by J A Armitage
I ruminated on his words. He was right. No one person was that powerful. I didn’t know much about magic, but I knew enough to know there were limits to it. I sighed. Maybe I was looking at this all wrong.
“I’ll have to do some research,” I concluded, finishing up my lunch. I sat back and patted my full stomach. "So, now what?" I asked, glancing at the others.
"We are going to get back into the city and find your father. Then, we'll figure it out from there."
Freya looked at me with such determination. She was right. My father was my number one priority. Finding out the cause of all the sudden magic would have to wait for another day.
Freya led the way to the bell tower near the center of the huge walled city. I was surprised to see it was part of another building. The front door was open. The three of us stepped inside.
“How can I help you?” a small woman with a messy bun and a tea stain on her dress said. Looking around the room, I saw leaflets about Badalah’s tourist attractions. The camel tours of the desert, walking tours of the Badalah Mountains, and spice market tours. This was a tourist information place. At the end of the room was a set of stairs winding upward. The bell tower.
“Has anyone broken into the tower recently?” I asked, pointing to the stairs.
The small woman shook her head. “Not to my knowledge. The doors were locked when I came in this morning. Nothing’s been stolen. Why do you ask?”
I looked to Freya, who shrugged.
“Has anyone been up there today? Could anyone have slept up there?”
The woman laughed. “No one sleeps up there. I’ve had one tour up there this morning, but I think they all came down. Feel free to go and have a look for yourself.”
I thanked her and raced up the stairs. The bell part was closed to the public, but there was one window that looked out toward the palace. Was this the view my father had looked out over in his youth.
Jamal tried the door that led to the bell above us, but it was locked.
“Does the room to the bell get opened often?” I asked the woman when we came down.
“Only in emergencies and when the palace asks for it to be rung on special occasions. Each peal of the bell has a different meaning, you see. It’s not been unlocked for weeks.”
“Did the sultan ask you to unlock it?”
She scrunched her face “Who?”
I thanked her and stepped outside.
“What now?” Jamal asked.
Freya wiped her brow. “We keep looking!”
By the time the sun set in the sky, we were no closer to finding him and had no leads.
Freya invited me back to her house. There was no reason for me not to go back to the palace to sleep, but the fear of my mother and Genie not recognizing me kept me away.
Mrs. Shan gave Jamal and me a blanket each, and we both took a sofa to sleep on. Freya stayed up with us chatting, but after a while, I turned over and threw the blanket over me. Tuning them out, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.
22nd June
The brazen sun pounded on our backs as we moved carefully through Kisbu.
The clock tower had been a bust as had many other places in Kisbu. We trudged through the city, checking out all the places where a man with nothing might hide.
“We need to get to the highest place,” I said, trying to remember the things my father had told me about his youth. “He liked to look upon the palace and daydream.”
Eventually, we came upon a cafe that boasted a rooftop terrace. It cost us the price of a coffee and cake each, but it was worth it. The city of Kisbu laid before us in all its glory.
“Do you see what I see?” Jamal said as we gazed out.
My heart leapt as I took in the sight. “There’s another bell tower!” I exclaimed. The one I’d always imagined my father to have been talking about dominated the skyline, but now as I looked at it, I realized how new it looked compared to many of the other buildings. The other, smaller bell tower blended in more with its surroundings.
After rushing the coffee, I slipped the cake into my pocket, and the three of us ran back onto the streets.
Twenty minutes later, we stood at the entrance to the tower. The dilapidated building had seen better days, and the one entrance had a door with peeling paint that was probably red at one point, but now was a faded, dull brown.
The door opened easily. Once upon a time, it would have housed a huge bell. Maybe it still did, but it was the new clock tower that signaled a threat to Badalah now. I pushed forward, nimbly skipping two steps at a time.
When we reached the top, I heard a thumping noise. Jamal and Freya motioned for me to go ahead.
