The Secret of Ka (20 page)

He had two hands! He was using both of them to eat!

It should not have been a shock. I had heard him ask for the hand. But I had been so upset that night, I did not get a clear look at him after he made his wish. Now, to actually see it attached to his arm—it was like a miracle!

Yet there was something wrong with his right hand. The skin color was ghastly. It was not dark like his normal beautiful skin, but a sick yellow. And the longer I watched, the more I saw him struggling.

He was using it to hold the fork, to keep the meat in place, when he should have been using it to cut the meat with his knife. Amesh had told me that he was naturally right-handed. Yet here he was using his left hand to do the more difficult task.

It broke my heart to see why. His new hand was hurting him. He tried to hide it, but every time the fork slipped from his control, he winced.

I ran over and sat beside Amesh. He took one look at me and tried to escape. He had on new clothes. Expensive tailored clothes. Gray slacks, a white silk shirt, and a gaudy silver jacket. I grabbed him by his sleeve as he went to leave.

"We have to talk," I said.

He shook free. "I don't have to talk to you!"

His words stung. For two weeks I had done nothing but worry about him, and now he did not want to speak to me. The only thing that kept me from bursting into tears was the pain on his face. He did not look like the Amesh I knew. He kept twitching.

"Where's Darbar?" If the djinn was nearby, I did not sense it.

He shook at the mention of the creature. "Don't say his name!"

"Why not?"

"Because I hate him, and it might make him come."

"Fine. Talk to me, and I won't mention him again."

It chilled me to the bone to speak of Amesh's djinn as a "him" instead of an "it." Yet I realized that I usually thought of Lova as a "her" or a "she." Was it because I felt Darbar more evil? Less human? Mentally and emotionally, there could be a danger in getting too comfortable with Lova.

Amesh sat back down. "Is that why you're here? To threaten me?"

"I'm here because I'm sick worrying about you. Did you happen to notice that it didn't matter how long we were on the island? When you returned, it was the next day."

"Of course I noticed."

"Well, I've been gone two weeks."

He was stunned. "You're kidding."

"It's been a very long two weeks, Amesh."

"I'm sorry."

"That's it? You leave me stranded on a spooky island and all you can say is you're sorry?"

He looked ashamed. "The djinn ordered me to leave you. It was like it got inside my mind, and I lost all control. But then I thought of you and I fought it. I sent the carpet back. But I had no idea it would take so long to rescue you."

"It came the next night." The carpet had never told me Amesh had sent it back for me. I wondered why. The information meant a lot to me.

"But you just said—"

"I stayed on the island on purpose to try to help you," I interrupted. "To learn how to undo the deals you've made with your djinn."

He shook his head. "He's not my djinn. I want nothing to do with him."

"But you can't get rid of it, can you? Do you know why? It's because of the Laws of the Djinn that I told you about before you decided you knew everything." I paused. "How many wishes have you made so far?"

"Two."

"Liar."

He went to snap at me but then stopped. "What do three wishes have to do with Darbar taking control?" he asked.

"It's the third law of the djinn. Make three wishes and the djinn owns you. It's like you become its thrall."

His eyes blinked rapidly. "What does
thrall
mean?"

I described to him the series of pictures in the djinn temple. When I got to the part about the man being led into a fiery region with his neck in a noose, Amesh turned white.

"I swear on Allah's name, I've only made two wishes!"

"Then why are you twitching like a drug addict in need of a fix? And why do you jump when I say his name?"

He pointed to his right hand. "It's because of this! Look at it. Do you know what it is?"

"A poor copy of your right hand?"

"No! I asked for my hand back. And you know what? It gave it to me! It gave me back my old hand!"

I gulped. "That's impossible."

"Listen, I'm sorry, but the story I told you about how I lost my hand was a lie. The truth is, I was attacked by four guys and they cut it off. The police caught them and there was a trial but it was a joke. The judge let them go."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Hire the best lawyer in town and you can get away with anything. Anyway, during the trial, my hand was Exhibit A. The doctors couldn't sew it back on, but the prosecutor brought it into the courtroom. To keep it fresh, they put it in a glass jar filled with some kind of weird liquid."

