The Fire Wish (14 page)

I had to get away from her before I did something I’d regret. I was starting to imagine what it’d be like to pull her down by her hair and hold her there.

“Want to swim around the island?” I asked Shirin.

“Not really,” she said. “I pulled a muscle setting a leg splint yesterday, and I didn’t realize it was so bad.” She rubbed her shoulder and started for the island.

“I’ll race you,” Atish said.

Yes. That was what I needed. I had spent too many days in the barge, and I still hadn’t had much of a chance to move.
“What about you?” I asked Irina. “Are you going to race or just try to look pretty?”

Her nostrils flared. “I’ll race.”

A minute later we were lined up, along with Cyril and Dabar. Shirin had climbed out and was standing to watch.

“You need something to mark the finish,” she said.

“I’ll take care of it,” Atish said. He pointed at the surface and muttered something, and a line of flames crossed the water before us. “Just swim through it, go around the island, and through it again.”

“Brilliant!” I said, a little louder than I’d meant to. I looked at Irina, who treaded water beside me. She was looking at me strangely.

“Ready,” said Shirin. “Go!”

I chopped at the water, kicking as hard as I could. It was so smooth. Without any current to fight, it was easy to pull myself around the island. I took a stroke, breathed, and then took four more.

I hadn’t moved my body like this in ages, and although the strain was more than it used to be, it felt good to move. In the water, I was free. I didn’t have to think about how my father was always waiting for me to do something wrong. I pulled hard at the water until I forgot about jinn, forgot I was in the Lake of Fire, and forgot about Najwa.

I burst through a wall of fire. Atish was beside me, laughing. He splashed my face, and I laughed, splashing back. We had crossed the line at the same time, followed shortly by the others. My heart was beating fast, and I felt more alive than I had in months.

“Najwa, when did you learn to swim like that?” Atish asked. He was incredulous, but there wasn’t a trace of suspicion on his face. He just looked happily stunned.

I shrugged and said, “Couldn’t let you beat me.”

He reached out for my hand, and as he pulled me to the island’s edge, I thought of how our bodies were too close in the water. I didn’t have my hijab on. I was wet. And he was half-naked.

By the time I crawled out of the water, I was shaking. I couldn’t stop, even after Shirin took pity and wished me dry. My hennaed hands were wrinkled, and I held them close, afraid if I let them down, he would take my hand again.

This wouldn’t last. Sooner or later, they’d discover the truth, and I needed to be far, far away before that happened. I scanned the walls and saw dark patches that might be tunnel entrances, but were they guarded? Did they go to the surface?

KAMAL WAS CLUTCHING a stack of papers in one hand and a leather bag in the other, but he didn’t seem aware of them. While Hashim had made me feel like a cowering rodent, Kamal made me feel
seen.
Neither of us moved, he with his papers and bag, and me with my hand stuck to the Lamp’s base, as if I’d grown from it.

Kamal lifted the bag in a wave. “Hello,” he said. He was still wearing the white turban I’d seen him in that morning. As he closed the distance between us, I held on to the Lamp for support. Here was the prince, walking toward me, and he was smiling. At me. “You must be Princess Zayele.”

“Yes,” I said weakly. “And you are Prince Kamal?”

He bowed his head. “I am sorry we were not properly introduced, but everyone is busy at the moment.…” He faltered, then continued. “We have had an injury.”

“We were just told about your father. I am very sorry.” I nearly lifted my hand off the Lamp. Strangely, I felt myself wanting to comfort him, to assure him his father would be well.
This twisted my stomach because I should not have wanted to help. His father was our enemy.
He
was our enemy.

Kamal swallowed and rapped his fingers against the Lamp, making it ring. “He hasn’t woken since his fall, but he is alive. My brother Ibrahim is fighting in the south, so it has fallen to me to guide the city until my father wakes up. With the vizier’s help, of course.”

“I am sure you will do well,” I said. Where were these words coming from? I could barely think with him so close to me. I wanted to both step closer and flee.

“Thank you.” His expression was flat, but his voice was sincere. “I’m not sure they expected us to meet already, especially since the ceremony has been postponed, but I am glad we did. It lessens some of the anxiety, at least for me.” As his gaze traveled over my face, I turned it away. He believed me to be the girl he was going to marry. We would be
together
if I didn’t get away soon.

“You were anxious?” I asked, then immediately wanted to take back the words.

He laughed. “Weren’t you?”

I opened my mouth to reply, then closed it again and nodded.

“Well then, I’m glad I wasn’t the only one,” he said, grinning. “Excuse me, though. I am working on something and must return to it. I’m sure I will see you again … tomorrow.”

His eyes stayed on me while his body bent in a bow, and then he turned and disappeared down the corridor. My mind whirled. Was I supposed to bow? Should I have said anything else? If so, he hadn’t waited for it.

I let go of the Lamp and pressed my hands to my cheeks.

“Don’t start changing your mind now,” Rahela whispered.

“Nothing has changed,” I said, but it was a lie. The world was dripping in humanness, and I hadn’t touched all of it yet. Also, something had happened when Kamal looked at me. I still wanted to go home, but now that there wasn’t going to be a wedding right away, I had some time. I could do what Faisal had trained me for.

I turned toward our escort, Mohammed, and said we were ready to go to our room, trying my best to sound like a princess. He took us directly, and within moments we stood on the public side of the harem’s doors. A painted peacock spread its tail feathers across the door, so that a hundred eyes seemed to be watching, daring us to enter.

