looked vaguely familiar. It was one of the ones I sometimes took on my nighttime rambles.
The spice market was close by. If I could get there, he’d never find me in the throng of shoppers. Not waiting for him to appear, I took off again, running this time on more familiar ground. Except when I got to the spice market, there was no one there. The spices and wares were covered over, closed for the day. Looking up, I saw that the evening had come quickly. Way too quickly. I’d left the palace in the afternoon. By my calculations, I’d been out just over half an hour. There was no way it could be evening, and yet the darkening of the sky told me it was. Had The Vizier altered time itself or had he messed with my mind in the way he’d messed with anyone else’s. The thought of it scared me more than anything else. I was saved thinking about it too much by the bright colors of spices filling the air in an explosion of powder.
I took off again, winding through the alleys of the stalls, tears streaming down my face from the sting of the spices in my eyes and my lungs straining to breathe.
I ran, almost blindly through the market, feeling my way as the noise of stalls being hit by magic got closer and closer.
Each breath I inhaled burned at my lungs, but I didn’t slow down. To slow down would be my inevitable demise, and yet, the pain of going forward almost had me falling to my knees.
Fighting fire with fire, literally, in this case, I shot out flames blindly behind me.
Everything, beyond the sound of the spice market going up in magic, was silent. Where were the people? This area of Kisbu was a hub, and even in the early evening would be full of people heading home from their work. Something was wrong, but without being able to see, I didn’t know what.
I tripped over something, and fell forward. Holding my arms out in front of me to soften the fall, I was surprised to find myself plunging into water. Panic enveloped me as I tried to make sense of it. For a brief second, I thought I’d fallen into a river before sense prevailed, and I remembered that no rivers ran through Kisbu. As my face hit the water, the spices cleared from my eyes, and I was able to see. Sitting up in the knee-deep water, I found that I could see again. I’d fallen in a water trough meant for drinking water for horses and camels. I was soaking, but I was alive. The sun had fallen further in the sky. In front of the burning orb, the familiar silhouette of The Vizier appeared. I couldn’t get out of the water quick enough. Water slopped out of the sides of the trough as I tried to move. The sun was entirely blocked out as The Vizier stepped closer.
I waited for the inevitable, but it never came. Instead, something happened that chilled me much more than my own death.
“You know, I think killing you right away would be a mistake,” The Vizier mused. “Your father found me the lamp all those years ago. How fitting it would be to use you to get it for me now.”
He leaned forward and grabbed the front of my shirt, pulling me from the water.
His menacing eyes glared at me as he held me up to his eye level, levitating me from the ground.
“You, my dear, are going to get Genie for me. You are going to help me bring about the downfall of Badalah.” And with that, he heaved me over his shoulder and began to carry me to the edge of town.
Read more in Goddess of Fire
Goddess of Fire
1
8th July
Somewhere a clock struck midnight, waking me from sleep.
“We’re closing, love. I’m sorry, but I’m going to have to ask you to leave.”
I looked up into the kind eyes of the barman who’d served me coffee the previous evening. It obviously hadn’t worked as I’d managed to fall asleep with my head on the table. The music had stopped, and the other patrons had left. Without the noise and hubbub, I felt suddenly exposed. My magical energy whirled beneath the surface, and I could feel the magic of The Vizier. Like an itch beneath the surface of my skin, his magic mingled with mine.
I’d managed to get away from the Vizier hours earlier when he’d hoisted me over his shoulder. Setting fire to the back of his outfit had been a stroke of genius on my part as he’d dropped me to the ground to put the fire out. I’d ran, but he’d chased me all over Kisbu before I’d finally lost him and hidden in a back street bar where the clientele were almost as scary as The Vizier. The same bar I was currently wiping drool from my face in.
The barman put down the cloth he was using to wipe the glasses and spoke to me. “Look, I don’t want to come off as a creep, but you look a little lost. I live a five-minute walk from here. If you don’t mind waiting for me to sweep up and lock up, you could crash at my place for the night.” He held his hands up. “I’ll sleep on the sofa.”
My lips curled up at the sides as I stood. His offer was tempting, but in going to his house, I was putting him in danger.
“Thank you, but I’m good. I’m sorry for falling asleep on your table.”
“Hey, It’s not often I have a beautiful woman waking up next to me. You aren’t my usual client type.”
“I noticed,” I said, picking up my coat. I ran my hand down his arm and then impulsively kissed his cheek. I wasn’t in the habit of kissing strangers, but this guy had saved my life, even if he didn’t know it.
