Awoken

by Christine Pope

  “Is something wrong?”

  “No,” she replied at once. She knew she couldn’t talk to him about her losses, because it was his kind who’d been responsible for those deaths. Not Hasan himself — not in this case, anyway — but the notion of guilt by association was something she couldn’t entirely put aside. “I’m fine. Let’s see what we’ve got here.”

  He sent her a final curious look, but then gave a slight lift of his shoulders and grasped the handles of the barn doors, pulling them outward. From within came a fetid odor, and Jordan wrinkled her nose.

  “What the heck is that?”

  “Damp straw that spoiled. We’ll have to remove it.”

  She had a flashback to the time in junior high when she’d helped a friend, who was in 4-H, muck out her henhouse. It was not an experience she wanted to repeat anytime soon.

  Hasan must have noted her obvious lack of enthusiasm, because one corner of his mouth tugged upward. “It is not such an onerous task when you have a djinn to help out.”

  His hands lifted, and a wind came out of nowhere, blowing into the barn with such force that the doors on the opposite side of the building were pushed open. At once all the straw inside began to swirl with the wind, making its own little tornado, before it moved out of the barn and disappeared over the rise that backed up to the structure. Once the straw was all cleared away, and only packed earth remained, the wind disappeared.

  “That is handy,” Jordan remarked. More than handy — she’d seen a small demonstration of Hasan’s powers the night before when he drove off the wolf, but this just proved to her once again that he was no one to be trifled with. Also, the djinn attacks in Colorado Springs and Pagosa Springs had been so chaotic, so frightening, that she hadn’t retained a lot of detail. This latest display showed her what a single djinn could do. No wonder her human compatriots hadn’t stood a chance.

  As to why she’d somehow managed to survive…Jordan couldn’t begin to say. Luck? It had to be, since she knew she wasn’t any stronger or smarter than the ones who didn’t make it.

  “Yes,” Hasan said, his tone almost absent. Clearly, he wasn’t impressed by his own powers. He went inside the barn, and Jordan followed.

  Now that the fetid straw had been cleared away, she saw it was a large, airy space, with six stalls for animals and a larger feeding area at the far end, with troughs hanging from the wooden walls — troughs that were now filled with fresh fodder for the goats. Off to one side a door stood open, revealing a small room, obviously used for storage and tack, because she saw a bridle hanging from a hook on the wall. She wondered what had happened to the horse, or horses, that once resided here. This wasn’t a true horse stable, and so she guessed that whoever had once owned the house had either converted the space for horse use, or had kept several different kinds of animals in here.

  “I don’t know how many goats are wandering around Chama,” she said. “But it looks like we should be able to fit at least seven or eight in here.”

  After she spoke, Jordan realized she’d said “we.” A slip-up, because this was Hasan’s property, and he had the final say about what he did with it. Really, she was just doing what she could to help protect the animals she’d encountered. About all she could do now was hope that the djinn wouldn’t find her words presumptuous and take offense.

  Apparently, he didn’t, because he only nodded as he moved farther into the barn, then paused to look into one of the stalls. “Yes, that sounds about right. Shall we see if we can round them up?”

  He wasn’t angry. In fact, he looked pleasant and relaxed, which were two words she’d never thought she could apply to a djinn. “Sure.”

  Hasan took a step in her direction and held out a hand. Jordan looked at it, confused. Why was he reaching toward her? She didn’t think that touching him was a very good idea. Bad enough that she could still recall all too clearly the way it had felt to have his body on top of hers, pushing her down against the ground. All right, what he’d really done was tackle her so she couldn’t get away, but still….

  “I don’t wish to walk into town,” he said, his tone almost too neutral, “especially if I will have to herd goats on the way back. Likewise, I have no desire to attempt to drive the vehicle that was left in the garage here at the house. I can take us there in the blink of an eye, but you must hold on to me. Do you understand?”

  Swallowing, she nodded. She’d seen how djinn could appear to blink themselves in and out of existence, moving from place to place almost instantaneously. The thought that she might travel in the same way scared the crap out of her, but she had a feeling that if she demurred, told Hasan she really wasn’t into that kind of travel, he really would get angry with her.

  It took more effort than she’d thought to put one foot in front of the other, to make herself go up to the djinn. When she laid her hand in his, all she could think was how human he felt. Shouldn’t his skin have been too cold, or far too hot? Something to tell her that he was of a race terribly different from hers, even if they did look the same?

  When he pulled her close to him, put both arms around her waist, she barely stifled a gasp.

  Hasan raised an eyebrow, as though he’d noted her reaction. “Merely holding your hand is not enough,” he said. “The forces that move a djinn from place to place could tear you from my grasp. I do not think you would want to be lost in the void between worlds.”

  No, she definitely would not. At the same time, being held against his bare chest like this was a level of discomfort that passed beyond excruciating into something she couldn’t begin to describe. Her cheeks flushed with heat, but at least with her face nearly pressed into him, he couldn’t see that she was blushing.

  Although maybe he could feel it.

  “No, that makes sense,” she told him, wondering if she sounded like a complete idiot. Not that he would care. After all, she was just a human. She could already tell that Hasan didn’t have a very high opinion of human intellect.

