Palace of Wishes (2020 Reissue)

by Helena Rookwood

  I spun back around, heading for Kassim’s white shirt, throwing up my arms to shield my eyes from the dust and rubble falling from the ceiling.

  As I did so, someone pushed past me, back into the cave.

  Makani.

  She ran back along the path toward the Guardian, which flailed its fists haphazardly, confused by the crashing rocks.

  “What is she doing?” I heard Kassim yell from the archway. He held a hand out for me when he saw I was close.

  “Just leave her.” The vizier gripped the sultan’s shoulder, who watched Makani race along what was left of the crumbling, trembling path.

  I twisted back toward the princess. She had dropped down to her knees and leaned toward the lamp, bobbing on its rocky perch atop the rising sea of lava.

  My heart tugged me toward Kassim, my head toward safety, but something in my gut overrode both.

  Biting back an exasperated sound, I ran for the princess, dodging the large boulders dropping from the ceiling and smashing on the path.

  Makani stretched her fingers, reaching out for the handle of the lamp as the rock bobbed and steamed above the churning lava. When it swiveled just out of reach, she let out a shout of frustration.

  It echoed through the cave, and the demon twisted toward her.

  But she didn’t notice. She leaned farther forward, her fingertips grazing the brass lamp.

  I couldn’t shout a warning without bringing the demon down on me instead. Leaping over a crack in the path, I grabbed the princess and pulled her back just as the fire demon smashed a fist clean through the path, showering us with shards of rock and droplets of fire.

  I clamped a hand over Makani’s mouth, stifling her shouts.

  For a moment, we lay there in a tangle of clammy, dust-smeared limbs, hearts thudding.

  But as soon as the demon turned away, Makani pushed out of my grasp and leapt to her feet, her keen eyes scanning the lava for the lamp once more. I tugged at her arm, jabbing a finger toward the exit, but she brushed me away.

  Why was she so intent on getting the last lamp? To impress Kassim?

  She leaned out once more for the lamp bobbing just out of reach.

  I shook my head, then curled my arms around her wrist, but instead of pulling her away from the edge, I rooted my feet and leaned back, nodding at her.

  Wordlessly, Makani leaned over the edge. I held onto her tightly as she reached down and swept the final lamp into her hand.

  I pulled her back up to the path just as a ripple of lava crashed against the side. We jumped back to avoid being sprayed with droplets of liquid fire.

  “Princess. Out. Now!” Kassim roared from the exit.

  Makani and I looked at each other as a bellow sounded from behind us. We launched ourselves along the path, my heart thundering in my chest as steam rose from the ground and rocks fell through the air all around us.

  The fire demon radiated heat at my back, and the path below us seared through my boots like burning sand.

  We were nearly at the archway...

  Kassim grabbed both of us and shoved us through, his face a mixture of rage and relief.

  I didn’t have the breath left to say anything, instead trying to focus on putting one foot in front of the other, scrambling back up the thin staircase as it wavered and shook beneath my feet.

  The demon couldn’t get through the archway, could it?

  I spun around as the arch shattered behind us, the Guardian punching straight through it.

  “Run!” Kassim yelled from behind us.

  Makani and I ran for the exit, taking the steps two at a time, trusting our feet not to stumble into the shadowy abyss dropping down on either side of us.

  Hepzibah stood in the mouth of the cave, her thin silhouette reaching for us. “Did you get the last lamp?” she called, her eyes raking over Makani.

  The princess nodded and held it up, but before she could say anything, the vizier snatched it from her hands.

  I shoved through them both, the cool evening air engulfing me.

  With the demon close behind, Kassim threw himself up the last few stairs just as they crumbled behind him.

  Adrenaline coursed through my veins.

  We were out, but we still weren’t safe. The Guardian would follow us out to protect the treasure.

  Kassim reached the entrance, grabbing Hepzibah by the waist and patting her down.

  She held the lamp aloft, out of his reach, a look of outrage crossing her face as his hands ran over her hips. “What do you think you’re doing, sultan?”

  From somewhere in the folds of her robes, Kassim produced the wavy dagger. He gripped the hilt, holding it above his palm.

