We were exhausted. We decided to arrange our jackets like pillows and plop down on the thick layer of grass that grew between the marble star spikes. By then it was eleven o'clock.
Amesh wanted to rest on the carpet itself, but that was something I just couldn't allow. The way I snapped at him when he suggested it annoyed him. But I apologized, and a few kind words seemed to go a long way with him.
We drank what was left of our water, and to celebrate the success of our adventure, we treated ourselves to two protein bars each. It was cute to listen to Amesh talk about how we were going to get our pictures on the cover of Time magazine once the world learned about all we'd discovered.
But at the same time, I was worried.
"We'll be rich and famous," he kept saying.
"Aren't you forgetting one thing?"
"What?"
"The carpet. It was the carpet that brought us here."
"So? This place is more important than the carpet."
"I wouldn't be too sure about that. Even if we tell the world about this island, we can't say how we got here."
"People are going to ask."
"I know. We'll tell them, I don't know, we took a boat."
"Why shouldn't we tell them the truth?" he asked.
"Because then we'll have to give up the carpet."
"We don't know that. We're the ones who found it."
"I found it, Amesh. As you've already pointed out, I found it on Turkish soil, at a place where I didn't belong. Your government will try to claim it for itself." I paused. "And that's not going to happen."
I felt him stiffen in the dark. "I thought we agreed to share whatever money the carpet brought in," he said.
"We already agreed not to sell the carpet! It's not just an artifact. It can fly! It knew to bring us here. God only knows what else it can do."
"What are you saying? We're not going to tell anyone what we've found?"
"I haven't decided yet."
"You haven't decided? Don't I get a vote?"
I realized I was sounding like a megalomaniac.
"Of course you do. All I'm saying is that the situation's changed since we first found it. The carpet's more important than we could've imagined."
"It's more important to you. That's what you mean."
"That's not fair."
"No? Have you noticed the way you treat it? Like it was your child."
"So? It's natural I should want to protect it."
He rolled on his back and stared at the sky.
"Nothing about that carpet is natural," he mumbled.
Those were his last words. A minute later he was snoring. Despite my exhaustion, I felt relieved to have time alone to think about our situation. Our argument about who was in charge was more dangerous than I wanted to admit.
In two days we had become friends. I trusted him more than I trusted most of my friends at home. Yet trust could be defined in different ways. If I were in danger, I knew he wouldn't hesitate to save me, even if it meant risking his own life.
The reverse was also true. Long before we'd found the ponds, I had decided to give him most of the water, even though it meant I might die of thirst first. I was proud of myself for that.
Unfortunately, even though we joked about the differences in how we had been brought up, they were real. He did not see the world the way I did. No matter how much I teased him about his belief that men were superior to women, he honestly thought it was true. When the final decision had to be made concerning the carpet, I feared he might try to take over.
Then there was the financial issue. I could try to imagine what it meant to live with as little money as Amesh and his family possessed, but it was just that—my imagination. I had grown up spoiled. Whatever I wanted I pretty much got. I just had to look at the way he dressed and the condition of his moped to know he owned next to nothing. The promise of the money the carpet could bring must have been weighing on him constantly. And that weight had no doubt doubled with the discovery of the temples.
What was wrong with that? It wasn't like his desire for money was bad. Money and fame were what most people in the world wanted.
But they weren't what I wanted. I didn't need money. And what about fame? Like all teenagers, I daydreamed about being a rock star or a movie star. Yet when I placed that desire beside the mystery of the carpet, it paled in comparison.
The carpet opened doors I had not known existed. The carpet filled me with wonder. And that was a sensation I wasn't willing to give up.
"I was the one who found it," I mumbled as I lay on my back and stared up at the sky.
It took me a minute to realize there was still something wrong with it.
Like this morning, I did not recognize the stars; or rather, I did not recognize their positions. Vega was a bright summer star. During June and July, right after sunset, it was always straight overhead. And there was Vega, high in the sky, only it was forty-five degrees south of straight up.
The other night I had used the North Star to test the accuracy of our compasses. Now I could not find it. I tried using the cup of the Big Dipper to locate it but failed. Because I could not find the Big Dipper.
It was gone. Yet that was crazy. Stars did not simply disappear. They burned for billions of years.
Plus that weird red star—that glow—was back. Since we were nestled in a deep basin and surrounded by hills, neither of us had seen it rise. However, now that it had crested the eastern hill, it was obviously brighter than any other star in the sky.
Yet such a star did not exist.
The mystery made me restless. Suddenly I did not feel sleepy. I kept wondering how the stars on the carpet were reacting to the stars in this weird sky. Also, I was still anxious to find a ley line in the valley. We had looked for one before but it had been a hasty search.
Not that I planned on flying anywhere without Amesh.
