by J A Armitage
Genie gave me a sad smile. “You had an inkling that something was going to happen, but you didn’t know what. Knowing what you know now, what do you propose you’ll do to stop it?”
“I’ll...” I didn’t know. This wasn’t a single thing I could touch or see, it was a myriad of problems created by a magical force. A magical force I didn’t know how to stop now any more than I did then. I didn’t even know where it had come from. I didn’t believe it was a thing of the gods. I doubted Genie believed that either. This had something to do with me. My magic started when this started in Badalah.
“Take me back to my birth.”
“You want to go back to when your parents were young? You know that time travel will take you out of this timeline to put you in another. You’ll cease to exist here. What would I tell your mother?”
“Can you send me back long enough to see where I came from and then bring me back?”
“I can. It will take you two of your three wishes. One for each way. If you just want to see what happened, I can show you without you leaving the palace. That will take one wish. You’ll stay exactly where you are.”
“Do it!” I said, standing up. “Show me everything you can around my birth. And when you are done, I’ll wish for your freedom.”
“I don’t even know this will work without the lamp.”
“Neither of us will know without trying.”
“You have to say the words,” he said with a sigh. He’d known me better than myself. He’d known I would make a wish, but it wasn’t a frivolous wish. I was doing this for him as well as for me. I was doing this for all of us.
He looked at me as though he was hoping I wouldn’t. But I had no choice. If I wanted my father back, my mother well, and Genie to be free, I needed to find out how this all started.
I took his hands in mine. “Genie. I wish for you to show me my own birth.”
The hairs on my arm stood on end, sending a chill down my spine as his magical energy spun around us.
It peeled away and formed a spinning orb of light.
Genie let go of me and nodded to the light.
“In there, is what you seek. It will appear to you that you are somewhere else, but in reality, you’ll not leave my office.”
The light was cold, making me shiver as I stepped through it.
A dense fog rolled in, and with it, a scream pierced the air. Not mine, not Genie.
A hazy image appeared before me.
A younger woman on a bed, screaming. But I couldn't do anything. There was some invisible shield between us. It wasn’t real, it was a memory.
Then an older woman came into view. She was at the end of the bed.
She held a baby in her arms. A newborn still tethered to its mother
The old woman cleaned it up and cut the cord. The golden rings around its irises were unmistakable. I was looking at myself.
It was the most bizarre feeling. I felt a strange sensation in my stomach as the older lady passed the baby to the mother...my mother. As she passed it, I noticed something else about the child. I’d been so caught up in its eyes, that I’d not paid attention to the rest of it. It wasn’t me, after all. It was a baby boy.
Disappointment filled me. Genie was wrong. This wasn’t about me. This was someone else. The look of love on the mother as she gazed down at her new son was unmistakable.
She was an extraordinarily beautiful woman, with long dark hair that clung to her face with sweat, but I imagined it hung beautifully straight on normal days. Her features contorted, and she screamed again. The older woman took the babe and disappeared from view, returning a few seconds later without the child. For a second, I was confused. What was happening? But as the older woman took her place at the foot of the bed, I understood. Twins.
I watched in awe as the young woman bore down and pushed another child into the world. It came out quickly, almost falling into the older woman’s hands.
“A girl!” she announced. She proceeded to clean her up in the same way she had with the boy. The mother was flushed with exhaustion, but the same look of love I’d seen moments earlier came back to her face as the baby was swaddled and handed to her.
I’d asked to see my birth, and here it was. I had a brother. A twin brother. Of all the things I’d wondered about where I’d come from, I’d never expected to see another child. If I had a twin, where was he? Why didn’t the women want to keep us together?
"What will you do with the babes?" The old woman asked, gazing down at the small child.
I looked at the baby myself, willing myself closer. She had the golden rings around her eyes. Other than that, she could have been anyone.
We both watched on as she carefully caressed the little girl's cheeks, cuddling her into her bosom.
The younger woman finally looked up to the older one and spoke. "My father will kill them if he finds out. I’ve hidden the pregnancy. I can’t hide the babies."
It suddenly made sense. She was young. There was no man in the room, so probably no father was in the picture, and she’d kept it from her own father. I wanted to reach out and hug her, but before my eyes, the scene shifted.
The women were seated at a table in what looked to be a kitchen. I could hear the babies crying, but I couldn't see them. The fog around the edges of the picture was thick, and I knew if I tried to walk into it, I’d only find myself out of the picture altogether and back in Genie’s office.
The young woman was in tears, but the older woman was speaking. "You must have noticed the magic that came into the world when the babies were born.”
“I don’t want to give them away. I love them.”
“I know you do, but this is bigger than you. Look at this.” she pushed a newspaper toward the younger woman. I leaned forward and read the headline. A hundred years of sleep comes to an end. Draconis celebrates.
Below it was a picture of a young woman looking at a man adoringly. I recognized them as the king and queen of Draconis.
The young woman barely looked at the paper before pushing it away.
