The Forbidden Wish (20 page)

I
N THE SILENCE TH
AT FALLS,
I release a long, slow breath, my eyes falling shut for a moment. My spirit plummets, and I can feel everything around me start to unravel. What gave us away? Did Darian see the lamp after all?

“Use your wish,” I whisper to Aladdin, opening my eyes.
“Please.”

“If I do,” he replies softly, “I'll lose you.”

Caspida has pulled herself together; whatever emotions she's reeling with after being humiliated at her own wedding, she hides them well.

“Uncle, stand down,” she says. “You are my kin, but I will have you banished or imprisoned if you continue this charade.”

Sulifer doesn't even blink. “This man stands accused of murder, sorcery, and communion with jinn.”

The blood drains from Aladdin's face, and an audible gasp sweeps around the room.

“That is ridiculous!” says Caspida. “How dare you—”

“Let him speak for himself,” says Sulifer calmly. “And let him tell us if he is innocent.”

“Of course I am!” Aladdin replies. Dropping my hands, he steps around Caspida and faces the vizier. “You're mad.”

“Am I?” Sulifer turns to Darian and gestures him forward.

“Enough of this insanity,” says Caspida. “Guards, remove my cousin and uncle from this place!”

Her guards hesitate, but Captain Pasha steps boldly forward. With a wave of his hand, Sulifer brings his own soldiers forward. They lower their lances at the captain, who falters and looks back at the princess. Sulifer and Darian don't even flinch. They have the power of numbers, and they know it. The audience shrinks away, pressing against either side of the temple, well clear of the bared weapons.

The light in Caspida's eyes is dangerous. Without breaking eye contact with her uncle, she motions for Pasha to stand down.

“Is it to be war between us?” she asks in a soft voice.

Sulifer raises a hand, palm up. “Let the boy prove his innocence, and I will leave this city today and never return.”

Caspida's eyes narrow suspiciously. “And how do you propose he do that?”

“Let him be searched,” replies Sulifer calmly. “Surely you cannot object to that, for if he has nothing to hide, I shall be proven wrong in front of this entire court.”

“Very well,” says Caspida after a short silence. “Let him be searched.”

The blood drains from Aladdin's face.

Sulifer bows, a bit too shallow to be genuine. “Thank you, Princess.”

Darian eagerly ascends the dais and steps toward Aladdin, drawing a knife as he seizes my master by the shoulder.

“You can't seem to keep your hands off me, can you?” says Aladdin. “First in the baths, and now this. I'm flattered, truly, but my heart belongs to another.”

Darian just grins and wrenches Aladdin's collar aside, exposing the scar on his bare shoulder. He presses the dagger's edge against it, until Aladdin winces and blood trickles from beneath the blade.

“I knew who you were the moment I saw this in the baths,” the prince whispers in Aladdin's ear. “I can't believe I didn't see it sooner, but it doesn't matter now. You're finished,
thief
. You'll be wishing for death before I'm done with you.” He slides a hand down Aladdin's coat, until he reaches the lump on his hip.

Aladdin swallows.

With a laugh of triumph, Darian pulls Aladdin's sash, and the lamp comes swinging into plain sight. Curious murmurs rustle through the crowd; they aren't sure what it is he's discovered, but they know it must be important by the way Darian shouts excitedly. Aladdin grabs the lamp's handle, trying to tug it away from the prince. I feel nauseated as once, twice, thrice I am nearly sucked into the lamp, only for Aladdin to regain possession of it.

“Sorcerer!” Darian cries. “Jinn-worshipper!”

The crowd picks up his cry, and the words echo across the room. Caspida angrily intervenes, grabbing Darian and pulling him away. The lamp, still bound to Aladdin, is torn from his grasp, and Aladdin catches it.

“What is this?” she asks, but by the dread in her voice, I think she already knows.

“Yes, thief
,
what is this?” asks Darian, smirking.

“It's a custom of my people,” says Aladdin hoarsely. His face is
drained of color, but still he tries to maintain his cover. “You know. Symbolizing light and . . . good fortune . . . All Istaryan grooms carry a lamp to their wedding.” He stares challengingly at Darian, daring the prince to announce that Aladdin had stolen the lamp from
him
, thus condemning them both.

