The genie sucked back into the lamp, extinguishing Kaveen’s glow. But then a new ember of light appeared . . . a vision of a Sultan in red-and-gold robes leading an army across the dunes . . .
“After Aladdin’s death, his son spent his life searching for the cave, to no avail. Then his son took on the quest. My father. Day after day, my dad combed the Shazabah desert . . . until one day he found it.”
The cave reappeared out of the dunes, towering high in the sand.
“But it would not let my father in. Instead, it gave him a message.”
The cave spoke in a tiger’s growl: “I am the genie of the lamp. Master of this cave. Those who seek admission must bring me something in return. Find my true love and deliver her to me. Only then may you enter my Cave of Wishes.”
Agatha looked up as the cave shape-shifted into the genie they had seen before, half-man, half-tiger . . .
“My father wanted that lamp. So he consulted every sorcerer in Shazabah: Who is a genie’s true love?” Kaveen went on. “But none had the answer. After all, a genie is neither human nor animal, mortal nor ghost, free nor unfree. Who could possibly be a genie’s match? Thwarted, my dad enlisted me and my sister in his hunt, banking on the cleverness and ambition of youth. He baited us with the ultimate prize: whoever found the answer and delivered the lamp to him would be named the next Sultan.”
Kaveen’s glow mirrored his own self along with a second shadow next to him: a girl with a sleek beehive of hair, her tall, shapely form wrapped in red-and-gold furs, and a hawk on her shoulder.
“Who’s she?” Sophie whispered to Agatha. “She’s fabulous.”
“My sister and I made a pact. We’d find the answer together and share the throne,” said Kaveen. “But we were as stymied by the riddle as our father. Not to mention we were young and soon distracted. I went off to school and then so did she. But after the Storian humiliated me in Uma’s tale, I was determined to prove myself. Not just to my father, but to the whole Woods. So without telling my sister, I hunted relentlessly for the genie’s true love. But not even the wiliest witch could tell me who it was. Until at last, one night I begged my father to show me the cave. To let me speak to the genie myself. He’d kept the location secret for fear that someone else might find the genie’s love and steal the lamp for themselves. But my father honored my plea and took me to the desert in the dead of night, using a map he’d made to mark the cave’s spot . . .”
In glowing silhouettes, the Sultan led Kaveen blindfolded across the desert, until the Sultan removed the covering from his eyes. Before Kaveen’s eyes, the sand rose up and whittled into the shape of a magic lamp, the tip of the lamp the opening to the cave.
The prince kneeled before this opening, the Sultan watching from a distance.
“I come to you as a humble man, Genie,” Kaveen appealed. “The Pen has taken everything from me. My name. My wife. My happiness. Look inside my heart and see my intentions are pure. Let me have the hope of a new life. A good life. Like my great-grandfather, who you once opened your cave to. I may have lost my true love. But give me a chance at glory by helping you find yours.”
The cave seemed to smile at him, as if he’d said the magic words. Then a golden mist emanated from the cave’s opening, seeping into Kaveen’s ear. Inside his head, the tiger’s growl resounded . . .
“Find the princess who is every animal’s friend,” said the cave. “She is my true love.”
Within Kaveen’s mind, the cave’s mist spawned an image of a girl with a tiny nose, long hair, and almond-shaped eyes . . .
Agatha jolted in surprise.
“Me?” Princess Uma gasped.
The visions snuffed out, Kaveen’s dim fingerglow lighting his face. He didn’t look at Uma. “I never told my father what I’d learned. I loved you too much to bind you to a genie and trap you in the lamp. But my dad knew the cave had given me the answer. He’d seen it whisper in my ear. And so he jailed me because I refused to name you to him. All these years, you made your reputation off my humiliation, never looking for me or giving me a thought, while I was in here, protecting you. Saving you. Like the Storian told the Woods I’d failed to do.”
Slowly Kaveen looked up at Uma, his face hard.
“But here you are now,” he said, rising to his feet. “As if the Storian didn’t want you protected at all. As if it wants me to name you to my father. As if it wants me to be free instead of you. Finally, the Pen is on my side.”
Kaveen raised his fingerglow, casting a phantom crow in red dust, which flew out of the cell, screeching for the guards.
“Kaveen, no!” Uma cried. Agatha and Tedros shielded her. So did Sophie and Hort—
A fanfare of trumpets exploded outside.
Then somewhere above, the doors to the prison flew open. Agatha thrust her head through the bars.
Bootsteps rattled the stairs, shadows moving across walls.
Guards came off the steps, flooding in front of the cell, five of them, clad in red and gold, scimitars on their belts.
Kaveen addressed them: “Guards, summon my fath—”
Another trumpet blared above, drowning him out: “Presenting the Royal Princess of Shazabah!”
Kaveen drew back in confusion—
A new shadow suddenly appeared over the stairwell. The same silhouette Agatha had glimpsed during Kaveen’s tale: a tall, buxom girl with a sculpted mountain of hair and a hawk on her shoulder.
Then she came to life, gliding down the steps and into the light, the Princess of Shazabah, with cinnamon skin, kohl-dusted eyes, and luscious red lips. Two ladies-in-waiting, wrapped in red-and-gold robes, stood at her sides, their heads bowed. The princess took her place in front of the guards and peered into the cell.
“Looks like my father was right about catching you, Agatha,” she pronounced. “The King of Camelot is already on a ship to Shazabah to kill you.”
“Sister?” said Kaveen, grabbing the bars.
“Reena?” said Tedros, grabbing the bars next to him.
“Wait, you know these rebels?” Kaveen asked her.
“Dad hasn’t a clue, of course,” Reena answered. “I told him I was coming down to see you, brother. He said if I could get you to tell me the genie’s true love, then I could have the throne myself . . . Tempting offer, of course, given you’ve been secretly searching for the answer, violating our pact. But in truth it’s not you I’ve come to see.”
Her brother shook his head. “I—I—I don’t understand.”
“You see, these aren’t rebels, as you say,” said Reena. “They’re my . . . friends.”
The two ladies behind Reena doffed their hoods, revealing Kiko and Beatrix, who sprayed the guards with stun spells, knocking them to the ground.
Agatha was in a daze, watching Beatrix snatch keys off a fallen guard. “How did you—”
“Questions later. If we’re going to keep you alive, we don’t have much time,” Reena said, unlocking the cell. “Follow me. All of you. You too, brother, if you’d like to be out of your cage.”
Agatha felt Tedros’ arm around her, pushing her out of the cell—
“Stop,” said a voice.
Agatha and her friends turned to see Kaveen holding Uma, his fingerglow at her throat.