“Faisal,” I said, uneasy, “are you sure this is the only way?”
He blew on his fingers. “Yes.” How did he know for sure? “Just give me a moment to clear my mind.” Faisal closed his eyes, took in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. Then he brought his fingertips to his lips and said in a broad, commanding tone, “Narush.”
A chorus of jinn repeated, “Narush,” until the wish echoed and filled the chamber.
There was nothing but silence. Then a lick of flame leaped from the tips of Faisal’s outstretched fingers. It dove into the Lamp’s spout and disappeared. A second later, a golden flame sprouted from the Lamp, long as my hand. It flickered and danced, twisting in the air and silence.
Faisal dropped his hands and exhaled, exhausted. Delia, who had been standing pensively behind him, sighed and crossed her arms.
“I don’t want to ever watch you do something as risky as that again,” she said to Faisal, whose face had spread into a smile, exposing a dimple in both of his cheeks.
“I will let you do it next time, my dear,” he said. Then he clapped his hands and turned to face the jinn who had joined him in the wish. “Thank you all for helping. I couldn’t have done that by myself.” They bowed to him, and several departed. Then Faisal turned back to the Lamp and said, “It’s time, Zayele. Come here. No, not that close. Do you remember the invisibility wish? Good.” He held out his hand to Delia. “Do you have the map?” She gave him a rolled-up sheet of paper, which he unrolled and held out for us all to see. “Do you see these markings? These are where we believe the wards to be positioned.” He pointed to three red marks.
“You don’t know?” I asked.
Faisal snorted and shook the map in front of my face. “Trust our spy network, Zayele. We have been working on this for longer than you’ve been able to walk. All the mathematical calculations point to this being the best layout for the wards. I say I believe they are there because I have faith in those who made this map. I would bet my life on their calculations, and I am willing to bet yours, as well.”
I snapped my mouth shut and took the map. “How will the Lamp get me there?” I asked.
“I can’t believe I get to watch this,” Shirin whispered to Atish. Despite everything, she looked more excited than afraid.
Faisal patted her shoulder. “Yes, Shirin, you may watch because your skills may be needed in the palace, unfortunately.” He gestured for me to come to the Lamp. “Each ward is set inside a copper cylinder and hung beside the frame of a door or window. Once you destroy them, drop them into the flame of the Palace Lamp.”
“How do I destroy the wards?” I asked.
He smiled again and lifted his brow at Delia. “Do you have it?”
“Yes.” She went to a table against a wall, picked up a small box, and brought it to us. Then she opened it, revealing three glass vials stoppered with tiny corks. A clear liquid sloshed inside. “Open one and pour it on a ward. It will melt the ink. Once you’ve soaked them all, bring them to the Lamp and set them in the flame.”
I took one of the vials and held it up to the light. “What is in this?”
“It’s an acid,” Delia said. She took the vial, placed it back in the box, and shut the lid. “Can you really do this?”
“I believe so,” I said, eyeing Faisal. His mouth twitched, and he pulled me into an embrace.
“I am glad to have gotten a chance to meet Mariam’s other daughter,” he said into my ear. “Go, and watch for your sister.”
I hadn’t gotten used to the idea of having a sister yet, much less the idea that an entire race was depending on me to save it.
Atish came to me then, and held my elbow. “I will come as soon as I can. Be careful.”
“All you have to do is touch the flame with your fingers and ask it to take you to the other Lamp,” Faisal said, pulling me away from Atish. “When you arrive, you will be in the very heart of the palace. Make your shahtabi wish as soon as you arrive. With luck, no one will see you first.”
I tucked the box under one arm and the rolled-up map under the other, and touched the flame. It tickled my fingertips, and then it pulled and I was sucked into the fire.
41
Najwa
I ran down the corridor, jumping out of the way of anyone who happened to be there. No one saw me, but they could feel me brushing past, and some surprised shouts trailed behind me. I kept running until I came to a door I recognized. The room would be empty, because the man it belonged to was still in the Court of Honor.
I flung open the door, ran in, and shut it behind me.
The room gleamed. Light streamed in from a wall of windows and illuminated a series of bookshelves stuffed with books and scrolls. The tops of the bookshelves were heavy with large hunks of uncut rock, shattered geodes, and molded metals of various kinds, and spheres dangled from above. Six barrels lined the left wall, and in the center was the long, narrow table the sphere had sat upon.
This was the laboratory where I had seen Kamal playing his oud on that first day. The doorway to the garden with Janna’s roses was at the back, in the wall of windows, but this time, it was closed.
The sphere was missing from its cushion, but the rest of the table was covered in charts, and I raced to it, scanning the sheets of paper. The charts were spread open and weighted down by brass spheres. Half the charts were of the stars and planets, but the other half were the ones that caught my eye. They laid out, in clear detail, everything Kamal knew about the jinn, including the effects of moonstone powder.
This was the sort of chart the Eyes of Iblis Corps needed to see. I stood back so that I could see all of it at once. Then I pressed on my mark, sure that something here would alert the Corps to what the humans were planning to do.
