The Fire Wish (19 page)

I placed a few drops on my tongue. It was pure, stone-cold water. My throat demanded more, so I cupped my hand beneath the step and drank from the water. It was the best I’d had in ages. Quickly, I reached down again, but everything was wet and I slipped. I scrabbled at the rocks, but couldn’t get a grip and fell into the water.

I was caught in a current, grabbing at the steps, but they were slippery. I tumbled down one step after the other until my foot got stuck between two rocks. I was underwater, pinned beneath the current.

I couldn’t breathe, and I couldn’t get a hold on anything. The water raced over my head, pulling my dress and hair with it. The dress tugged on my throat and tightened.

I was going to die.

Using everything I had, I pushed up from the ground. The water dragged the dress sideways and flowed over me. My nose, then the rest of my face, broke through the surface. Coughing, I spat out water. My foot was still stuck in the rocks, and I kicked with my other foot and found something to press against. I twisted, pulling as hard as I could, and one of the
rocks slid to the side. I was free, and then the current took me again. I fell down, down, down into a deep, still pool of water.

I came up for air, grabbing at it as if it were a solid thing that would save me, and then sank back down. The water tasted of tears, thousands of tears. Again, I pulled myself up to the air, churning the water over and over again, grasping for anything.

My fingers scraped against something rough. Rock. Wide, flat, and at the water’s edge. I pinched my nails into it, pulled myself out of the water, and collapsed on the stone. I breathed in the blindness, not caring that it was cold. Too cold.

“So dark,” I gasped. I had spoken into nothingness and the echoes returned, one by one, to tease me. “I wish it wasn’t so dark.”

A strange feeling spread from the center of my spine, up and out of my arms. I blinked, amazed. My
skin
was glowing. The light spread, and with it came exhaustion. I curled up on my side and watched the rim of the water, that bit of darkness lapping the rock. Besides the rock and the water, I could see the bruises spreading across my ankle in the light from my skin.

Something wasn’t right, but I was too tired to do anything. I pressed my cheek into my hand and let my aching body shut down, starting with my eyes.

A BIRD WITH gossamer blue wings trailed behind us while we followed the girl across the harem. Rahela walked at my side, ever my shadow. We wound through the roses, under an arbor, and to a gazebo against the wall of the palace. The girl motioned for us to enter and then disappeared through a set of white doors. The bird, disappointed that we didn’t have any seeds, flew off.

A rectangular window, set with a lattice, opened between the gazebo and the palace’s interior. I sat beneath it on a bench and leaned my head against the lattice, feeling a soft breeze flowing between the two spaces.

A voice whispered in my ear, “Hello again.” I jumped and turned to find Kamal on the other side of the window. He was smiling and pressing his face into the lattice.

“Hello,” I said, leaning away from the wall. I felt my face grow hot.

“Should I leave you?” Rahela asked. She stood up from the bench.

“No. Please stay,” I said, trying to cover the desperation in my voice. I needed her there with me.

“Yes. I’m sure they would insist,” Kamal said. Then he pulled off his turban and ran his fingers through his thick hair. I stared, remembering how he had done that the previous morning, when he didn’t know I was watching.

“But you did want to talk to me?” I asked.

“Yes.” He frowned. “I am supposed to ask what you thought of your journey, but I’m sure it was long and boring. Am I right?” I nodded. “And Hashim wanted me to ask if you were feeling homesick, or sick in any way. I was surprised he cared. What I really want to know is what you are like. Do you enjoy art?”

I glanced at Rahela, but her face was blank. “A little,” I said. What I’d seen of human art was interesting, but it didn’t speak to me. It was the stories that drew me in.

“What about jewels?”

“I—uh—yes. I like them.” He was so close. My field of vision held nothing but the white of the lattice and the green and gold of his eyes. I blinked and looked away, along the palace wall. A vine climbed up the stones and I focused on that. “But I also like gardens,” I said. “And I like stories. Finding out why people do things.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Human stories.” I said it before I thought about it. “I mean—” I had met his gaze but now looked away again while a flush spread across my cheeks.

“Stories that show what people are like? Not what they pretend to be?” he asked.

“Yes,” I said, recovering. “But also, the choices they make when strange things happen.” Such as, what would a human girl do in this situation? And what should a jinni girl do?

He laughed and reached his fingers through the lattice, curling them over the edges. “Nothing strange should happen to you here. If anything, the hard part will be keeping yourself from getting bored. For a girl used to the mountains, the walls might make this feel more like a cave than a palace.”

I smiled. “I doubt that.” I glanced at Rahela, who was grinning like the devil.

“Zayele,” he said, testing the name, “after I saw you yesterday, I …” His head dropped, and I saw he was flustered.

“Yes?”

“Here.” He pushed a tiny linen bag through one of the holes in the lattice. “It’s for you.”

“Thank you.” Our fingertips touched as I took the bag, and a jolt shot through my arm. His hand shook, as if he had felt it too. Quickly, I opened the linen bag. Inside lay a small pendant strung on a leather cord.

“I made it for you last night.”

The pendant was silver, with an arched arabesque window holding a teardrop-shaped crystal. It was as iridescent as the moon, which had given this stone its name.

“Moonstone,” I whispered. Jinn lived surrounded by rocks, but never moonstone. It leached wishes and life right out of our veins. My hand was shaking, and I wrapped my fingers around it, trying to show I wasn’t afraid. The stone was cold, and froze the skin of my palm where it lay.

