The Brothers Djinn
Page 10
“Unknowing or not, you came here to imprison me. To entrap the Queen of the Underworld and allow my sister to usurp this throne. Your presumption will be punished.”
Darius exhaled, his own breath running away from him.
“And yet,” Ereshkigal continued, looking up at the dreary sky above, “when you realized what she planned, you chose not to participate. You told me of her scheme. You risked yourself and your brothers to do that. Your bravery will be rewarded.”
A fleeting smile, utterly devoid of warmth, crossed her face. “There is a way to do both — a way Inanna did not consider. Once upon a time, she schemed to leave here. I have also planned and schemed. The Laws of the Underworld state that once here in this realm, no man nor woman shall leave. So, you must become neither man nor woman.”
Darius jerked back in shock and his hands flew down to cover his groin. On either side of him, his brothers reacted the same way, and Val let out a soft moan.
“Ahh,” Ereshkigal said, “is it so difficult for you to give up your maleness, the very thing that brought you here after Inanna seduced each of you?” Her laughter pealed out and rolled over the courtyard to die somewhere in the dark. “Do not be afraid for your shaft and eggs, you’ll get them back when you are called into life on the Other Side.”
Then her momentary merriment died away, and a grimness took its place. “You shall have lives outside this realm, far longer than you could have dreamed. As I promised, those lives will be both punishment and reward. You will even be allowed to complete your prison sentences when you finally understand what Inanna does not. But that will be a long time from now, as your punishment must be served first.”
Darius’s pulse hammered in his veins.
“Indeed,” and Ereshkigal’s chin rose, “each of you shall serve. Just as you came here to serve Inanna and make her wishes come true, so you shall serve others and make theirs true also, rather than your own. And woe to those who seek their own desires without love, like Inanna — who seek others’ destruction, who turn their greed into pain for those around them. You shall assist them just as you assisted Inanna, yet you shall punish them, even as you are punished.”
Darius’s heart hammered against his chest. He couldn’t fathom what this meant, but he feared. Val looked over at him, his face pale in the darkness, and a visible shiver rolled over his shoulders. His baby brother. He had to find a way to fix this. To spare Val and Jas from the coming punishment.
An aura of power lit Ereshkigal, glowing and flickering around her. Each flicker spasmed along Darius’s nerves like a spectral shriek. “You, Valerian.”
“Please, no! Take me instead.” Darius moved to rise from his knees and step in front of Val, but Ereshkigal’s eyes flashed. Instantly his legs held fast to the floor as if glued there, and his mouth was stoppered as if packed full of mud.
Ereshkigal held her arms out in front of her, and suddenly the flying carpet hung across them, its tassel mended, as whole as it had been when Inanna had given it to Val. “Valerian, you will have the rug you so adore. But you will be captured within it, as you tried to capture me. I make you now a djinn, enslaved. To each successive owner of this rug you will grant three limited wishes, which will unfold according to that owner’s merit.”
She opened her right hand and raised it to him. A glow within the palm pulsed toward him, then outlined him in the dark. He screamed and flung his arms back, but in the space of an instant he was lifted from the floor, dissolved into the glow, and was sucked into the rug lying over Ereshkigal’s arms.
Val! Darius tried to speak, but his tongue couldn’t move, and all that came out was an unformed moan. Jasper, too, jerked forward, arms reaching, but was restrained by an invisible power.
Ereshkigal dropped the rug onto the stone floor. “You, Jasper.”
Jasper flung his chin up, as white as Valerian. But his hands curled into fists at his side and he squared his broad shoulders.
“This mirror of yours, this glass Inanna used to watch my court — it shall be yours, now, free of her — but you will be a djinn enslaved to it.” She held up her hands, made a circle with them. The pieces of the mirror levitated from the stone one by one like soldiers coming to life, and the bronze frame followed.
Ereshkigal flicked a finger and the frame leapt up and landed in her hand. Next the pieces rushed toward her and whirled together above the frame as if each were finding its place again. In a flash of light, the pieces dropped into the frame and formed an unbroken whole. “To each successive owner of this mirror, Jasper, you will grant three limited wishes, which will unfold according to that owner’s merit.”
Her hand opened, her palm glowed, and Jasper levitated like the pieces of the mirror into the flow of light, his mouth open in a silent scream and his spine curved back like a strained bow. His body dissolved into the glow, which withdrew into the mirror with a bang. The sudden silence vibrated the air, and Ereshkigal lowered the mirror to the rug.
“Now you, Darius. Eldest brother. Yours is a most difficult road.”
Her blue eyes shone in what might have been empathy for only a moment, and he wondered, startled, if Ereshkigal was the elder sister of Inanna. Might the Queen of Hell’s heart hold her younger sibling in it, even though Inanna was who she was and had done what she’d done?
