Deliverance (14 page)

Her stance was one of someone who was in charge. She was obviously the mistress of this compound. Her shiny dark auburn hair was piled in large loops on her top of her head. Her unnatural bluish violet eyes glowed with that same smokeless fire, contrasting with the dark kohl that lined them. Her skin was incredibly pale but not white. Instead it glowed a soft golden color. She smelled of jasmine and lilac mixed with cinnamon and cardamom.

She tilted her head downward and I followed her gaze. For a moment, her feet appeared like animal hooves, but I blinked several times and they became perfectly human, covered in jeweled golden slippers. She had wanted me to know she was Jinn. An odd thing for a mischievous creature said to like to play tricks. But maybe they behaved better with other supernatural creatures.

"Welcome to my home." Her Persian was as formal as mine. Her teeth shone white when she flashed me a smile.

She unhinged me. I couldn't concentrate on anything except her. I was mesmerized by her gaze, enchanted by her voice, speechless from her scent. She laughed like wind chimes tickled by the breeze.

Her form shimmered around the edge and she shifted. She looked the same, but also different. Her beauty was human. It no longer captivated me.

"Sometimes I forget how human your types are," she said.

"So you are Jinn? Why did you bring me here?" I asked her.

"Well, I didn't actually bring you here, Deleer makes his own decisions."

'Deleer, come here boy.
'

The small griffin bounded around the corner and came to a stop by his mistress's feet. I wanted a pet griffin.

"Deleer is my eyes in the world when I cannot leave my home, but it was his initiative that brought you here. And yet, it had to be your initiative as well. Why did you seek me?"

"Seek you?" I didn't feel entirely well. I was confused beyond reason and my head was cloudy. The air in this garden was too fragrant. It defied reason.

"For Deleer to show himself to you, you had to be thinking of me."

I tried to remember what I had thought of before I first saw Deleer. I had thought of Nagissa. I had thought of the Jinn. I had thought of one Jinni in particular.

"Pareen.”

"Yes, but I'm afraid I don't have the pleasure of knowing you. Or how you know me." She grimaced. Despite how she carried herself and the confidence she exerted, Pareen was uncomfortable with our meeting. Names hold power, especially for her kind. Though this was her common name, not the secret one that could be used to bring her to her knees, for Nagissa to tell me Pareen’s name had been a big deal.

So I explained to her who I was. I explained about Nagissa and Ramtin. She stopped me when I mentioned him.

"I don't like what he’s doing. Actually, I’m very worried about his dealings."

Finally! Someone had answers. "Well, that makes two of us. Except you have the advantage of knowing more it seems. What is he up to?"

She sighed. Her form shimmered slightly but she became solid again. "My people have been following him for several years now. He’s amassing power. Enough power to put an end to us."

"An end to who? Everyone? The Jinn?"

"The Jinn, mostly, but not only us. Anyone with power. Political power, natural power, wealth. He is targeting them all."

"Targeting them? Why?"

"How much do you know about Ramtin?"

I started pacing along the pool, watching the sun's reflection. "I know he is in a rock band."

She nodded. "He always reinvents himself in ways that give him access to important people."

"I also know he had something to do with a native prophecy coming true."
"A native prophecy?"

"A prophecy about the seventh generation after the first contact of these people with the European settlers. It is a prophecy about destruction of the land. A lot of it has happened already; the earthquakes for example."

"The earthquakes were part of a prophecy? What else?"

"Soulless stone monsters. They are not yet so numerous in Montreal that the general population knows about them, but I'm afraid it's getting worse."

"We've seen a few here, but we can dispatch them easily enough," she said. "Do you know what Ramtin is?"

"He is one like me. One like Nagissa."

"He is one like Nagissa was, but not exactly one like you."

"Nagissa 
was
?"

"Every story has its time. Ramtin is what you like to call a Gargoyle. But as you were created by sacrificing an essencialist and taking all her essence, Ramtin and his kind were created by sacrificing a Jinni. That makes him a lot more powerful than the type you are accustomed to meeting."

"But Jinn are made..."

She nodded. "Yes, Jinn are made of nothing but essence. So, though a powerful enough essencialist, or one you are bonded to, can feed or pull essence from you, she could do little for Ramtin's type."

"So then I need the Jinn to fight Ramtin?"

"I'm not sure. Ramtin has been amassing an army of sorts. He’s recruiting anybody with any ability to manipulate essence... Luckily, the world is in short supply of these as of late. But he's been preying on my kind as well. I don't know if anything can stop him. Did you seek me out to ask about Ramtin? If you did, I'm afraid I have no answers."

"You've already told me a lot. But I came looking for answers about Nagissa." And then I had an idea. If Ramtin knew about Aude's trouble, could she be here? "And a young Canadian essencialist named Aude Vanier. I need to know if she’s here."

"You ask for a lot from me, Gargoyle. What do I get in return?”

“We share a common enemy. This should be reward enough.” I had no idea how to negotiate with a creature such as her. Hopefully I was going about it the right way.

She shrugged.

“I'm not kept up to date on every essencialist that enters the country, anymore. There was a time when the Jinn that worked at ports of entry reported to me, but now they report to others like me that have power in the government. I can tell you about Nagissa, though."