“I work with it so much that sometimes I forget it’s not …” He swallowed and then said with effort, “You reminded me it can also be beautiful.”

I had made him think such a stone was beautiful? I opened my hand again, now that my nerves had settled. It hadn’t killed me, and I didn’t feel anything other than the biting-cold thing lying there. Maybe the moonstone had to be swallowed first.

“Do you like it?” His voice was whispery again. He pressed his fingers into the lattice. “If you don’t, I can get you something else.”

“No, don’t do that. I like it very much.” And it didn’t feel like a lie. The pendant shone, a drop of milk and silver on my hand, and I held it against my chest and tied it around my neck.

Within seconds, the spot of skin beneath the pendant was tingling and cold.

Concern rose in his voice. “Are you sure you like it?”

“Yes,” I said. My voice had cracked.

“It looks good with your gown,” Rahela said. She plucked a red hibiscus blossom off the bush beside her and sniffed it, hiding half of her face.

“I’m sorry I don’t have anything—”

“No, don’t be. Besides, your father is sending men for the army, so my father will be pleased when he wakes up. Everything is ready and we will just wait for him.” He was blushing now, fidgeting behind the wall.

“May I ask you a question?” I asked. He nodded. “Why moonstone? Why do you work with it so much?”

He shook his head. “That, Princess, is a secret. Besides, it wouldn’t interest you anyway.”

“It wouldn’t? Let me guess.” His mouth twitched, and I continued, choosing my words carefully. “There isn’t enough to give to everyone in the army, so …”

He chuckled in surprise. “If I’d ever doubted you were the vizier’s cousin, I don’t now. You sound like him. Logical and curious. But I still can’t answer you. It’s a secret that isn’t mine to share.”

I’d nearly gone too far already, so I smiled as sweetly as I could and nodded, trying not to think too much about the vizier. I was not like that man. Rahela still hid her face behind her flower, and I wanted to cast knives at her.

“Then what else do you do?”

He flashed me a grin and I forgot all about the vizier. “Do you like pomegranates?”

“Yes.” I had seen one opened once. The seeds looked like tiny red rocks, and I couldn’t imagine what they tasted like.

“Then I will bring you some, if I can convince Hashim to let me out of the palace for a while. He’s been keeping me here. In fact, I must go. I told him I’d meet with him after breakfast. I wanted to give you that first.” With a nod at my necklace, he smiled and was gone, disappearing into the palace’s shadows.

I watched after him until Rahela spoke.

“I wasn’t expecting any of
this
,” she said. “He is romantic, even if he gave you poison.”

I stood up. I would not let her sour the moment. “Can we go back to our room?”

“What about your garden?” We had found a small garden behind our patio but hadn’t been in it yet.

I’d forgotten all about it. “Yes. Let’s go. And it’s not mine. Nothing here is truly mine.”

“I know.” She tossed the hibiscus onto the bench and led the way.

SOMEONE WAS SQUEEZING my shoulder. I tried to lift my eyelids, but they were swollen and heavy. I was only able to peek. Atish was holding a lamp, and he was frowning.

“Are you hurt?” Was I? Yes, my foot had been stuck in the rocks. It ached and ached.

“My ankle,” I croaked. I pulled it to my chest and gasped when I touched the side.

“We can get a physician to look at it. What were you doing here, Najwa?” I’d forgotten I was Najwa now. “Everyone is looking for you.”

My head was going to fall in on itself. It hurt nearly as bad as my ankle. “Can’t you wish my ankle fixed?”

He frowned. “Only physicians should do that. It’s good I found you. Why were you here?” He pulled me up onto his lap, and I rested my throbbing head against his chest.

“I was trying to get to the surface, like Faisal wanted me to.”

“But this tunnel opens into the sea.”

“How do you know?”

He sighed. “You
have
lost your mind. Come on. I’ll help you.”

“I can do it,” I said. I tried to stand, but pain shot up through my leg and I fell back down, moaning. Atish huffed, hooked an arm under my left one, and guided me up. The climb was difficult, but not as bad as I’d feared. Beside the wet stone was a path, smooth and dry. Of course I had completely missed that on my way down.

“How did you end up in the water?” he asked.

I was hopping on one foot. Each time I landed, the pain grew more unbearable, and hopping only increased the throbbing in my head. “It was dark,” I grunted. “I fell in.”

“What happened to your lamp?”

“I dropped it.”

“What about wishing for some light?” So, a jinni would never get lost in the dark. How was I supposed to know that?

“I was having some problems,” I mumbled.

“Something is going on, Najwa. You can’t just run away. We’ve been scouring every shadow and alcove looking for you. They were ready to start looking in the lake! And you can’t—shards, Najwa!” He pinched the bridge of his nose, like Rahela did when she was frustrated.

“I—”

His jaw twitched. “I thought something had happened to you. I didn’t know what it could have been—maybe some new weaponry that could snatch us from the Cavern—but no. You were just sneaking away.” He paused, stopping mid-stride, and brought the lantern up higher, so that his features were sharper. “Today, I thought you’d finally opened up to me. You
were more spontaneous. I thought you were that part of me I’d always felt was missing. And then, when we kissed …” He stopped and picked up my hand. “But none of that is worth anything if you walk away from the horrors we face. We’re in a war, Najwa. You can’t just run off whenever you feel like it.”

I glared at him. “You don’t know what I’ve been going through.” My throat was thick and I tasted copper. He didn’t know. He could fight his enemy, and everyone would cheer him on for doing so. But my enemy wasn’t so clear. I wasn’t even sure what it was.