Magic Under Stone (11 page)

“
Do
you? Does anyone? I’ve never had a friend.”

Neither have I
, he might have told her.

“When you came out of the forest, I—I was really hoping you were just a lost traveler who’d have to stay the night, except nobody around here would look like you, not even Nimira. She’s from some other country but she’s boring. So I didn’t know what you were, or where you could possibly come from. It was like ... I dreamed you up.” She didn’t look as scared of him as she ought to be.

“I’m no dream.” Despite the cold air, his palms sweated. He’d never had much chance to be around girls his age. “I’m here to take your uncle away.”

“So take me. I wouldn’t miss much. Celestina only scolds, and she never told me that I was too old to wear bows in my hair. How would I even know? I hardly ever go to town, I’m sick all winter, and Father is never home. Nimira and Uncle Erris don’t like me either. Maybe Uncle Erris does, but only because I remind him of my mother. Whenever we talk, he just goes on and on about his sisters. Well, they’re dead, aren’t they?” She screeched the last bit, her eyes flashing anger.

“See,” she snapped, “I don’t even care if I scream at you because you won’t remember me tomorrow.”

“I might,” he said.

“No one does.”

“But I’m a jinn. And most people won’t remember me either. I had to erase the memory of everyone I met along the way to find your uncle. And King Luka, when his wishes are granted, he’ll forget me too. Masters forget their jinns. After a little while, they think good fortune came on its own.”

“Maybe we’ll both forget each other,” she said.

“Possibly.”

“Then we can say anything we want. It doesn’t matter.”

Ifra glanced over his shoulder, unnerved by the way she peered up at him through a fringe of lashes, suddenly wishing the girl with braids hadn’t run off. But they were still alone. “I don’t think ... we have much to say to each other.”

“I do. I think you’re beautiful.” She rushed through the words.

His cheeks warmed. “Don’t say such a thing! I’m dangerous.”

“Do you have to do whatever your master wishes, because you’re a jinn?”

He nodded, averting his eyes from her.

“I wish ...” She hesitated, and then she burst out, “That you’d kiss me.”

“But you’re not my master.”

“I wish I was.”

“I’m not sure I do.” He smiled a little. He suspected it was rare anyone ever said no to this girl. Disciplined young women wouldn’t demand a kiss from a strange magical person who walked out of the forest.

“You wouldn’t prefer me as a master over the fairy king?” Violet asked.

“I would hope that if you are ever a jinn’s master, you would set him free.”

“I would if you’d kiss me. Would you, if I was your master? I’m beautiful, aren’t I? Is it the hair bows?” She tugged one loose.

Ifra shook his head. The way her hair suddenly spilled over her shoulder seemed indecorous.

“What?” she asked.

“Where I’m from, you only kiss if you’re married. And ... you don’t look like the girls from home.” No, she wasn’t lovely and bewitching like some of the girls in the bazaar, but she did seem much more real.

She scowled, her eyes dark in her pale face. “Celestina never told me how to talk to men. But of course I’m respectable. I’m a
princess
.”

Ifra leaned in and pecked her forehead.

That was definitely something a jinn should not do, unless they were trying to seduce their master into setting them free. But he would forget her anyway, possibly.

She looked at him a moment, then quickly touched her lips. “One more time,” she said, reaching for his collar. “That didn’t really count.”

She aimed for his lips this time, but he was suddenly shaken at the idea that he might kiss this strange Tanharrow girl. Developing feelings for any Tanharrow was the worst thing he could do. He turned so she met his cheek.

Violet drew back, biting her lower lip.

Just then, something shifted in his senses. Erris disappeared. It was as if he’d vanished from the world—no, there was still a slight tug back in the direction of the fairy kingdom—but just moments ago, Erris had been
here
. Close. “Does Erris have magic?” he asked her.

“Why?” she said.

“I don’t sense him here anymore. My magic ... isn’t calling me here. It’s calling me back to Telmirra.”

Violet looked confused. She shook her head.

I have to follow where the magic tugs me. If I sense Erris in Telmirra, even if he isn’t there, I
am
still following orders
. He could put off granting the wish even longer.