But he could not ask, for she’d stoppered his mouth and bent his body to her will, and was about to send him into a new kind of Hell, one into which she’d already sent his little brothers.
“Here is your lamp.” It flung itself into her hand. “This lit your way to the Underworld, and was how my Gatekeeper spotted you passing the gates. Someday it may light your way toward freedom, but for now it will be your prison, Darius of the Brothers Djinn. To each successive owner of this lamp you will grant three limited wishes, which will unfold according to that owner’s merit.”
Her palm flashed. He flung his head back to resist, but her will was implacable. His bones and muscles strained, then dissolved, and nothingness reigned.
And then the punishment began.
Epilogue
My sister Inanna comes for me as death comes for mortals.
Death is implacable. It can be outwitted for a time, but not forever.
Inanna is like that. She knows not how to stop. She is not content with all she has, as the goddess of desire and war, as the Queen of Heaven. She must have more, as death must have more. As death never stops.
In my anger, I killed her once. I do not regret it. To salve her wounded pride, to punish Gilgamesh who rejected her, she demanded that my beloved first husband, Gugalanna, fight him.
My husband, the Bull of Heaven. My beloved Gugalanna. Inanna killed him.
Then for her pride, Inanna came for my throne.
I do not regret her death.
Inanna killed my husband.
Yet in the long and lonely years afterward, in the years of her consort Dumuzi and his sister dwelling in my halls, another found me. The god Nirgal came to me in the Underworld. And at last I knew love again.
I was a flower wilted and lying upon the black earth; Nirgal watered me. I was an osprey tangled and starving in the marsh grass; Nirgal freed and fed me.
Love found me again. And when love fills a vessel, hate can leave it.
Do I condemn my sister? I do, just as the judges of the Underworld condemned her. Just as death does not admit defeat, neither will Inanna. Unfulfilled as she is, stopping is not in her nature.
But my hatred of her for all she had done did not outlast love.
Dumuzi’s sister, who chose to be here in place of her condemned brother for half the year, is filled with love for him. She sacrificed because she loves him.
As I said, love changes things.
Might love fill Inanna? Might love change her, as it did me?
In my beloved Gugalanna’s name, I wish to know.
In my beloved Nirgal’s name, I wish to know.
~~ * ~~
Hello, fantasy reader!
Thank you for reading and sharing this journey with me. (Or as Val might say, this adventure.)
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THE BROTHERS DJINN
Darius, Jasper, and Valerian — the three Brothers Djinn — have important lessons to learn in the future. In time, each brother will find a woman who teaches him the meaning of love. Three brave yet wounded men will meet and tangle with three headstrong and vibrant women . . . Because, as Darius would say, problems come in threes. :-)
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Happy Reading!
Wishing you magic and passion in fantasy realms,
Cate Rowan
Acknowledgments
I give my heartfelt thanks and flying carpets to the fabulous Kay Bergstrom, Norma Carroll, Denée Cody, Giselle Feuillet, Carla Gertner, Brenda Hardwick, Thea Hutcheson, Alice Kober, Janet Lane, Steven Moores, Robin D. Owens, Pam Nowak, Jo Carol Peake, Jenna Scarberry, Beth Seltzer, Shawnee Small, Sue Tilson, Peggy Waide, and Jessica Wulf, who made this book better by reading it and giving me their excellent feedback. Y’all rock.
Any remaining errors, oopses, or ouchies (™ Jasper) are strictly my own.
About the Author
Cate Rowan has washed laundry in a crocodile-infested African lake, parasailed over a Mexican beach, swum with dolphins in the Florida Keys and had Costa Rican monkeys poop in her hair, but her favorite adventures are in story worlds. Her lush epic fantasies and fantasy romances about magical deeds, danger, and true love in realms near and far have won more than thirty awards.
She began writing stories in high school; rumor has it those early pages consisted of fantasies about Duran Duran, but she is silent on the issue and keeps those notebooks from prying eyes. Cate now lives in the high Rocky Mountains with her husband (a.k.a. Dr. 4x4), their rescued feline furchildren, and a horse nicknamed Stinkerbelle.
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Also by Cate Rowan
Kiss That Frog: A Modern Fairy Tale
The Brothers Djinn
The Alaia Chronicles:
The Source of Magic
Kismet’s Kiss
The Legends of Alaia
and secret tales available when you subscribe to Cate’s VIP list:
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The Brothers Djinn
Copyright © 2018 Cate Rowan
Published by Enchanting Ink
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BISAC Subject Heading:
FIC009020 FICTION / Fantasy / Epic