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.His words came out as a moist rasp.But I could hear him; I knew what he was trying to tell me.“Let me be.I don’t deserve to be saved.” He coughed up red spittle.“the price is too great, Sara.Let me go.” tears burned my eyes, like the fire that burned inside Lova’s red orbs.It was not necessary to call her to my side.She was already near, waiting.In one hand she held the carpet, in the other she would hold my soul.I turned to her.“Trakur Analova La,” I said.“I, Sara, wish you would save the life of my father.Trakur Analova La, return him to the state of health he enjoyed before this awful injury.Heal him now, before he dies.This is my third wish with you, trakur Analova La, and it is binding in so far as all wishes between humans and djinn are binding—as specified in the ancient laws governing such contracts.” I stopped to catch my breath.“Agreed?”Lova studied my father.“Agreed.But I will require your help again.This time I need your blood.It will speed up the healing, and we have little time.”“I’m a human being,” I said.“My blood is not special.”“You are human, true, but the power of the Kalas flows through your blood,” Lova said, as if that explained every thing.She took my father’s hand, and with a sharp fingernail on her other hand, she impaled my wrist and began to draw my blood in pulsating gulps.She spoke.“Focus on the healing.It will take both of us to save him.” I closed my eyes and let the white light pour down from above.My body was already hot—i felt as if my individual cells vibrated, and I could feel my body’s energy entering my father’s body.I still felt weak from helping Amesh, and I suspected Lova was drawing off more of my blood than she needed.However, this blood-sharing strengthened our link.Suddenly Lova’s thoughts were clear to me.She was not just worried about healing my father.She was concerned about after, when she would make me a thrall.She had doubts she would be able to control a potential Kala.Very interesting, I thought.But then a heavy sinking feeling paralyzed both my mind and body.I couldn’t move an inch, and my thoughts were not free either.I was being drawn into to a black place where I sensed no normal human could survive.For a time I let myself sink deeper into the abyss because I could tell life was returning to my father.I heard him draw in several deep breaths.But I was not a true Kala.A wave of very human fear shook me, and I strove to escape the darkness.I knew if Lova let go of my father and focused on me—in my weakened state— she would have me, and once she had me, it would be forever.With my eyes still closed, I sensed how she was psychically trying to enter my brain.She tried coming in the back of my skull.But she was slow and clumsy.Before she could get inside my head, I willed my hands to rise and pulled her nails from my wrist.As if from far away, I heard her complain.“Your father still needs your blood,” she said.“Liar.You’re taking it for your own use now,” I mumbled.I swayed where I sat.With her nail no longer drinking my blood, my thoughts began to clear.On the surface Lova’s plan appeared clever.Make me her thrall in the middle of the healing.Yet in her haste I believe she had made a mistake.She had not yet fulfilled my third wish.Therefore, by the laws of the djinn, she had no right to claim me as a thrall.I finally had the strength to open my eyes.My father’s eyes were open, too.He was staring at me.“Are you all right?” I asked.He reached up and touched my hair.“thanks to you.” I smiled.“ I’m glad.”His hand dropped to his side.“You shouldn’t have, Sara.” I squeezed his hand.“You would have done the same for me.”He shook his head.“No.I don’t think so.” my father drew in a deep invigorating breath and sat up and stared directly at Lova.That surprised me; I did not think he could see her.“Can you take her or do you need help?” he asked my djinn.Lova hesitated.“Why would your kind help us?”“The offer is there.It is up to you to accept it,” my father said.It was then my universe fell apart.Not over time, not piece by piece, but all at once.Everything I knew and trusted shattered.In seconds, I realized that I was not a powerful princess but the queen of fools.Lova eyed me suspiciously.“She is strong.Her bloodline is ancient.I tried to take control during the healing but she repelled me.She’ll be difficult to possess.”“What’s going on here?” I cried.My father ignored me and stood.He spoke to mr.Toval and mrs.Steward.He did not care that we all heard, even Amesh and spielo, who looked ready to faint.“As we suspected,” my father said.“the first djinn’s power over us has been negated by a collision with the more powerful second djinn.Darbar has lost the ability to fulfill Amesh’s third wish.Therefore, the contract between them is now void.Amesh can no longer be made a thrall of Darbar.” mrs.Steward spoke to my father.“Your plan was intelligent but it left too much to chance.If Sara had not used her djinn to negate the first djinn, we would have had to rely on other resources to fix your body and control her.” my father shrugged.“I know the girl.She is driven by a need to do what is right, no matter what the cost to herself.See how she didn’t hesitate to save me?”Amesh was as confused as me.“Does this mean I’m free?”“You’re free of your contract with Darbar since he’s unable to fulfill your third wish,” my father said.“He is taking his lamp and leaving the area.But you’re not free.”Amesh blinked and in that instant Darbar’s lamp vanished from his hands.“Best we kill them all,” mr.Toval suggested.Amesh and spielo paled.They tried to speak, but couldn’t.Mrs.Steward nodded.“Yes.Put them in the holes and leave them.If thirst doesn’t kill them, the pain will.”I managed to stand.The cavern swayed—my blood-starved dizziness was like a wound.What they were talking about— they were like goblins in a childhood nightmare casually discussing how they would cook and spice their next human meal.I stared at my father and did not recognize him.His face was the same, but he was not.He was the nightmare.“All this was a setup?” I asked.My father studied me with clinical detachment.“Yes.I knew about your bloodline.It’s why I moved into your house when you were a child.It’s why I took you down here two days ago—to see how you would react.”“But I never left the Jeep,” I protested.The words were no sooner out of my mouth than I realized how I had been used on my first visit to the job site.Either the surroundings or my father’s remark jogged my memory.Mr.Toval and mrs.Steward had approached the Jeep while we were sitting outside the cave.I remembered now.She had forced me to drink a bottle of freezing water and I had grown dizzy.It must have been drugged.Then there had been a gap—i had felt like my father was taking forever to return from the cave, but in reality he had taken me into the cave.Indeed, he had forced me to stand in the exact spot where I now stood and answer a question.He had asked it over and over again.“Where is the carpet, Sara? the Carpet of Ka.” my answer had been, “i don’t know.” they had asked two hours too soon [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]