“No,” I say softly. “Forgive me. I didn’t mean to pry. Into that or . . . or Roshana. I’m sure your version is the true one.”
“Well, it was a long time ago,” she says graciously. “A different world altogether. And anyway, you’re also right. Roshana defeated Sanhezriyah the Mad, and she stood against the armies of the jinn even when all her allies deserted her. She was a heroine, one of the greatest queens to have lived, in a time when women stood equal to men. But the world moved on, and other lands preferred kings over queens. Their ways of thinking have poisoned our own, and now when they speak of Roshana, they whisper it as if it were a joke. That foolish, capricious woman who trusted her heart, and her kingdom paid the price. They would use her example against me, forgetting all the great things she accomplished.” Caspida sighs and kneels at the edge of the pool. Her reflection shimmers back at her. “But if I could be even half so great as she was, I would count myself fortunate.”
“In that, we agree,” I whisper.
Suddenly my stomach wrenches violently, a feeling I know all too well. Damn it, Aladdin, what are you doing? The lamp is moving farther away, and I am standing at the very edge of my invisible boundary. My stomach tugs again, and I gasp a little.
“Are you all right?” Caspida asks, her eyebrows lowering in concern.
“Just . . . not feeling too well,” I groan. I sidestep toward the pool, trying to alleviate the pain. The longer I resist, the more it hurts, as if someone has reached inside me and is twisting my gut. I can feel my skin getting lighter, preparing to dissolve into smoke, but I strain with everything in me not to turn.
“Zahra!” Caspida stands and puts her hand on my arm. “You’re cold as ice!”
“Ah!” Doubling over, arms crossed over my stomach, I gasp out, “I should go. Something I ate, probably!”
“Of course. I will have Nessa take you to the physician.”
“No—I’ll be all right. Thank you.”
I bow painfully and walk quickly across the pool, Caspida beside me. The girls have managed to calm the elephant calf by bribing it with fruit. They glance at me curiously as I rush for the door. After bidding me a brief farewell, Caspida lets me out.
A few steps, and the pain vanishes. I lean against the wall for a moment and simply breathe, stilling myself. Deep in my chest, I sense the lamp’s movement. Aladdin is somewhere at the other end of the palace, and now he’s standing still, thank the gods. After another moment of rest, I resume walking, wondering what Caspida and her handmaidens must think of me.
I am not far down the hall when I sense I am being followed. The passage has no windows or skylights and is quite dark save for a few smoldering braziers. I turn a corner, as if heading back to Aladdin’s chambers. But then I stop and shift to smoke, rising upward.
When Ensi and Khavar creep around the corner, I shift back into a human, drop from the ceiling, and land in a crouch behind them. Ensi shrieks and Khavar whirls, batting my arm aside, her hand sliding around my throat, her other hand producing a knife. She slams me hard against the wall. Ensi, her eyes wide, holds a handful of red powder that she’d been about to throw in my face. Khavar’s snake rises on her shoulder, hissing.
“Well, well.” I can’t help grinning. “Caspida has a little coterie of girl assassins, just like Roshana did. Do you call yourselves the Watchmaidens too?”
Ensi, looking sheepish, pockets her poisonous powder in a concealed satchel beneath her thin silk coat. “Let her go, Khavar.”
“No,” the other girl snarls. “I don’t trust her. She asks too many questions.” She presses her forearm against my throat, and I wince and suck in a thin breath. “I thought you were sick?”
“I’d listen to your friend, if I were you,” I croak, smiling still.
“How’d you get up there?” Ensi asks, studying the ceiling curiously. “You must be very nimble.”
“Who are you really?” Khavar demands. “Speak, or I’ll strangle you.”
I shrug. “I gave you a fair chance.” With a twist, a spin, and a grunt, I reverse our positions, pressing Khavar’s face into the wall and wrenching her arm behind her. She bares her teeth at me angrily, while Ensi gasps and covers her mouth.
“Let me make one thing clear,” I say softly into Khavar’s ear. “There will be no spying or shadowing my master and me. We mean you no ill will, I swear, but I will not tolerate being watched all the time. It’s exhausting and pointless for you and me both. Khavar, I’m going to let you go now. Let’s agree to talk like civilized people.”
When I release her, Khavar turns and throws up her hands defensively, but I am already standing several paces back, hands spread amenably. Ensi, her eyes darting nervously from me to her friend, steps between us.
“So. You are Watchmaidens, then?” I ask.
Ensi sighs and twists her hair in her hands. “We’re descended from the original Watchmaidens created by Queen Roshana.”