Picking up the carpet, I headed toward the second temple we had tried to enter, the triangular-shaped one. I was not interested in trying to break in; I just wanted privacy. As I neared it, I felt a familiar charge in the air—the same charge I had felt on the beach.
I laid out the carpet and let it soak up the sky. Almost immediately I saw the tassels on the ends of the carpet stiffen and knew it was on top of a ley line. I could take the carpet for a ride if I wanted!
I was about to wake Amesh when the carpet's central stars caught my eye. They were not moving like they did when we flew the carpet, but they were much brighter.
"I wish you could talk," I told the carpet. The words were barely out of my mouth when several stars brightened while others dimmed. The effect was not subtle—something was happening at the center of the carpet. Certain stars were moving to make a shape. No, that was not precisely true. I still had to connect the stars—like one had to connect the dots.
The only problem was, it was not an image I recognized.
I stared at it for a long time before inspiration struck.
Was it a letter? Had the carpet responded to my question by creating a letter in an unknown alphabet? My heart pounded wildly at the prospect. If that was true then it meant the carpet was trying to talk to me!
"Stay cool," I told myself. "You don't know anything yet."
I reached for my BlackBerry and was surprised when it failed to turn on. It made no sense; I had just charged the battery.
This forced me to stare at the stars more. There was nothing else to do. But it was like the carpet sensed my frustration. The object it had formed with the stars broke into two pieces and then reformed.
A minute later, I shouted out in glee.
I saw two letters! An H and an I!
The carpet was saying hello to me.
"Hi!" I said back.
More stars joined the two letters.
They formed an exclamation point!
I leaned close to the carpet. "Do you speak English?"
The star field formed a J and an A.
"Ja," I muttered to my
self, momentarily confused, before I burst out laughing. Ja was German for yes. As I watched, the star field spelled out three more letters: O ... U ... I. Oui, French for yes. It was playing with me.
"My name's Sara," I said. "Do you have a name?"
It switched and spelled out entire words, one at a time, but quickly, as fast as I could read them.
"No name now."
"You don't have a name now? Did you have a name in the past?"
"Depends."
"It depends? On what does it depend?"
"On who asks."
"But I'm asking. Who am I speaking to?"
"Mystery."
"Am I capable of understanding who I'm speaking to?"
"Not yet."
"Will I be capable of understanding in the future?"
"Depends."
"What does it depend on?"
"On whether you survive."
Talk about getting a chill. Someone didn't just walk over my grave, as the old saying went. They took a shovel and began to dig it up. It was saying I might die soon. My voice trembled as I asked if that was true.
"All life ends in death."
"All life ends in death," I repeated. "Sure, I know that. It's more a question of when, don't you think?" The carpet didn't respond. I tried another approach. "Is this island dangerous?"
"This island is magical."
"Were we brought here for a purpose?"
"You were."
"What about Amesh?"
The carpet did not respond.
"Why was I brought here?"
"To know."
"To know what?"
"What needs to be known."
On the surface, one might have thought the carpet was playing with me again. Yet as I read the message, a sense of purpose stirred inside. What I needed to know was important, not for myself but for everyone. I asked if that was true.
"Yes," it said.
"Can you tell me what I need to know?"
"Hint."
"You can only hint?"
"Yes."
"Because I have to discover most of it on my own?"
"Yes."
"Was I meant to discover you?"
"It depends on who you ask."
I was asking the carpet! Didn't it know that? I tried another tact. "Was I meant to discover the carpet?"
"Yes."
Why did it answer one question with a simple yes when it gave such a cryptic response to the other question? The questions were almost identical.
Except the second time I had asked, I had identified the you as the carpet. Maybe I was not really speaking to the carpet at all.
"Am I speaking to the carpet now or to someone else?"
"Someone else."
"Are you connected to the carpet and yet separate from it?"
"All are connected to the Carpet of Ka."
"The Carpet of Ka," I whispered, feeling power in the words, the beauty. The name was not unfamiliar. I had heard it before, somewhere.
"Should I address you as Ka?" I asked.
"No."
"I feel power when I say the word. Why?"
"Certain words are words of power."
"Can you teach me them?"
"Your intuition knows them when they are spoken."
"How do I know how to fly the carpet?"
"Intuition."
"Can you explain in more detail?"
"Knowledge is in the blood."
"What's special about my blood?"
"Lineage is ancient. Royal."
That made me feel pretty good about myself. "Are you saying I used to be a princess?" I joked.
"Lineage," it repeated.
"Someone in my past was a ruler?"
"Many Kalas in your past."
"What is a Kala?"
"Kala is the name of your lineage. It is what you aspire to be. Just as a student who practices healing might one day become a doctor, he or she who bonds with the Carpet of Ka and comes to this island hopes to become a Kala."
"How long have the Kalas existed?"
"They existed before mankind remembers."
"Is the Carpet of Ka older than mankind's recorded history?"
"Yes."
