by L-J Baker
“No!” Shalimar said. “You love me. Forever and ever.”
Adijan couldn’t help a grin. “I know, love, but wouldn’t you rather marry someone rich? I don’t think I’ll ever be wealthy, love. All those dreams of palaces are just dreams.”
“I like dreaming with you.”
Adijan grinned. “I know, love, but you could marry someone who could afford for you never to have to sew again. Or –”
“I like sewing. Especially little animals.”
“Yes, love. But –”
“I didn’t mean you two should reconsider,” Murad said. “I meant him. That worm of a liar who has made me a laughing stock. His behavior to me has been unpardonable. I’m going to break him into so many pieces he’ll be picking them up for the rest of his miserable life. But it is obvious that he has injured you two. If I were in his slippers, I would think very carefully before doing anything more to earn the condemnation and revulsion of every person of consequence.”
Hadim ground his teeth together. Blood trickled from his nose. He glared naked hatred at Adijan.
“Hadim.” His mother put a hand on his arm. “My son. I’ll always be beside you, wherever you go. And no matter how poor we are. But I beg you to remember your father. His wishes were for Shali to marry Adijan. Adijan may not be rich. But she’ll make Shali happy. That’s what Malik wanted. Please, son.”
“Good,” Murad said. “That settles it. You, priest. Marry them.”
“N-Now?” Ahmed al-Asmai said.
“I don’t trust this serpent to change his mind,” Murad said. “Marry them in front of us all.”
“Such boundless sagacity.” Ahmed bowed.
Adijan smiled at Shalimar. Shalimar beamed back.
In front of a hundred guests, including the belated entry of Nasir al-Asmai to give his consent, Adijan and Shalimar remarried.
Adijan was so happy that she all but floated out of Hadim’s house. She didn’t give him a backwards look. All her plans for revenge didn’t matter any more. She had Shalimar smiling on her arm. And Murad would, at the very least, make sure that Hadim never sold so much as a second-hand lamp in Qahtan ever again. Tomorrow it might irk her to think of him starting afresh from his base in Pikrut, and that she hadn’t beaten him to a pulp, but nothing could dent the joy of today.
“Uncle Fakir!” Shalimar waved.
The crowd, with Fakir at their centre, still clogged the street.
“Mrs. Nipper!” Fakir spread his arms wide to catch Shalimar as she hurtled at him.
Takush threaded her hand through Adijan’s arm as they followed Shalimar at a more sedate pace.
“I’m so happy,” Takush said. “It looked likely that the day would end very differently.”
“Yeah.” Adijan couldn’t stop smiling. “You know, Auntie, I highly recommend marriage. Are you going to keep Fakir dangling forever?”
Takush halted and lost her smile out of surprise.
“He’s a good man,” Adijan said. “One of the best.”
Takush looked astounded. Adijan kissed her cheek and joined Shalimar.
Adijan shook hands with Fakir.
“Be happy to have you as partner, Nipper,” Fakir said. “Very happy.”
“I can pay you,” Adijan said. “I still have ten gold wheels coming. Whenever Zobeide sends them from Emeza.”
“We’ll worry about that later.” Fakir patted her head. “You and Mrs. Nipper be happy together, eh?”
“We will. Don’t worry.” She cast a significant look behind her to where Takush still stood rooted in the path. “It got a bit rough in there. I’m thinking Auntie might need some comfort. I’m sure I can trust you.”
Fakir needed no further encouragement.
Adijan grinned and slipped her arm around Shalimar’s waist. At this rate, they were never going to get home. But it didn’t matter. Not now. She and Shali were married again. And she was going to do things right from now on.
“Adijan!” Jamaia squeezed through the crowd. She thrust her bag at Adijan. “For Shalimar.”
Adijan smiled, accepted the bag, and thanked Jamaia with a kiss on the cheek. The fruit seller blushed.
“Love,” she said. “We have a wedding present.”
Shalimar looked into the bag. Her eyes widened and her face lit up. “Oranges! Just like you promised. Oh, Adijan.”
Adijan watched Shalimar pluck an orange from the bag. Shali cradled it lovingly in both hands and lifted it close to her nose. She closed her eyes in bliss. The noisy crowd would have ceased to exist for her. Adijan put her arm around Shali’s waist and began to gently ease them through the crowd.
She had made it clear of the worst of the crush when a woman screamed.
“Look!”
“Demon! It’ll eat us all.”
Voices shrieked with horror and terrified shouts. People bolted for cover. Some of the waiting servants vaulted house walls to get out of the street.
Adijan swung around to put herself between whatever the danger was and Shalimar. She saw arms jabbing the air and looked up. A large, dark object headed straight for them from out of the sun.
“A dragon!”
“Run!”
Mrs. Urdan stood with her hands to her face shrieking. Qahab picked her up, threw her over his shoulder, and carried her to the side of the road.
“Adijan?” Shalimar looked up from her orange. “Why is everyone running away?”
Adijan squinted. The odd shape was someone in a billowing robe standing on a flying carpet. Hujr? It seemed unlikely he’d be awake, or that he’d come to find her. And he rode sitting down. The approaching person demonstrated considerably more style and panache than the grubby enchanter from Shabak.
