“Can you be quiet? I’m trying to think.”
Loulie thought about the ghoul masquerading as her father. He’d been trying to lead her someplace before she broke out of her trance; she was sure of it.
She looked at Aisha. “Did a ghoul try to take you somewhere?”
Aisha’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “It didn’t get very far, but yes.”
Looking at the thief’s harsher-than-normal scowl, it occurred to Loulie that she must have also seen a ghoul warped by illusion. She wondered—who had she seen? Had it been someone from her family? Her despicable jinn-killing master?
Aisha looked at her, deadpan. “You were saying?”
Loulie imagined that her curiosity was a flame and extinguished it. The last thing she needed was to become more involved than she already was with jinn killers. She shook her head. “I think the ghouls are our key to finding our way through this place.”
Aisha raised a brow. “The only way to make it through here is to have a ghoul guide?”
Was that what she was saying? Physically, there was nothing the ghoul possessed that they did not. It had carried a lantern, but they had one too. It had walked the corridors, just as they were walking them now. And it had been…
“Singing.” The realization hit like a thunderclap.
Aisha crossed her arms. “I suppose, if you want to call that wail a song. What about it?”
A ludicrous idea came to her. So ludicrous that she nearly laughed aloud. But the song was the only thing missing, so why not try to sing it?
She faced the infinite dark and took a deep breath. Ignoring the heat in her cheeks and the twisting in her stomach, she let Qadir’s song settle in her mind. She focused on the words, ignoring the fact that Qadir had sung them.
“The stars, they burn the night
And guide the sheikh’s way.”
The words came, slow at first, then faster, a still lake transformed into a fast-moving stream. She blocked out Aisha’s laughter and focused on the song.
“Go to her, go to her, they say,
The star of your eye.
Go to her, go to her,
The compass of your heart.”
She felt like she was floating. The song had become a map, the lyrics a path through a foggy, unfamiliar memory. As she sang, the ruins around her blurred and re-formed into a magnificent palace of marble and gold. Everything was gloriously bright.
“The sun, it warms the sand
And sets the sheikh’s heart aflame.
She waits in the shade, the sun says,
The beloved of your dreams.
She waits in the shade, the shade.”
Loulie’s feet moved on their own, guiding her down a road that twisted through past and present. She wandered through rooms simultaneously filled with and deprived of color, through courtyards crawling with plants and filled with ash. They passed through chambers filled with buoyant dancers one moment and inanimate skeletons the next, and corridors shining with newness and dull with age. And then, at last, they came to a fragile-looking staircase.
A voice spoke loudly in Loulie’s mind, scattering her thoughts.
Welcome, my guests! It was a woman’s voice, deep and sonorous. Deceitful jinn killers! Murderers of highest esteem! Have you come seeking glory? Power beyond your wildest imaginations? The voice laughed, and somehow, despite it being in their heads, the sound made the walls tremble. I am afraid you are too late. Someone has already claimed those honors. But since you’ve come all this way, please, by all means, come to my chambers. What kind of hostess would I be if I did not entertain my guests?
“Omar?” Aisha murmured at the same time Loulie thought, The Queen of Dunes.
Loulie rushed up the staircase, all the while thinking of the woman from the painting, the one with the ghoulish white skin and the black holes for eyes. The Queen of Dunes. Old Rhuba’s tale of the jinn queen poured through her mind like quicksand.
The Tale of the Queen of Dunes
Neither here nor there, but long ago…
There once lived a slave named Naji, who was indentured to a cruel merchant. Every day and night, Naji suffered at his hands, for he beat her ruthlessly and without reason. She spent many torturous years serving him until one day, she fled in the middle of a sandstorm. She ran until she could run no more, then collapsed in a secluded valley and prayed to the gods for help.
Much to her surprise, one of the gods responded and, in a silk-soft voice, goaded her farther into the valley, to a wondrous palace concealed behind a veil of sand. Naji was so starstruck she forgot her exhaustion and explored the palace with the giddy innocence of a child. Eventually, she came to a throne room that was so filled with splendid décor it made even her master’s wealth pale by comparison.
At the back of the room was a beautiful throne, and sitting atop it was a woman with porcelain-white skin and midnight-black eyes. “Welcome, my esteemed guest!” she cried, and Naji recognized the voice that had led her to the palace. “Please, stay and rest awhile, habibti. I will prepare food and entertainment for you.”
Naji was so grateful she could have cried. But no sooner had she beheld the performers than her good cheer vanished, for what she saw was a mockery of life. The dancers were nothing but human shells with hollow eyes. Like puppets, they danced and sang on the command of Naji’s hostess.
When they were done, Naji collapsed to her knees and clasped her hostess’s cold hands. “You have been so very kind to me, sayyidati, but I must beg your leave. I am being chased by a dangerous man, and I do not want to bring him to your palace.”
“Do not worry for me, child. I fear no man. No, it is they who fear me.” Her hostess smiled warmly. “Would you like me to dispose of this monster for you?”
Naji was so in awe of her hostess’s courage that she forgot about her unnatural performers. “Could you truly stop him from pursuing me?”
“Oh, I can do that and much more! I can make all your wishes come true, even the impossible ones.” Her dark eyes glittered with distant stars. “Of course, all wishes have a price. In order for me to perform such a feat, I will require something from you.”
Naji was so desperate she immediately lowered her head and asked how she could serve.
This is what her hostess told her: “In order to perform my magic, I must leave this place, and for that I require your body.” She lifted a circlet of golden bones from her head and handed it to Naji. “Clasp this around your neck, and I shall give you the power to destroy your nightmares.”
Naji did as commanded, and while her hostess withered away to smoke and ash, Naji was filled with a fearsome, terrible power. Her hunger and thirst vanished, replaced by an insatiable desire for revenge. She returned to the desert, traveling miles until she reached the campsite of her cruel master. He had hired mercenaries to help track Naji down and was shocked when she appeared before them.
“So you’ve returned, slave!” The merchant approached, holding a whip. “Will you beg me for forgiveness, or will I have to punish you?”
Naji raised her head and looked her former master straight in the eyes. “I will never beg you for forgiveness again.” She lifted her arms and called to the dark magic in her veins.
Creatures made of torn flesh and bone answered her call, emerging from the sand with howls of rage. When the merchant and his men fled, the ghouls chased after them like hounds, breaking their bones and shredding their hearts. Afterward, Naji called the creatures back to her. She was shocked when the corpses of the slain men rose and shambled toward her too.
She stepped back with a cry. “What foul magic is this?”