The Fire Wish (6 page)

Delia nodded and went to place the marking stick back into the Eye. When the drawer slid shut, she tapped the quartz and made a whispered wish. A brown line spread across the surface, branching out in both straight and curved lines. Within seconds, a map filled the entire expanse of the Eye. The map was of a large compound.

“Is that the palace?” I asked. I wanted to go closer, but I didn’t move, afraid I’d break some rule I hadn’t heard of yet.

“Yes,” Delia said. “Can you find where you went this morning?”

The palace was a series of rectangular rooms of all sizes, and I couldn’t tell which rooms had roofs and which did not. There were no indicators of bedrooms or gardens.

“She was in this garden,” Faisal said, walking forward and pressing his finger against a large rectangle. Beside it was the laboratory I’d seen Prince Kamal in.

“Yes, I think that’s where I was.”

“You are not sure?” This came from another jinni, the one who’d said he was exhausted. I tried not to stare at the pointiness of his nose.

“I was there.”

“And you can get back inside?” he asked.

Faisal put up a hand and stilled the jinni. “She is going to try.”

I nodded. I was afraid to answer the other man, afraid I’d not be able to get to the palace this time. What if it was all an accident, and they’d given me the mark before I deserved it?

“For now, anything you can learn will help,” Faisal said. “It’s been fifteen years since anyone has been there. Just return to that laboratory and watch for a little while. There is no need to walk around yet. We only want to get another glimpse. If you see nothing, come back. If you see the prince, or someone else, watch what they are doing. You have been trained for this. You will do fine.”

“Yes, but I haven’t finished—”

Delia cut me off. “You have. We’ve all been watching your progress.”

This didn’t make me feel any better. Did they know about the many times I’d tried to transfer before, and failed? “Do I need to bring anything?”

“Just make your wish, and do as we have asked. We will wait here for your return,” Faisal said. He traced an area on the map with his thumb slowly, as if his mind was back in that spot. It was the House of Wisdom, on the edge of the palace. He had spent an entire year of his life there.

“How long am I supposed to stay there?” I asked.

“As long as your
shahtabi
lasts.” The invisibility wish, which hadn’t lasted long the last time. “Now remember: eyes open, mouth closed.”

I blinked a few times and sucked in a deep, slow breath. Then I took a last look at my new mark and made my wish.

THE CAMEL’S NECK swelled as she walked. Even though her steps were smooth, the motion swayed me in the saddle. It sloshed my stomach, which wasn’t comforting, but at least it was a short ride to the canal. My family walked in a line beside me, and I was high enough to see the tops of their heads.

I was convinced they’d put me on the camel so I couldn’t run away. I hadn’t actually tried to escape, but I might have said something about the mountains being an easy place to disappear into. It was true. I knew the seasons, and how to survive. I hadn’t been to the peaks, but it was spring, so I would have had time to make my way over them, even if I’d had to slow down for Yashar.

Yashar wouldn’t agree to go. Instead, he told Mother to be careful of letting me slip away. And that was why they put me on the camel while everyone else walked. That is, except for Hashim and his guards. They had their horses.

I wanted to be angry with Yashar, but I couldn’t. He had to hold Mother’s hand as he walked down the rutted road, not
wincing in the sunlight like everyone else. He had to trust Mother with every step. And although he tried to act like he was older, he was still only a boy. His face was smooth.

We were walking in a train down the narrow road alongside the river. The sun delved into the gorge’s divide, leaving one wall gleaming so bright I had to look at the water.

The river didn’t just flow past us. It ran full speed, tripping over rocks and carrying large bits of trees and some daring ducks. It was white and a foamy green-blue. It belonged somewhere else, not hemmed in by craggy walls.

The morning was dry, shining, and buzzing with flies, but even with all my layers, I was shivering. I forced my hands to stay still. I was just cold. I didn’t want anyone to think I was weak.

Finally, the cliffs disappeared into the ground. We walked over a stone bridge, where the horses’ hooves clopped and scraped but the camel’s padded hooves were silent. Then we stopped beside a canal where three barges lined up along the bank.

Each barge was nearly twenty feet long and made of wood and woven grasses. The center one was to be mine, but there was nothing to signify it would be taking a girl and her companion into Baghdad.

Father had been holding my camel’s bridle the entire way, and when we stopped, he clicked his tongue and brought her onto her knees. This was my last chance. The horses were by the barges, and we stood between them and everyone from the village. If I’d turned the camel around and run her off into the mountains, I would have had a head start. Instead, I climbed
off and took my father’s hand. Our eyes met, and I knew he wanted to say something, but I looked away. I didn’t want to argue anymore. It hadn’t worked before, and now it was too late. I heard him sigh, and then he walked off to help the vizier dismount from his horse.

Yashar reached out for me and I caught his hand. “Be careful,” he said. “Don’t forget to pray on your way to the city.”

“I doubt the vizier will let me forget,” I said.

“Zayele,” he said, coming closer. “When you get there, can you see if they have any … anything for me to do?” He blinked, but it did nothing to clear his sight. It was always strange, looking at him, knowing he couldn’t look back. He couldn’t see the uncertainty I felt, but if I wasn’t careful, he could hear it in my voice.

My throat got really thick all of a sudden. “Yes,” I said, sounding as confident as I could, “I’ll find something and then send you a message.”

