Chapter 7
We all stared at Jamal for a long moment after he finished.
“Bird sex?” Tinbu finally asked.
Jamal held up a hand. “A fancy of the original storyteller more than reality, I suspect. It comes up repeatedly and, well . . . the verses linger.”
“I’ve heard worse.” I frowned. “But your tale paints a much different picture. Khayzur spoke of a witch imprisoned away in a lair filled with the bodies of mortals she lures off course. In your story, she is a queen of—What did you call it?”
“The White City.” Jamal shrugged. “Not the most original name.”
“There are still bodies,” Tinbu pointed out. “They’ve just been transformed into livestock.”
“A marginally better end than death but still not the retirement I had hoped for.” I rose to my feet, clasping my hands behind my back as I mulled over Jamal’s words and contemplated my future adversary.
Was Lab a cunning queen or a trapped monster?
Perhaps both . . . or something yet to be revealed.
The story had also made her out to be a sex-crazed fool, but I dismissed that, too personally familiar with the ways in which these accounts delighted in disparaging women.
“Yet no mention of a spindle that rewrites fate?”
“None whatsoever,” Jamal confirmed.
Majed gestured to the archives surrounding us.
“Maybe the spindle’s presence on the island is unknown?
Did Khayzur not claim that Lab has been capturing castaways for centuries?
Look at this place and then think of all the ships, all the treasures that might await, perhaps hoarded away by those who have no need or interest in them? ”
“You tempt me, Majed,” Tinbu teased. “Perhaps if the circumstances are not too harrowing, we may be pirates again?”
“Then you best pray that Dalila joins us,” he replied. “Amina has a talent for theft, but neither you nor I are particularly skilled at sneaking about; that has always been the realm of the Mistress of Poisons.”
Jamal closed his book. “May I ask why Dalila isn’t with you? I confess that I was surprised not to see her.”
I sighed. “A great number of reasons, the foremost being why I’ve been commanded to retrieve another Transgression so shortly after handing over the second: because Raksh is involved.
He is entangled with Queen Lab’s escapee and supposedly riling up the ambitions of every treasure seeker in the Persian Gulf. ”
“Raksh.” The name seemed to choke in Jamal’s throat, conflicting emotions flashing across his face.
He suddenly looked younger, the mask of confident librarian slipping to reveal the fatherless youth.
I had taken Jamal aside before we parted and told him what had happened to his father at Raksh’s hands.
I hadn’t lingered on the horror, but I needed to ensure he knew the bones of the truth and the part I had played in Asif’s death.
To pretend otherwise would have been abominable, and considering Jamal’s own zeal for the supernatural, I felt it best he knew the dangers of consorting too closely with the creatures who lived off our dreams.
At the time, he seemed to take it in stride.
Now, however . . . but I pressed on. “Dalila was similarly unhappy and we fell out over what to do. I believed pursuing Raksh to be a waste of time, time better spent going after this spindle before it falls into the wrong hands. Dalila disagreed. She wished to interrogate Lab’s escapee and if possible: eliminate Raksh as a risk. ”
“Permanently,” Tinbu clarified, drawing a finger across his throat. “What?” he asked when I gave him an exasperated look. “You are the one being vague.”
Jamal’s eyes had gone wide. “That is . . . quite the ambition. Can he even be killed?”
“God alone knows. Dalila said she would meet us in Baghdad, and I’m just hoping she comes to her wits before getting herself hurt.”
“And how long will you wait?” he asked.
I could feel Majed’s and Tinbu’s eyes upon me. Neither man had pushed me deeply on this matter; I suspected none of us could fathom stealing the spindle without Dalila at our side, to say nothing of embarking into the unknown without learning her fate.
“We are yet to make a decision,” I replied. “We wished to speak to you about Lab and the spindle and gather as much information as possible. I have a few business deals and meetings to wrap up regarding the cargo we brought . . . but then, it is God’s will.”