  “Then we will go.”

  The world flashed away, dissolving into nothing. A strange pressure on her ears, as though she’d suddenly ascended a thousand feet in less than a second. Strange colors whirled around her for an instant or two, only to resolve into the not-quite-familiar but certainly prosaic main street of Chama, with the depot for the Cumbres and Toltec railroad in front of them, and the bait shop across the road.

  As soon as they stood on solid ground, Hasan released his grip on her, as though he didn’t wish to continue touching her any longer than was necessary. Fine by Jordan, who was glad she didn’t have to struggle to get him to release her.

  She took a few steps away from him, shielding her eyes from the sun as she glanced around the street. There, that was perfectly normal, wasn’t it? After all, they’d come here to locate the goats. He didn’t have to know that she was glad of the excuse to not look at him. Bad enough that she couldn’t quite ignore the way she could still somehow feel his arms around her. It hadn’t been an embrace, nothing like that, and yet….

  Okay, she needed to refocus. Maybe that crappy night’s sleep she’d gotten while sitting on the kitchen floor had done something to addle her brain. That had to be it. Because the absolute last thing she wanted to think was that some small, crazy part of her had actually enjoyed being held by a djinn.

  Hasan was also looking up and down the street. “There,” he said after a moment. “Farther up the road.”

  Jordan turned to see what he was talking about. Sure enough, in a grassy area a few hundred yards past the railway station, stood several goats, chewing away at the weeds and looking as if they didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Well, then,” she said, and began walking in that direction. What she’d actually do when they caught up with the goats, she wasn’t sure. Although she’d taken classes in biology and botany, none of them had included much information on animal husbandry. She knew as much about herding goats as she did jet engine maintenance — in other words, nothing at all.<
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  If Hasan harbored any doubts about their situation, he didn’t show it. He strode along next to her, every inch of his frame purposeful, focused. Maybe he didn’t know much about goats, either, but he wasn’t going to let a minor detail like that slow him down.

  Jordan had worried that the animals might scatter as she and Hasan approached. That didn’t seem to be a problem, however, since only one of the goats even looked up when they drew near. The other two kept munching away, clearly not about to allow the presence of humans — or a human and a djinn — interrupt their breakfast. Did djinn smell different to animals? She had absolutely no idea, because Hasan hadn’t smelled like much of anything when he brought her here, except a faint spicy scent that might have been cinnamon or might have been cloves, or neither of those two, just something pleasant and warm.

  And there she was, thinking about being held by him again. Yes, it had been a very long time since she’d allowed anyone to get that close to her, but come on….

  “I can guide them,” Hasan said. “We will have to go the long way around, I fear, because while you might have been able to ford the river” — he paused there, as if recalling how she’d first trespassed on his land — “it will be too deep for them. There is a foot crossing about a quarter mile downstream from where you crossed.”

  “Well,” Jordan replied. “It’s a beautiful day, so if we have to take a long walk, it’s certainly not the end of the world.”

  “True.” He made a waving motion with his hands, but instead of summoning a wind as he had to clear out the barn, it was more like he had called something that would prod the goats along. They all stopped eating and, after letting out a few startled bleats, began to hurry down the road, back into town.

  “What did you do to them?” Jordan asked as she began to jog along in their wake.

  The djinn was tall enough that all he had to do was lengthen his strides, rather than actually run to catch up with the goats. “Gave them a gentle nudge. And I’ll continue to do so until we get them safely in the barn.”

  That seemed to be the case, because every time it looked as though the animals were beginning to veer off course, Hasan would move his hands again, and the goats would immediately get back in line. They all headed roughly southwest on Highway 17, until he waved his hands to the left, pushing the animals between a feed shop and a Family Dollar, and cutting back toward the river.

  As they came out from between the buildings, Jordan saw the crossing Hasan had mentioned, really just a shallow strip of sand that jutted out from the banks of the Rio Chama. They’d all still get their feet wet, but it would only be up to mid-calf on her at the most, a depth the goats could easily ford.

  Not that they looked terribly eager to get in the water. This time the motion Hasan made with his hands looked almost like a shove, and with a few protesting bleats, the goats trotted out into the water and hurried across the sand spit, picking their way around any exposed rocks. Within a few minutes, they had reached the other bank.

  Jordan had to pause to remove her shoes and socks, but the djinn had no such worries. As soon as he came to the river’s edge, he lifted himself into the air, hovering so he was a few inches above the water. As she sloshed across the sand, he drifted ahead of her, staying completely dry.

  Another handy trick. Would he have carried her, if she’d asked him? Maybe. Since the last thing she wanted was any more close contact with him, she decided it was better to just get her feet wet. Grass grew thick on the bank, so she dried her toes as best she could, then slipped her socks and shoes back on. The goats didn’t seem inclined to wait for her, and neither did Hasan, which meant she had to drop into another jog so she could catch up with them.

