by J A Armitage
“What was so important that you needed to speak to him all night about it?”
I sucked up a breath, not daring myself to speak. What business was it of his where I spent my evenings? Luckily, my mother stepped in before I had the chance to answer.
“Jamal, darling,” she said, putting her arm around his shoulder. “Gaia is a big girl. I was wondering if you’ll talk to me about the party yesterday. I’d like your input on where we can do a better job next time.”
Jamal looked increasingly uncomfortable, but I used it as an excuse to leave. I was in no mood to have a discussion about Genie. I didn’t even know how I felt about everything yet. I had a feeling that Jamal didn’t want to know what my feelings toward Genie were anyway.
Freya followed me out of my mother’s chambers. Once we were in the clear, Freya leaned in. "So, what were you doing, really?"
Something about the way she said it moved me to the core. I had tried to brush off Genie's words. But I wasn't really all right.
"I'll tell you in my room," I said, pulling at her faster, feeling as if my emotions were about to breach a damn.
When we made it to my room, I threw myself on my bed, while Freya disappeared to get my bath started. As soon as she resurfaced, she went through my wardrobe and pulled a clean change of clothes out for me.
“Can’t have you wearing the same clothes as yesterday. People will talk,” she winked.
I closed my eyes. If she’d noticed, so would Jamal. No wonder he was snippy with me.
“I swear I went to Genie’s room to...” I had to think back. So much had happened since then. “To tell him about the party.”
I held my hands up and placed the word party in finger quotes.
“He loved helping feed the poor as much as my parents did. How did it go anyway? I’m sorry I wasn’t there.”
“Oh, no, you don’t, lady!” she said, sitting next to me on the bed.
“It’s as plain as the nose on your face that you are in love with him. I want the juicy details. I can tell you about feeding the poor later.”
I covered my eyes with my hand. “It’s that obvious, huh?”
“I’m not sure it is to everyone else, but I can feel the difference in your energy when you are around him. I can feel it when you just mention his name.”
“Do you think Jamal can feel it too?”
“Probably. He’s one of the few that isn’t affected by this magic going around. I’m not sure he needs to feel it to know it, though. Your eyes light up when anyone mentions Genie’s name.”
“Urgh!” I let my head fall into my hands. “I feel so bad. Jamal thinks we are dating, and I’ve never really dispelled him of the notion. I’ve handled everything so badly.”
“Jamal will get over it. Besides, he had your mother hanging off his every word yesterday. I think they are going to announce their engagement any day now.” She laughed at her joke, but I didn’t want to think about it. My mother’s flirting was just another thing in a long line of things I could quite happily not hear about again.
“I have something to tell you about last night...” I started. “No, it isn’t juicy. Well, not what you are thinking anyway. I fell asleep with Genie, that’s all. I’m going to tell you what happened before that.”
She pulled herself up on the bed and crossed her legs, watching me with a rapt expression. “Tell me everything!”
I rolled my eyes at her. “Genie is starting to become a Genie again. He has cuffs on his wrists.”
Her eyes widened. She wasn’t expecting that. She was going to be blown away when she heard the rest of what I was about to tell her.
I took a deep breath and began to speak. I told her about how I’d seen my mother and that I had a twin out there somewhere. She sat in awed silence as I told her everything.
"This is great!” she said when I’d finished. “We know that your birth somehow triggered this.” She waved her hands about. “What are you going to do about it?”
“Do? I wasn’t going to do anything. What can I do? I don’t know why or how. Nothing from what I saw told me why my birth prompted this. The woman...my mother, was beautiful, but she didn’t look particularly powerful. There’s no way to tell if she was a witch or a mage... She wasn’t fae,” I added. “Her ears weren’t pointed. I don’t know what happened to my twin. I don’t even know if he’s still alive. I can think of no reason why my real mother would separate us.”
“Forget your brother for a second. Did you recognize the place? There has to be a clue in there somewhere."