“You can’t ignore it,” the old one said. “All the bad in the world. It’s gone. You made something beautiful. The babies are special, but you know they aren’t safe. If your father finds out about them and kills them to make up for your sins, all this good will be over. Did you see the marriage announcement of the young prince in Atlantice? It’s not the only one. The kingdoms are protected from evil. For the first time in a long time, people are happy.”
“I’m not happy,” the younger one said, wiping her eyes with the back of her hand “Why must their happiness take precedence over mine?”
The older woman reached across the table and patted the younger woman’s hand. “You know why. We are talking about everyone in all the kingdoms. That’s millions of people. Besides, will you be happy if your father kills them? No, you won’t. I’m afraid your happiness is not possible, but your children’s might be. You want them to be happy, don’t you?”
Tears flowed down her face, but she nodded.
"The magic won't last forever,” the young woman said assertively. “When they turn eighteen, this burst will fade. It is about then that they will come into their own powers. I just need to hide them until they are adults."
With a heavy sigh, the old woman spoke up again. "I will help you. I have an idea..."
The fog rolled out, and the haze was gone. Suddenly, I was back in Genie’s office.
My head hurt with everything I’d just witnessed, but I was soon brought back to the present when Genie fell to the floor in front of me.
"Genie, are you all right?" I asked, running toward him. I crouched down and wrapped my arm around his back.
He smiled weakly, "I forgot how exhausting magic can be. I’m not the man...the genie I once was. I’m an old man now.”
“You aren’t old,” I said, ignoring the fact that he was generations old. He didn’t look it. What he did look was tired.
“Come on, let’s get you up onto
the couch.”
I already had my arm around him, and with the other, I grabbed his arm and helped him to his feet.
“Not the couch,” he huffed. His face was sheet white with the exertion of standing. “My bed.”
Not once in my whole life had I gone through the doors from his office to his private quarters. He was usually so private. Asking me to help him to bed was a huge deal.
Using my foot, I carefully opened the doors. Inside was a small living area with a couch and yet more books in bookshelves along the far wall. Normally, I’d have made a quip about him keeping the best books to himself, but he was sick. He nodded to a door on the opposite side. We shuffled across slowly with me holding most of his weight. Opening the door, I found myself in Genie’s bedroom. The white walls were the same at the rest of the palace, but instead of the thick heavy curtains that hung everywhere else, his full-length windows were covered by a flimsy white gauzy material that flapped in the light breeze. His bed was the only color in the room, covered as it was with a colorful bedspread of pinks, purples, and turquoise.
I helped him down, making sure his head was on the pillow.
He looked at me in such a way that almost broke me. I’d never seen him look at me like that before, with such intensity as though he was seeing me for the first time.
“I wish I could see what was going on in your head,” I said lightly.
He smiled, and the Genie that I knew came back. There was a tear in the corner of his eye, and sweat covered his forehead.
“Is that a real wish?”
“Just a turn of phrase,” I said, smiling back. I turned to leave, but he caught my hand.
“Stay,” he murmured.
My heart sped up at his words.
“What?” I’d heard him, I just wasn’t sure I believed my own ears.
The tear began to make its way down the side of his head.
“Stay with me.”
I swallowed back a response and climbed onto the bed next to him. He moved over enough to let me on, but his body remained next to mine. I could barely breathe with the intensity of my heart pounding as it was.
He snaked his arm under my head, pulling me toward him so that my head ended up on his chest. With my free hand, I conjured up a flame, partly for something to quiet my racing heart and partly to dispel some of the magical energy burning through me.
We both watched the flames, dancing on my fingertips, but I was more aware of Genie’s fingers as he traced swirls on my temple and ran his fingers through my hair.
My entire body was burning with desire, and with magic, the two things seemingly linked, swirling around inside me, so much so that it was hard to keep control of the flame I was producing.
I watched the flame until I could bear it no longer. Letting the flame extinguish, I turned to Genie. His eyes were closed, and his chest was rising and falling rhythmically in sleep.
I kissed him lightly on the cheek and smiled as I closed my own eyes and let myself fall into blissful sleep next to him.
26th June
When I awoke, the sun was much higher in the sky that it had been when I’d fallen asleep. I’d spent the night in Genie’s arms. My arm had gone numb from being in one position for so long, but everything felt so right, so perfect that I was loathe to move.
Genie still slept soundly, his braided hair curled out at his other side. I moved slightly, sending a shot of pain up my arm. Gritting my teeth against it, I shuffled my body until I was close enough to kiss him. His lips were warm, delicious. My heart was pounding so loudly that I was sure it would wake him. As it was, the touch of my lips to his was what caused his eyelids to flutter open.
"Good morning," I whispered, pulling back slightly and ignoring the pain in my arm as the blood was draining back into it.
He seemed surprised to see me. Not the reaction I wanted. Sitting up in bed, he pulled the covers aside.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have taken advantage.”
My heart fell as he twisted his legs out of bed.