“Liar,” snarls Darian. “You conspired with the jinn to pass yourself off as a prince, when you are nothing but a criminal. And with the jinn's help, you murdered the king!” Darian pulls a vial from his pocket and holds it up. “This was found in his rooms—a deadly poison called Serpent's Bite, the selfsame potion that took the life of our king!” He throws a finger toward Aladdin. “Murderer! King-killer!”

Aladdin's jaw drops open. “The king? I didn't—”

“Every word this man speaks is a lie!” Darian declares. “He is no prince. This man is a fraud and a criminal! His own parents were traitors, beheaded by my father for stirring up rebellion. He is not Rahzad, prince of Istarya, but Aladdin, a common thief who has plagued our city for years!”

And with that declaration, my glamour hiding Aladdin's true face shatters and dissipates, revealing his true image. Recognition flares in Caspida's eyes, and with it, dark anger.

“
Aladdin
,” she whispers, raising a hand to her temple. She blinks hard, as if unable to understand what she's seeing. “Can it be?”

He steps forward, a hand raised. “Princess, I can explain—”

“Be silent,” she orders coldly, her gaze icing over. Then, stepping closer, she whispers angrily, “I have never been so humiliated in my life. You have ruined me and killed my father! I thought . . . I thought you a friend.
Both
of you.” She blinks away a tear, her eyes burning into Aladdin's. “May you carry the weight of this betrayal to your grave.”

Aladdin shakes his head furiously. “I may be a thief and a liar, but I'm no murderer! I swear it—I did not kill the king! Caspida, please believe me!”

She doesn't look at him. Defeated, Aladdin turns to me, and I can only smile sadly.

Darian turns and scans the room, his eyes probing, searching. And then they fall on me. His eyes grow wide.

“Of course,” he murmurs. “The pretty servant girl.”

Without another word he turns, drawing a dagger from his belt. He slices through the sash and grabs the lamp. The world seems to spin around me as my bond with Aladdin, which had grown so familiar to me it was like another limb, snaps like a twig. A new bond forms between me and Darian, strong and absolute, threads weaving together and coiling around us both, until our wills are knit into one. He turns to me, his eyes hungry.

“Monster!” he cries, pointing. “Reveal yourself!”

No point in hiding anymore. If it's a monster they want, then a monster they shall have.

Every eye in the temple suddenly turns to me as I begin to shift, hair, clothes, and even the ring in my hand turning vaporous. It feels almost good to finally shed my human form and burn with all my power before them. Red smoke roils around my feet, growing and swelling to surround me. My eyes are locked with Aladdin's, and he watches wretchedly as I am unbound, thread by thread. The court gasps and recoils, and Caspida and her handmaidens regard me with repugnance.

Here I am, mortals. Look and tremble, for I am the jinni of the lamp, the daughter of Ambadya, the monster in your midst.

Up I rise, borne on a cloud of scarlet smoke. I burn with fury and channel my anger through my shape-shifting magic, red lights
flashing in my smoke, my eyes glowing like coals, my skin turning translucent to reveal the fire raging inside me. I am a creature of nightmare and shadow.

Shouts of fear ring out, and the nobles stumble over one another to escape the temple. Sulifer calls for his soldiers.

“Seize him!”

The soldiers run to Aladdin, as Pasha and his men fall aside to create a protective perimeter around Caspida, who already stands surrounded by her handmaidens. The girls look up at me with rage and disgust, and brightest of all is Caspida's quiet, controlled anger, her eyes wounded by betrayal. And it seems it is not Caspida at all who stands before me, but you, Habiba, on the mountaintop, as your death came to swallow you. Their gazes all pierce deeper than they can know, and I realize how stupid I was to ever think them friends. I should have known better than to open myself to such inevitable pain. When did I forget to stay aloof and unattached? When did I let my armor soften, leaving me vulnerable? This is what I get for playing human.

The soldiers approach Aladdin warily, their lances down and angled at his chest. The thief stands still, his gaze still on me, his shoulders slumped in defeat.

“I'm sorry,” he whispers, his voice lost amid the screams and shouts, unheard by all but me. He alone can meet my eyes without disgust or fear. He alone still sees the girl inside the monster. But it is not enough.