I jogged my memory back to that hazy scene. I looked beyond the women and the babies. What was I missing?
"Oh!" I said with a startle. "I think I have a clue."
Freya immediately perked up. "What is it?"
I stood to pace, biting down on my lower lip. A nervous habit I'd picked up from my mom.
"The room. There was a window. I saw a white steeple. I think I’ve seen ones like it before. I saw a street sign too."
“Where? Somewhere in Badalah?”
“No,” I shook my head. “They weren’t in Badalah. I think they were in Urbis. The buildings outside were made from brick, but in the distance, I saw white stone. I’ve only ever seen buildings like that in Urbis when I went for a royal tour.”
"That's interesting," Freya said, turning her attention toward the terrace. She then got up and walked out there. I followed.
We both stared out into the horizon. It was impossible to see Urbis from here, but if I looked southeast, it was over the horizon.
"What will you do?" she asked again.
“I need to know if I’m causing this. If I am, maybe I can stop it.”
It sounded preposterous that I could have done anything as a newborn, even to my own ears, but that’s what the old woman had said.
“I don’t think you are causing the problems in the kingdom. I think maybe your birth stopped the problems that were already there. You are like a shield, stopping the problems of Badalah, but as you’ve aged, the shield has broken, letting the problems back in again.”
It was an interesting way of thinking about it. “But these problems didn’t begin in Badalah. I’ve got so many newspapers telling me of problems in other kingdoms too.”
“Maybe your magic is so powerful that you saved all the kingdoms?”
I laughed. “I doubt it. All I can do is turn my body into an inferno. Not exactly helpful.”
“Not now, maybe, but one day it might be. Do you think you’ll go to Urbis?”
“I don’t think I have any choice. Not if I want to figure out what is happening.”
Freya nodded, "I agree. How soon will you leave?"
“I don’t know. I don’t even know if I should.”
“Of course you should,” Freya gesticulated wildly, her face full of excitement. “There is something about you that I can’t quite put my finger on. Your magic is...weird. I can’t think of a single group of people that have the magic you do. If you did put a stop to all the darkness in the world as a newborn, you are something really special.”
“Yeah, but what?”
“That, my friend, I cannot answer.”
A commotion broke out down below. We both ran to the edge of the terrace and leaned over to see what was going on. The people on the streets were stoning the palace walls, chanting angrily.
“What now?” I asked, rushing past Freya, through my bedroom and out into the corridor. The palace guards ran past me toward the palace entrance.
"What's happening?" I mumbled, catching Jamal in the entrance hall looking flustered.
"It’s the people of Kisbu. They are angry that Sultana Jawahir entertained the outsiders and completely ignored them."
"But she didn't ignore them,” I argued. “We made sure that food was sent out to those in need within the city walls, as well as outside."
"They know that. And still, they want what they perceive to be fair. They want a feast on the palace grounds."
"A
re you serious?" I said, rolling my eyes. “Everyone was invited to it. It wasn’t like we were stopping anyone coming in...” I became aware that I wasn’t even there. I was busy sleeping in Genie’s bed. “Were we?”
He shrugged his shoulders, letting out a deep sigh. "No. Anyone who wanted to come was allowed in, but it wasn’t set up exclusively for them, and now, they want one that is just for them.”
“We’ve put these things on most weekends for years!” I cried in frustration.
“I never said anyone was acting rationally. I’ve asked your mother to go to her rooms and gathered the guards together to put a stop to it.”
“You really are amazing, you know that, right? What can I do to help?”
His cheeks colored, and he gave me a quick bow.
Before he could answer, Freya caught up with us. "Agreed. He’s the best, but you don’t have time to deal with all this. You need to decide how you're getting to Urbis."
“You are going to Urbis?” Jamal asked, narrowing his eyes.
“I think so.”
He looked like he wanted to ask why, but one of the guards was calling for his attention.
He reluctantly left Freya and me and headed outside.