Ifra heard sudden footsteps—the wind had obscured the sound, but now they were close, and Violet stiffened.

“Someone’s looking for me! You’d better hurry.”

“You don’t really want to come with me. Whoever I bring back, the fairy king will want to use for his own purposes. And surely your father will miss you when he does come home.” He looked at her seriously. “It’s painful to be torn from your home without knowing if you’ll ever see it again.”

She frowned, cheeks flushed, in a tight, almost childish way and reached upward. “At least take me back to the house on your horse and act like you
considered
kidnapping me. I don’t want Nimira or Celestina to find me yet.”

He couldn’t help but smile and pulled her up onto the horse.

Chapter 10

As I headed back to the house, the jinn and his mount were coming through the apple orchard. The white horse and the jinn with his gleaming gold seemed almost like an apparition haunting the winter-bare trees. Violet sat in front of him, clutching the saddle horn, looking pale. He whistled and the horse stopped, with a delicate snort.

I held up my hands, but I stopped short of saying anything. What would I say, “Give her back”?

He seemed to take note of my worried look. “Well. You should go,” he said to Violet. She had a strange, lifeless look as the jinn hooked his hands under her arms and lifted her off the horse.

“I’m not interested in harming her,” he said.

“What did you do to her?” I asked. “She looks like she’s had the life sucked out of her.”

Violet coughed. “I’m fine. Really. I’m sorry I worried you, Nimira. I just wanted to ... help Erris.” She walked over to me, but she kept
looking back, as if the jinn had somehow bewitched her with those golden eyes of his.

“Where is Prince Erris?” the jinn said. He glanced at the sun, which was beginning its afternoon dive.

I shrugged, keeping my expression cool.

The jinn looked around him a long moment, while Violet looked at the ground. I wondered if jinn could track, but they were not forest creatures, and no recognition dawned on his face.

Good. Maybe Erris was right about water foiling his abilities.

He looked at me a moment, and at Violet another, and then he gave the reins a twitch, and his magnificent horse moved away with a fluid grace it seemed wrong for a horse to possess, like a woman so beautiful no other can compete with her. I think the horse knew it too, which made it all the worse.

I prayed that he would not find Erris in the water. I wanted to follow the jinn, but my presence would do no good; I might even give some accidental hint as to Erris’s whereabouts.

“He didn’t ... say good-bye,” Violet said. She coughed.

“Oh, I’m sure he’ll stop by the house for tea when he’s done looking for someone else to kidnap,” I muttered. “Let’s get you to the house, you look peaked.”

I put my arm around Violet’s shoulder. I was still feeling kindly toward her because she had looked so small on the jinn’s horse, even though she had acted foolishly. She let me lead her along.

“What happened back there with you and the jinn?”

“Nothing.”

I recalled a time on my uncle’s farm when I had eaten a sweet yam bun I wasn’t supposed to have. My response when my uncle asked me where it had gone was much the same. But I didn’t want to demand an answer. That tactic had not exactly endeared my
uncle to me. “You seemed awfully eager to sacrifice yourself on Erris’s behalf.”

She made a little grunt. I doubted there was anything more I could say, so I let her be.

As we neared the house, Celestina came running toward us. “Did you find him?”

“The jinn is searching the grounds, but Erris is hiding ... in the ocean. I think it’s out of our hands now ...” I took a deep breath.

Celestina startled me with an embrace. “It will be all right,” she said. “I only hope he doesn’t burn down the house if he can’t find Erris. Or take us hostage. Or some awful thing.”

“I don’t think ... he’s really cruel,” Violet said. “When I was crying, he was rather nice.”

“What? When was this?”

Violet looked a little flushed. “I didn’t mean to cry, but for some reason, I got so upset about ... trying to protect Uncle Erris, so I started crying.”

“What did he say to you?” I asked. I wanted to know as much as I could about this perplexing creature.

“I don’t know. We talked a bit. And then he helped me onto his horse. And that was when we saw you, Nimira.”

Celestina took a deep breath. “Well, I’m glad to hear you’re all right, but it certainly gave me a scare. And where is your other hair bow?”

“I guess I lost one.”

