But it was not the pattern that gave Loulie pause, but the marks beneath the henna—layers of scars simultaneously veiled and accentuated by the ink on Aisha’s skin.
The thief turned. “Is there something you want to say, merchant?”
“It seems pointless to ask you another question when you didn’t answer my first.”
She and Aisha frowned at each other. Loulie forced herself not to blink.
Finally, Aisha turned away. “You want the truth? Yes, I’m lost. I got lost in the sandstorm, and now I’m stuck in this hellhole. I’ve been unable to find my way out since I was pulled in. If you’re so full of great ideas, why don’t you show us the exit?”
Loulie flushed. Other than the knife, she had only two other items on her. She supposed if there was any time to use them, it was now.
She took out the compass first but quickly abandoned the idea of using it when she saw the arrow spinning in a frenzied circle. Even a silent command would not calm it. The coin only ascertained that she was, indeed, lost and that yes, there was an exit. Somewhere.
Aisha snorted. “So even the legendary Midnight Merchant is at a loss.”
“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?