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...
Maram swallowed. If Aladdin did not want to see her again, would Sadaf tell her? Or would she worry about offending a princess, too?
"If you have not heard anything by the end of the week, summon Sadaf the spinner to the palace," Maram said.
Another bow. "As you wish, Your Highness."
No, what she wished was to see Aladdin now, at this very moment, but Maram knew as well as anyone that wishes were seldom granted, and when they were, they would rarely be what one wants.
So she sighed and forced herself to find some distraction to keep her mind busy until she received the word she wanted, or the week ended. Whatever came first.
FOURTEEN
Aladdin was certain he had to be dreaming, for he distinctly heard his mother's voice, and his mother never left the city. Even if Berk had told her where her son had gone, there was no way she would venture out alone to search for him, and she did not have the money to hire men to help her.
So he took his time opening his eyes, for surely he had collapsed in the desert, and the sun above would be drinking the last drops of water from his body before it killed him. At least the last thing he heard would be his mother's voice and not Gwandoya's mad laughter. And dying of thirst was faster, kinder than a slow death by starvation. He almost felt like he was lying on a bed, instead of in the unforgiving sand. Still, the sand at the oasis had been soft...
But someone would find his body, and the ring, and Kaveh would be angry that some corpse robber had him. So Aladdin had to get up, and struggle on, or Kaveh would roll a boulder across him...
Aladdin forced his eyes open and sat up. His head hurt like he'd drunk too much wine again, but he'd grown used to that in Tasnim. He blinked away the blurriness, waiting to see either the desert or the rock walls of Tasnim. What he did not expect to see were the whitewashed walls of his mother's house.
"Maman?" he croaked. If this truly was her house, she must be here, for he'd heard her voice.
He heard something crash to the floor. "Aladdin?" A moment later, she emerged from the gloom.
"How did I get here?" he asked. "And do you have any water?"
"Of course!" She reached down and only now did Aladdin see the jug and cup on the floor beside him. She filled the cup and handed it to him.
Aladdin drained it, then refilled it himself and drank a second cup before his parched throat felt moistened enough to speak. "How did I get here?"
Maman shot a dark glance over her shoulder. "Your friend, Kaveh, carried you in here, half dead from exposure and thirst. He comes every day, bringing food and other things, but he refuses to take any money or thanks for it. And he disappears, like he has done again. It is as though he does not wish to be seen here."
Something tightened around Aladdin's finger, before the pressure eased as quickly as it had come. Kaveh's ring. He was not gone, the pressure reminded him.
"I will settle everything with him, Maman," Aladdin promised. "You don't need to worry about it."
"I do not trust him. Yes, he saved your life, but he has secrets that he does not say." His mother frowned.
"Let the man keep his secrets. He is allowed to them."
"We still must pay him. Did you bring any money back from whatever you were doing? I searched your clothes, but all I found was this thing." She held up the blackened lamp. "Perhaps we can get a coin or two for it. It is heavy brass. If I can polish it well, perhaps enough to pay him back a small amount..."
Before Aladdin could stop her, she spat on the lamp and began to rub at it furiously with a handful of her skirt.
Blue smoke erupted from the spout of the lamp, pouring out until it filled the room from floor to ceiling. Just like with the ring, the smoke took the form of a man, a man so enormous he had to bend double to fit in the room.