Aladdin, his back to the view, watches Caspida instead. “Why are you telling me this?”
She smiles humorlessly. “So you don’t think us all backward and prejudiced. There are some in this court who would have us reach out, to rekindle our old alliances and rally support against Ambadya. If we all stood against the jinn together, we might succeed. Too long have the nations of our world cowered before these monsters and their whims.”
“Some . . . meaning you?”
Caspida looks down at her hands, idly fingering the bangles around her wrist. “The eastern kingdoms don’t think women are fit to rule, did you know that? There are even those in Parthenia who think I should be set aside in favor of my uncle or my cousin Darian. They think our enemies will not take us seriously if a woman is on the throne.”
“Let them. And while they’re busy laughing, you’ll be busy ruling. Being underestimated isn’t flattering—but it’s an advantage.” He shrugs. “I’ve been underestimated all my life and have found it a cloak as useful as invisibility.”
Caspida turns her face toward him, her eyes probing his. “You are cunning, Rahzad rai Asnam. Are you a student of war?”
Aladdin laughs. “I take it you didn’t get a look at my ship, or you wouldn’t ask.”
“So what are you then?” She takes a step toward him, lifting her face to study him closely. “A scholar? An artist?”
“More like a dreamer.”
“It must be nice, to afford dreams.”
“Don’t you dream?”
“Dreams won’t protect the city from jinn. Dreams won’t feed my people. Dreams won’t . . .” She presses her lips together.
Aladdin, in a gentler voice, asks, “Princess, if you could wish for anything in the world, what would you wish for?”
She studies him for a long moment, as if unsure whether he is teasing or serious. Then she gives a little sigh and says, “You shouldn’t picks fights with Darian. He’s more dangerous than he looks.”
“Do you love him?”
She draws back, startled at the frank question and the directness of Aladdin’s gaze. For a moment, she only stares at him in evaluation, her cheeks flushing. Then she turns away, her chin lifting. “Good evening, Prince Rahzad. I hope you find your stay here most comfortable.”
With that, she disappears inside, leaving him to beat his head against a stone pillar.
“Smoky,” he groans, “this isn’t going to be easy, is it?”
Amusement tugs at my lips. “Not a chance, thief.”
Chapter Eleven
AS SOON AS ALADDIN IS ASLEEP, I slip out the door and shift into a cat, then run through the halls, ears perked and whiskers twitching. The palace is quiet at night, the corridors dark except for the moonlight that pours through the tall arched windows. Crickets chirp in the many courtyards, and I pass the peacocks roosting in a small grove of lemon trees. I listen at every door, and move on when I don’t find what I’m looking for.
I’m almost at the edge of the lamp’s magical perimeter when I finally hear Darian’s voice.
The door to his room is shut, but that doesn’t deter me. I shift into a spider and crawl beneath it, then scurry up the wall, staying in the shadows. Taking the form of a spider is difficult—so many legs to manage, and staring through all those eyes makes me dizzy. So when I reach the ceiling, I transform into a bat and hang upside down, my toes clinging to a groove in the wall.
Darian and Sulifer are in the midst of a heated argument. They’re both breathing heavily, and a bowl lies shattered on the floor. The rooms are larger and more resplendent than Aladdin’s, and save for the broken pottery, immaculately tidy.
“. . . and by a common thief, no less!” Sulifer is saying. His voice is low and dangerous, his eyes slits. Gone is the formal, composed vizier we met in the throne room nearly ten days ago.
“He must have had help from the inside,” Darian replies in a muffled tone. He’s leaning against a table, his shoulders hunched and his face hidden from my view. “And once he had the lamp, how was I to stop him? He had the jinni at his side, and he made a wish! I could have died. All I got was this.”
Darian digs into a pocket, producing the ring Aladdin had been wearing when he found me. Sulifer takes it and grasps it tight.
“Why did it speak to the thief and not to me or to you?”
Darian’s retort is bitter. “I don’t know, Father. I’m not an expert on these things. I never wanted any part in it at all!”
Sulifer raises a hand, and the prince flinches, but then the vizier pauses. “You said you heard him make a wish. What, exactly, did he say?”
“He wished to go home.”
“He’s here. In the city,” Sulifer muses. “Why didn’t you say that first, you idiot? All we have to do is send the Tytoshi charmers out with their flutes. That should enchant the creature out of hiding, and it will lead us to the boy.”
“Do you really think it’s the jinni?” asks Darian. “The same one who betrayed Queen Roshana and started this war?”
“The maarid we captured told us the lamp contained the most powerful jinni of all. What other monster could it be?” Sulifer’s eyes turn distant and greedy. “They say it created a garden for Roshana made entirely of jewels, a wealth greater than any in the world.” He scowls at his son. “I don’t suppose you found any sign of that on your misbegotten foray into the desert?”
“As soon as the thief escaped I turned around and rode straight back here, as you well know,” Darian snaps. “I didn’t have time to dig around old ruins. Anyway, I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with this one jinni. We have a hundred others bottled up below, waiting to be used.”
I tense, my bat ears stretched wide.
“Those jinn are feral and uncontrollable.” Sulifer rolls the ring between his fingers, his lip curled in disgust. “The minute you let one out, it will turn on you. They have no compulsion on them to grant wishes, no loyalty to their masters. Only one of the old lamp jinn will do, and there are very few of those left. No, I will get my hands on this one, and when I do, our people will finally retake their place in this world. No more cowering behind these walls. We will undo the curse Roshana’s foolishness left on us and extend our empire once more. First thing tomorrow, have Vigo begin playing his flute throughout the city.”
Darian just looks up at his father with burning eyes before turning away. “I’ve been riding for days. I’m exhausted.”
But Sulifer goes on as if Darian had never spoken. “If the thief is still here, he’s probably lying low, waiting to see what we will do. I’ll smoke him out and put his head on a pike, just like his rabble-rousing parents. Report to me after you’ve dispatched the charmer. I won’t tolerate any more incompetence from you.”