  Slicing open his hand, he smeared the blossoming blood over the entrance to the cave.

  The moment he touched the wall, the rocks groaned and began to knit themselves back together again, sliding shut with a grating sound.

  The Guardian gave a roar, then the rocks slammed together, silencing it and cutting off the last sliver of red light escaping from the cave.

  I blinked, my eyes adjusting to the cool, evening light. We’d been inside the Cave of Wonders all day.

  I wanted to sink to the ground and crawl back to my tent, but the ground still tremored, the walls trembling.

  “Is it… Can it get through?” I asked, my voice shaking slightly.

  “Let’s not wait to find out.” Makani sounded just as shaken. She whistled for Ahe, and the brown bird swooped down from wherever he’d been keeping watch.

  Hepzibah took the last lamp and placed it carefully into her saddlebags, which already bulged with treasure. Namir and Aliyah appeared on either side of Kassim.

  “The lamps are loaded on the camels.” Namir ran a hand through his wild hair. “Do you want us to pack up the rest of the camp?” Namir eyed the entrance warily. “Or…”

  “Pack only the basics. We leave as soon as possible.” Kassim glanced between the spymaster, the vizier, and Makani. “I want to put as much distance between us and this place before we lose the light completely.”

  The camp was quickly disassembled, the soldiers rushing to pack only what was needed for the return journey.

  Soon, everyone began to untie and mount their camels, readying to leave. Makani and her two soldiers were already perched on the back of their rocs.

  It was then I realized I didn’t have a mount.

  I brought my fist to my mouth. I knew Tarak had asked for space, but I didn’t have a choice…

  “Tarak, I need you,” I whispered into the ring. “I’m surrounded, but I need you as a camel. Please.”

  I glanced around. Everyone else was mounted. The ring didn’t heat, no perfumed scent of frankincense cutting through the sulfurous air. Spirits, was Tarak still so mad he’d actually abandoned me? If he refused my summons, would I have to use one of my last two wishes to make him obey me?

  “Where’s your mount, Zadie?” Kassim called across the group.

  I looked around the clearing. “I-I don’t know,” I stuttered, twirling on the spot and trying to look past the other mounted riders.

  Please, Tarak.

  Then a flash of gold caught my eye. A camel trotted around the corner, his purple eyes narrowed. “Found him!” I cried, relief coursing through me as Tarak dropped down and let me clamber up onto his back.

  Kassim whirled around. “Then we leave. Now!”

  The rocs launched into the air, and the camels began filing out of the rocky clearing, back toward the ravine.

  I clung tightly onto Tarak as he lurched to his feet. “Thank you.” I stroked his furry neck. “I’m sorry for summoning you, but–”

  “What happened in there?” the djinni asked as he moved to join the rest of the animals. He didn’t sound as angry as he had the day before, when he’d declared our deal over and disappeared back into the ring. “I couldn’t hear anything.”

  “We had to keep silent, but we woke a fire-demon that chased us out. We got all of the lamps out first, t
hough.” A smile twitched my lips. Spirits, I made it sound so straightforward. I eyed the heavy bags weighing down the camels ahead of us.

  My shoulders dropped, my body finally loosening slightly after my time in the cave.

  We had the spirits and had made it out alive. The hard part was over. Now all we had to do was get back to Bahar’s ship.

  Hopefully the voyage home would run more smoothly, with no mysterious ships tailing us, no dendans threatening to send us all overboard…and no ex-betrothed princesses.

  Alarmed shouts sounded as Makani and her soldiers came swooping down from the sky. They landed where Kassim had stopped just ahead, where the pass met the main ravine.

  The sultan unsheathed his scimitar, and everyone turned to look down the passageway to our right.

  I followed their gaze, and my whole body seized with terror.

  An army waited for us.

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  The waiting soldiers were still some distance away, but they moved forward as one, filling the ravine from edge to edge in a dark swarm, boots crunching over rock and sand.

  We couldn’t turn back. The camels wouldn’t fit down the skinny canyons beyond the cave. We only had two options – turn right and fight, or turn left and flee.