Outside, the street was much quieter than when I’d walked in, but the underbelly of Kisbu didn’t sleep. Strange people hustled past me as though they were going somewhere important. My heart pounded as I walked past each one, fearful that any one of them could be The Vizier. I pulled my hood further around my ears and continued walking through the maze of alleyways, sometimes having to step over the people who were sleeping rough. Had this part of Kisbu always been like this, and I’d just not noticed before? In all my nocturnal adventures, I’d not once ventured here. I’d always thought of myself as fearless for my nighttime escapades, but as I walked through this part of town with a powerful wizard out to kill me, I realized just how wrong I’d been. I’d not known it at the time, but I’d been protected before. Protected by walking through relatively safe streets near the palace. Tonight had shown me for what I really was. A spoiled rich kid who thought breaking the rules made her something special. The realization was sobering. I was scared. For the first time in my whole life, I was scared of Kisbu. It had always been my home, but now it was something malevolent with dark corners and strange people. I carried on walking, using the darkness as a cover
as much as possible, unsure of which way to turn. Heading toward the palace would put me out in the open, and no doubt, The Vizier was waiting for me there. And yet, the palace was the only place I knew I’d be safe. I literally had nowhere to go.
A noise startled me. I turned on the spot and, without thinking, let off a fireball that streaked through the air. A cat shot down the alley with a squeal as my fireball fizzled out. I fell to the ground and let my head fall into my hands. I was twitchy and tired, and I’d used magic, which was the worst thing I could do. I was pretty sure The Vizier could sense my magic as I could sense his. Between that and the flash of light I’d produced, I may as well have painted a target on my ass and shouted come find me.
After a few deep breaths and a quick check to make sure I hadn’t accidentally singed the cat, I stood up and ran, trying to get myself as far away from my burst of magic as possible. I found myself on the very edge of town next to the wall that surrounded it. The gates were all now open, thanks to my mother reducing the tax on farmers. It felt like a hundred years ago that we’d opened them, and yet, it was less than a week. I trailed my hand along the old wall, built way before my father’s time when Kisbu was a young town and prone to attack. These walls had stood here since Genie was a child. They protected us through the dark days when all the kingdoms were attacking each other. The buildup of dark magic had been slow. So slow that no one really understood how bad everything was until the year I was born when everyone suddenly stopped fighting. I’d done that. Myself and my siblings. I didn’t know how, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t even know how many there were of us, but I knew that our birth had brought about peace after years of darkness. Light had come back into the world again, but now it was fading. I never knew the dark times, but I’d heard enough about them to know that I didn’t want them coming back. As one of the city gates came into view, something struck me. The Vizier had spent years trying to get control of Badalah and especially Kisbu, but this kind of thing had been happening everywhere. Eighteen years ago, The Vizier wasn’t the only person with evil intent. There had been others. I didn’t know much about Draconis, for example, but I did know that the queen had spent a hundred years in a deep enchanted sleep. Someone had done that to her, but who? An image sprung to mind. The woman who had killed the midwife. Could she have had something to do with the downfall of Draconis? Had she kidnapped Princess Azia? Worst of all, was she somehow connected to The Vizier? I brought a hand to my throat as I thought of how horrific it would be if those malevolent people who had wreaked havoc on the other kingdoms somehow came together. It was almost beyond comprehension, and the thought of it terrified me, but it made sense too. The Vizier wasn’t powerful enough to make everyone in Kisbu lose their memories, but if he found others. Bad witches and wizards, and they had somehow come together...
I let out a moan, then threw up on the cold, dusty street. This was bigger than I had ever imagined. It was the only thing that fit.
After looking both ways to make sure I wasn’t being followed, I slipped out of the town’s boundaries and out into the desert.
People from outside Badalah always assume that the desert is devoid of life and searingly hot all year round, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Even on summer nights like this, I had to pull my sweater around myself to keep out the chill. On the very edge of the desert, life was abundant. Plants and wild grasses grew here, and many small animals scurried about. In the very far distance, the Badalah Mountains rose up from the dunes. In the daytime, it would be a riot of reds and yellows, but in the moonlight, both the dunes and the mountains shone blue. Somewhere out there, in the miles between me and the mountain peaks, was a cave, and in that cave, was the key to controlling Genie. Right now, as the wind blew tumbleweeds across my path, the desert was calm and peaceful. The feeling of The Vizier’s magic had subsided a little. Wherever he was, it wasn’t near me. He was probably waiting for me to return to the palace, which is why I was going to spend the rest of the night as far away from it as possible. I’d trek back there in the light of day, using the busiest main streets where he wouldn’t dare to fight me.
I found a rock and sat, looking out past the large cacti plants to the sea of sand. My father had told me once that the cave had risen up from the depths of the dunes by The Vizier’s magic.
