Tales of the Djinn: The Double (4 page)

“I am ordinary, I assure you,” the djinni said in a sweet soft voice. “You are the one whose features are interesting.”

Elyse’s cheeks grew a little hot. “I’m Elyse,” she said. “I guess you’ve heard I’m the commander’s friend?”

“I am Yasmin,” the harem girl returned. “Please sit and share tea with me.”

The tea was mint, steaming in little glasses with silver holders to let people drink without being burned. Elyse blew on hers and sipped.

“It’s true then,” Yasmin said. “Humans don’t like heat as much as we do.”

She seemed interested rather than judgmental.

“I like this tea,” Elyse said, though she set hers down. “Please tell me what happened to your brother.”

Yasmin’s beautiful eyes welled up. “I have two brothers,” she said. “One our family no longer knows. He killed a friend in anger and became ifrit. Balu is our baby, only seventeen. He is a good boy, though perhaps a little wild. He has reached the age where he wants to rebel a bit.”

“Why do you think he’s missing rather than run away?”

“Balu likes to slip away from his lessons to visit the view cafés. They are . . .” She pressed graceful fingers against her mouth, searching for words to explain. “They are places where our people can steal peeks at the human world. Amateur magicians band together to create them. For as long as the magic lasts, they make money selling drinks and snacks. Sometimes the spells catch signals from your TV, and sometimes they spy on activities that are captured by surveillance cameras. They’re very popular, though not so much with good families like ours. The view cafés the kids are obsessed with aren’t always careful what they broadcast. They show things many people believe should be private.”

“I see,” Elyse said, trying not to wince. “Did Balu go missing from one of these view cafés?”

“We think so. My mother writes me, you understand. When the sorceress’s terrible curse struck the city, she believed him to be in one. My father also recovered when the commander set us free. Father searched Balu’s favorite haunt, the one all his friends sneak to, but couldn’t find any sign of him or his statue. Those of his friends who woke swear he was with them. The police claim Balu must have taken advantage of the confusion to wander off. I don’t think my brother would do that. He loves my mother, and wouldn’t worry her.”

“Your father looked other places?”

“Everywhere he could think,” she said.

There seemed to be more to this story. Yasmin wriggled uneasily on her cushion. Her pretty silk gown rustled.

“Please go on,” Elyse prodded.

“You’ll think I’m silly. Even my father does.”

“I won’t,” Elyse promised. “Everything seems possible to me since I’ve discovered djinn exist.”

“Very well,” Yasmin said. “Recently, I’ve heard whispers that other young people have gone missing. These things happen occasionally. We are a magic city, and people run afoul of sorcerers or spells. Sometimes the disappeared turn up again and sometimes they don’t.”

“What makes you think this is different?”

Yasmin leaned forward earnestly. “Because the
same
sorts of djinn are missing. Six so far, by my count. All are around Balu’s age, all beautiful, and—unlike my brother—they come from poor families or are orphans. It can’t be coincidence that they are the very people no one would raise an outcry about.”

She stopped speaking and sat back on her slippers. Elyse tried to take her measure. The harem girl was upset but not hysterical. She seemed intelligent and not as if she were seeking attention. Then again, if the missing were djinn the authorities wouldn’t raise an alarm about, how had Yasmin discovered the pattern?

“Could I ask who you heard these rumors from?”

The harem girl looked uncomfortable, her fingers bunching nervously on her thighs as if she wished she could clutch something. “I’d rather not tell you that.”

“It could be important,” Elyse said as gently as she could. “And I expect Arcadius . . . the commander will want to know.”

“I can’t,” Yasmin said primly. “I’d be breaking a confidence.”

She appeared determined to say no more. Elyse was no master interrogator, only a competent landlady. “Do you know any more details that might help?”

“None I can think of, though I can supply a picture of my brother. And the names of the other young people.”

Elyse realized she should have thought to ask for them. She stood again and waited while Yasmin wrote them down. As she handed the list to Elyse with a small portrait of her brother, she looked like she wanted to ask something.

“Yes?” Elyse asked.

