"So… you have a choice."
"No. I don't."
"Jamiil, there's always a choice."
His soft, silken voice wove through the darkness, caressed her bruised
and aching skin. The taste of the desert thickened in her mouth. And she
hadn't moved; her face slammed against the stone floor. Fingers dug into
the cracks and she pushed, heaved herself up onto her knees. Her head
pounded. But nothing broken. Yet.
"Sofia…"
The touch of unfamiliar hands, tracing a path down her spine.
"…you can stop this."
A bitter laugh. She climbed on to unsteady feet. Even deep inside the
Khazneh the air was hot, dry. She rubbed at her scratchy throat and her
lungs burned. "So you know my name."
"I know that you've hidden who you are, what you are all of your
life."
"And?"
She searched the thick blackness, boots shuffling forward. Her palm
slapped against more dry, dusty stone. High. Wide. Probing fingers
followed the smoothly hewn stone.
Laughter, as hot and dry as the desert wind. "There is no escape
from here."
"So you would have me believe." Her nails ran along a deeper
groove, finding the regular shape of another door. Another false path?
Another trap created by this demon for the stupid and the unwary?
"Demon?"
Sofia winced. The thing had evil powers, could pick her thoughts from
the ether.
"I can taste your memories." The murmur of that rich, soft
voice, wrapping around her in a wreath of smoke, prickling her skin,
making her heart skitter. "I can taste your life." Closer,
until a warm, ghostly breath brushed her ear, the almost caress of dry
lips. "Know the life you've… ached… for."
It was hard to breathe.
The air felt thick, lifeless. That's what she had to tell herself. Not
that the voice of this… this… djinn…
"What?"
Sofia gasped.
A very real fingertip pressed against her bottom lip, followed a slow,
slow path down her throat, caught on the rapid pulse at its base.
"…can offer you the life you want; you need?"
Wooden shutters opened on to morning mists, obscuring the palaces of
marble and gold. Grey skies. The spatter of cold rain against her
upturned face and a chill, chill wind that bit at her exposed skin. And
the familiar, almost comforting, stink of the Grand Canal.
Her home.
Sofia let out a slow breath.
Her home.
Warm arms circled her waist and she leant back against a broad chest.
The dry, hot stink of the desert clung to him. Sofia closed her eyes,
denying the vision of the tumbled red tiled roofs of Venezia.
"Andrea Contarini sent you to me." The voice murmuring in her
ear, still with the hot breath of the desert winds. "Sent his
faithful Vittorio into the Holy Lands to bring back gold for his little
war."
The smile in his voice was a spike. "But Vittorio has always had
his little secret."
"So?"
"Secrets, deceptions are cracks and fissures through your soul. And
through them, I can work my magic."
Sofia knew she had proven her worth to three Doges in the ten years
since she had realised her… gift. Lorenzo Celsi had given her titles
for the treasure she found digging beneath the paws of the Great Sphinx.
Marco Corner a share in the gold she unearthed in Thebes. And now Andrea
Contarini, if she found the hoard rumored to lie in the Khazneh of
Petra, would release her from her contract…
No… djinn… was going to deny her that.
And she could smell the damn gold.
The djinn's hand slid low over her belly.
Sofia jumped. That had been a-
Again.
Her own trembling fingers stroked her swollen… and a small fist, sharp
with tiny knuckles hit out against her touch. Sofia crushed her eyes at
the deception. A baby. Something denied her living the life of Vittorio
Alessi, Procurer of gold for the Doge.
"Feel its life, Sofia." The soft, persuasive voice by her ear,
hot breath stirring her skin. "Growing. Your child. Free from
deception-"
"And this is what you'll give me if I…?"
"Stay. With me."
To have a life as a woman. To love. To find a man and let his child grow
within her. Her forbidden dream. For one brief, brief moment that voice,
that feeling swayed her…
And then Sofia laughed.
The strong smells, the cool spatter of rain, the icy winds vanished.
She opened her eyes into darkness and the hot, airless chamber built
somewhere into the Khazneh. "That baby, that life wasn't my dream.
It was yours."
The arms melted into smoke and she turned.
"How long have you been trapped here… Demon?" Her voice was
loud, hollow as she shouted into the emptiness. "How long have you
been tied to the gold I can sense behind these walls? Aching for
life?"
Silence.
Complete silence.
"Hide, Demon. I'll find you." Sofia's smile was sharp.
"And your treasure."
She was close. Sofia could feel it. Her fingers found the grooves of
that door again, edged it. Edged it. And pushed. Her boots dug into the
floor, her back straining. This damn thing would give-
A wild burst of dust-filled choking air swept over her.
The long, drawn out scrape of stone.
But she wasn't falling, impossibly, into another hot, dark room. No.
Chinks of light cut through carved rock… and everywhere, everywhere,
piled on wooden chests, in fired urns… gleamed the brassy glare of
gold.
Enough for Contarini to overrun the King of Hungary. Enough for him to
take on the whole damn world!
She was free.
A grin split Sofia's face.
"Stay."
Her heart jumped.
In the shadow of a far corner, something moved, shifted. And she watched
as smoke chased over the smoothed rock, weaving around the bright cut of
sunlight. She… sensed… him behind her. A familiar fingertip caressed
her neck and she shivered.
"Stay, Jamiil." A pause and Sofia felt the finger, fingers
steal across her shoulder, slide down the linen sleeve… Take her hand.
"Please."
"My Bedouin guide told me that if you resist a djinn, then that
djinn is yours."
Her fingers tightened
"Come with me…"
"Dushara. My name is Dushara." His lips on her neck and she
could feel his smile. "As you command."
Sofia squinted into the burning silver sky. The Khazneh
stretched up behind her, red sandstone dazzling in the fierce sun. Mules
stamped in the sand-thick stone. Covered carts and men, masked against
the bite of the air and grit.
Her hand lifted.
Dushara. His lips brushed over her skin. Her eyes flicked over the
unearthly beauty of his face. Dark, gleaming eyes held hers. "We
are both free," he murmured.
And blinking, the djinn lifted his face to the sun.
