Chapter 33 #2
and I sat by the fire, watched the sun dip below the ocean, and he got as close to confiding in me as I suspected he was capable
of. When he mused with open wistfulness how he’d been created to spin tales and inspire legends.
When he regretted that he hadn’t enjoyed the opportunity to do so in a very, very long time.
And as Raksh gazed at me with his beautiful, bewitched eyes, the nearest thing I had ever seen to a genuine grin playing over
his perfect mouth, I suddenly understood that for all his lies and cowardice, for all the bloody history between us—I had
just become exactly what he craved the most.
And because of that, he was never, ever going to let me go.
Kill him now. Before he suspects anything. And yet how could I? He was Marjana’s father and I’d just been delivered a very harsh lesson about how little I knew of her
magical heritage. Were there other children like her? What happened when they grew up? Were there other possible threats to her like the Moon of Saba? I couldn’t ask Raksh those questions today, not
when I was determined to keep our daughter’s existence a secret. But he was still the only guide I had if I ever needed answers
about “the spirits of discord” and their kin.
Well, he was my only guide for now . Deciding on another path, I settled my hands around his neck. It was an echo, a reminder of how easily I’d been able to strangle him back on the island, but instead I played with his hair.
“So, what?” I asked with open doubt. “I am to trust you now?”
Raksh shivered and leaned into my touch. “You are welcome to trust me, do other things to me, whatever tickles your fancy.
I know we’ve had some troubles in the past but”—he pulled my body against his completely, rocking his hips into mine—“what
marriage does not?”
His breath was hot on my throat, setting my treacherous blood aflame as he pressed a kiss to the edge of my jaw. Ten years.
Ten years since I’d been touched like this.
You’re supposed to be getting rid of him, remember? And yet my hands were already slipping around his waist. I gave his glorious backside a proper squeeze, and Raksh let out
a messy sigh. All right, yes. There were some creepy magical ways he wanted me, but on this specific desire, we were briefly united.
“Close the door,” I said coarsely.
Raksh glanced up with faint surprise. “Truly?”
I shrugged. “If we are to go about this as husband and wife, we should start things off on the right foot, no?”
He kicked the door shut and dropped to his knees. “The wisest of women you are, Amina al-Sirafi.”
***
The asshole was honestly surprised.
“I thought we were turning over a new leaf!” Raksh shouted from the bottom of the raft as we dropped it out to sea. Well,
“raft” was perhaps a diplomatic term. But as we had no dunij thanks to Raksh stealing it, the crudely bound platform of broken
boards would have to do. He shook the chains around his hands and feet with great indignation. “You let us have sexual intercourse!”
At my side, I felt Dalila and Majed turn to stare at me.
“What?” I flushed. “I needed a way to distract him, all right?” Majed let out an overly judgmental sigh, and I hissed, “We’re still married. It’s allowed!”
Dalila pinched her brow in exasperation. “Not even slightly the point, Amina.”
“You were the one who told me to relax!” Granted, Dalila had obviously been referring to slumber, not shushed sex with my
chaos spirit spouse in the ship’s cramped galley, but everyone had their own way of unwinding. I turned my attention back
to Raksh, tossing down a waterskin and a bag of dates. “Next time don’t fall asleep beside me. I’m sure you’ll be fine. At
least we did not bury you in a chest.”
“We probably should have,” Majed muttered.
“We could still blow him up,” Dalila added. “I have some black powder left.”
Raksh writhed furiously in his chains. “You are the most disloyal of companions!”
Majed pulled at his beard. “I am normally not one for murder, but are you certain it is wise to let him live? Why don’t you divorce him?” he asked under his breath as Raksh’s raft drifted away. “He can still yell the words if we tell him what
they are.”
“Because I fear there is more than marriage holding us together,” I explained with a grimace. “I don’t need him looking into
what that might be if a divorce fails to sever our bond. And should Marjana ever need to know about that part of her heritage...
I cannot kill him. Not yet.”
“Amina!” Raksh wailed in the distance. “Don’t do this! I can still make you a legend!”
I can do that myself . “Best of luck, truly!” I shouted before glancing at Majed. “Let’s speed up.”
Majed went to give the orders, filling in for Tinbu, who was being forced to recuperate.
But even the sight of my friend resting on my captain’s bench, his injured leg propped on a pillow and Payasam on his lap, filled me with guilt.
Tinbu had rebroken his already poorly healing leg when he’d thrown himself at Yazid to save my life.
We’d set the bone as best we could and I intended to get him to a physician, but we’d all seen the outcome of similar injuries.
Tinbu would walk with a limp for the rest of his life, a limp that would undoubtedly make a career as a sailor—already perilous—all the riskier.
“Don’t give me that pitying look,” Tinbu chided as I joined him, clearly reading my expression. “You saved me from being crucified as a brigand, remember? I was repaying the favor.”
“I know, I know,” I muttered, taking a seat. Around us, the sea seemed to undulate and roll, a great blue watery beast stretching
its legs.
“I take it Raksh is floating on a slow not-boat to nowhere?” Tinbu asked, stroking Payasam’s head as the cat stared adoringly
at him.
“God willing. I have little doubt he’ll be back.”
Dalila climbed up to join us, rolling her wooden staff between her palms. “Then we are done with the magical world?”
I sighed and pulled Khayzur’s feather from my belt. “Not quite.”