“It’s a flying rug,” Adijan said.
“Magic?” Shalimar peered over Adijan’s shoulder.
“Yes,” Adijan said. “Magic as good as it gets.”
The rug descended and slowed until it skimmed over the road. Adijan watched Zobeide with appreciation. Zobeide guided the rug to within three paces of her and let it settle to the ground.
The enchantress looked considerably better than the last time Adijan had seen her. She showed none of the exhaustion of Hujr. Her eye-catching robe of shifting green tones embroidered with gold thread helped complete a majestic impression.
Adijan bowed. “Welcome to Qahtan, oh sublime enchantress.”
“Why on earth didn’t you wait for me?” Zobeide said.
“I was running out of time. And you were asleep. Muqatil said you could be out for several more days. And I was almost too late as it was.”
“I would have been here sooner,” Zobeide said, “had it not been for a certain inhabitant of Pikrut with a less perfect knowledge of the geography of this region than he believed.”
Adijan grinned. “We all get lost sometimes. But it does mean that you missed the wedding.”
“Your ex-wife is married?”
“Yes. To me.”
Zobeide looked astonished. “You’re getting quite proficient at rescues, aren’t you?”
Adijan smiled.
“You, I presume, must be Shalimar,” Zobeide said. “I can tell by the way Adijan is smiling. I’m pleased to finally make your acquaintance. I have heard a great deal about you. You are as pretty as Adijan says.”
Shalimar dropped a deep curtsy, orange in hand. “And you’re a lot more beautiful than I ever imagined an enchantress to be. Your robe is exactly what I imagine the bottom of the sea to look like.”
Zobeide, for once, stood at a loss for words.
“Look, I’m sorry about you coming all this way for nothing,” Adijan said. “Although, now you’re here, I don’t suppose we could settle those ten wheels you owe me?”
“Only ten? We agreed fifty.”
“I know. I took Baktar’s purse. It had forty in it, and some silver. I was in a hurry.”
Zobeide nodded. “I don’t suppose you’ve had a chance to give your future any thought?”
“Ac
tually, I have.” Adijan squeezed Shali’s fingers and flashed her a smile. “You see, ten wheels will be plenty to buy me into my uncle’s business and pay off all my debts. And I should have enough left over to buy us a reasonable sort of house. I should earn enough to hire a maid. Come to think of, though, I could pay her wages out of what I save from wine.”
“What of your grand schemes for world-wide business success?” Zobeide asked. “Are you no longer interested in that?”
“Well, to be honest,” Adijan said, “we’ll probably dream of living in palaces and adopting hundreds of orphans, but I’m determined to provide something real and solid and reliable for us to live on. Not mirages any more. Shali’s too important to me to risk again.”
“You have matured, haven’t you?” Zobeide said. “Adijan, I am conscious of the enormous obligation I am under to you.”
“I’ve seen where you live,” Adijan said. “Ten wheels isn’t that much.”
“I didn’t mean the money.” Zobeide pointed to Adijan’s stump. “I meant your hand. I’m not sure I could’ve done what you did for me.”
Adijan shrugged. “In the end, I got what I wanted. And it would’ve been cheap if I’d had to lose both hands.”
“Be that as it may, I owe you. And I could be no more impressed with your integrity and determination. There are some creative impulses which might benefit from correction, but, on the whole, I have a great deal of confidence in you and your judgments.”
“Um. Thanks.”
“Which is why I would like to make you a proposition. Do you recall the appalling decay of my family enterprises? I have the money, now, to restore them to the state to which my father dedicated his life to building. For many reasons, not least of which is the honor I bear his memory, I would like to see his business rebuilt. But I have neither the time nor the expertise. So, my idea is this: that we enter a partnership. I provide the existing framework of warehouses, shipping, and so on. And some additional capital. You provide the labor and acumen.”
Adijan stared in utter disbelief. “Camel crap.”
Zobeide frowned. “We really must work on that vocabulary of yours.”
“I mean –” Adijan shook her head as she groped for words. “I – I don’t know what to say.”
“I don’t require an immediate answer,” Zobeide said. “Although, if you did agree, I could return you to Emeza with me. But I do warn you that you might be forced to divide your time between Emeza, Pikrut, and Banda-i-ket for the first few years. But I don’t see why you cannot take your wife. And whatever family you might have.”
“Pikrut?” Adijan said. “That’s right. We saw the warehouses there. Business in Pikrut. Wouldn’t that piss him off?”
“Adijan?” Shalimar said. “I don’t think you should swear in front of the enchantress.”
“You’re right, love. But Zobeide knows me. She won’t turn me into scorpion food. Love, would you mind if we lived somewhere else? Somewhere a long way from here? Emeza is a nice city. With lots of lemon trees. And sea gulls.”
“You and me together?”
“Of course.”
“I want to be with you,” Shalimar said. “A new city will have lots of new friends in it. Can we get oranges there?”
“Oh, yes, love,” Adijan said. “If they don’t grow locally, I’ll have a whole shipload brought in for you special. On a ship owned by Ma’ad Enterprises, and run by me.”
Table of Contents
Adijan and Her Genie
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