I turned to the row of barrels and lifted the lids. Half of them were filled with an acrid black powder. The others held a luminescent white powder. I squeezed the drop of moonstone that hung from the silver pendant around my neck, and compared the sparkling powder and the stone. They had the same color, the same sheen.
Moonstone. He had jars and jars of powdered moonstone.
That was what the sphere was for. It was hollowed out, leaving room for the powder. He was going to fill it with moonstone … and then what?
I looked at another chart that had a diagram of the sphere on it, titled “The Pomegranate.” Scratched in thin ink was a description of how much black powder to mix with the moonstone for the “pomegranate” to explode.
I thought of how many soldiers the caliphate must have, and what it would be like if they each had an exploding sphere filled with moonstone powder. Our tunnel guards wouldn’t stand a chance against them. Then, armed with enough powder to poison the entire Cavern, the caliph’s army would force its way in.
I took image after image, until my body was weak from exhaustion. How was I going to tell the Corps what this meant? What if they couldn’t read the faded scratching on the paper?
I thought, then grabbed a sheet of blank paper and one of the many quills. I dipped it in the bottle of ink and wrote, in my own alphabet, “The sphere is a type of weapon, and will be filled with moonstone powder. They will use it—”
The door flung open and slammed against the wall, but I was still invisible. Quickly, I pressed the owl-eye mark on my skin to send what I had written. I turned as three armored guards, with swords drawn, ran into the room.
Hashim followed, just two steps behind them. He scanned the room while I willed myself to be still. But it was the quill that betrayed me. It slipped off the table and fluttered to the floor.
“There,” he said, pointing straight at me. “Surround her, and make sure she can’t slip past you. In another minute, you will be able to see her again.” While he said this, he unwound a braided rope and made his way over to where I stood, unable to move.
My skin was tingling, and I knew I was trapped
. The shahtabi wish was fading, and soon they would capture me. I wasn’t a match for three guards and a man who seemed to understand jinn better than I did.
I waited, unable to slip between the three guards, and watched a bit of moonstone dust float in a ray of light. By the time it slipped out of the sunbeam, the wish was gone, and the guards grabbed me by the wrists.
42
Zayele
I was a red cloud. My breath was pulled from my lungs and I doubled over, aching for air. But I was air. I was also a flame, soaring through the crystals, through the hundreds of layers of rock and dirt, flickering, flickering, and then I was there.
My body twisted back together, and I inhaled all the flame and air that I had been. Whole now, my fingers still burned. Confused, I looked down and saw they were in the flames coming out of the Lamp. I pulled them out, worried I hadn’t gone anywhere at all.
But this wasn’t the Cavern. I was alone, and this Lamp stood on a marble plinth inscribed in Arabic that twisted down into the marble floor. This was the twin. Faisal’s Lamp had gotten me into the palace. I was whole. And people could see me.
I took in a long, deep breath. “Shahtabi.”
I had about two seconds before the wish would be tested, because a throng of guards came running into the hall from a corridor and turned down another. I had barely enough time to crouch down beside the Lamp. They stirred the air around me, and I had to resist the urge to reach out and trip them.
No one noticed the girl hunkered down by the plinth, so I opened the map to figure out where to go first. Three circles highlighted where the wards should be, and each was as far from the Lamp as the others.
One circle was near the front entrance to the palace. The corridor to my back would take me straight there, so I took in another deep breath and stood up. I tucked the map back under my arm and held the box with both hands. Then I strode down the blue-painted corridor, ready for the first ward.
A few minutes later, after several jumps to the side to avoid getting touched by the palace staff, I reached a wide, high-ceilinged entry ending in intricately carved wooden doors. The doors were guarded by six men dressed in the red-and-green colors of Zab. I stared, shocked to see men from my home, until I remembered that my father—my uncle—had sent men as part of my dowry. But now, knowing who my real parents were, I wasn’t sure why he’d given up so many soldiers. Unless Hashim had something to do with it.
I pushed the thought aside and scanned the walls and doors for any sign of a copper cylinder. There, hanging on a hook beside one of the doors, was a small metallic cylinder. It was so close to the doorframe, it would have been hidden if the door had been open. Skirting around the guards, I inched my way to the wall.
They weren’t paying attention to the wall behind them. They were facing into the hall, as if they were trying to keep someone in. I pulled the cylindrical case off the hook.
This was one of the jinni wards. The cylinder was inscribed in calligraphy I could barely read, but I didn’t bother. I flipped open the cap and pulled out a scrolled piece of paper. Something powerful must have been written on it, and I thought about not reading it. But I couldn’t resist. I pulled it open and found the first and last letters of the Arabic alphabet written across the paper.
That was it? Just alef and ya? How could two insignificant letters prevent anyone, much less a jinni, from entering the palace?
I didn’t have time to think about it. Carefully, I set the box on the floor and pulled out one of the vials of acid. Instead of pouring the acid over the scroll, and probably my hands, I slipped the paper into the vial and stopped it back up.
Then I closed the box, looked at the map, and took off past the guards. As I ran, I thought of how this palace would have been my home. I wouldn’t have known about my parents, or my sister. I wouldn’t have seen the Cavern, or hidden behind its waterfall. Or met Atish.