Yasmin moistened her luscious lips. “Might I ask . . . We have heard that Joseph the Eunuch returned with the Guardian. He is a powerful sorcerer. Perhaps he could cast a spell on the portrait to find Balu?”

In the course of their adventures, Elyse had come to consider Cade’s assistant a valued friend. She was a little surprised to hear Yasmin refer to him as Joseph the Eunuch rather than his more common designation of Joseph the Magician. She concluded the harem heard enough to gossip to know everyone’s business.

“I can certainly speak to him,” Elyse said. “I assume you heard his double remains locked in its statue. I can’t swear that, at this precise moment, his power is equal to doing what you ask.”

Yasmin inclined her head modestly. “For the Guardian’s precious right hand to even consider coming to our assistance would do my humble self and my family immense honor.”

Elyse wasn’t accustomed to the djinn’s flowery manner of speaking. To her human ears, Yasmin sounded like she had a fangirl interest in Cade’s associate. Yasmin was reserved for the sultan’s pleasure. Did she think it was okay to crush on Joseph because his original wasn’t a whole man? Joseph had only recently confided to Elyse that his duplicate body, the one he now inhabited, did in fact have all its parts. Would Yasmin be more fascinated if she knew or would it ruin her fantasy? Maybe she’d feel too guilty to continue having it.

Elyse shook her head. This was pretty far off the purpose she’d come to accomplish.

“I’ll do what I can,” she said. “I’m sure if Joseph is able to help, he will. If you think of anything else, please send one of the servants to contact me.”

~

Arcadius wanted to debrief Elyse while her memory was fresh. Though the setting was irregular for a male and female who weren’t intimate, he gestured her to the cushion opposite his. The area beneath the tea pavilion was pretty, with roses and bees and a sunny sky outside. The grass was wilder than it should have been, but it was possible to believe no tragedy had struck anywhere near this place.

“Boy,” Elyse breathed, lowering herself with little grace to the firm square pillow he’d pointed out. “I need practice sitting on the floor.”

A round chased silver table stretched between them but didn’t block his view. Elyse crossed her legs like a tailor, the position drawing her silk trousers snug around her oddly fascinating calves. Though it had only been a dream, he remembered those muscles tightening behind his back as he plunged his cock into her. This was inappropriate to be thinking about right then. To make matters worse, she pushed her headscarf off.

Arcadius’s expression must have betrayed his dismay.

“Sorry,” she said, fanning her soft flushed cheeks. Her curls were a mass of uncontrolled black corkscrews. “I don’t usually wear this much when it’s hot. Does uncovering my hair really bother you? I’ll put the scarf back on if it does.”

Arcadius was a grown man. He’d seen women unveiled before. “Do as you please,” he said.

The words were stiff. Elyse pressed her lips together to squelch a smile. At least she didn’t tease him, the way he’d seen her do with his double.

“Shall I tell you what Yasmin said?”

“Please do,” he encouraged.

Her report wasn’t linear, but it did seem thorough. She’d observed not only Yasmin’s words but also her manner, the same as he’d have asked one of his men to do. When she would have pushed Yasmin’s list of names across the low silver table, Arcadius stopped her.

“No man but the sultan may read the hand of one of his women.”

“Really? Reading a simple note is considered improper?”

“It is,” he said gravely. “Perhaps you could read the names to me.”

She read them one at a time. Arcadius didn’t recognize any except the brother’s. Naturally, he performed background checks on harem residents.

“I notice some of these names are girls,” Elyse said.

“Yes,” Arcadius agreed.

“Six teenagers seems a lot to go missing in such a short span of time.”

“Unless they aren’t missing. The city is likely to be in turmoil for a while. Even here, where we keep close watch on our children, teenagers aren’t always easy to pin down.”

Elyse rubbed one finger across her cushy lips. Her mouth was one of her nicer features. Though he didn’t wish to, Arcadius recalled how kissing it had felt. “Yasmin wouldn’t say how she knew, but she seemed pretty sure.”

“Servants go in and out of the harem. Perhaps she heard it from one of them.”

“Maybe, but I could have sworn she felt guilty about something.”

Arcadius considered Elyse’s face. She was as confident of her opinion as a man would have been.

And nearly as plain as one,
he reminded his unwillingly interested sex organ.

