Deliverance (20 page)

“So Nagissa was immortal like you…”

“Sort of like me, but she was made by sacrificing a Jinni instead.”

“Wow.”

“Yes, in theory, it made her very powerful.”

“So I have that power?”

I shook my head.

“Oh. Ramtin? Is he one like you?”

“He is one like Nagissa was.”

“He has my best friend…Leyli.”

My heart sank. “What? She’s still with him?”

“We fought when she went with him.”

“I remember.”

“I knew she was making a mistake. But she was acting so immature about… I don’t know? Me ditching the party? Ramtin wanting to hear me play? I didn’t even know what she was mad about, so I just left it alone.”

“I did too.” I hadn’t even thought of asking after her. I knew how dangerous Ramtin was and that the last time I had heard of the girl she had been with him. Yet, I had been so pre-occupied with everything else, I hadn’t even given her a second thought. Not even when I had tried to call her and couldn’t reach her. I put my head in my hands. I wasn’t a hero.

“I thought Leyli should make her own mistakes, you know?”

I nodded.

“She texted me a few days ago. It was short, but I just thought she was mad at me. But since I heard about Aude, I keep wondering if she’s really okay. Do you think she is?”

“Yes, I think that for now both she and Aude are okay. He has a purpose. Does Leyli have supernatural powers?”

She laughed without humor. “Until recently, I would have said no. Now, how could I tell?” She furrowed her brows. “Well I don’t know if this has anything to do with it, but she does have a knack for telling fortunes.”

I shrugged. It could mean something, or nothing at all. It wasn’t always easy to recognize some of those creatures.

“Can you tell me how Nagissa died?” I asked again.

I didn’t know if it was because I caught her by surprise with the question, but this time, she answered.

“Ramtin. He was there. He was a guard when she was executed. She was shot, but she died before that. I don’t really understand… “

“When did Nagissa become a Gargoyle?”

“It was in the Sassanid dynasty, when she was a court musician for King Khosro II.”

If I didn’t give her time to think of anything but Nagissa, she couldn’t block her. “Where was Nagissa born?”

“Cteciphon. It was the capital at the time.”

“How did Nagissa become a Gargoyle?”

“It was Ramtin’s fault. We were in competition as the favored court musician. I was better than him, so he felt threatened by me. He made a deal with the Jinn. They turned him into a different creature… Still the same in essence, but with a body of stone. Changeable. I didn’t know what he was then. Just that the Jinn had made him like that. I approached them I asked to be made one of them, and I was.”

It had worked. I was now talking to Nagissa. 

I’m with Garnier again. After he’d left, I never thought I would get another chance with him, but here we are together again and there are even more obstacles between us than before.

“I need your help, Nagissa.”

How I love to hear my name on his lips. I love hearing he needs me, even if it’s just to vanquish Ramtin. Maybe especially if it is to vanquish Ramtin.

“You need me to fight Ramtin.”

He pulls out a locket from his pocket and shows it to me. I gasp. It is an antique. A miniature painted of me. It had been given to me at court. I reach for it, and then pull away. There’s something ancient and powerful about it. I’m not stupid enough to touch it until I know what that is. “Where did you get it?”

“A Jinni gave it to me.”

Doesn’t he know how dangerous it is to deal with the Jinn? What is he trying to prove? Why does he need to get to Ramtin so badly? The answers are here. Nakissa has them but even now, I’m fighting myself.

When I transferred my essence to that woman, waiting for her to be ready to carry a child, I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t know it would even work… and I certainly didn’t know my memories would remain dormant until my host became too stressed to hold them back.

“He has…” I pull at the memories, but she’s resisting me. I’m resisting. I take a deep breath. I am not just Nagissa, I am also Nakissa. I’m not afraid of her. She is me. She can’t do anything to me. I just need to give her a little control.  “…a friend of yours. Aude. And a friend of Nakissa’s. But there’s more isn’t there?”

“You have trouble with Nakissa’s memories. Just like she has with yours. Are you two different people then?”

“Not exactly. It’s complicated and I’m not even sure I understand it myself. She… well, I’ve created a sort of barrier. It doesn’t matter right now, tell me about Ramtin?”