“You must knock,” Mohammed said. “Otherwise they get angry.”

I lifted my fist and held it up to the door. So much had happened today, and now I was about to enter the harem. I knocked twice, and noticed that my hands were shaking harder than when I’d first arrived.

The door opened inward, revealing a curtained area billowing with pale silk. I thanked Mohammed and went through the peacock door, followed by Rahela. A girl covered head to toe in scarlet and gold closed the door behind us. She was quick and deft, spinning around and parting the curtains as silently as fire.

The harem was a flurry of colors and sounds, and as busy as the lake wall in the Cavern. Women and children of all ages
filled the common space’s corners, which were divided by a man-made creek flowing from a fountain in the center.

The fountain sat in the middle of a red-and-white marble-tiled courtyard. It was the most elaborate fountain I’d ever seen, and it spilled into a reflecting pool dotted with pink lotus blossoms. Shallow benches lined the pool, upon which sat half a dozen ladies, some with infants at their breast, others bouncing smaller children on their knees. The older children waded in the creek, splashing each other and shrieking in joy.

Colored silks swooped along a sandstone wall decorated with climbing vines and recessed fountains. Between manicured orange trees, other women lay on thin rugs playing ouds and flutes, while a handful of children chased one another around them. Two women danced behind the musicians, their bodies wrapped in shawls knotted with brass coins. They twisted their hips and jangled the coins, adding a tinkling tune to those of the ouds and flutes.

All this was open to the afternoon sun. Other women sat beside a smaller pool of water, jewelry glinting and hands gesturing in talk, until one of them saw the girl in scarlet bring us out of the curtains. They all turned and the music stopped. The coins clanged on the dancing women’s skirts. The young children, however, continued with their play, oblivious to our approach.

The girl in red cleared her throat. “Princess Zayele and her companion have arrived.” The women stared, silent, while she led us to a door along the garden’s walls and slid it open.

Rahela cast the women a glance before shutting the door. “So kind,” she muttered.

The girl showed us that our trunks had been brought in; then she turned and left. Our room wasn’t large, but the ceiling rose higher than most trees. Two couches dotted with round pillows and a low table with Rahela’s loom upon it were the only furniture. A vine, budding in jasmine, climbed an arched doorway on the other side of the room. It was open, with a sheer curtain for a door, and led to a patio and small garden.

Rahela sat on the floor by the table and tapped her loom. “I have thought of this moment ever since we left home, but it’s all wrong.”

I hadn’t moved more than a step into the room yet, and I wasn’t sure if I should go to a couch or sit beside her. She scowled at me, so I went to a couch.

“I shouldn’t have left my home today,” I said.

“You’re right. You shouldn’t have,” she said. “But maybe Zayele is somewhere she can be happy. There’d been a cloud over her ever since we left. Hashim should have picked someone else.” She looked up. “Can you give me that wish?”

I shook my head. “I can’t change what has already happened.”

She pressed her palms together and touched her lips. “So here we are. She is wherever she is. And you are unable to change anything.”

“Yes. Here we are.” If I’d been alone, I would have cried.

WE SNACKED ON some food Shirin had brought, and then rowed back to the lake wall. Even Irina was smiling, laughing in her boat with Cyril and Dabar.

“Najwa,” Shirin said, leaning against her seat and grinning, “I’m so glad you raced.”

I raised my eyebrows, but said nothing.

“It was fun,” Atish agreed. He hadn’t taken his eyes off me since we’d climbed into the boat, and a flush had been slowly creeping up my shoulders. “If you have to best Irina at something, that’s a good way to do it. At least it was honorable.”

Shirin groaned. “Atish, don’t ruin the moment. Najwa, you were amazing. I had no idea you could swim so fast!”

“She was just a little slower than me. That’s all,” I said.

“Maybe.” Shirin didn’t look convinced. Then she burst into giggles. “She was so mad, and when you and Atish climbed out of the lake together, she looked like she was trying to digest quartz.”

I snorted. I couldn’t resist. “Doesn’t she always look like that?”

“Not
all
the time,” Atish said. There was a slight twitch in the corner of his mouth.

When we arrived at the pier, Atish set down the oars and hopped out, then tied up the boat. He was helping us climb out when we heard a scraping sound, followed by rumbling and creaking. It sounded as if every crystal in the Cavern was pushing past its neighbor. Atish pulled me off the pier and toward the lake wall. I stumbled and he picked me up, making sure I was away from the water. Shirin ran along beside us.

Panic bubbled within me, and I didn’t know what for. Shirin gasped, and she looked up. Worry was etched into her forehead. Above us, the crystal shards were swaying.

It was an earthquake. I had felt them at home, but I’d never been through one while I was
inside
the earth. I’d never felt so locked in before. This was worse than the wooden barge. This was all stone, and it was going to crash down on me.

“Get under the awning!” Atish shouted. He pointed at the stone building, where Gal was standing in the door, gesturing for us to come to her. Mutely, I ran, a step behind Shirin, climbing up to the top of the wall.

The earth continued to scrape together. I covered my ears and saw that everyone else was doing the same. Everyone was watching the crystals shift and sway like tree branches in a breeze.

The rumbling stopped as suddenly as it had begun, but no one dared speak. I wasn’t sure what would upset the rocks again. What if all it took was one word to send the crystals crashing
down? Then the silence shattered with a deafening crack. A shard had split, high above, and dropped. It swooshed for half a second before crashing into the lake. The splash speared up into the air and scattered all the wisps of flame into dizzy sparks.