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Kaveh woke him at dawn. "Time to move, or you will be roasted alive," he said.
Aladdin managed to make it to the makeshift shelter Kaveh had constructed while he slept. Fallen palm fronds and some coarse sacking made a bower out of the hastily dug hole in the ground, but Aladdin was nevertheless grateful for it. Kaveh produced some nuts – Aladdin didn't dare ask where from – and a filled water skin, then told Aladdin to rest.
Despite spending all night asleep, Aladdin had no trouble obeying the djinn. He'd never walked so far in his life, and as soon as night fell, he had the other half of his journey to finish. If he survived the day.
To Aladdin's surprise, Kaveh woke him at sunset, and he almost felt optimistic about his chances of reaching home.
The oasis was scarcely out of sight by the time Aladdin disabused himself of that notion. The blisters he'd barely noticed on the first day had swelled to carbuncles in his boots, and the sun had found him inside his little shelter while he slept, burning his skin as surely as boiling water would. Yet on he slogged, for Aladdin knew he was headed home.
One foot in front of the other, until he could go no further. Aladdin fell to his knees. "I can't," he wheezed.
"I'm not going to let you die out here, so some corpse robber can pick me up. Get up!" Kaveh slid an arm under Aladdin's shoulders and heaved him to his feet. "If I have to carry you the rest of the way, we're going to reach the city!"
So Aladdin staggered on, while Kaveh helped him, until Aladdin saw what looked like the city gates looming before him, lit with the fierce light of a desert dawn. "I'm home," Aladdin mumbled.
"Not yet you're not. Where do you live?" Kaveh asked grimly, his grip tightening around Aladdin.
Aladdin pointed and mumbled something he hoped made sense. He was moving again, so Kaveh must have understood some of it, at least.
"Do you recognise this place?" Kaveh asked impatiently.
Aladdin peered blearily at the worn door he'd opened and closed a thousand times. "Home."
"Good." Kaveh shoved the door open.
Aladdin staggered inside, then pitched forward into oblivion.
Kaveh cursed. "Hello, lady of the house! Is this your son?" he called.
A woman emerged from the dimness, hastily wrapping a veil around her hair. "I...Aladdin?"
Aladdin was beyond responding.
"I found him outside the city walls," Kaveh said. "He said he lived here."
"He does! Oh, how can I ever thank you? Or repay you?" the woman asked, falling to her knees beside Aladdin. "You have answered a mother's prayer."
Kaveh smiled. "Granting wishes, who'd have thought?" While Aladdin's mother was distracted, Kaveh disappeared. For the moment, his job was done.
THIRTEEN
"Have you heard anything?" Maram asked fretfully.
The guardsman shook his head. "No, Your Highness. I have told the prison guards to send word if they see a man with that name but no one has seen him. Are you sure he exists?"
"Of course he does! And so does his mother!" Maram snapped.
The guard bowed deeply. "My apologies, Princess, if I have offended you."
If this man knew half the things she'd seen and done in foreign courts, he would not worry about offending her. Maram hid her smile. "You are forgiven. I am...frustrated. I do not understand how a man can vanish in this city and not be found."
"Perhaps he is not in the city, Your Highness."
She'd thought the same thing, but Sadaf had insisted Aladdin never left the city. Sadaf...perhaps she should send for the woman again?
Maram considered for a moment, then shook her head. No, Sadaf had promised to send word if her son returned. If she had half the honour of her son, then she would notify the palace the instant Aladdin returned.
Unless he did not want to see her...