"Formaldehyde," I said.

"Huh?"

"It's called formaldehyde." I could smell it on him.

"Whatever. The chemical didn't keep it fresh enough. When I asked the djinn for my hand back, it went and got my original hand." There were tears in his eyes. "I didn't know it was going to do that. I thought it would give me a new hand, not this old rotten thing."

"God," I said. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it. It was the oldest saying in the world, and it was the truest when it came to the oldest beings on earth. Darbar had set Amesh up perfectly. Even if Amesh had not made the third wish yet—which I sensed was somehow partially true—it already had him under its thumb.

Amesh lowered his head and sobbed. Moving my chair close, I hugged him and stroked his hair. It felt good to be able to comfort him. At least, I thought I was comforting him. Suddenly he stood as if he was about to leave.

"I'm sorry, I have to go," he said.

Again, I grabbed his coat and forced him back in his chair. "Would you sit and listen? I'm here to help." I paused. "I brought back another djinn."

"The last thing I want in my life is another djinn."

"What if I order this djinn to help you?"

Finally, he showed interest. "What are you going to wish for?"

"I don't know. I need to get a handle on what's going on with you. You swear you've only made two wishes, but you act like Darbar controls you. I don't get it."

Amesh was silent a long time before he answered.

"Darbar can't find them," he said.

"Find who?"

"The people who ordered the attack on me."

"But you know who they are."

"I know who attacked me. But I don't know who paid them."

"Is that your third wish? The one you say you haven't made yet?"

"I'm not a fool, Sara. I learned from my mistake. I said my second wish wrong and look what happened. I didn't make the same mistake with my third wish."

"Did you make a third wish or not?" I asked.

"I made a deal with Darbar. I didn't want just the guys who attacked me to suffer. I wanted the people who hired them to suffer, too. But Darbar can't find them." He added, "So, like I told you, there's been no third wish because the djinn can't find them."

I shook my head. "This deal you've made with Darbar sounds like a third wish to me. The only thing that's keeping him from making you a thrall is that he hasn't been able to fulfill it."

He stared at the ocean. "I hate them."

"Amesh, maybe that's the way out of this. Drop your need for revenge, and maybe Darbar won't be able to collect on the third wish."

"You don't understand; I want revenge. It's all I've thought about for the last year."

"I don't believe that. The time we spent together, we had a great time. You weren't thinking about revenge then."

"How do you know what I was thinking about?" he asked.

"Because I know you, I care about you. I know that you care about me. You told me as much in that temple, just before Darbar came between us. Amesh, I came back from the island to save you. It's the reason I'm here."

"If that's true then call your djinn and order it to fix my hand. And order it to find those monsters who were responsible for what happened to me last summer. The monsters Darbar can't find. That's only two wishes. If you care so much about me, you can do that. Right?"

"More deals with these devils might not be the best way out of this."

"You're afraid, aren't you? You're afraid you'll say the wishes wrong and end up like poor Amesh. Well, at least on my first wish, I got it right. Do you know how much my jewels are worth?"

"Probably a hundred times more than you've been told."

He pounded the table with his good hand, upsetting his drink. A waiter came and tried to clean it up, but Amesh sent him away. It was fortunate we were outside on a balcony and basically alone, or half of Istanbul would have known our business.

"There's the Sara I'm used to! Always ready with the sarcasm. Sure, you cared about me as long as everything was fine. But now that I'm in trouble, do you really want to order your djinn to help me?" He stood and glared at me. "Don't answer. We both know what the answer will be."

"The answer is yes. I'll do anything to ease your pain. But taking revenge on the people who hurt you isn't going to help."

He held up his yellow hand. "Then fix my hand. Fix it so it works the way it used to and doesn't hurt. The pain is killing me. If I can't stop it, I'm going to do something crazy. You know what I'm saying?"

I stood and gently tried to take his hand.

He winced and jumped back. "Ouch!" he cried.

"I'm sorry," I said.

"Don't say you're sorry. Just call your djinn. Help me."