And that’s when I found him. My father. Aladdin. The sultan. The street rat. He was curled up on a pile of old newspapers. When he saw me enter, he sat up and pulled back. The fear in his eyes almost broke my heart.
“Aladdin,” I said softly.
He squinted, studying me carefully.
"Do you remember me?" I continued.
In a swift move, he was on his feet.
It had only been two days since he was last at the palace and about three since I'd seen him. Yet, his facial hair was grown out, and the hair on his head was a mess, as were the clothes he wore. Nothing about him resembled anything from royalty.
"Who are you?" he asked gruffly, keeping me at bay.
"You don't remember me?" Again, I asked.
He shook his head, looking past me.
"They're with me."
"Your friends?"
"Yes, and yours. My name is Gaia. I'm..." I stopped myself. Perhaps telling him I was his daughter wasn't the best idea. At least, not until I could be sure he wouldn't freak out. "We are here to help you."
"I don't need your help. So please, leave me be."
Jamal moved in closer. "Sir, if I may. There seems to be something strange happening in the kingdom. Many people will suffer if you don't come with us." He moved closer, his hands up showing Aladdin there was nothing there to hurt him with. "We can explain everything if you just please come with us. I promise no harm will come to you."
In a split second, my father turned and leapt from the bell tower, causing me to lose my footing, tripping forward into the heap of papers scattered about. Jamal tried to help me up instead. I screamed for him to save my father. I was sure he was injured, or worse.
Freya was at the ledge when I found my footing. "What is it?" I demanded.
"Your Highness, it seems the sultan escaped. See for yourself," she said, stepping away.
When I looked over the ledge, I could see just how my father had used the carved stones in the architectural detail of the tower to rappel to the lower outlook.
"Quick! Follow him!" I shouted, running toward the stairs, Jamal and Freya followed.
We pressed down the stairs. Jamal ran ahead, thankfully. If anyone had a chance of catching up to my father, it was he.
Freya and I finally caught up to him at the bottom.
“He’s gone,” Jamal said, and as I looked past him into the bustling streets, I knew he was right. We would be extremely lucky to find him again.
"What am I going to do?" I asked, collapsing onto a bench in the middle of the city square. The sun was starting to go down, but the benches still held the heat. It seeped through my linen frock, igniting my magic.
Not now. I whispered to myself, carefully pulling my hands to my center, focusing the energy elsewhere.
“Perhaps we should head back to my mother’s place,” Freya suggested.
“We have to continue looking,” I said, standing to look around. Surely, we were missing something. Yet, no matter how much I jogged my memory, I couldn’t figure out where my father could possibly have gone. “Actually, why don’t the two of you return to the palace? We need eyes and ears on the inside. It’s getting late, and soon, we won’t be able to see much without looking suspicious.”
“What of you, Princess?” Freya said, looking to me with sadness and concern.
“I’m going to head back to the bell tower. Who knows, he might just turn up there.”
Jamal took hold of my hand. “I can’t let you wander the streets alone. You are the princess.”
“I was the princess,” I said sadly. “I don’t even know if anyone even recognizes me anymore. I could be anyone.”
“People still know you. I saw the stares as we walked through the city. They were wondering what the princess was doing wandering around.”
“Not everyone. There used to be a time when I couldn’t set foot outside the palace gates without the media showing up and hordes of people trying to catch a glimpse of me. You saw what it was like the other day. Today we’ve walked around freely.”
“That may be, but you haven’t completely been forgotten. Not that your title makes any difference. I wouldn’t want to leave a young lady wandering around the streets of Kisbu no matter who she was.”
I bit my lip, knowing I was going to let him into my biggest secret. One I’d never told anyone. “I come out here at night a lot. I’ve been sneaking out of the palace for a couple of years now. I always go alone, and I never find trouble.”