"Can it be damaged?"
"No. It protects."
"It helps protect me?"
"Yes."
"From what?"
"Evil."
I stopped to take several deep breaths. We were getting heavy here, especially since I was sitting alone in the dark.
"You said this island is magical. Is there evil here?" I asked.
"Good and evil."
"What makes this island magical?"
"Djinn."
"Djinn." My heart shook with excitement. "Are you saying there are genies here?"
"Djinn."
"God," I whispered. "Where are they?"
"Here."
"Are you saying they're all around but I can't see them?"
"Yes."
"Can they see me?"
"Some. They see you when you enter their temples."
"Is that what these temples are? Djinn temples?"
"Yes."
"Are the djinn evil?"
"Most are ambivalent when it comes to humans."
"Are you related to the djinn?"
"No."
"Was I brought here to contact the djinn?"
"Perhaps."
"Would it be dangerous to contact them?"
"Always dangerous. But..."
It did not finish. "But what?" I asked.
"Perhaps necessary."
"How can I protect myself if I try to contact them?"
"Don't tell them your full name."
"Why not?"
"Names have power."
"My name has power?"
"To you it does. That power can be used against you."
"Is it important that I learn the name of any djinn I meet?"
"Your intuition serves you well. The name of a djinn is key."
"How else can I protect myself from them?"
"Learn the Three Laws of the Djinn."
"What are the Three Laws of the Djinn?"
"First wish, the djinn must grant for free. Second wish, one owes the djinn. Third wish—"
I did not get to hear what happened with the third wish. Amesh was suddenly nearby, looming over me like an angry lion.
"What are you doing behind my back?" he shouted.
CHAPTER EIGHT
HE STARTLED ME, and his tone made me feel guilty, although I had done nothing wrong. So I instinctively lied, saying, "Nothing."
He crouched beside me, his head an outline in the dark. I did not need to see his expression to know his mood.
"I heard you talking to it," he said.
"Talking to what?"
"Don't play dumb. The carpet. It was talking to you."
I did try to play dumb. "You heard it talking to me?"
He pointed at the central star field, which no longer displayed any words. "You were bent over it, staring at that spot," he said.
"I was trying to study how—"
"You were talking to it!" he interrupted.
"I don't know what you mean."
"What you mean is you don't know how long I've been standing in the dark listening to you."
I tried acting hurt, anything to deflect his anger. Why was he so mad? He was scaring me.
"You were spying on me," I said.
"Spying? I wake up and suddenly you're gone. I got up because I was worried about you. Then I find you off with the carpet trying to learn stuff behind my back."
"I didn't find out anything."
"Really? The Carpet of Ka didn't tell you any secrets?"
Damn, I thought. He had been listening for a while. I had not only asked the questions; I remembered repeating many of the carpet's answers aloud. But I couldn't remember exactly which ones. He brought his head closer in the dark. I could feel the heat of his breath.
"What did you learn about th
e djinn?" he asked.
I sighed. "I thought it was spelling out words, using the stars. But it might have just been my imagination."
"You were having a conversation with it. You knew exactly what it was saying." He paused. "Is this the first time you've spoken to it?"
"What kind of question is that? You've been with me since I found it."
"I wasn't with you all the time in the hotel room. And you said I fell asleep last night before you did. For all I know you talked to it all night."
Sarcasm was an old ally of mine, particularly when I felt cornered. "You're right. We plotted against you. It told me the best way to murder you in your sleep."
He stood and stared off into the distance. "In a way I'm glad you're sticking with your lies. From the moment we found the carpet I've had a bad feeling in my gut. I thought I was being paranoid. But now I know you're not who you pretend to be."
That hurt.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.
He turned back to me. "What are you sorry about?"
"I'm sorry I lied to you," I said.
"You're just sorry you got caught."
"I only took it away from where you were sleeping so I wouldn't wake you. I had no idea it would start talking."
He pointed at the carpet. "How does it work?"
"I ask a question and certain stars brighten while others dim. They spell out words."
"Show me."
"Okay, I'll try talking to it," I said hastily, turning toward the carpet. "Can you tell us more about who made you?"
The star field did not change.
Amesh crouched beside me again. "Ask it more about the djinn."
"It said the djinn are dangerous."
"Ask!"
"Can you tell us more about the djinn?"
Again, the stars did not change, and I knew why. There was too much tension in the air. Besides, I sensed it didn't want to speak to him because it knew he was not of the same lineage as me.
"It's not working," I said.
"Why not?"
"I don't know."
"Is it because I'm not royalty? Like you?"
Oh God, I thought, he had heard so much!
"Amesh, please, I apologized. I was wrong not to tell you at the start that I spoke to it. But you startled me and..."
"You automatically lied to me," he said.
I leaned over to gather up the carpet. "Fine. Be angry, I don't care. I'm going to sleep."