Garnier explains the events that transpired in Montreal. He tells me about Aude’s part in it, and Ramtin’s involvement.

In a way, it doesn’t surprise me that Ramtin still thirsts for power. What surprises me is that I don’t at all anymore.

“If I was still a Gargoyle, I might be able to take him on. I was very powerful, myself. We always matched each other. Followed each other and competed together. What power he had, I had. But not now. Now, I’m not much more than human. I was weak when I transferred my essence. Maybe I could have made a witch, otherwise. I don’t know how that works.” I sigh. “The Jinn would know more about this.”

“The Jinn wanted me to find you.”

What did the Jinn want from me? The sound of loose rubble interrupts my thoughts. I turn and expect to see a couple of hikers, but instead I’m faced with something I thought didn’t exist anymore. A brand new stone monster. Someone sacrificed the essence of a witch or a Jinni. 

Nagissa crouched and clenched her fists but she didn’t change. She couldn’t change. She was human and I had to protect her now. I took half a moment to be grateful that I had a set of spare clothing in my car before I grabbed hold of my essence and released it until my muscles tightened in that familiar way.

I jumped between Nagissa and the stone creature. It lunged for me and I attacked back. It was slow. Young and inexperienced. This creature had only recently been made. It was safe to assume that Ramtin was the one creating them. I remembered how he had both Aude and Leyli captive. Was one of them sacrificed to make this creature? I felt sick. I backed away two paces. This made the creature confident and it came for me again. But this time I let my anger coil inside me and released it, pounding myself into its stone armor.

I needed Aude. Fighting a stone monster without a witch to drain essence was a lengthy and painful process. I could keep Nagissa safe. Protecting was what I had been created for. But I didn’t know if I’d be able to do much more.

The creature was uncertain though and losing ground. Each time we collided, it backed a few paces. My shoulders ached from the constant impact but I continued. He now was a safe distance from Nagissa.

‘Run!’ I screamed at her with the mind voice I used with my family. But she wasn’t a de Rouen. She didn’t hear. She stood there. Still crouched. Infinitely beautiful. The impact jarred me. I’d let myself get distracted. I couldn’t do that. I picked myself back up and went after him again. I remembered what Aude told me. How she would catch a snag of essence from these creatures and unravel it until they were nothing but dust.

Hadn’t the Jinn implied I could do this as well? I looked really hard at the creature and stepped towards it. I couldn’t see the essence. How would I be able to grab it if I couldn’t see it? The creature knocked me to the ground again and Nagissa let out a high pitched scream. Was she in trouble? I saw a flash of blue. The creature’s essence. I reached for it, but it was too slippery. I didn’t unravel it, I didn’t even tug, but I must have done something. The creature didn’t stick around. I wasn’t even off the ground by the time it ran off.

I looked behind me to see what was wrong with Nagissa, but she seemed fine. Frightened but fine. I got ready to leap after the creature but she called back to me.

“No Garnier! You’re hurt!”

My head low, I walked back towards her. She made hushing sound and ran her warm hands against my cold monster flesh.

“You saved me,” she said.

I wanted to change to my human form so I could answer her, but my clothes were in the trunk of my car. Would I have to once again risk being found nude in Iran?

I heard footsteps again. Light ones, like two travelers walking towards us on the trails. I dashed behind a large boulder. Hidden there, I changed into my human form.

I called to Nagissa and explained to her where to get my clothing. As she began to make her way down the trail, I saw a group of hikers – all girls – come around from another trail I hadn’t noticed. A trail that took them right in front of me. They spotted me before I had a chance to go anywhere.

“Pervert!” One girl threw a stone at me.

“Hurry up Nagissa!” I shouted to her disappearing figure.

I ran away from the girls and skidded along the exposed mountainside until I finally found a bush to hide behind. Hopefully Nagissa would come back with my clothing before the shocked and angry girls came back with the police.

I was grateful for the clothing Nagissa had brought me. Until I had come here, I had taken clothing for granted. It wasn’t that I walked around naked in Montreal. I would have been arrested there too, but somehow I didn’t get myself in these situations back home.