The second ward was outside the caliph’s rooms. Or at least that was what the map said. I found a wide golden door in a hallway that was blindingly white, and tucked just above it was another ward. This time, I didn’t bother to read it and just stuffed it into a vial of acid.
The last ward was inside the House of Wisdom, but the map didn’t say where. I blew through the opened doors, skirted around a handful of men who were shouting at each other, and scanned the stacks and stacks of books. There must have been a book for every person in the caliphate!
There, in the very center of the room, on a pedestal and encased in a glass dome, was the last ward. It was larger than the other two, but I knew without any doubt that it was a jinni ward. There was a plaque beneath it declaring it so.
I suppressed a snort and looked over my shoulder. I didn’t want the men to see the glass dome lifting in the air all by itself. They were still talking excitedly, shaking their heads at each other, so I took the chance and slipped the ward out from its protective case. After I tucked it into the acid vial, I tossed the cylinder onto the nearest rug, closed the box, and snuck past the men, grateful they were too busy to have noticed what I’d just taken.
Now I ran back to the Lamp. By the time I got there, I was breathing hard and my fingers were shaking. I slipped the sheets of paper out of the vials, carefully using the wrist of my gown to keep the acid from touching me, and dropped them into the flame.
The paper caught on fire and erupted in a ball of flame. I fell backward, landing hard on the ground, and climbed back up. While I waited for the flame to return to normal, the shahtabi wish fell away, leaving me exposed at the Lamp. Quickly, I dropped a stone Faisal had given me into the flame. The stone turned into smoke and slipped into the Lamp.
Then someone clamped a hand on my shoulder.
43
Najwa
Hashim wrapped the rope around my wrists, then took my chin in his fingers.
“You’ve got the mark of Iblis,” he said. His eyes were wide and wild, and in them I could see nothing but the end of me. His fingers pressed hard into my chin. “How did Sergewaz—your uncle—not know of this? When did this happen?”
“I thought you said I wasn’t Zayele.” I bit my tongue while I said it, and my mouth flooded with the taste of blood.
He sneered at me. “Of course you’re Zayele. But they don’t know that now, do they? All they care about is that you’re a jinni. I wasn’t sure how I was going to convince the prince—”
“But I’m not—”
“Oh, but your disappearing act settled it. Everyone knows you’re a jinni now. And to keep you from making that wish again, I’ve brought this.” He held up a ball of silk and stuffed it into my mouth before I could protest.
I screamed and tried to twist away, but he held me in place while he made sure I couldn’t push the gag out. It hurt, and I almost vomited into the cloth. He dropped his hand and shoved me into the guards. “Come,” he growled to the guards, “we’re taking her to my rooms.”
They dragged me out of the laboratory and down the corridor, with one of the guards ahead of us clearing the way. I knew I should kick, or pull away, but it wouldn’t have changed anything. I was powerless against them, and now I couldn’t even make the simplest of wishes, so I fell limp in their arms. They had to carry me every step of the way.
After a single turn, Hashim threw open the door to a room, and I was carried inside and tossed onto the floor. I hit the ground, which was padded by layers of overlapping carpets, and stayed there. The wool pile dug into my cheek. I’d been discovered. It didn’t matter that Hashim had his facts mixed up. He was right about the most important one.
I was a jinni. And I was trussed up like a sacrifice, lying in the middle of the vizier’s rug.
Hashim said something to the men, and they left the room. Then he knelt beside my face. He was so close, I could see the perspiration falling into his eyebrows. “Well, Zayele, it’s time for you to pay for all the years you lived as a human.”
My blood turned cold and slowed in my veins, as if it were afraid of offending the man before me, the man with all the power. Why did he still think I was Zayele? What was he going to do to me?
I tried to talk, but all the sounds I made came out as moans.
“Now that the entire palace knows a jinni is running free, they’re expecting her to do something. Therefore, I leave you here. I must ensure they’re not disappointed.”
He stood up, hoisted me over his shoulder, and carried me to the back of the room. Something slid to the side, and I was tossed onto the floor inside a small, stone-walled room. I hit my head, so the last remaining light, from the main room, sparkled until the door slid shut and left me in utter darkness.
Behind the door, I heard Hashim’s voice: “It won’t be long now.” I didn’t know if he was talking to me or to himself. He sounded like he was rummaging through something, but then he stopped. “What are you doing here?” he asked someone.
“I’m looking for Zayele.” It was Kamal! “Or whatever her name is.”
“I haven’t seen her,” Hashim lied. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll go search for her. Those invisibility spells don’t last long, so I’m sure someone will see her soon.”
A door closed, and then I heard the rummaging sound again. Hashim must have left to do whatever it was he had planned, which meant Kamal was looking for something in Hashim’s room.
I went to the door and kicked it as hard as I could. Silence. I kicked it again.
Lamplight poured in through a crack as Kamal slid open the door.
44
Zayele
A man with sour breath grabbed hold of me and turned me around.
“I caught you!” he growled. Then I was surrounded by a handful of guards, all wearing the colors of my tribe.
“Let go of me!” I shouted. “I’m Zayele! I’m from Zab too!”
The Fire Wish Page 21
