The Fire Wish (8 page)

I thought of all this while the bank of the river went back to its layered sandstone and clumps of grass. The guard relaxed, but I wasn’t able to let go of the window. I turned and looked at Rahela, who sat in the corner of the bench, covered in yards and yards of her woven creation.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

“It’s the tunnels. And the jinn. I didn’t know—I wasn’t expecting—it was surprising to see them,” she said.

I left the window and sat beside her, patting the colorful layers piled on her knees. “I didn’t realize you were so afraid of jinn.”

She nodded. “It’s not just jinn. It’s the tunnels. They’re like anthills, and when we were going by, I kept thinking of thousands of jinn pouring out of the tunnels there, flooding into the river, and overpowering our boat.”

I chuckled. “That’s not going to happen,” I said. “They’re not going to risk everything just to catch two girls.”

“I know all of this,” she sighed. “But I cannot turn away thoughts that come unbidden. This whole time, I’ve been thinking about jinn. In Zab, we were safe. But in Baghdad, we’ll be closer.”

“But they’ve got wards in the palace, and we don’t have them in Zab,” I countered.

“We don’t need them in Zab. They’re not interested in a bunch of cliffs and sheep! But they want the palace. Everyone knows that.”

I shook my head. “I can’t believe you’re worried about jinn but don’t care at all about how we were practically thrown at the prince. This box of a boat cabin doesn’t affect you, and neither does the idea of living forever in another one, in the palace.”

“It does affect me,” she said quietly. “But one of us needs to be rational. We aren’t going to slip away from our obligations.”

“Rational,” I huffed. “You’re the one afraid of some dormant jinni tunnels.”

She folded up the weaving and stood with her back to me. “Promise me you’ll keep watch for me whenever my head is obstructed by fear, and I will keep it level enough for the both of us when we arrive,” she said, and when she turned I saw that half of her mouth had slid into a smile.

“I promise,” I said. “But I also promise that if I can find a way for us to get out of here, I’m going to take it.”

She rolled her eyes. “Fine. It’ll be you against the caliphate, but that wouldn’t surprise me.”

We laughed, and she sat down on the bench, knocking her bony shoulder into mine.

THE RELIEF ON Faisal’s face when I came back told me more than anything he could have said. Had he really been worried while I was gone? It wasn’t as if I’d gone in without any training.

“How did it go?” he asked. The only people in the room now were Faisal and Delia. The rest of the Eyes of Iblis had gone, and their absence left the room so empty it echoed.

I shrugged and looked at the Eye of Iblis. The caliph’s throne filled the entire wall, and it appeared larger than the actual one.

“You left the area,” Delia said. Her voice was tight.

I winced, and nodded. “When the prince left the room, I felt like I had to follow.”

“You were supposed to follow your orders.”

“Delia, she is back, and in one piece. Let’s hear what she has to report.”

Everything was fine until I told them about the girl from Zab. The air seemed to spark between Delia and Faisal.

“Are you sure the caliph said Zab?” Delia asked. She was as still as a pillar, and as straight.

I nodded. “He said that because she was from there, it would inspire the city.” Something I’d said was wrong. The air felt like it was about to combust. “Do you know who she could be?” I asked Faisal.

He closed the space between us and took me by my elbow. “We will take care of it, Najwa. You’ve done well on this assignment, and I’m sure we will need you to return, so go home and get some rest.”

He was ushering me out of the room, and I turned to look at Delia, who had gone to the Eye of Iblis. She was tapping at the image of the throne with her fingernail. “But I’m not tired,” I said.

“All your friends have gone home by now,” he said. Suddenly, we were out in the hall. I followed him into the circular hall that housed the Lamp.

“There’s something about Zab, isn’t there?” I asked, and he stopped me, right in front of the Lamp. He had his back to it, like it was nothing more than art.

“We cannot discuss this here, Najwa.”

My face flushed in shame. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to know.”

Frowning, he nodded, then took me to the entrance. We were standing beside the desk where the copper disks scaled the wall, but a different person was sitting there now, looking bored.

“All of us in the Eyes of Iblis have insatiable curiosity. It’s what makes us good. But what makes us
work
is understanding who should know certain things and who should not. Now go back to your mother. You’ve accomplished more today than ever before. Don’t tell her about the palace,” he said, pausing to smile. We both knew she wouldn’t take that well. “But you can show her the mark. We will see you tomorrow.”

I nodded, even though I didn’t want to. I wanted the rest of the story. I wanted to know what it was about this girl from Zab that disturbed two seasoned Eyes of Iblis officers. I wanted to know why I wasn’t allowed to know. And I wanted to understand why they’d bring me into the Eyes of Iblis and send me to the palace but not trust me completely. If I was the only one who could get there, wouldn’t knowing everything about the situation help me?

I didn’t dare open my mouth again. Instead, I waved to Faisal and let him pull the door closed behind me. Mindlessly, I made my way across the Cavern, somehow making it over the bridge, past the stores and the library, and up the path that led home.

My house wasn’t terribly high up the Cavern’s wall. It was one of the stacked buildings littering the cascade of fallen gypsum that had become the foundation in the geode. Most of the homes were decorated using liberal doses of wishes, but none were as gaudy as mine. It was rounded and squashed like a tortoiseshell, with each square of the shell a different crystal. In the center of the roof was a slice of very thin glass that allowed the light in. I had begged my mother to leave it all one color, or just one shape, but it changed every month or so. Everything did in our house, depending on her mood. Somehow, she couldn’t get anything to match the image she held in her mind.

I made it home and was about to pull aside one of her woven creations that hung in the doorway when I heard voices. I froze. It was my mother and Irina, her apprentice. Irina was the last person I wanted to run into.