Jamal’s eyes widened, and then his mouth pulled up at the corners. “I don’t doubt it. I bet you know how to handle yourself even if you do find trouble, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“I wondered why your clothes were always dirty in the mornings,” Freya exclaimed. “I should have guessed.”
I gave her a smile.
Jamal pulled on my hand.
“Wait. What are you doing? I said I was going back to the bell tower.”
“I believe that you know these streets and you believe that you will be ok, but I would never forgive myself if you got hurt. I cannot leave you. We’ll go back to the palace, speak to the guards, and get them to come and look for your father. He’ll be fine for a few more hours.”
I pulled my hand from his. “And how do you expect them to do that? They don’t remember what he looks like. And how would we explain it to them? We can’t. I’m going to look for my father, and as your princess, I demand you let me go.”
I narrowed my eyes at him, willing him to dare to try to stop me, but he didn’t.
He turned and began to walk away without saying another word. Freya looked at me nervously, stuck in the middle. I waved my hand to tell her to leave. Unlike Jamal, she didn’t fight my decision. Soon I was alone.
It felt freeing.
I ran through the streets feeling more normal than I had in days. This was normal to me. The dark streets were now devoid of life. It was almost like coming home. I knew then why my father was so eager to come back. No pressures of royalty, no parties, or government issues. Just me and the streets. Aladdin’s daughter.
I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I missed the broken paving slab and tripped, falling onto my hands. As I pulled myself up, I noticed blood dripping from a scrape.
“You should get that cleaned up.” A familiar voice said from behind me.
“D…” I stopped myself. “Aladdin, sir,” I said, trying desperately not to cry. “Yes, I should. Except, I’m not too familiar with where I can go?”
My magic pulsed at my innards, desperately trying to surface. It churned continuously, causing me to feel heat where there was none.
“What is it?” he asked as I furtively looked around at the change of atmosphere
“I’m not sure... Danger, I think. We need to move.”
“Move?”
“Yes. Now!” I demanded as I looked around, carefully surveying the area, yet again. There was something sinister in the air. I could feel it. My magic was on alert. “Where can we go that is safe?”
He looked back as he took the lead. “The palace. There are several places we can hide.”
“The palace?” I carefully said, trying not to sound too excited. “Why the palace?”
“It’s the last place people look.”
I wanted to laugh. He was taking me home, and he didn’t even know it. My father’s memories were still in there somewhere.
“Very well. Hurry.”
We moved hastily along the darker streets. Whatever was in pursuit of us seemed to have fallen behind, and I wondered if it had been nothing but my imagination.
We reached the back of the palace wall. “Where now?” I asked, curious about where he would take me. I knew the back way in through the palace walls. I used it most nights, but I was keen to see if he knew it. If he remembered it. Most of the citizens of Kisbu didn’t know of the small entryway. It was one of three ways into the palace grounds. The imposing golden gates at the front and the less ostentatious staff entrance were the other two. He beckoned me forward, keeping the wall to his right. He was taking me away from the back entrance, which meant he was planning on going in through the front entrance. Something about that made me happy. If he planned to go in past the guards, it meant he knew that he could. It meant he remembered who he was. Except he stopped long before we cornered the palace.
He lifted his hand at some of the bougainvillea that crept up the wall and pushed it aside, exposing a small crack in the wall, just big enough for a man to squeeze through. I gasped as he ducked through. Did the guards know about this lapse in security? I doubted it. But my father obviously knew, and he’d never told anyone to guard it, and not once in his reign had he had it filled in. I followed him into the palace grounds and to a covered hole that I knew led to the cellar. Aladdin pulled the cover off and jumped down.
I followed him in and watched as he found a pile of dirty blankets.
“We can hide here,” he whispered. “No one ever comes down here.”
He settled on the blankets and closed his eyes.
I waited for him to fall asleep then crept upstairs to the main part of the palace. Ironically, he was probably safer here than anywhere else. He’d found home even if he didn’t know it.
