Chapter Thirteen
Don’t Wish Your Life Away
Trinka’s eyes opened wide with shock. She could hardly bear to think that her mother’s disappearance, her reason for leaving, her years of separation that had torn the family apart and scattered them across the four worlds―was all to blame on one little wish?
A smile pulled at the corner of Trinka’s mouth for a moment before her mind began wandering back to the day she had tried for so long to forget. Her mother and father fighting while she and Annelise huddled in Kolinkar’s room, trying not to listen. Then her mother’s final, unmistakable words before she disappeared.
“I wish I never even met you!” Trinka said aloud. The words stung in Trinka’s mouth like a cut that had just been burned with spice.
“What?” Jamilah demanded, bringing Trinka back to the moment.
“I wish I never even met you,” Trinka repeated. “That’s the last thing my mom said before she disappeared.”
Jamilah looked back at her questioningly.
“We could all hear her yelling that. Then everything was quiet. So when we―my brother and sister and I―came out into the room, my mother was gone. And my dad was just standing there, all alone, and he kept running his hands through his hair and walking back and forth. We asked where our mom was, and he said he didn’t know. Maybe she had gone back to her family. We asked when she’d be coming back and he said he didn’t know. Maybe soon. We never saw her again.” Trinka’s voice faltered. “I thought maybe she was dead. Or she didn’t want to see me. But then when I saw her here…” She choked a little as the warm, wet tears blanketed her face again.
“But that all fits, doesn’t it?” Jamilah persisted. “When she showed up here, she had no idea she’d ever been gone, and she had an empty glass vial in her hand. It made her wish come true. She’s gone back to a time in her life when she’d never met your dad, and that’s why she doesn’t know you.”
Trinka took a gulp of air before she could speak again. “Maybe,” she said shakily. “But that still means that she left because she wanted to.” She flopped back helplessly across the bed, her legs dangling over the edge.
“Not necessarily,” Jamilah said as she dropped into a plush, dusky rose chair. “She may not have realized that she was making a wish when she did it. Mother says all kinds of things that she doesn’t really want to come true.”
“Like wanting to put me in a dungeon?” Trinka couldn’t help grinning.
“Well, maybe she meant that a little,” Jamilah admitted.
“Why does she hate me so much?”
To Trinka’s surprise, Jamilah laughed and sat up. “Because of Amir,” she supplied readily. “If Aunt Ashira marries him, we’ll all be wealthy.”
“Aren’t you already wealthy?”
“Not as wealthy as he is!”
Trinka slipped her hands behind her head and thought for a moment.
“But what does that have to do with me?” she asked.
Jamilah shook her head in amazement. “Don’t you see? If Ashira believes who you are, then she’ll have to remember who she is. And if she finds out that she’s really supposed to be a quarter century older and married to someone else…”
Trinka suddenly sat bolt upright. “You mean all she has to do is remember who I am? And she’ll remember everything?”
“Well,” Jamilah hesitated. “I think so. But it’s not going to be that easy,” she added. “You saw what happened when you tried to tell her she’s your mother. She doesn’t understand. She doesn’t believe you.”
“Sabirah didn’t believe me either, but you did eventually.”
“That’s only because I’m old enough to remember her coming back here,” Jamilah scoffed. “Sabirah doesn’t know about it. She was too little to remember your mother arriving, so she thinks Aunt Ashira really is Mother’s younger sister, who’s never been married. Just like Amir does.”
Trinka sighed and flopped back to the bed in thought.
One part of the mystery still eluded her. Where had her mother gotten an esperaliss in the first place? She knew they existed―her classes had even made simple ones in school to give as gifts to loved ones―but a talisman powerful enough to cross between worlds was so very rare. And one that could cross time, too. Where had her mother gotten such a thing? Who could have made it?
Another memory from earlier in that day she had tried so hard to forget slowly began to resurface. She blinked, and suddenly it was clear to her:
Annelise had brought it home from school as a mother’s day present.