“You didn’t take advantage. I wanted to be here.”
“That’s the problem,” he said, standing up and pulling a robe over his clothes. “I know you did. I should have been stronger.”
I stepped out of bed. “It’s not like we did anything,” I pouted, ignoring the way I’d woken him up, not moments before.
“I acted badly. Come, let’s go to my office and you can tell me what you saw in the memory. Was it what you expected to see?”
And just like that, we were mentor and mentee again. The closeness we’d shared had been in my own head. With a heavy heart, I followed him out of the bedroom, through the living area and back to his office where I’d spent many hours.
"Gaia... What happened last night..."
I nodded.
"That can never happen again. I am grateful for your friendship and care, but I have nothing else to offer you. Besides, your father is my best friend, and well, you've got a lot more you need to deal with, like finding out exactly what is happening across the kingdoms."
At least, he remembered my father again. It was little consolation in the circumstances.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said.
He didn’t buy it, but what could we do. I wanted something he wasn’t able to give me, not with all the wishes in the world.
“Tell me what you saw last night. I couldn’t see what you saw. The magic was only for you.”
“I saw my mother. I saw myself as a baby. Genie, I have a twin brother.”
Genie’s eyes widened at the confession.
“I was there when you were brought to the palace. There was only you. The women mentioned no other child.”
I sighed. “Tell me about the night I was brought to the palace.”
I needed to get my mind on something else rather than how beautiful he looked and how much I wished I was still in his bed with him. I needed to concentrate on what was important.
“I was called from my room. It was late. Very late. Your parents didn’t like to disturb me in the night, so I knew it was important. I found them in the entrance hall. Your mother was holding you. Your father stood at the door, talking to an older woman. I remember him almost begging her for details.”
“What kind of details?”
“I think he wanted to know everything, but the old woman refused to answer his questions. She looked desperate to get away if I remember correctly.”
“I saw her in the vision. What about a younger woman with long black hair.”
“I only got a glimpse of her. She stood behind the older one. She didn’t say a word. She did walk into the palace as your father was demanding answers from the older one and kissed your cheek. I saw the heartbreak on her face. She never said a word, though.
As she walked back to the door, your father asked the older woman what your name was. That’s when the younger woman spoke. She only said one word. ‘Gaia.’”
I’d seen the pain on her face myself. She hadn’t wanted to give me away. She’d done it to save my life and that of my brother’s.
“In the vision, she said that her father would kill us if he ever found out. What kind of man would kill a newborn baby?”
Genie shook his head slowly. “There are all kinds of people out there. They are not all as good as you.”
“I’m not good enough for you, though, right?”
Genie sighed, sucking in his cheek.
"Gaia. We’ve been through this. There are too many reasons for us not to be together. Look at me." He held up the cuffs on his wrists. “I am a slave. I am destined to spend my life as a slave. It is not that you are not good enough for me. It is I that is not good enough.” There was sincere pain in his eyes. “I will not drag you into what I’ve become and what I will continue to become. I will not take your freedom from you.”
Every word he said was like a dagger to my chest, but the worst part about it was that I understood his reasoning. He was turning back into a genie. At some poi
nt in the near future, he’d become trapped in his lamp again. The same lamp my father threw out into the desert. I didn’t even know where it was. No one did.
“I should go and see my mother. She’ll be wondering where I am.”
I walked past him, not daring to look him in the eyes and headed out into the corridor and set off toward my mother’s chambers.
"Gaia! Oh, my dear girl. Where have you been?" My mother demanded. There was a sincere sense of relief in her tone and her embrace when I found her in her chambers. Freya was sitting with her, which I was thankful for.
"I'm so sorry, mother. Genie and I were trying to figure something out, and next thing we knew, we got to talking and fell asleep. I think all of the stress and exhaustion finally caught up to me."
Freya’s eyes widened at this, and she gave me a knowing look, but my mother took it in her stride.
"You missed the party yesterday.” She turned to Freya. “Freya, my dear. Will you please send word to Jamal via the guards?"
"Yes, Your Majesty," she said, disappearing through the antechamber.
“Jamal has been looking for me?”
“I told him you’d be fine. To be honest, I thought you were sleeping in your own chambers. Jamal was worried when you didn’t show up this morning, so I let him search the palace for you.”
I wasn’t sure what I thought of that. While I should have told everyone where I was going last night, I was eighteen years old. Old enough to go somewhere in my own palace without anyone searching for me.
Just then, Freya and Jamal returned. Both bowing to my mother, waiting for her to give them to the command to proceed. Even in those trying times, everyone but me seemed to be sticking with customs.
"Princess. I'm so glad you are all right." Jamal said, bowing to me. I narrowed my eyes, surprised by his sudden need to treat me like I was above him. He usually called me Gaia.
“Freya tells me you were with the Genie.”
Behind him, Freya gave me a sorry look and shrugged her shoulders.
“I was. I needed to ask him something. It was important.”