"I will, I promise. Give me a few minutes."

"What for?"

"To find out certain facts. I have to know how far you've gone with Darbar. I have to try to talk to him and find out if you really have made a valid third wish."

Amesh laughed and I swear his laughter was ten times worse than his tears. It was so spooky, so twisted, it sounded as if it came from someone already damned. It was that fear, more than any other, that made me hesitate. What if I was about to sacrifice so much for nothing?

Amesh, of course, knew exactly what I was thinking.

"You want to talk to Darbar to see if I'm worth saving," he said.

"I've learned a lot about djinn in the last two weeks. I might be able to reason with him, or I might be able to scare him. My djinn is more powerful than he is."

"Says who?" he demanded.

"Trust me, I know."

"You only know what that damn carpet tells you."

"Why curse the carpet? It did nothing to you."

"Nothing? It kidnapped us and flew to an island filled with demons who promised us anything we wanted, when what they were really trying to do was steal our souls. I'm a thrall, Sara, I'm already damned. I'm going to spend the rest of eternity in hell, and all because of your carpet!"

"That's not true! Allah's merciful! He wouldn't damn anyone to eternal suffering. Especially a guy like you who has a Papi and a sister who love him. And yes, a friend who loves him so much that she's willing to make however many wishes she has to in order to save him." I paused. "All I'm asking is for you to give me time to figure out the best way to fix this mess. Please, Amesh, I'm not asking a lot."

He stared at me for a long time. His eyes had calmed and I was sure I had reached him. We could return to the hotel together, I thought. To the island if need be, and work together to set everything right.

"I have missed you," he said softly.

"Me too."

But then his right hand spasmed. It flapped without warning against the table like an impaled fish dying aboard the deck of a ship. I only had to hear his frantic breathing to know how awful his pain must be. He cried out in horror.

"I can't stop it! Nothing can stop it!"

I tried to hug him. "Amesh!"

He pushed me away with his left hand. "Stay away, Sara. What you say—I almost believe you. But if you are telling me the truth, then I'm the last person you should help. I'm the last person who deserves it. And if it isn't true ... well, then it doesn't matter anyway. I'm going to die cursed, but not before I take those others with me."

With that, he ran from the restaurant.

L
EAVING THE HOTEL
, I wandered aimlessly. I did not call for Lova; I did not call for a taxi.
Shock
was too gentle a word to describe my condition. I felt shattered. Even when Amesh had made his two wishes on the island and fled, I had not felt so devastated.

I had returned from the island to save Amesh. I had invoked a strong djinn and brought it back with me for that purpose. Yet I had never stopped to construct a plan on how I was going to free him. I was like a soldier who prepares for battle by buying himself an AK-47. Hey, guys, look at my cool gun. I don't need any training.

In my ignorance, I had assumed that I could frighten Darbar into canceling out the wishes he had granted Amesh. If that failed, I figured I would order Lova to kill Darbar and set Amesh free. But I had never stopped to think that asking a djinn to murder a fellow djinn might cost extra. To be blunt, my whole approach had been barbaric. Terrify Darbar, kill Darbar. In the end Lova was more likely to kill me. Or worse.

I was starting to worry about that
worse.
It had been easy to fantasize about rescuing Amesh from a distance. Sleeping under Hara and Aleena's roof, I had felt safe. I would swoop back to Istanbul like an avenging angel and vanquish the evil djinn. But now, seeing Amesh up close and the agony he was going through, I had to stop and think:

What if that were me?

Plus, I was making all these sacrifices for a guy I had known a few days. I had to ask myself a serious question. Did I owe Amesh my very soul?

Sure, I was the one who had encouraged the carpet to take us where it wanted to go. But it had been his choice to invoke Darbar, not mine. I had begged him to leave the djinn alone and he had ignored me.

What did I owe Amesh? Could such a thing be measured?

Did I love him? Could love ever be measured?

I did have a huge crush on him, but that did not mean I cared for him like his Papi and Mira did. In a way, I realized, they should be the ones to save him. His grandfather would do anything for him.