I hurl myself at the soldiers, whirling around him in a long coil of red smoke, driving the soldiers back. Darian stands gaping, half afraid, half delighted with my display.

“Run!” I say to Aladdin, my voice like the wind, rushing around him, tugging at his cloak. “Go
now
!
”

He bursts into motion but runs toward the soldiers instead of away from them. He reaches Darian, catching him in a wild tackle. Both boys roll down the stairs and land roughly, each with a hand on my lamp. They struggle to wrench it free, Aladdin pinning Darian down and getting in one solid punch to the prince's face before the soldiers are on him. They drag him off, and Darian scrambles away, the lamp clutched in his hands. Still Aladdin fights on, wrenching a lance away and wielding it with sharp efficiency, driving the butt into one man's stomach, using the tip to sweep another's feet out from under him. But their numbers overwhelm him, and when his lance breaks, they pounce, twisting his arms behind him and forcing him to his knees.

Furiously I condense into half tiger, half smoke and fling myself at Darian, claws and fangs bared and glinting, but he holds up the lamp, grinning madly.

“Jinni!” he cries. “I command you to return to your vessel!”

Like a dog that has reached the end of its tether, I am halted in the air as the lamp takes control and pulls me toward itself. Helpless, I shift entirely to smoke and pour inside, as Aladdin calls my name.

I rage inside the lamp, throwing myself against the walls, shifting in a blinding flurry from smoke to water to sand to fire. It's pointless. Outside the lamp, I sense Aladdin's pain as the soldiers beat him with the butts of their lances. I sense Caspida's raging fury at being betrayed. I sense Darian's elation through the drumbeat of the pulse in his fingers, the lamp ringing out in time with his heart.

“Take him below,” Sulifer commands. “He will die a traitor's death at dawn.”

No!
Horror washes over me like a wave. I hear Aladdin grunt
as he's hauled to his feet, and push my senses as far as they will go, feeling Caspida's steps as she descends from the dais.

“Caspida,” Aladdin croaks. “I can explain—”

“Silence,” she says coldly.

I follow Aladdin for as long as I can, but too soon he is dragged beyond my senses and lost to me. Despair churns inside me like nausea, and I curl into smoke on the floor of the lamp. Where is Nardukha now, when I need my freedom most? Why has he not come? Have I been played for a fool? I knew I should not have taken his deal. I knew he couldn't be trusted.

“I must withdraw for a while,” says Caspida, her voice starting to break. “I have much to think about.”

She and her Watchmaidens turn to go, heading for the back door of the temple, but Sulifer's voice stops them short.

“I'm afraid I cannot let you go, Your Highness,” he says.

Caspida turns. I can hear the astonishment in her voice. “What did you say?”

“Guards,” says Sulifer softly, “arrest the princess.”

“What is the meaning of this?” Caspida cries.

Sulifer's voice is hard as steel. “Princess Caspida, you stand accused of complicity with sorcery and communion with demons.”

“This is absurd!”

“Did you not receive the jinni Zahra to your chambers several weeks ago?”

“That proves nothing.” I can hear Caspida's composure fracturing like ice beneath a hammer. “I did not know her true nature. I knew nothing of—”

“That will be determined by the judges.”

“The judges!” She laughs acidly. “The judges are your leashed dogs, trained to tear apart whomever you point out.”

“Imprison her,” says Sulifer. “And her handmaidens too.”

I sense the soldiers moving toward the girls, but they never reach them. Nessa and Khavar slice through their midst like a sharp and deadly breeze, while Ensi flings poisoned powder in a glittering arc. Soldiers fall, clutching their throats and chests, as the girls' attack parts them like a scythe through dry grass. Caspida spins free of the soldiers holding her, felling them both with a series of strikes, her bare hands slipping past their defenses to decimate their nerve points, leaving them twitching on the ground. Before Sulifer, Darian, or the remaining guards can make a move, the girls vanish, running from the temple and disappearing into the palace.

“After them,” Sulifer says to Darian in a low voice. “Bring that girl to me, whatever it takes! Wait—give it to me first.”

I can feel Darian's hesitation, but he slowly gives the lamp over to his father. Sulifer's will replaces Darian's, clamping down on my mind like an iron cage.