"How far away is that?"
"Twenty kilometers." that would be twelve and a half miles. "Is there one closer?"
"No."
"Take me to it," I said.
"May I ask the young lady a question?"
"Yes?"
"You"re American, yes?"
"Yeah."
"Is it custom in your country to talk to people who are not there?" I had not gone out of my way to disguise my conversations with Lova because I had a.s.sumed that the driver wouldn"t notice what I was doing. I would have to be more careful.
"I"m a famous actress," I said. " I"m rehearsing lines for a movie." that got the guy excited, and he talked my head off all the way to the hotel. When we were parked outside, I turned to Lova.
"Is Darbar in the area?" I whispered. She closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded toward the hotel.
"He"s in that building," she said. I spoke softly. "Good. Stay out of sight in that shoe store over there. How far can you be from me and still hear my call?"
"Far."
Okay, i"d have to trust her. "Wait for my call. I won"t be long." I paid the driver-i owed him a small fortune-and entered the hotel. This Hilton was larger and older than the one at the beach, more con ser va tive. I asked at the desk where lunch was being served and was pointed toward two different restaurants.
"Which one has the best steak?" I asked. I was directed to the restaurant on the second floor, overlooking the pool and the harbor. It was almost deserted; apparently the other restaurant had the great lunch menu. A man with a white turban wanted to seat me but I told him I was looking for a friend. Before Amesh saw me, I saw him on the balcony eating his lunch.
He had two hands! He was using both of them to eat! it should not have been a shock. I had heard him wish for the hand. But to actually see it attached to his arm-it was a miracle!
Yet there was something wrong with his right hand. The skin color was ghastly. It was not dark like his normal beautiful skin, but a sick yellow. And the longer I watched, the more I saw him struggle to use the hand.
He was using it to hold the fork, to keep the meat in place, when he should have been using it to cut the meat with his knife. Amesh had told me that he was naturally right-handed.
Yet here he was using his left hand to do the more difficult task. It broke my heart to see why. His new hand was hurting him. He tried to hide it, but every time the fork slipped from his control, he winced.
I ran over and sat beside Amesh. He took one look at me and tried to escape. He had on new clothes. Expensive tailored clothes. Gray slacks, a white silk shirt, and a gaudy silver jacket. I grabbed him by his sleeve as he went to leave.
"We have to talk," I said.
He shook free. "I don"t have to talk to you!"
His words stung. For two weeks I had done nothing but worry about him, and now he did not want to speak to me. The only thing that kept me from bursting into tears was the pain on his face. He did not look like the Amesh I knew. He kept twitching.
"Where"s Darbar?" if the djinn was nearby, I did not sense him.
He shook at the mention of the djinn. "Don"t say his name!"
"Why not?"
"Because I hate him, and it might make him come."
"Fine. Talk to me, and I won"t mention him again."
He sat back down. "Is that why you"re here? to threaten me?"
"I"m here because I"m sick worrying about you. Did you happen to notice that it didn"t matter how long we were on the island? When you returned, it was the next day."
"Of course I noticed."
"Well, I"ve been gone two weeks."
He was stunned. "You"re kidding."
"it"s been a very long two weeks, Amesh."
"I"m sorry."
"That"s it? You leave me stranded on a spooky island and all you can say is you"re sorry?"
He looked ashamed. "the djinn ordered me to leave you. It was like it got inside my mind, and I lost all control.
But then I thought of you and I fought it. I sent the carpet back for you. But I had no idea it would take so long to rescue you."
"It came the next night." the carpet had never told me Amesh had sent it back for me. I wondered why. The information meant a lot to me.
"But you just said . . ." he began.
"I stayed on the island on purpose to try to help you," I interrupted. "to learn how to undo the deals you"ve made with your djinn."
He shook his head. "It"s not my djinn. I want nothing to do with it."
"But you can"t get rid of it, can you? Do you know why? it"s because of the Laws of the Djinn that I told you about before you decided you knew every thing." I paused. "How many wishes have you made so far?"
"Two."
"Liar."
He went to snap at me but then stopped. "What do three wishes have to do with Darbar taking control?" he asked.
"it"s the third law of the djinn. Make three wishes and the djinn owns you. It"s like you become its thrall."
His eyes blinked rapidly. "What does thrall thrall mean?" I described to him the series of pictures in the djinn temple. When I got to the part about the man being led into a fiery region with his neck in a noose, Amesh turned white. mean?" I described to him the series of pictures in the djinn temple. When I got to the part about the man being led into a fiery region with his neck in a noose, Amesh turned white.
"I swear on Allah"s name, I"ve only made two wishes!"
"Then why are you twitching like a drug addict in need of a fix? And why do you jump when I say his name?"
He pointed to his right hand. "It"s because of this! Look at it. Do you know what it is?"
"A poor copy of your right hand?"