“Thank you,” he said. He hugged me then, dropping tears on my shoulders, and stepped back to allow our mother to speak.

“My dear, you’ve become such a beautiful woman.”

“I’m not a woman yet. Remind Father that I am still a child. And he’s already shoving me off.”

“Zayele,” she warned. She glanced back at the men before gripping my wrists. “This is something we all go through. You have no choice because there
isn’t any.
Don’t you believe that I’d give you one if I could? Don’t you think that
he
would have?” She let go of my wrists. “Rahela is going to help you. Trust her. We love you, and we know you’ll do well in Baghdad.”

There were no tears on her cheeks when she let go.

I stood still while everyone bustled around me. They carried boxes of silks and other goods onto the barges, and they coaxed the vizier’s favorite horse onto his personal barge, the one in front. There was a flurry of children running along the water, the guards trading their horses with the village men for other things they wanted, and then the vizier was standing in front of me. He was dressed in black, with his ink-dyed hand outstretched.

“Cousin, let me help you onto your barge,” he said. When I didn’t reach out to him, he picked my hand up and held it tightly. His palm was dry and callused. Then he took me down the three stone steps to the plank.

I turned and saw Rahela right there, in my shadow. My parents stood together, with Yashar off to the side. Everyone but Yashar watched as we were ushered onto the barge.

“We’re going in that?” I asked Hashim. He had taken us to the front, where the sides of the barge rose a few feet off the floor. A door was open in the raised center, showing a dark, gaping hole in the belly of the barge.

“Yes, Zayele.”

I crept into the hole. Rahela climbed in and we stood there, looking at the impossibly small space. There was only one sleeping bench and a little bit of floor. Two of our trunks were tucked in beneath the bench. Anything not in the light coming from the door was lost in shadow.

Hashim shut the door in my face and opened a little window with wooden slats.

“You can’t lock us up in here!” I pressed my face against the
slats, and tried to find a handle. There wasn’t one. “It’s not like we’d jump off the boat!”

He slid the bolt on the door and locked it, holding up the key for emphasis. Everything inside me froze. “I had hoped to spare us this discussion, but as we are having it, know that if you were allowed to walk about in full view, any man along the way would be sorely tempted. It’s for your own safety. It’s best if no one knows we have a princess on board.”

Then he turned and disappeared from our little window. All I could see was a bit of sky and part of the barge in front of ours. A moment later, I saw him climb on board his own barge and settle down on a bench made of folded rugs. He brushed at the dust on his sleeves, wiping away anything from our village that might have settled there.

“At least leave it unlocked!” I shouted at him. But he didn’t seem to hear. Instead, he lifted his arm and waved at the family I couldn’t see anymore.

I BLINKED AND was in the same garden. The sun was eclipsed by the wall opposite from me, and the rays scattered all over the leaves and blossoms. The colors were richer now that there was some shade to contrast. The shadows beneath the bushes bubbled along the tiles, spreading over my feet, but the ground was still warm from the sun.

“Shahtabi,”
I whispered, and I was invisible. Then I bent over and sniffed at one of Janna’s roses. The scent was rich and syrupy, and clung to me after I started walking toward the laboratory. It was empty, which was disappointing. I had wanted to catch a glimpse of the prince again. I had been so rushed before, and I needed more details. At least for Shirin’s sake.

Since I knew where I was this time, I took more notice of things. The arched doorway that separated the garden from the laboratory wasn’t plain, for example. A series of overlapping triangles and stars worked its way up the border and wrapped over the threshold into the room. Inside, the shelves still contained many books, but this time, I noticed the large
stone bowls filled with broken crystals and rocks on the floor between them. And from above, a line of colored orbs hung from wires. One was large and yellow, and the rest were of various sizes, set onto their cords so that they spun around the yellow orb.

It was time to try out my new mark. I stared at the orbs and pressed the mark between two fingers. Then I waited, holding my breath, hoping to get some sense that it had worked, but there was nothing. Finally, I let go of my hand and looked away.

The next thing I saw was the selenite sphere the prince had been holding earlier. It lay nestled on a silk pillow, like a prize. Selenite was so ordinary, but in this shape and in the filtered sunlight, it looked completely different. It looked like it hadn’t been carved by human hands, but wished into existence by a very creative jinni.

I picked it up with both hands. It was small enough that my fingers could just touch, but it was incredibly heavy. When I rolled it around, I saw that a circle had been cut into the side. I stuck my finger in and found that the inside was hollowed out a little. Why would someone hollow it out like that? Were they going to put something in the sphere?

Quickly, I set it back onto the pillow and sent another image to the Eye. I was wandering toward the other side of the room when the door flung open. The prince strode in, his robe whipping behind him, with his gaze already on the sphere. His face was flushed while he picked up the sphere, tucked it beneath an arm, and turned to go back through the door.

I froze. My heart was in my throat. I’d been so careless. What if he’d come in a minute earlier and seen his sphere held
up by invisible hands? He would have known in a heartbeat a jinni was in the palace. I would have disappointed the entire Eyes of Iblis Corps on my first official assignment.

What would have happened if he’d known a jinni had gotten in? Would they have increased the wards? Would they have tried another attack at one of our tunnels? Would it have made any difference?