***
In the time it took to tell my friends of the happenings at the peri court, some of the sailors began singing. Their smiles,
hesitant at first, grew broader as they teased each other over the lovers and wives to whom they were returning, children
and friends they ached to see, and how wonderful it would be to put into a familiar port. The rhymes were not the ones we
chanted when we begged the ocean to be merciful or remembered the many dead lost to storms, but I had no doubt my crew was
scarred by what had happened at Socotra; no doubt some of them would slink away once we put ashore to find nawakhidha who
might pay less and treat them unkindly—but ones who didn’t face off against foreign sorcerers and sea monsters.
For my crew had not emerged unscathed. Three men had been killed—Arjun, a carpenter’s apprentice of barely nineteen; Ishtiaq, an always smiling sailor who left three kids in Jeddah; and Bassam, a salty old sea dog who made Majed look young and proudly crowed he’d never spent more than a day on land.
Bassam had been swept away during the marid’s attack, but we said the funeral prayers for him, then buried Ishtiaq and cremated Arjun according to their rites.
A life at sea was dangerous, and though I knew the money and faltering letters I would send to their dependents were always a feared possibility, their souls weighed heavy on my conscience.
But I would keep such sorrows to myself. Right now, the rest of my crew seemed to be healing and though I kept my ear low,
I heard no whispers of malcontent that might lead to mutiny.
Among my dearest, however, a new surprise was settling in.
“So you are what... some sort of treasure hunter for a bunch of magical bird men?” Tinbu asked after a stunned silence.
“I suspect the magical bird men would squawk that I do not work for them—they have all sorts of rules about interacting with humans—but yes. I owe them the retrieval of four more magical items.
That was their price for my being permitted to leave the island.”
“And you trust such creatures to uphold this deal?” Majed asked. “They tried to throw you to your death!”
“I don’t trust them at all. I believe the one who saved me is a good man... bird. A believer—whatever. But I also suspect
he had his own reasons.” I spread my hands. “I had little choice. Even if the peris renege on the deal, it was worth being
able to stop the Frank.”
“I cannot argue against that.” Dalila tilted her head to study me. “The time on the island, you say it changed you? So your
strength, the way you were running...”
“I am stronger,” I confirmed. “ Much stronger. I was finally able to bloody up Raksh a bit,” I added, unable to conceal the relish in my voice. “I haven’t noticed
any other physical changes, but I can see things. Creatures, the oaths Falco’s men made to him as though they were chains,
visions of other worlds...”
“Al-ghayb,” Majed said softly. “The realms of the djinn and such. There are mystics who claim to have gained the same Sight. Holy men and women.”
“They were probably better equipped to deal with it than me.” I shuddered, remembering my vision of jailed monsters beyond
the brass door. Had any of that been real? The bridge? The nasnas? Asif and his accusations? “Though I suspect I’m going to
need both magical strength and Sight to retrieve these Transgressions.”
“You should start training with more weapons,” Tinbu said, sounding awed. “Gods, Amina, you could be like some warrior out
of yore.”
“She’s going to need more than brawn.” Dalila flashed a conspiratorial grin at Tinbu. “You have a gambler’s soul. I take it
you are in?”
“In?” I blinked in surprise. “Wait... you wish to join me?”
“Of course we wish to join you! The knowledge you could stumble upon, the lost potions and tricks of the ancients...” Dalila’s
eyes gleamed. “I might learn things that would make me the sheikha of the Banu Sasan. Those bastards will rue the day they
chased me out of Iraq.”
Tinbu’s expression turned dreamy. “I bet there will be treasure. There has to be, right? The kind of people who go after magical
artifacts are always rich in the stories. Surely the peris won’t mind if we keep some of the mortal wealth.” He pressed a kiss to Payasam’s straggled fur. “Going to make myself a raja and sweep a certain Adeni
merchant off his feet.”
My heart rose with a mix of hope and worry. “It is going to be unspeakably dangerous. You’d be putting yourselves at risk
for a deal you had no part in—”
“Oh, shut up,” Dalila interjected. “We know it’s dangerous and can make our own decisions. And you are far more likely to
survive, let alone find these hidden artifacts, if we are with you.”
I wanted to protest. Perhaps a better friend would. But Dalila was right, and I was learning, many years too late, that I
could not control the hearts of those around me. I had lived a daring life. I had fought for my ambitions.
I could not deny others theirs.
“I... would be forever grateful if you joined me,” I confessed. “We can discuss the matter further when we return to shore.
I cannot tell the crew everything, but I want no man brought on unwilling. And I will pay for safe passage to Mogadishu,”
I added, looking at Majed.
Majed let out an indignant harrumph. “And passage back to the Marawati after? The three of you are not going off to explore without me. You will get lost in the doldrums and die. And do not give me any guilt trips about responsibility,
hypocrite,” he said more severely as I opened my mouth to do just that. “You have your family concerns, and I will talk to
my wife. There must be a way to make this work so we can see our children.”
He could have no idea how much those words stirred my heart. God, I hoped so. No matter what I told my friends, I had yet
to make peace in my soul with the cost of this new venture when it came to Marjana. The days and nights I would lose with
her, the fears we would both carry when seas separated us.
It was a price with which I might never make peace. It was a choice I prayed she might one day understand. Might take courage from when it came to chasing her own dreams.
“Then it’s settled,” Tinbu declared. “But may I make a suggestion? Should any of us find ourselves in the position where we
are being persuaded to cut a deal with a magical creature, let’s not. Or at least bring it to the group for discussion.”
“Amen to that,” I breathed, suddenly feeling lighter than I had in weeks.
There was, however, one more matter. I glanced across the Marawati . The men had taken to Dunya, and she was with a group of sailors now, looking shy but eager as Firoz showed her how to make
rope and she diligently took notes.
Dalila followed my gaze. “Have you made a decision?”
“Aye,” I said heavily. “That I have.”