“He’d make a great leader,” I remarked.
“Hmm,” Freya agreed. “He’ll also miss you when you are gone.”
"I don't know, Gaia,” Genie said later when I approached him with my plan. “I didn’t show you your birth for you to go gallivanting off on your own to another kingdom.”
“It’s not technically a kingdom,” I pointed out. “It’s a governmental district belonging to and overseeing all the twelve kingdoms.”
“Don’t be facetious, Gaia. I know full well what it is, and you know full well what I meant.”
“You don’t want me to go?”
Hope rose in my chest that he’d fall to his knees and beg me to stay.
“No, I don’t. I don’t think it’s safe to travel alone in these trying times. I cannot go with you. These cuffs bind me. I don’t know where the lamp is, but I can only assume it is near because I feel its pull.”
“I have to go,” I said, trying to sound defiant while every fiber in my being wanted Genie to stop me. To tell me he couldn’t live without me.
He sighed. “Then, so be it. How will you get there? Carriage?”
“I was thinking of taking the Urbis Express. It’s much quicker. I’ll be there within a day if I travel that way.”
He nodded. “There is one leaving for Urbis today. In a few hours, in fact. I can arrange for you to get a seat. For your own safety, I think you should change your clothes.”
I looked down at the dress Freya had picked out for me earlier. It was one of my favorites, yellow with pink and orange silk.
“You’ll stand out a mile in Urbis. They don’t dress like us. If you want to find out about your mother, go incognito. Your beauty will be your downfall.”
He thought I was beautiful. It was a bittersweet admission. What was the point of my beauty if he didn’t want me?
I left him and went back to my room to change. I chose to wear pants and a wrap in earthen tones. I tightened the suede laces around my distressed long, brown, leather boots and picked up a backpack with enough clothes for a couple of days.
Freya handed me a poncho-like shawl with a head cover. I took it, knowing that regardless of what I thought, Genie was right; I needed to conceal my identity. And the hood was large enough to allow me to see while remaining covert.
"You look ready," Freya said, examining me from all angles. "Are you?"
"I am," I responded.
A knock on the door told me Genie was back. He’d promised to come to the station with me.
The three of us walked through the palace to the staff entrance.
As far as I was aware, there were still problems by the main entrance, and I didn’t need to get caught up in them. I also didn’t want Jamal to know where I was going. He’d only try and stop me. Freya could tell him when she got back from the station.
No one paid us any attention as we walked through the streets to the Urbis Express station. The huge airship was already docked and accepting passengers. I watched as they bustled aboard and handed their tickets to a conductor at the door.
“I’ll get your ticket,” Genie said, leaving Freya and me to watch as he strode over to the ticket booth. I noticed he kept his cuffs hidden under long sleeves. He came back a minute later with a ticket.
“I could have bought you a royal ticket to get you your own compartment, but I figured you’d prefer to travel in the main compartment with everyone else.” He handed me the ticket. "Keep it safe.”
Freya cleared her throat, "We really don't have time for chit chat. They are boarding. Be safe, please," she said, giving me a hug.
"I will. I promise. And please, take care of my mom," I said, waving back at them as I boarded the airship, making sure my hood was covering as much of my face as possible.
There didn't seem to be assigned seating, so I found one next to a window.
A woman and her young child sat across from me. She looked sad, as did the young child. I tried to offer a warm smile, but she turned away.
The airship filled quickly, and before long, we lifted off with a lurch. I watched my beloved city of Kisbu fall beneath me as we climbed higher in the sky. I waved at Genie and Freya, watching them until they turned to head back to the palace. The palace itself dominated the skyline, it’s white and gold domes glinting in the evening sun.
Leaving Genie was harder than I could ever have imagined. I’d spent the last year or more roaming the streets of Kisbu after darkness fell, but going to Urbis without my parents, without the posse of guards, was something else entirely.