She was the same age as me, but she didn’t study at the school. She claimed she was too talented to waste her time there. Apparently, designing clothing was more important than anything else.

“Well, that’s it for their relationship, then,” Irina said. She couldn’t say anything without scorn.

My mother giggled. “I’ll be surprised if he comes here tomorrow. He’ll have other duties, I suppose.” My hand shook the curtain, and I cursed it silently. “Najwa?”

There was nothing to do but go in. Mother and Irina were sitting at the table, each holding a spread of cards in her hand. A bottle stood open between them, half-drunk. Irina’s look was smug. She’d gotten close to my mother, and she knew it irritated me.

“Who are you talking about?” I asked. I dropped my empty lunch bag on the shelf.

“Atish, of course,” Irina said. Of course. “He made full Shaitan status today. You should see his mark. It’s practically glowing. And it’s hot to touch too.”

“Is it?” I asked, trying not to imagine Irina touching Atish anywhere, much less on his mark. Mother was smiling, but without any sort of smirk. Her thick, straight hair fell behind her, glittering with pink diamonds beaded onto the ends. She had finally chosen a color for her hair, and it was nearly the same as my own. I frowned at the copied diamonds.

“How did your transport test go?” she asked. “I know you passed, since everyone did, but how was it? What sort of flower did you bring back?” Mother was, for once in her life, graciously changing the subject. She had asked me to bring her an earthen flower, and I’d promised. But I was empty-handed, and she could see that.

“I’m sorry, Mother. I had to turn my flower in. To the Eyes of Iblis.” She blinked, and I knew I’d never hear the end of that. “But it went well. I was in the most beautiful garden I could have imagined.”

“Well, what sort of flower was it, then?” She glanced at Irina, who was adjusting a shawl made of silk and living glowworms. One of the glowworms had detached itself and was making a run for it.

“A rose. Mother, why would Atish not come here tomorrow?” If there was one thing I could count on, it was Atish. He was the definition of routine, and part of his routine was walking with me to school.

“Well, he’s in the Shaitan now,” she began.

“He’s not going to want to walk you down there now that he’s not in school anymore,” Irina cut in.

The mark on my hand burned, and I wanted to rub it in her face. But I couldn’t. Whenever Irina was around, I couldn’t find my voice. She treated me as though everything I said was inconsequential, and I usually ended up giving way to her opinions and unwanted advice.

Still, I had my news, and Faisal had said I could share it. “Mother, the transport test went so well, actually, that afterward Faisal brought me to the Eyes of Iblis building.” I paused,
waiting for the information to sink in, but they just blinked. “And, um, they gave me my mark.”

“They
what
?” I had expected Irina to say something like that, but not my mother. She pushed her chair back. “You go to the surface one time, just like everyone else, and he tosses you into the Eyes of Iblis? Just like that?”

“Yes, but—”

“Najwa, that’s ridiculous,” Irina said. “Where is it?”

I held out my hand to show them. The new mark glittered, and there it was, the truth of what I’d said. The undeniable shift in who I was. In what I was.

My mother’s face had paled. “Najwa, I don’t know. I hadn’t heard they were planning on this. How could he do it so suddenly? To someone so young and—and inexperienced?”

This stung. I had never wanted to tell my mother any secret so badly before. “They gave Atish his mark today. Why not me too?”

“Because you’re
you
! And Atish is only going up the ranks in his foolish military organization. But you—you’re going to be up there, mingling with
them.
I don’t care if it helps us in this idiotic war or not, but having my daughter popping up amongst humans is … It’s …”

“It’s disgusting,” finished Irina.

“Yes,” Mother said, nodding at Irina. “You should be here, where it’s safe. Where you won’t be tainted.”

Her outburst caught me off guard. I had backed up against the shelves. “Why didn’t you say something?”

“I did say something, but Faisal wouldn’t have anything of it! You know my brother. He’s
impossible.
And he was always
telling me you were meant for his precious Corps.” There were tears in her eyes.

Irina draped an arm over my mother’s shoulders. “Maybe you should go out for a bit, Najwa. Let her calm down.” She said this with the smile of a snake.

“Fine!” I turned and ran out, practically ripping the flimsy curtain that was our door. I hated them. Both of them.

I ran up the trail that wound behind our house and went as high as I could. There, the gypsum shards bit into each other like the tip of a monster’s mouth. I couldn’t press on from here—I was at the top, where the ceiling met the wall. As a young child, I could fit between the points almost till the top and bottom melted into one another. I would hide there for hours, soaking in silence.

But now the last few feet were impossible to reach. I stared at the narrow space, squeezing my nails into my palms, and thought of the shock on my mother’s face. How had she not known I would end up in the Eyes of Iblis? I was training for it. It had been only a matter of time, and yes, that time had come early, but it shouldn’t have shocked her.

Something had changed in me today, though. Maybe that was what scared her. Maybe she could see the garden in me, and the sky. Maybe she could smell the flowers. She had been up there once. Just once, on the day of her own transport test.

I turned and looked at the houses that poured down the Cavern’s wall. They stood between the bits of jagged rock, and the lake still curved like a deadly fingernail around the city, flickering here and there. It was all the same as always. None of it was fresh.

The look on Prince Kamal’s face when he lifted his selenite ball sprang into my mind. He wasn’t sitting in one place, trying to manage. He was doing something, even if his father didn’t think it was worth his time. Even if everything in his life pointed to a mysterious girl from Zab.

In fact, it wasn’t just
his
life that was being affected by her. She was interfering with mine too. Some human girl, making her way to Baghdad, was going to change things.

And all I ever did was watch.

But that was going to change.

I sucked in a huge breath through my nose, and thought of this girl while I held my breath. I focused my mind on what I knew of her, which was very little. It would be enough. I was ready.