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I gasped at what was left of it. My hand covered mymouth.
The door was kicked in and resting off its hinges. Someone had smashed the shutters and overturned myfurniture.
“Watch her, Brother,” said Zand as his shoulders and back twitched, and fire erupted over his body. Like a hulking bear, he thundered into myflat.
"Ali. Kaza," I moaned, scratching at Dahvi’sarms.
"Shh," Dahvi whispered, stroking my head with a free hand. "Everything's fine. Zand will getthem."
The sick lump in my gut told me otherwise. The guards had found the lamp and had taken my brother and the genie. My thoughts strangled me like vines choking a tree.I was beside myself withgrief.
Something crunched underfoot as Zand swept through my shack. Broken pieces of wood rattled. Shards of something—plates, maybe—scraped along the floor. The guards had smashedeverything.
Moments later, Zand returned holding his hands behind his back as if hiding something fromme.
The lump in my stomach sat like concretenow.
The guards had confiscated thelamp.
Pain cracked down the center of my heart as it split intwo.
“What is it?” I shrieked, desperate to know what Zand hadfound.
Blue smoke fanned around us. In an instant, we were transported elsewhere. Beneath the bridge running over the river that flowed through the city. The sound of water trickled in my ears. Rocks packed the banks to prevent the water from eroding the bridge’s foundation. With each passing day, the genie’s magic grewstronger.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. “Where is mybrother?”
“We are safer here.” Zand revealed the contents of hishand.
I gasped at the slumped, lifeless, and blackened corpse of my monkey Karim. His eyes were closed and mouth open as if he’d released his rama—his soul—for the gods to take him to theheavens.
Hands shaking, I clutched my beloved pet to my chest and clamped my eyes shut. Sobs racked me, and I gasped for air. The monkey had been part of my family. Now he was gone, too. Killed by the vizier’s men. This was a warning. More of my loved ones would die if I did not hand over the genies to thevizier.
“No, Karim, no,” I moaned, falling to my knees, cuddling mypet.
“I’m so sorry, Azar.” Zand’s choked voice broke through mybawling.
Dahvi piped in, too. “We won’t let the vizier get away withthis.”
Words were pointless. Nothing either of them said would bring back my pet. And according to genie rules, neither would theirmagic.
When I opened my eyes again, they were blurred with tears. “Where are ourbrothers?”
Zand’s fists clutched a scroll sealed with wax imprinted with the vizier’ssymbol.
My throat seized. What was that? An invitation to the palace to visit that sick bastard? A truce? A negotiation? My brother’s life in exchange for thegenies?
Although Zand offered me the letter, I couldn’t move, my whole body paralyzed with fear. Nothing could bring me to read that sick creep’swords.
Zand’s eyes were pits of regret as he did me the awful honors, tearing off the seal, unraveling thescroll.
My stomach tossed like stormy seas as I stoodagain.
He cleared his throat and began. “Dearest streetrat.”
Dahvi squeezed me, as if suspecting I’d fight at the unpleasant title. But I didn't have the strength or will to do so. All my energy focused on where Ali might be and if he was stillalive.
“If you want your brother back alive,” continued Zand, “bring me the rest of the genies to my chambers in the palace by sunset. Relinquish your claim to the lamp, and I will let your brothergo.”