This was the craziest thing I’d ever done. I wasn’t one for rebellion. I’d never had reason to run away from home, but the world was crazy, and I was heading away from everything I loved to find a way to bring it back to normal.
27th June
My eyes flew open as the airship began to lower in the sky. Quickly, I sat up and glanced out of the window. The morning sky was filled with a myriad of pink and orange hues. The city of Urbis loomed up ahead. Surrounded by stone walls, the massive city was quite the spectacle. A few inner-city parks dotted the landscape, and trees lined the streets of the more affluent parts, but the majority of the giant metropolis was grey stone. In the inner parts where the government buildings were located and where the most affluent members of society lived, the houses and buildings were white. Coming in from above, it reminded me of a giant target. We drifted down slowly, and I took the time to straighten my clothes and pull up my hood. No one in Urbis knew I was coming, and I didn’t know anyone who lived there save for a number of dignitaries who had visited the Badalah palace. But I wasn’t close to any of them, and I didn’t know where in Urbis they lived. I was happy to keep my trip as private as possible. I had work to do.
The conductor came around with a bag for us to put our garbage in as we began our final descent into Urbis. I tossed the sandwich wrapper from the tuna sub I’d bought from him the night before. On the other side of the aisle, the woman with the child threw a whole heap of wrappers in the bag. The child slept, his head on her knee and chocolate from last night’s chocolate fest around his mouth.
I smiled, this time to myself, and turned my attention back to Urbis. Now that we were closer, I could see the city more clearly, the details, the people. A huge area was empty, reserved for the airship to land. We docked with a thump, and the little boy finally woke up.
My first job was to find the steeple I’d seen in the vision, but now that the whole city was laid out before me, I found that there were many steeples. Hundreds of spires, steeples, and chimneys were dotted around the vast city.
The doors opened, and I let the mother and child get out before me. The little boy stuck his tongue out as he passed, so I gave him a grin and stuck my tongue out back. It lifted my spirits, the simple act of c
ommunicating with another person, even if that person was three years old and covered in chocolate.
Pulling myself together and pulling my hood further over my face, I walked the few steps to the door and then down the steps to the cobbled streets of Urbis.
The immediate area around the massive airship was quiet except for the Urbis Express workers and those like me, who were getting off. I walked quickly away, not wanting to get caught up in the throng of people meeting their loved ones. At the far end of the square where it was quiet, I stopped and took a deep breath, trying to get a bearing on my surroundings. I’d up and left Badalah in such a hurry that I’d forgotten to bring a map with me. I’d brought enough money to see me through a couple of days and to buy a ticket back to Badalah, but not much more. Money wasn’t something I ever had to worry about. One of the perks of being a princess was I didn’t have to know the cost of anything, but the downside to that was that I didn’t actually know the cost of anything. If someone were to ask me the price of a cup of coffee in Urbis, I wouldn’t even be able to guess.
It didn’t help that all the money I’d brought with me was in Rubees and not Urbis dollars. I needed to find a currency exchange quickly so I could buy myself a map and one of those coffees I didn’t know the cost of.
Tall buildings surrounded the massive square that housed the airship station. Cafes took up most of the ground floors with seating set out outside where people sat and drank their coffee and ate cake. My stomach grumbled as I took it all in. I needed to find a currency exchange and fast.
A sudden gust of coldness hit me, making me turn on the spot to find the source of the breeze, but as I looked around, no one else had noticed the creeping coldness that had come in from nowhere. It reminded me of the time it had happened last week in Badalah when I was with my father.
I shrugged it off and glanced around at the number of side streets that radiated out from the square.
I took the one that looked most promising. The wide street was one of the few that allowed vehicles. Most of Urbis was reserved for pedestrians, but some of the major roads allowed carriages and the steam vehicles from The Forge. The first time I’d come to Urbis, I’d been fascinated with the steam bikes that filled the streets, but now, I found them noisy and distracting, not to mention, dirty. The street was filled with people going about their business and flanked on either side by shops selling mostly clothing.