The thought of seeing Nagissa again made my blood run hot and cold. The time I had spent with 
the girl
 had gone a long way in reawakening my feelings... but who were those feelings really for? Regardless, Nagissa could perhaps help where Pareen could not. "Where is she?"

"Dead."

My heart dropped. "But she can't be. You just said how powerful her kind is. She couldn't die."

"They are not immortal. Just more powerful. And my sources tell me Ramtin was responsible, right around the time of the revolution."

"She's been dead since 1979?"

How could I have lost her so long ago and never known? She was never mine to lose, but in a way it seemed something should have been different about the very air I breathed if she was no longer alive.

When I left the hidden garden, the springtime oasis I had found among the ruins of the South Tehran ghettos, the scenery had become colorless. I was surprised at my reaction. I hadn't even been certain I wanted to see her again, but she had been timeless somehow. Now I knew she had been created by the magic of the Jinn... and yet she was no more.

It's the beginning of the Nowruz holiday and though I don't have to get up to go to school, I still get up. I'm worried sick about Leyli. I've called her, I've left her voicemails, I've texted her. No answer. I'm starting to worry that the problem is much more serious than her simply being upset with me. As a last resort, I dial her home number. Her mother scares me.

The woman answers on the first ring.

"Where is Leyli?" she asks me, skipping all customary greetings.

"I don't know. I was sure she’d be home by now."

I stand up and look at the city from my bedroom window. I press my forehead against the glass while I think. Where could she be?

"Wasn't she with you? What happened? Where are you?"

"I'm home, Mrs. Abbasi. Leyli didn't come home last night?"

Leyli's mother wails into the telephone. "Where was she taken? Why didn't I get any notice that my child is in jail? The party was raided, yes?"

"I don't know. I left early."

"Without Leyli? How could you just leave her behind?"

"She asked me to."

"You left her. You two should have looked out for each other. I only agreed to this party because she was going with a 
responsible
 friend."

A cocktail of emotions brews inside me. Panic and anger. Fear and hopelessness. It isn't fair that Leyli's mother is blaming me. It isn't fair that Leyli was upset with me. I want to throw myself on the floor and kick around that it's just not fair. But I don't; I take a deep breath and try to gain control of my emotions.

 "Did you get any calls?"

"No, I didn't. I don't know where she is and you are the last person to see her, Nakissa."

"Actually, no. Ramtin is."

Mrs. Abbasi's already shrill voice rises. "Who is Ramtin?"

I tell her about Ramtin and about Leyli’s last text message. I tell her everything including how I left the party in her crush's car.

"Have you called the police?" I ask.

"Yes, but I can't say too much to them, can I? What if they think she spent the night with a boy? And now it looks like she did. You will help me find her, Nakissa."

"I don't think my Mom will let me go out today.,." I feel guilty. It's probably true, but I should help find Leyli. Yet, I have this paralyzing fear. A dread that she's with Ramtin and that it’s one of the worst things that could happen to her.

"Let me talk to your mother, Nakissa. I will simply call her on your home line otherwise. I need you to show me where you left my poor helpless daughter."

I cringe at Mrs. Abbasi's dramatic representation of Leyli, but instantly feel bad. Poor Leyli is missing. What is Maman going to make of all this? She was so hesitant about me going to the party in the first place. But Leyli is missing and I’m scared about so much more than Maman’s reaction.

I find her in the kitchen preparing the rice to let it soak so Bijan can prepare it for dinner. It’s strange to see her like this. At home and domestic. Before her accident, she was always at the hospital, working.

"Maman?" My voice catches and she turns instantly.

"What's wrong?"

All my pent up anger and worry and fear come crumbling out of me and I hide into her arms. I have the phone on mute and Mrs. Abbasi can wait because she is not the only one who is scared. I need my mother for myself for just a while longer. But then the tears start and I have to say something before I completely fall apart.

"Leyli's missing." I sniff a few times, still trying to discourage the tears threatening to find their way down my cheeks. "I was the last one to see her. I left without her. It's my fault. Mrs Abbasi blames me and she's right." I give her the phone and turn to hide in my room, but Maman's tone as she answers the phone stops me in my tracks.

It is compassionate but not kind. "Listen, Mrs. Abbasi, I understand how frightening this is for you but you have no right to be taking it out on my daughter. She is just as frightened as you are and adding guilt to her shoulders will not help anyone."

Maman is quiet for a while and I wonder how Leyli's mother is reacting to my mother's words.

"Yes, it would have been preferable if the girls had stayed together, but they didn't. Now I know both of our daughters can be very stubborn. I also know we all share that trait, but while we stand around pointing fingers and deciding who we should blame, no one is looking for Leyli. Don't you agree?" Mom pauses again. "Exactly, and we both know how real the dangers out there are." Another pause. "Yes. That makes sense. I will send Bijan with her as well. I think it is best that way." I wonder if Maman is sending Bijan along to look after me, or to make sure Mrs. Abbasi doesn't get out of line. Whichever reason it is, I'm grateful.

The two women exchange several insincere formalities and I get antsy. I just want Maman to hang up the phone. I want her to tell me everything is going to be alright.

But Maman simply hands me my phone. "Go get ready, Nakissa. I'll go talk to Bijan."

I stand still wanting to say something, but I don't know whether to thank her or to tell her I love her. I hug my arms against a shiver. Maman leaves the room, off to find her husband. He will know what to do. Leyli will be safe.