  I edged Tarak closer to Kassim, reaching for the elij at my belt. The sultan was flanked by the princess and the vizier, both shouting at each other, all of their earlier niceties and nicknames gone.

  “They’re not Hiduan soldiers!” Makani planted her hands on her hips.

  “Who else has an army in this kingdom?” the vizier barked. She turned toward Kassim. “Sultan, we know the royal family of Hidu didn’t want us here. No one else knew we were coming. The princess has clearly betrayed us.”

  “These aren’t my men, Kassim.” Makani addressed the sultan directly, her gray eyes wide. “I promise you. I know Hiduan soldiers. They neither wear this armor nor carry these weapons.”

  The soldiers edged forward. There were easily forty or fifty men. Elian would have known at a glance. Most were on foot, although a handful at the front of the line were mounted.

  Namir rode closer to the sultan, cutting between Hepzibah and Makani, who still squared off. “Kassim, do we hold our ground and fight, or run?”

  “Why are we wasting time discussing this? They’ll be on us in minutes.” Aliyah shouted. “They have twice our number, and we’re all exhausted. You can’t be thinking of fighting.”

  I swallowed. I knew the thief queen had fought battles where she’d been outnumbered before and won. For her to shy away from a fight, we must really be out of our depths.

  “We’re outnumbered,” Namir agreed, glancing warily at the army moving toward us. “If the soldiers of Hidu have turned against us…”

  “They’re not my men,” Makani snarled, and Ahe loosed a shrill cry, watching the advancing soldiers with beady eyes.

  “We don’t know that,” the vizier snapped, her angular face taking on an even harder expression in the twilight.

  “My princess does not lie!” Rangi shouted from his roc.

  Kassim looked back toward me, his eyebrows raised. “Zadie?”

  He wants my opinion? “Whoever these soldiers are, they’re mostly on foot. We could outrun them.” I glanced to the saddlebags. “And we carry precious cargo.”

  “Which I doubt is a coincidence,” Namir murmured, a dark look crossing his face.

  Kassim nodded, looping the reins of his camel around his free wrist. “We run.” He glared at the vizier and Makani. “Mak, you know this land. Which way?”

  “Left, straight down this main ravine, then we take a right into a smaller canyon. That’ll take us back to the place where we found the smashed eggs. From there, it’s straight out onto the open plains. If we can make it back to the fort, I have enough men garrisoned there to win this fight.”

  “That’s if these men aren’t hers in the first place,” the vizier chimed in again.

  “Hepzibah, enough.” Kassim sounded irritated.

  “Are the camels fast enough to outrun foot soldiers?” I asked the princess.

  “They can run, but they’re not built for long distances at speed, not when they’re carrying so much weight.”

  “Could they run to the end of this first ravine?” I asked.

  The princess hesitated. “I think so.”

  “Makani, fly low so you can still direct us. Everyone ready?” Kassim glanced around the gathered soldiers.

  The three rocs launched into the air as Kassim kicked his camel forward, a cloud of dust floating out behind us as everyone followed. Tarak didn’t need any encouragement, responding without me telling him and running alongside the other camels.

  At the sight of us moving, the soldiers roared. I glanced back, bouncing up and down with the motion of Tarak beneath me. Even without saddlebags, like the others had strapped to the side of their camels, it was an uncomfortable ride.

  The enemy horses charged forward, and the soldiers broke into a run.

  Unlike the brown leather uniforms Makani and her cadre wore, these soldiers were dressed in mottled gray-black, camouflaging them against the rock and the sand. I spun back around, coughing as I inhaled the dust kicked up in front.

  The camels’ hoof-like feet flattened out each time they pounded against the rock, their legs flailing as they raced forward, the heavy saddlebags at their sides bouncing and clinking.

  Seconds felt like minutes. Minutes like hours. I spun around once more, but we didn’t seem to be putting any distance between us and the soldiers.

  “Makani!” I shouted up at the princess, “Come lower!”

  She and her cadre swooped down lower on their rocs. Several of the camels shrieked in fright, straining their necks forward as the roc lowered toward them.

