Chapter 38 #2
I was still turning Raksh’s words over in my mind two days later when we woke to a rising tide stained redder than blood, the water sparkling as though someone had littered it with rubies.
Though I knew storms and other such natural phenomenon could bring about strangely hued tides, I didn’t like the way the crimson waves clung to the beach and then sank into the sand; clawing, quiet, hungry observers that were gone by the afternoon.
Could they be marid? Was it possible Lab’s ancient foes had been keeping an eye on the island and detected a change?
Regardless, I ordered the men to keep away from the water and banned fishing for the day.
The Marawati was nearly done with repairs and there was plenty of work to be done preparing for the journey.
I was back on my feet, the blisters on my hand beginning to scab over in a way that made me desperately hopeful.
But there continued to be a strange air to the day.
It was warm and breezy, with a tropical humidity that seemed at home in the Persian Gulf, but not in Khatti Ugal as we knew it.
An odd fuzziness cluttered my head, familiar in a way I couldn’t place.
My bond with Raksh felt peculiarly fresher, my devil of a husband watching me even more closely.
Magic, I realized as the first of the stars began to twinkle in the approaching twilight.
My connection to the Unseen Realm, the connection all but severed when I’d arrived in Khatti Ugal.
It was returning. And as I studied the sky, I clapped my hand to my mouth with a jubilant cry.
They were recognizable stars. Not the constellations of a lost world, the ever-changing celestial map marking a prison from which no one could escape.
There was the jeweled belt of al-Jawza and the two Shi’ra sisters, bright and twinkling.
From the deck of the Marawati and the sailors settling down on the beach, there were delighted exclamations as more and more of us noticed the sky, Majed giving a great bellow of joy. Tinbu looked up from the newly dried layer of shark sealant he was inspecting, his mouth opening in wonder.
He glanced at me, his eyes shining. “Do you think this means we can go home?”
Sooner rather than later. “Keep working,” I murmured, and climbed down from the ship.
As my crew chattered with new optimism, I slipped away, heading for a small cove to the north whose rocky beaches and tall cliffs dissuaded visitors.
I climbed as high as I was able and sat to catch my breath before removing Khayzur’s feather from around my neck.
The lime-colored quill was still stained with dried blood from when I’d tried and failed to summon him.
Brushing off as much of the old blood as possible, I then pricked my thumb and ran the soft feather over the blossoming crimson drop, darkening the bright green.
I was not waiting long.
There was a fierce gust and the smell of snow, magic churning in my heart with such strength that it made me nauseated. From the twilight clouds, a winged shape emerged, cutting closer and closer until Khayzur was suddenly there, landing on the cliff and nearly blowing me off.
His colorless eyes were wide with shock.
“Amina al-Sirafi,” he said, seeming to marvel. “When I spotted the signs, I was hopeful. But it had just been so long . . .”
“I got delayed,” I said curtly. He wasn’t the only one who had spotted the signs, who had finally worked out what they implied. I pulled the broken spindle out of my pouch. “The Third Transgression. What’s left of it anyway. Of her.”
Khayzur paused and then shook out his wings before folding them back. It made him look smaller if no less daunting. “Amina . . .”
The quiet remorse in his voice said it all. I flinched, hating that I felt betrayed. When did I become so quick to trust?
“The Transgression wasn’t an object, Khayzur.
It was a person. One your people sent me here to assassinate.
” When he said nothing, I continued, growing angrier.
“Did you know? Did you know when you ripped me from my family and sent me on this deranged quest that to retrieve this Transgression would mean the death of another? Of her entire kingdom?”
He opened and closed his beak. “Not when I sent you. But I do not believe the council—”
“Bullshit.” That was perhaps a rash response to a being who could spin a cyclone capable of blowing my ship out of the ocean, but I was done being deceived.
“It wasn’t only the marid who lured and trapped Lab here, was it?
Tell me, Khayzur, in whose realm lie the winds and clouds and stars?
To which element do a bunch of man-eating flying lions belong?
None of that sounds like creatures whose mastery is water. ”
A hint of defensiveness crept into his voice. “I came to learn far more about Lab in the time you’ve been gone; she was extraordinarily dangerous before she was imprisoned and only growing more powerful. She was seeking marid and peri hosts . . .”
“Ah, so best trap her where it’s only thousands of innocent humans who can be hurt.
Who can be tortured for centuries, permitted not even the peace of death.
” Fury scorched my heart. I would never forget the sight of that sea of shrouds.
Of the Khatti Ugalans awakening from Lab’s enchantment and begging for death, for home, for release.
“You made me an instrument of such destruction that I cannot even conceive its scope.”
“I am sorry.” And horribly, I believed him. “But you know our laws,” Khayzur pleaded. “We cannot kill lesser beings directly. At Lab’s core, she was still human.”
“Deceiving me into your bidding is still killing her.” I thrust the broken spindle pieces into his clawed hands. “This is the final Transgression I retrieve.”
Alarm blossomed in his avian face. “Amina, you made a deal with the council.”
“And they twisted it. I never agreed to be made into their ‘permissible’ assassin. We are done.” I turned on my heel without waiting for a response.
“Amina . . .” he called. “Amina, they believe you to be a Transgression. Do not give them an excuse to bend their rules further.”
“Then perhaps you should forget how to find me,” I snarled. “Goodbye, Khayzur.” I walked off without another word. Since I didn’t hear him reply or feel his talons in my back, I assumed he left.
When I returned to our camp, the mood was still exuberant. I found Hamid, the cook, and gave him permission for a proper feast in two days’ time.
“And the occasion?” he asked, a hint of hope rising in his voice.
“We’re going home.”