“Gaia! What happened to you?” Jamal blurted out as I stepped into the entrance hall. His eyes fell to the graze on my arm and hand. It was clear that he’d been waiting for me to come back. I noticed one of the palace guards eyeing us with curiosity from his position at the main door. Taking Jamal’s arm, I pulled him away from the guard and into a corridor.
“I...” I stopped myself, choosing to leave my father out of it. “I couldn’t get back into the bell tower. I fell,” I said, lifting my hand. “I cut myself. I had to find my way back into the palace to get cleaned up. The last thing I need is a mean infection on my hand.”
“Would you like me to help?”
I looked at Jamal, wishing I wanted him near me, but I didn’t. I wanted to be alone.
“I’m sorry,” I said, shaking my head. “I need to go check on Asher for now.”
“As you wish,” Jamal said, moving back so I could pass him. As I walked up the stairs to my room, I thought about going to see Genie. I missed him. I didn’t even know if he remembered me, or how I’d deal with it if he didn’t. Deciding that I couldn’t take him looking at me blankly after everything we’d been through together, I did what I told Jamal I was going to do and headed back to my room.
“Asher!” I shouted, rushing out onto the terrace. “Oh, buddy.”
I carefully took him into my arms. His frail, decrepit body seemed like it would fall apart if I handled him too tightly.
He raised a watery eye to me and hung his limp head on my shoulder.
My tears finally breached, flowing down my face, some falling onto my balding dying bird.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered to him as I brought him inside. I shouldn’t have left him alone for so long. He was close to death, and with that thought, I let my tears finally flow freely.
23rd June
A loud squawk woke me up in the early hours. I’d crept to bed the night before without speaking to anyone and fallen into bed. I’d expected not to be able to sleep, but due to the hours of pounding the streets in the summer heat the day before, exhaustion had taken o
ver, and I’d slept like a baby. Rubbing my eyes, I glanced over to the fig tree on the terrace. My heart lurched when I couldn’t see Asher’s outline in the dim morning light.
“No!” I hissed as I stumbled out of bed. Not Asher, not now. I rushed to the tree where Asher liked to sleep, but all that was left of him was a pile of black ash at the base of the tree. At some point in the night, he’d died, giving up his life in a puff of smoke.
“Asher,” I screamed, frantically searching through the ash, sending small particles of black into the air. My finger caught on something in the ash, and at the moment of contact, something strange happened to my body. Flames erupted all around me, surrounding me in a tornado of heat. I could barely see through the swirling mass of red and yellow flames that licked my body. Despite being swallowed by flames, I felt no pain, only energy that flowed through my veins. My skin began to peel away from my flesh, but again, I felt no pain. I also felt no fear. Whatever was happening to me was coming from within. I brought my hands up to see what I’d touched and found a beautiful baby phoenix. It stretched its wings out wide and let out another squawk. My entire body fell away until there was only flame. I was made entirely of flames and fire. A true daughter of the sun.
I sucked in a breath, and the flames stopped as suddenly as they had started. Looking down at my arms, the skin was still there, but now with a healthy glow to it. I felt refreshed. I felt reborn.
“Asher?” I said breathlessly to the tiny bird. It nodded cheerfully.
I took him over to the mirror and looked at my reflection. I was still me, but somehow better. My skin was flush with the aftereffects of the heat. My hair shone with a luster it had never had before and my eyes. The rings around the irises were lit up like stars on a clear night.
I was new. I also felt new on the inside, more powerful, somehow healthier.
“Was I reborn with you, Asher?” I asked the bird, who’d hopped up onto my shoulder. Far from being bald and ugly like most newborn birds, he was stunningly beautiful. We both were.
Asher nodded his head then gave me an affectionate nip of my ear. If I was worried that the new phoenix wouldn’t really be Asher, I could feel better now. I was still me. I had all my memories, and apart from a shine that made me look like I’d spent hours in a beauty salon, I was still the same old Gaia.