The Secret of Ka

  "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.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  LEAVING 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.

  Was it possible to turn Lova over to Mr. Demir? Give the man a crash course on the djinn? I wished there were a book on the subject: How to Bargain with Your Local Djinn.

  I had walked far, giving no thought to what time it was or where I was, when I realized that a black van was following me. I was near the airport on a service road that ran between the big hotels. It was little more than an alley. Although the sun was still bright, the road was deserted and I saw that there was no one around to call to for help.

  A second black van turned onto the alley in front of me.

  I was boxed in. Opening my cell, I dialed 911. No one answered. Of course, I was in Turkey. 911 was not a universal number for help. What was the Istanbul number? I had never thought to look it up. The vans were closing in; they slowed as they came near. Side doors were opening.

  The carpet! The carpet could fly for over an hour during the day. As men wearing black ski masks leaped from the vans, I pulled it out and tried to feel for a ley line.

  But my heart was pounding too hard to feel anything but fear. Except for their dark masks, the men were dressed in white. Two pulled out knives. But it was a man without a knife who took the lead. He stepped forward.

  "We don't want to hurt you," he said. "We just want the carpet."

  "Go to hell!" I swore, hugging it to my chest. The power built into the carpet flowed through me. My arms and legs felt energized. I felt strong.

  The leader's partner waved his knife and spoke in a deadly tone. "What if we poke out your eyes? You can wear glass eyes the rest of your life. I'm sure your boyfriends will love the poor blind girl."

  I thought of Lova. I could call for the djinn; she would hear my call. I could order her to slay the men and, because they were only human, she would charge me just one wish. But I hated to waste a wish on this slime.

  Plus, I continued to feel a buildup of power in my limbs. It was odd but the feeling was familiar. Were Kalas stronger than normal people?

  "You underestimate the power of what I hold," I said. "It's given me amazing strength. I don't want to hurt you, but I will if you don't back off."

  The man who had threatened me lunged forward with his knife. My right foot instinctively shot out. I kicked the knife out of his hand—it went flying. He raised an arm to strike. I kicked again, at his left kneecap. It did not merely bend; it cracked. The man screamed and fell to the ground.

  The others glanced at each other. Even with their ski masks, I could see the fear in their eyes. This skinny white chick was behaving more like Spidergirl than a spoiled American babe.

  The second man with a knife lunged. I kicked him in the groin, and he fell to the ground, moaning.

  I spoke firmly. "Leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. Okay?"

  The leader turned toward a van. He signaled.

  A sparkling green light filled the interior of the van. Then it expanded outward, in my direction, and a wave of dizziness swept over me. My arms and legs were suddenly heavy, and I felt sick to my stomach.

  The green light condensed into a narrow beam and struck my chest. It was like being hit by lightning. I lost the carpet. I lost the ability to stand. Hitting the asphalt, lying on my side, I was gripped by a brief seizure.

  I must have blacked out for a moment.

  When I came to, the leader was peering down at me with the carpet in his hands. "Where are Bora and Hasad?" he demanded. "Where did he take them?"

  "Beats me," I whispered.

  The man I had kneed in the groin kicked me in the side. I heard a rib crack. He had knocked the wind out of me. Gasping to fill my lungs, I saw the leader try to hold his partner back.

  "We know you know Amesh," he said. "Tell us where he took them."

  He was probably referring to two of the guys who had attacked Amesh. Chances were Darbar had them. It was a wicked thought to imagine anyone in the clutches of an angry djinn.

  "The thing that took them isn't human," I mumbled.

  The leader spoke with his partners in Turkish. Then the guy who had kicked my side wound up his black boot and smashed my head. Everything went dark.

  When I came to I was in pain. My whole body ached, even places that had not been struck. It was curious how heavily armed the gang had been, when you considered it was just there to steal a carpet from a girl. They obviously knew the value and power of the carpet.

  But who were they? And what was that green light?

  One thing was for sure. Amesh and I had not discovered the carpet without at least one other person noticing. But was that an absolute fact? I had come under attack only after returning from the island. When we had first found the carpet, we had been given plenty of time to learn how to use it. Certainly, no one had followed us to the island.

  Amesh had to be the cause of my new popularity. The guys in the masks had been anxious to find him. That meant either he or Darbar had kidnapped their partners. Yet the way Amesh was running all over Istanbul and selling gems, I was surprised they hadn't been able to find him on their own.

  Maybe the gang's first priority had been to get the carpet. But how did they even know about it?

  I forced myself to sit up and take stock of my damage. The kick to my right side had definitely broken a rib. It hurt to move,
even to take a breath. My hair was sticky with dried blood, and I felt a lump the size of an egg forming at the base of my skull. The sun was still up but the sky was darkening. I estimated I had been unconscious an hour.

  I sat cross-legged and closed my eyes, let my mind calm down the way the carpet had taught me on the island. I took ten slow breaths—gently, with my sore ribs. Then I imagined a pillar of white light pouring into my head from above. Don't ask me how this worked; I don't know. It was a form of meditation the carpet had taught me. Within minutes a healing sensation began to seep through my body.

  It also cleared my mind, and when I was calm, I mentally reached for the carpet. But I felt something was off. The carpet heard me, I was sure, but it was blocked. Its captors had probably figured that I was capable of calling to it and had locked it in a vault or a chest. I could call for hours and get nowhere.

  I saw no choice. I had to summon Lova and make a wish. Damn.

  "Lova, come to me," I said aloud.

  She appeared instantly, standing above like a shadow in the failing light. "You are hurt," she said.

  "I was attacked. They took the carpet." I paused. "Do you know who they are?"

  "I cannot retrieve the carpet for you unless you wish for its retrieval."

  "That would be my first wish with you."

  "Yes"

  "I have already made a wish with your mate."

  "I know."

  "But wishes with different djinn do not overlap. If you retrieve the carpet for me, I still owe you nothing."

  "That is correct." Lova paused. "But are you sure you don't desire something other than the carpet?"

  "I don't know what you're talking about."

  "Your friend, who is with Darbar. It is a boy, is it not? You want his love back. You want him to love you like he did before he met Darbar."

  I felt a flash of anger. "You're not to bring him up unless I mention him first. Do you understand?"

  Lova smiled faintly. "Yes."

  "Sit, Lova." She sat. "I also want to know who attacked me."

  "I would have to question them to get their names. Since they cannot see or hear me, that would be difficult. I have told you, I'm not familiar with your realm. I would probably have to kidnap them and torture them to get them to talk. That would require a second wish."