"No! I asked for my hand back. And you know what? it gave it to me! it gave me back my old hand!" I gulped. "that"s impossible."
Amesh sighed. " I"m sorry. The story I told you about how I lost my hand was a lie. The truth is I was attacked by four guys and they cut it off. The police caught them and there was a trial but it was a joke. The judge let them go."
"Why?"
"I don"t know. Hire the best lawyer in town and you can get away with anything. Anyway, during the trial, my hand was exhibit A. The doctors couldn"t sew it back on, but the prosecutor used it during the trial. To keep it fresh, they put it in a gla.s.s jar filled with some kind of weird liquid."
"Formaldehyde," I said.
"Huh?"
"It"s called formaldehyde." I could smell it on him.
"Whatever. The chemical didn"t keep it fresh enough.
When I asked the djinn for my hand back, it went and got my original hand." there were tears in his eyes. "I didn"t know it was going to do that. I thought it would give me a new hand, not this old rotten thing."
"G.o.d," I said. Be careful what you wish for; you just might get it. It was the oldest saying in the world, and it was the truest when it came to the oldest beings on earth. Darbar had set Amesh up perfectly. Even if Amesh had not made the third wish yet-which I sensed was somehow partially true-it already had him under its thumb.
Amesh lowered his head and sobbed. Moving my chair close, I hugged him and stroked his hair. It felt good to be able to comfort him. At least, I thought I was comforting him. Suddenly he stood as if he were about to leave.
"I"m sorry, I have to go," he said.
Again, I grabbed his coat and forced him back in his chair.
"Would you sit and listen? I"m here to help." I paused. "I brought back another djinn."
"The last thing I want in my life is another djinn."
"What if I order this djinn to help you?"
Finally, he showed interest. "What are you going to wish for?"
"I don"t know. I need to get a handle on what"s going on with you. You swear you"ve only made two wishes, but you act like Darbar controls you. I don"t get it."
Amesh was silent a long time before he answered.
"Darbar can"t find them," he said.
"Find who?"
"The people who ordered the attack on me."
"But you know who they are."
"I know who attacked me. But I don"t know who paid them."
"Is that your third wish? the one you say you haven"t made yet?"
"I"m not a fool, Sara. I learned from my mistake. I said my second wish wrong and look what happened. I didn"t make the same mistake with my third wish."
"Did you make a third wish or not?" I asked.
"I made a deal with Darbar. I didn"t just want the guys who attacked me to suffer. I wanted the people who hired them to suffer, too. But Darbar can"t find them." He added, "so, like I told you, there"s been no third wish because the djinn can"t find them." I shook my head. "this deal you"ve made with Darbar sounds like a third wish to me. The only thing that"s keeping him from making you a thrall is that he hasn"t been able to fulfill it."
He stared at the ocean. "I hate them."
"Amesh, maybe that"s the way out of your jam. Drop your need for revenge, and maybe Darbar won"t be able to collect on the third wish."
"You don"t understand; I want revenge. It"s all I"ve thought about for the last year."
"I don"t believe that. The time we spent together, we had a great time. You weren"t thinking about revenge then."
"How do you know what I was thinking about?" he asked.
"Because I know you; I care about you. I know that you care about me. You told me as much in that temple, just before Darbar came between us. Amesh, I came back from the island to save you. It"s the reason I"m here."
"If that"s true then call your djinn and order it to fix my hand. And order it to find those monsters who were responsible for what happened to me last summer. The monsters Darbar can"t find. That"s only two wishes. If you care so much about me, Sara, you can do that. Right?"
"More deals with these devils might not be the best way out of this."
"You"re afraid, aren"t you? You"re afraid you"ll say the wishes wrong and end up like poor Amesh. Well, at least on my first wish, I got it right. Do you know how much my jewels are worth?"
"Probably a hundred times more than you"ve been told."
He pounded the table with his good hand, upsetting his drink. A waiter came and tried to clean it up, but Amesh sent him away. It was fortunate we were outside on a balcony and basically alone, or half of istanbul would have known our business.
"There"s the Sara I"m used to! Always ready with the sarcasm. Sure, you cared about me as long as every thing was going along fine. But now that I"m in trouble, do you really want to order your djinn to help me?" He stood and glared at me. "Don"t answer. We both know what the answer will be."
"The answer is yes. I"ll do anything to ease your pain. But taking revenge on the people who hurt you isn"t going to help."
He held up his yellow hand. "then fix my hand. Fix it so it works the way it used to and doesn"t hurt. The pain is kill ing me. If I can"t stop it, I"m going to have to do something crazy.
You know what I"m saying?" I stood and gently tried to take his hand.
He winced and jumped back. "Ouch!" he cried.
"I"m sorry," I said.
"Don"t say you"re sorry. Just call your djinn. Help me."
"I will, I promise. Give me a few minutes."
"What for?"