  When she did, the djinn was walking along normally, both feet firmly on the ground. The goats ranged a few paces ahead, but not so far away that Hasan couldn’t control them if they decided to bolt for some reason. Jordan came abreast of the djinn, who didn’t even look down at her, but instead kept his focus on the small group of animals as they made their way across the field and up toward the barn.

  Was he feeling slightly embarrassed, too? No, that wasn’t possible. Djinn didn’t seem to be the type to be self-conscious, or unsure of themselves. At least, Hasan didn’t. Jordan couldn’t speak for the djinn she’d encountered elsewhere, since she’d been too busy running away to try to take a read on their personalities.

  When they reached the barn, Hasan had to give the goats another “push” to go inside, since it seemed clear that they preferred to stay outside and try some of the grass in the immediate vicinity. Jordan couldn’t blame them; if she were a goat, she wouldn’t want to be trapped in a barn on a fine early October day like this one.

  But in they went, bleating in annoyance. Hasan didn’t try to force them into any of the stalls, however, but allowed them to range around in the open area beneath the hayloft. Once they realized there was fodder available inside, they settled down to eat again, and didn’t give the people who’d brought them here a second glance.

  “We’ll have to find your friend,” the djinn said as he closed the barn door behind them.

  “I doubt he wandered too far,” she replied. “I mean, if I were a goat, I’d probably want to stay near the place where I was fed and given water, and had someone taking care of me.”

  “I’m not sure goats are always that logical.”

  Something about Hasan’s tone of voice as he uttered that reply made her want to chuckle. And that was crazy, too. She shouldn’t find anything about him funny or interesting or, God forbid, attractive. Besides, even though he was allowing her to roam around the property with him, rather than keeping her locked up in her bedroom, he was still her captor.

  And if you tried to get away, where would you go? she asked herself. To some dream of Los Alamos, which may or may not even still exist?

  Well, that had been the plan. Even if Los Alamos had fallen, surely there must be places where people still lived, where they’d managed to keep themselves hidden from the djinn.

  Or maybe not. If those vengeful elementals were now focusing their energies on ridding the world of tiny groups like the one in Pagosa Springs, then there must not be very much left for them to hunt.

  “There he is,” Hasan said, and Jordan shook herself out of her dark reverie to see her little rescue goat, only a few yards away from the front porch of the house, his head buried in a clump of dandelions.

  “Told you he wouldn’t go far.”

  “So you did.”

  That might have been grudging approval in the djinn’s voice. Hard to say for sure, since his face was impassive enough as he looked across the front yard to the spot where the goat cropped away at the greenery, apparently oblivious to their presence.

  Now what? Jordan supposed Hasan could use his powers to shove the goat where they needed him to go, but that seemed like rough handling for an animal that was smaller than the others. Carrying him seemed so undignified, especially when he’d done such a good job of bouncing back from the injuries he’d suffered the night before.

  “Come here!” she called out, and the goat lifted his head briefly before returning to his late morning repast. “Come on!”

  This time Hasan did laugh, although he sounded more amused than mocking. “It is not a dog, you know.”

  “Yes, I know,” she replied, her tone waspish. “Do you have a better idea?”

  “Of course.” The djinn extended a hand toward the goat, fingers outstretched.

  This wasn’t a push or a pull. Jordan wasn’t sure exactly what Hasan was doing, except that the goat stopped eating and began to trot toward them.

  “How did you do that?”

  “We djinn have our ways.”

  That wasn’t much of an answer, but she didn’t want to argue with him. He still seemed remarkably mellow, and she wanted to keep things that way…at least until she figured out what the heck she herself was doing.

  Anyway, that goat went trotting past, his coat of
thick, short hair glistening in the sunlight. There wasn’t much Jordan could do but follow him as he headed toward the barn, intent on his destination. This time, Hasan brought up the rear, as though he knew that he didn’t need to do anything else but make sure the goat didn’t veer off course at the last minute.

  The door to the barn opened, apparently of its own accord, although Jordan guessed that must have been Hasan, using his powers in yet another subtle way. Was there anything he couldn’t do?

  She probably didn’t want to find out.

  Without looking back at them, the little goat trotted inside. Happy bleats from the others who were already there seemed to indicate that his compatriots were glad to have him back. The doors closed again, and Hasan looked down at her.

  “I’ve provided them with water as well. They should be fine for a while, but you’ll probably want to let them out sometime this afternoon so they can range.”

  “I’ll let them out?” she repeated, somewhat mystified. “You trust me to come out here all by myself?”

  “Safeguarding the goats was your idea,” Hasan said. “Therefore, it should fall to you to watch them. As for the rest?” A small pause, and then he smiled. “I don’t think I need to worry about you running away. As I told you, I can sense your movements. I would know. Besides” — and here he paused, his smile broadening slightly — “where could you possibly go?”

  Chapter Seven

  Jordan hadn’t responded to his question, had only looked away, her full mouth set in a hard line. Hasan didn’t think she would answer, but he could tell his words had upset her.

  Did that bother him?

  Not really.

  He wanted her to think that she had no chance at refuge anywhere. His reasoning for this stratagem was somewhat murky, but he’d come to realize something in these few hours he’d spent with her, something he wasn’t sure he wanted to admit to himself.