“Maybe I could talk to Balu and Yasmin’s mother,” she suggested. “I mean, I totally understand the police are busy, but I have time to spare.”

“You can’t go alone. You’re the—” He struggled with his reluctance to voice the words. “You’re the sultan’s commander’s consort. Whatever your habits in your dimension, here you require escort.”

“Could Joseph take me?”

Arcadius contemplated. There was only one of Joseph, and his skills were unique. “I think I must accompany you myself.”

“You!”

“Yes.” He forced himself to face her shock calmly. “Simple though it seems on the surface, my instincts tell me this business is important.”

Instincts were important. He’d learned to trust their guidance. Nonetheless, he didn’t relish leaving matters at the palace to his double.

~

“
You
want to accompany Elyse on these interviews.”

Arcadius’s announcement caught Cade flatfooted. Cade was in his spacious office at the palace, where he and Joseph had set up a command center. Dozens of parchment scrolls were pinned by their corners to a corkboard that rolled on wheels. Enhanced by magic, each sheet was networked to a different sector of the city and relayed current conditions. A second corkboard updated him on military matters. Those of Luna’s troops who’d recovered from her spell were being forcibly deported. Those who were still statues were being inventoried and stored under lock and key. Diplomatic inquiries from other territories were trickling in, most sympathetic but some poorly disguised attempts at gauging whether they were vulnerable to invasion. The Glorious City’s cabinet ministers came and went, each requiring Cade’s attention for their areas of concern.

Scattered incidents of looting had been reported. Because only parts of the city woke, many households were left without their heads. The elderly needed to be checked on, and probably he ought to establish emergency soup kitchens and food pantries. Schools were closed, and that left a lot of young people unoccupied. Cade needed a system for putting idle hands to use.

Their people’s emotional condition was on his mind as well. The curse and its aftermath were more than physical shocks. Perhaps he ought to reach out to religious leaders. They’d be best equipped to comfort their congregations—the leaders who had woken up, at least.

God, he’d need more corkboards to keep track of everything.

“Yes,” his original said. “The situation seems important. Also, it will give me the opportunity to observe the city in person.”

Cade had already forgotten what situation he was referring to.

Elyse stood beside Arcadius, no more than a foot distant, looking disconcertingly at home next to the other male. Cade guessed associating with strange men wasn’t unusual for her. He didn’t recognize her scarf, and kicked himself for not remembering she’d be more comfortable in one. Her mouth curved slightly in amusement. She’d noticed his distraction.

“Arcadius means the harem girl with the missing brother. We want to speak to his parents and also see what we can discover about the other kids.”

Cade’s mind clicked back into focus. “You wish to do this?”

“Yes,” she said. “It seems like something I can handle.”

Her eyes were hopeful. Cade shifted his gaze to Arcadius.

“Elyse is right about us needing to take advantage of there being two of us. As long as we present a united front, we each have equal authority. Working in concert doubles our influence. If, however, we lock horns over trifling issues, people will be uncertain whom they should listen to. That isn’t efficient.”

“You’re saying I can’t afford to gainsay you.”

“I’m saying if you let me go, you’ll have this office all to yourself.”

Cade leaned back in his chair, pursing his mouth as he considered Arcadius’s proposition for hidden traps.

“I don’t really need your permission,” his original reminded.

“Cade.” Elyse’s voice was gentle. She stepped around his desk and sat on its edge facing him. Her hand touched his forearm, her thumb riffling his hair. “Can’t you trust yourself to use good judgment? He is who you used to be.”

Cade smiled at her. His original was who he used to be before he met her. Who could blame him if that seemed inferior? He patted the hand that caressed him.

“If you trust him, I can too. Have Joseph give you a magic scroll. Then you can contact me if you need to.”

Arcadius’s eyes had rounded as he watched this exchange. Maybe it was childish, but Cade enjoyed shocking the other him with how much he valued his human’s opinion.

Joseph returned with another in the endless queue of worried officials.

Elyse jumped and said “oh!” as she spotted him. She covered her mouth when everyone looked at her. “Forgive me. Joseph, if you get a moment, I’d be grateful to speak to you.”