We had just entered the warm, cozy kitchen. Violet took an apple from the counter and sat down heavily. Celestina had just baked apple pies yesterday, and now she took one from the pantry and cut a huge slice from it. “Do you want any?” she asked me.

I shook my head. I moved to the window, and stared out even
though there was no sign of the jinn. The loudest sound in the room was Violet’s slow crunching of the apple.

After a bit, Celestina said, “Come away from the window, Nim. There’s nothing we can do now.”

“I’m all right here.”

My thoughts were racing. I wondered what I would do if the jinn found Erris. Would I go to the fairy kingdom and try to save him? That seemed too impossible to even consider. But where would I go instead? Celestina liked me, she would surely let me stay the winter, but what about when Ordorio returned? Maybe he would agree to help rescue Erris and I could accompany him, although I wasn’t especially useful. Ordorio was Violet’s family, not mine, and I wasn’t Karstor’s concern either. I wondered if everyone would shut their doors to me if Erris disappeared. He was really the person who mattered.

Then it came back again to what I would do with Erris, anyway. If he remained an exiled automaton, we could never marry. Would I just remain the keeper of his key? And if he became the fairy king ...?

The more thinking I did, the more hopeless I felt. It was best not to think at all, ever, but that was impossible to maintain.

I needed to make myself useful.

“I want to learn magic,” I said suddenly. “We can’t let this happen again.”

“It’s dangerous without proper instruction,” Celestina said. “And no one gives proper instruction in magic to women.”

“Oh, come now,” I said. “Don’t say that.” It was true, magic was something women simply didn’t do in this country, beyond perhaps a little healing or birthing magic. But I hadn’t taken Celestina for
the type to follow all the rules. “My life is clearly dangerous whether I like it or not. We should be prepared.”

“Yes,” Violet said. “We should learn magic! Won’t Papa have some good books on it somewhere?”

“No,” Celestina said. “I’m not going to have your father coming back to find the house burned down!”

“If we’re careful, I doubt we’ll burn the house down,” I said. Magic could be dangerous—I knew it well—but I imagined it would be less dangerous if we had time to practice. “Celestina, we can’t just let the jinn come back and take Erris. Or Violet!”

“Maybe Erris could teach me fairy magic,” Violet said.

“That won’t help the rest of us!” I said. Goodness, if Erris started teaching Violet how to talk to the forest while I sat around uselessly, I would scream.

“No one is learning magic until Mr. Valdana comes back!” Celestina shouted, shoving back the empty plate she had been eating pie from moments ago. “He left me in charge and I must
insist
.”

“Why?” Violet asked.

“Because it’s dangerous, as I
just
said.”

I had never seen Celestina be short about anything. I raised my brows.

“I hear the horse,” she said. I thought she was only looking for a diversion, but when I pushed aside the curtain, sure enough, the jinn had ridden his horse to the door and slid off as easy as I might climb out of bed. He knocked on the door.

Celestina shot me an apprehensive glance, then opened it. “Yes?”

“Where is he?” the jinn said.

We were quiet, although Violet stood from her chair.

“You’ve foiled my magic.” He put his hand to his heart and dipped his head, an acknowledgment. When his head came back up, his eyes met mine. “He was the first thing King Luka asked of me.”

His voice was soft, and yet, I could feel his power like the electricity in the air before a storm, and I wondered how we would ever foil him twice.

His eyes lingered briefly on each of us, and then he turned back to his horse. Celestina shut the door, and Violet moved to the window. We all watched him go.

“I’m going to study magic,” I said firmly. “But first, I must get Erris.”

I waited awhile and approached the shore warily, still looking and listening for the jinn in case of trickery. And when the sea came in view, it looked empty, like it had surely swept Erris away without a trace.

I screamed his name. The sea winds roared in my ears. I cupped my hands around my mouth and called even louder.

He stood up from behind the rock, just where he’d said he’d be. I tried to hide how scared I had felt. He straggled up to me, clothes soaking wet. His hair was still dry. He never had to submerge himself completely, but he’d still been in the water over an hour.

“Are you all right?” I touched his wet shoulder.

“I think so.” He clutched his chest. He looked quite pale. After a moment he said, “I feel cold and clammy all over. Not right at all.”