“Jamilah!” she called out, but her cousin had already dozed off. “Guess what?” Trinka asked excitedly, shaking her cousin awake.
“What?” Jamilah demanded irritably. “And I’m not going to guess.”
“I just figured something out. Where my mother got that esperaliss from.”
“What?”
“The talisman that made her wish come true and brought her here!”
“Does it matter?” she yawned, collapsing back into the cushions.
“My sister gave it to her,” Trinka continued unperturbed. “She made it at school and gave it to her for a present that day. My mom must have had the fight without realizing that she still had it. Do you know what this means?”
“You want to kill your sister?” Jamilah grumbled. “I know the feeling. If so, would you do mine too?”
“No!” Trinka insisted. “It means it really was an accident! She didn’t mean to leave us! So deep down, she must really want to come back!”
Jamilah’s eyelids fluttered with sleepy sarcasm.
“You haven’t said anything about this to my mother, have you?”
“No, I haven’t said anything to her at all,” Trinka responded defiantly. “If I did, I would be saying something that I’d regret later.”
Jamilah smiled weakly. “You’ve got that right. Do you know what could happen to you if Mother finds out you’re planning to wreck Ashira and Amir’s marriage?”
“Intended marriage,” Trinka corrected.
“Intended marriage,” Jamilah agreed, “which means more to Mother than anything.” She reached for a dish of large candies by the side of her bed, popped one into her mouth, and offered one to Trinka.
Trinka sat down on the end of the bed and sighed. “Well, if he means that much to her, why doesn’t your mother marry Amir?”
Jamilah rolled her eyes. “Because he wouldn’t want her, and she’s already married to my father!”
Trinka looked back in surprise. She had never thought to ask about her cousins’ family, or their father. Then again, not being able to get a word in edgewise didn’t help either.
“Where is he?” Trinka asked delicately.
“They’re separated. Very separated,” Jamilah added.
“Do you ever see him?”
Jamilah shrugged. “Sure, whenever we want to. Which isn’t very often. He’s not easy to get along with.”
And the rest of your family is? Trinka thought, but she didn’t dare say it aloud.
“He’s more like a grandfather, really. He’s a lot older than Mother. He’s wealthy, though. He buys us lots of clothes and presents. You’ve probably noticed that,” she yawned.
“Then why is your mother so keen on my mother marrying Amir?”
“I don’t know for sure,” Jamilah answered, resettling herself. “But I’ve heard that if my father and my mother really do get divorced, she could wind up losing the palace.”
“Really?”
“Well, she’ll still have the palace itself. That’s been in her family forever. She just won’t be able to afford all the servants and everything.”
“Oh,” Trinka answered uncertainly. She didn’t know whether to feel sorry for her cousin or not. After all, most people got through life just fine without any palace, but that still wasn’t happy news.
“It’s kind of funny,” Jamilah murmured. “He should have been your father, really.”
&nbs
p; “Who?”
“My father. Your mother was supposed to marry him, but she ran off and got married, so my mother had to marry him instead. Not that she minded. He is wealthy.” She yawned again and closed her eyes.
Trinka felt another revelation slowly creep through her.
“Your father is Musonas?” she exclaimed.
“Yeah, so?”
“He’s the one my mother wrote about in her diary,” Trinka explained hastily. “The one her dad wanted her to marry but she didn’t. So she left and married my dad!”
“That’s what I just said,” Jamilah yawned again then shook it off and got to her slippered feet. “I’d better get to bed.”
“Right.” Trinka stood up and accompanied her cousin to the door. There was no use trying to keep Jamilah up any longer. And yet, she still had the feeling that something important was about to happen. After standing in the silence for a moment, she shrugged it off and eased the door open.
“You know,” Jamilah mumbled just as she was halfway down the corridor. “It’s too bad your mother never kept a diary. That would have helped get her memory back.”
Trinka blinked twice.
Trinka and the Thousand Talismans Page 14
