The Bone Knife

by Intisar Khanani

“Mgeni! Stay a moment; I have your future for you.”

  I grin, turning towards Mama Ali. She sits beneath the cloth shade of her market stall, her husband’s catch heaped on the wooden counter before her: mounds of sardines, glinting silver bright in the sun. Today there’s also a single little octopus that must have gotten tangled in his nets, its fleshy body turned over to show the white of its tentacles.

  With her wide smile and heavy girth, Mama Ali is a well-known fixture of the fish market, her laughter booming across the crowded aisles, and her penchant for sharing people’s futures indulged in even by the locals. Her son, ten years old and shrewder than a hundred-year-old owl, perches beside her, watching me.

  “You can keep my future, Mama Ali,” I reply. “It will probably do you more good than me.”

  My words draw laughter from the surrounding fishmongers. The market stalls are packed tightly together, every counter offering up the bounty of the sea, scenting the air with salt and fish. Above the stalls flap brightly colored cloth shades, protecting both the women and their goods from the sun’s heat.

  I hear someone ask what she missed, and a woman replies, calling me mgeni again. My smile slips a notch. I may have adopted the traditional, brightly colored long skirt and tunic of the local women, as well as the tightly wound head wrap, but my sand-gold skin and the slant of my eyes will always mark me as someone else. Mama Ali uses the term as an endearment, but the echoes I hear now brand me as an outsider.

  Mama Ali holds out her hand imperiously, a queen demanding tribute from the riffraff that forms her court. “Come, my friend, keeper of secrets, let us see what we can.”

  “What will you give me?” I ask, hoping “keeper of secrets” is just a phrase she uses on potential customers. Regardless, I don’t have the coin to pay her, so I may as well be clear I won’t be giving anything.

  “Give you? Your future, muddle-brain! And, because you are always admiring my wares, I will give it to you for free.”

  “Oh, very well.” I acquiesce none too gracefully, offering Mama Ali my hand. With her palms clasped around my hand, I wait, trying not to fidget too much. I may be running a little late, but there’s no reason to think the meeting will have started on time. Besides, since I wasn’t invited in the first place, no one will miss me. “Don’t tell me I’m going to meet someone new, dark of skin and—”

  “Short,” Mama Ali agrees.

  I nearly choke. “Short?”

  She drops her voice. “Well, if I want to be sure it happens, short is so much more likely than tall, isn’t it? At least,” she nods her head to suggest the market, as well as the rest the island, “here.”

  I laugh. I think this must be why Mama Ali and I get along so well. “Right. Short and dark.”

  “No.” She pulls a frown. “For you, something different.”

  I glance towards the sky, gauging the angle of the late morning sun. Magic is one thing, but divining the future? Not so much. “I really have to—”

  “You are going somewhere,” Mama Ali intones, closing her eyes. I glance at her son in disbelief. Ali grins wide, his teeth showing pearly white against his earth-brown skin.

  “I was before you stopped me,” I agree.

  Mama Ali heaves a theatrical sigh, squeezing my hand rather painfully. “Somewhere important,” she clarifies. She tilts her head as if listening. And Mama Ali hears a lot—she has her pulse on the happenings of Karolene. Maybe there’s something she knows. Has she gotten news about the League? Or the Ghost?

  She drops my hand, sitting back with a gasp. “Run!”

  (end of excerpt)

  Find out more on GoodReads, or pick up your copy of Sunbolt at most e-retailers. Thanks so much for your interest in my stories!

  Acknowledgements

  An author would be nothing without her supporting characters … many thanks to:

  Anas Malik – Husband, Multiple-time Beta Reader & Chief Cheerleader

  Mummy and Abba – Parents Extraordinaire

  Ahmed – Brother and Emergency Consultant on All Things Great & Small

  Hannah Kutcher – Writing Crony & Chief Techie Friend

  Janelle White – Writing Crony & Occasional Life Support

  Alisa Alering & Emily Colvin – Beta Readers

  Bekah Trollinger & Elisabeth Wheatley – Book Cover Fashion Critics

  Diana Cox – Professional Proofreader

  Stephanie Mooney – Cover Designer

  And of course, thanks to my readers, without whom this story would be very lonely.

  About the Author

  Intisar Khanani grew up a nomad and world traveler. Born in Wisconsin, she has lived in five different states as well as in Jeddah on the coast of the Red Sea. She first remembers seeing snow on a wintry street in Zurich, Switzerland, and vaguely recollects having breakfast with the orangutans at the Singapore Zoo when she was five.

  She currently resides in Cincinnati, Ohio, with her husband and two young daughters. Until recently, Intisar wrote grants and developed projects to address community health with the Cincinnati Health Department, which was as close as she could get to saving the world. She now focuses her time on her two passions: raising her family and writing fiction.

  Intisar's next two projects include a companion trilogy to her debut novel Thorn, following Rae, the heroine introduced in this short story; and The Sunbolt Chronicles, about a young thief with a propensity for saving people, and her nemesis, a dark mage intent on taking over the Eleven Kingdoms.