I stood up as a thought occurred to me. The Vizier wasn’t the only one with magic; I was magic too. If I could find the lamp before The Vizier, I’d never have to worry about him gaining control of Genie. The moon hung high in the sky. A quick check of my watch told me it was just after half-past midnight. Only half an hour since I’d left the relative safety of the bar. I still had hours until sunrise. Without looking back, I stepped out onto the sand and began to run. My feet sank into the sand, slowing me down and making my calves burn, but with the moon on my back, I carried on, trying to sense the vibrations I’d come to know as magic. If The Vizier had found it by magic, it meant I could too.
But what I hadn’t counted on was how exhausting it was. I’d barely slept all night. Half an hour with my head on a bar table didn’t count for much against the harsh desert. Wind sent sand into my eyes, but with each step, a vibration beneath my feet became stronger. It felt different from the vibration of The Vizier’s magic, less malevolent and thrumming at a different frequency. There was something almost joyful and exciting about it, and yet, looking around me, this part of the desert was the same as any other part. There was no marker here or at least no visual marker, and yet the magic swirling around me had all the hairs on my body standing on end. My own magic swirled around with it, mingling, pulling the fire right through me until I was an inferno. My fire twisted around me, gathering speed, lighting up the desert around me. I should have been more worried. The Vizier or anyone else that cared to look in this direction would see me a mile off. But the power I felt, surrounded as I was by all this magic, made me feel invincible. The tornado of fire flew upwards from my body, coming to land on the sand about twenty feet in front of me. Like a snake, it burrowed down into the sand, lighting it up like a torch and sending sand flying in all directions. I had to cower and hold my arm over my eyes as a stairwell deep into the sand appeared. Just as suddenly as it started, the magic stopped. The light show ended, and I was plunged into darkness with only the moon lighting my way. All I could see of the cave was a small opening in the sand with a set of steps leading down. Already exhausted by lack of sleep and the magic I’d used to open the cave, producing a flame on my fingertips took everything I had, but without it, I’d be descending into darkness.
My breathing increased as I descended the steps, each one taking me farther from the entrance. Genie had told me only the other day how dangerous this cave was, and it was all I could think about as the entrance above me got smaller and smaller.
Darkness surrounded me, both above and below, with the glow from my fingers only illuminating the roughly hewn walls around me, making shadows dance. With each step I took, my energy depleted, but to let my fingertips go out, would be madness. My body was reacting with fear enough without having to contend with pitch blackness. The hairs on my arms stood on end, and a sheen of sweat decorated my forehead. Despite the magical energy buzzing around me, there was something ominous about walking into the ground with tons of sand above my head, sand that was only being held up by magic and could cave in at any time.
Suddenly, there was light ahead of me. Light that wasn’t conjured by me. I blew on my fingers, and the small flame extinguished. Holding my hand to the wall, I walked slowly toward the light source, running my finger along the hard sand and feeling it come away in my fingers, reminding me just how precarious this whole place was. But as I got closer to the light and the magical buzzing increased, so did my confidence. As I reached the bottom step, a whole cavern shone out ahead of me.
My eyes widened at the sight before me. Gold filled the cavern both in bars and in coins. Treasure upon treasure twinkled at me. Rubies and diamonds and sapphires were p
iled high. There was enough wealth here to buy food for the whole of Badalah for years, maybe even centuries. How had this been under the desert all this time, and I’d not known about it? My father had known. This is where he’d found the lamp in the first place.
“The lamp!” I whispered. I scanned the gold and jewels and other treasures, desperately searching for the one thing I’d come down here for. Stepping out into the cavern, I found a small pathway through the mountains of gold coins and started to weave through it, careful not to disturb the precarious piles.
I looked this way and that trying to spot the lamp, but there was so much stuff down here that finding it could take me years. The cave was bigger than the palace and filled with so many antiquities that I feared I’d still be down here when morning came. If someone happened to look out into the desert, the cave opening would be easy to spot. I needed to grab the lamp and get out of here before anyone noticed, especially The Vizier. My foot nudged a coin, dislodging it from a pile that towered above me. That one coin rolled away then spun before it came to a complete stop about a meter away from where I was standing. The pile it had come from began to totter, making my heart race. If it came down, I’d be killed with the weight of it. I stood stock-still until the pile settled and quietened. If it had almost fallen with just one displaced coin, I didn’t want to think about what would happen if I accidentally bumped against any more. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, which I let out slowly. Any movement could send this whole place toppling down upon me. Thoughts of Genie flooded my mind. I was doing this for him. Tomorrow morning, Freya would tell him that I was on my way to The Forge. I wondered what would happen if the gold caved in, and I ended up down here forever. Would Genie send a search party out for me? Would Freya and Jamal travel to The Forge to find me? Would my parents ever get their memories back?
Gaia: Daughter of Aladdin Page 26