  I felt a twinge of guilt for panicking the animals, but it wasn’t like they weren’t being pursued by an enemy. It just wasn’t the enemy they thought.

  The whole ravine echoed with the sound of the enemies’ horses’ pounding hooves, animals shrieking, and yells from the soldiers. Everything around us was hazy through the clouds of dust and the fading evening light.

  I leaned closer to Tarak’s back, my hair flying out behind me. When I turned around again, it looked like we were making headway, although I could tell the camels were tiring. They slowed, their flanks heaving, their breathing loud and ragged. Hopefully we would put enough distance between us before they could run no farther.

  Tarak had slowed, too, to keep pace with the others.

  “Kassim!” I shouted across to the sultan. “The camels aren’t going to last much longer.”

  But before the sultan could answer, Makani shouted down from above. “Take the next right, just up ahead.”

  “Did you hear that?” Kassim bellowed. “Turn right, then slow down.”

  “Are we far enough?” Aliyah sounded breathless. She’d had no time to recover from her physical work in the cave. None of us had, but she’d been drained even before the Guardian had attacked.

  “Tarak.” I tugged on the camel’s reins, slowing him so we dropped to the back of the group. “If they catch up with us and I have to make a wish…”

  The camels ahead of us veered right, more dust flying up behind them. Tarak followed.

  Only to reveal a second band of soldiers ahead of us, in greater numbers than those we’d fled.

  My insides seemed to have turned to stone, my mouth dry.

  By running, we’d allowed them to tire us out and divert us here. Exactly where the rest of their forces waited.

  “We’re trapped. There’s nowhere to run.” Namir kept his camel moving, his eyes tracking along the jostling soldiers.

  “Thanks for the bleak assessment,” Aliyah snapped. “We’re outnumbered, but we’re not unarmed.” She looked at me pointedly, then the ring on my finger.

  She was right. If there was ever a time for a wish, it was now, when things looked hopeless.

  But it was Kassim
who answered. “Aliyah’s right. We have the spirits. It’s probably the only reason they haven’t attacked us already.”

  The spirits… After fleeing the Guardian in the cave, then the race away from the waiting soldiers, I’d somehow forgotten all about the powerful djinn and ifrit we carried with us.

  “Absolutely not.” The vizier’s gaze flicked from the saddlebags to Kassim’s face. “It’s far too dangerous.”

  “I don’t like it, either.” Namir’s voice was low. “But look where we are, Hepzibah. It might be our only choice.”

  “Princess, what do you think?” Kassim’s gaze found mine, but Makani answered like he’d directed the question at her.

  “It’s your decision, sultan. The spirits are yours. My men and I will fight for you, whatever you decide.”

  “Zadie?” Kassim pressed, his eyes never leaving me.

  Tarak shook his head, tugging at the reins and pacing nervously like a real camel who’d been spooked. I squeezed my legs tightly against his sides.

  “Hepzibah’s right,” I said, the words tasting bitter on my tongue. “The spirits can’t be trusted. There’s no guarantee they’ll help us. We might end up facing an army of vengeful spirits instead of these unknown soldiers. In my opinion, they are, by far, the greater risk.”

  I remembered how difficult Tarak had been with granting my wishes in the early days. How he’d tricked me and misinterpreted my words. I couldn’t explain to Kassim how I knew all of this, but if he tried to control a spirit that was even more powerful than Tarak and failed, it could kill him.

  “But,” I added, looking Kassim in the eye, remembering how wrong my plan with the harpoon had gone, “it’s your decision.”

  Kassim blinked, his face clouding over. “Then we fight. The spirits will remain a last resort.” His amber gaze scanned his soldiers, his voice taking on an authoritative tone. “Ever since we came to Hidu, we’ve run. From the wild rocs, the Guardian, these soldiers. We’re outnumbered, yes, but we’ll protect what’s rightfully ours.”

  In the distance, I could hear the shrieks of the wild rocs Kassim had just mentioned. Makani had said we were close to where we’d found the broken eggs in their nests, less than a day’s camel ride away.