The Bonehill Curse (21 page)

‘I had a vision. My mother read me a story,’ Ness said, reluctant to relive the experience. ‘I had eyes of blue fire. When the djinn grabbed me, our eyes were the same.’

‘Which story?’ Hafid hissed. Sweat trickled down his wrinkled brow.

‘
The Merchant and the Djinn
,’ Ness said, frowning, ‘from the
Arabian Nights
book I used to have . . . But they’re just children’s tales.’

‘Ha!’ Hafid’s whole body shook with silent laughter. ‘Ancient tales . . . told around the campfires of many in the old countries . . . We seek our wisdom in our holy books these days but these stories . . . were told for a reason. Think about the tale. You have your answer there.’

My answer to killing the djinn?
Ness thought.
But
it doesn’t find my parents
.

Hafid took a breath and retreated into his deep concentration.

‘My father and the others, where did they go?’ Azuli asked, grabbing Scrabsnitch by the shoulders.

‘Hafid has tracked Zaakiel to St Paul’s Cathedral,’ Scrabsnitch said, shaking his head. ‘He suspects that the fiend wants the best vantage point from which to view the carnage.’

‘The highest house,’ Azuli whispered. ‘That’s what the guardian of the oasis said . . . On the highest hill.’

There Zaakiel views his destruction and revels in it
, Ness thought.
That’s where my parents will be.

‘The cathedral is on Ludgate Hill, the highest hill in London,’ Scrabsnitch added. ‘Your father and the remaining Lashkars were not content to wait here. They fought their way out and are heading for St Paul’s.’

‘Then we must find them and join them,’ Azuli declared, turning to leave.

‘No,’ Ness said, grabbing his shoulder. ‘Our job is to battle the djinn.’

‘But the Lashkars will surely die,’ Azuli cried, yanking his shoulder from Ness’s hand.

‘And we will die with them if we try to help,’ Ness said, her voice calm. ‘But if we kill the djinn before they reach him, we can save them and everyone else. My parents, your father, everyone. And I think I know how to do it.’

The tyrant is only the slave turned inside out.

T
raditional proverb

Chapter Twenty-eight

C
ounter
-
A
tta
c
k

Scrabsnitch waved them off as they unfurled the carpet, leapt on and flew out of the window, heading towards the distant crouching dome of St Paul’s.

‘And how do you propose to defeat Zaakiel?’ Azuli wondered aloud.

‘Think about the
Arabian Nights
tale,’ Ness said. ‘The djinn’s son, how is he killed?’

‘The merchant casts a date stone away and it strikes the djinn’s son . . . in the eye.’ Azuli’s speech slowed as realisation dawned on him. ‘That is madness! You think you can kill the djinn with a date stone?’

‘Hafid told me to think about the story,’ Ness said. ‘He said there was a reason that people told the tales. They’re ancient wisdom.’

‘But the Sleepers of the Amarant gave us this,’ Azuli said, patting the hilt of the silver sword. He had made a point of scratching Zaakiel’s name on the blade with a dagger point before they left.

Ness looked dubiously at the sword. ‘They said to take sustenance and to choose our weapons carefully,’ she replied, pulling a handful of date stones from her pocket. ‘I think they meant these.’

‘And how are you going to get close enough to throw them with sufficient force to kill?’ Azuli said, looking incredulous.

Ness avoided Azuli’s steady gaze.

Even in the short time they’d been back, Ness could sense that things had worsened in the city. Screams echoed up from the streets, more plumes of smoke rose above the roofline where fires had started. As they flew, she could see crowds of people trying to evade the streams of Pestilents that lurched along, spreading poison through the streets. They grabbed at the terrified survivors, gouging and strangling, their decaying faces twisted in a mindless rage. Ness squeezed her eyes shut and let the cool air blast her face.
The djinn must be stopped
.

‘There!’ Azuli shouted, pointing downward.

Ness peered over the edge of the carpet. The Lashkars stood back to back at the junction of several roads, surrounded by an ever-increasing mass of Pestilents. The weak sun flashed on their scimitar blades and every now and then a small puff of gun smoke drifted up from the crowd, followed by the throaty roar of Morris’s blunderbuss.

‘We must help them!’ Azuli pleaded.

‘No.’ Ness stared ahead through the haze of smoke at the bulk of the cathedral.

‘We must save your father and leave mine to die?’ Azuli snarled. ‘Is that it?’

Ness shook her head. Tears stung her eyes. ‘Our parents don’t matter now, Azuli,’ she sobbed. ‘Only stopping the djinn and saving mankind from this hideous plague matters.’

‘Then at least let’s buy them some time,’ Azuli begged, his eyes glittering. ‘With the carpet we can cut through whole swathes of those accursed creatures!’

Ness stared into Azuli’s pleading brown eyes and then heaved a sigh. ‘I’ll try to steer it down but we can’t waste any time,’ she muttered. ‘And I can’t guarantee the carpet will behave itself.’

‘I wish you could control it completely,’ Azuli sighed as Ness forced the carpet downward.

For a moment the world flashed blue, forcing Ness to blink and shake her head. She looked up to see Azuli staring at her.

‘What now?’ she snapped irritably.

But before he could answer, the carpet went slack as if all the life had drained from it. Ness felt her stomach turn as they lost height.

‘What’s all this?’ she growled. ‘Fly, damn you! Take these Pestilent creatures off their feet!’

As if Ness’s words had breathed new life into it, the carpet swirled around, almost unseating them. It plunged down towards the seething mass of bodies. Ness gripped the rough weave, gagging on the stench that blew up from the creatures. Azuli yelled, slashing left and right with his sword as the carpet bowled into Pestilent after Pestilent, sending them crashing to the ground. For a moment Ness forgot everything else – her parents, Azuli, the Lashkars. She was one with the carpet. It was one with her and followed her every command.

The roar of Morris’s gun grew nearer and the startled face of Taimur flashed past them. The carpet took them in a dizzying circuit of the tight-knit group. Jabalah let out a cheer as the Pestilents staggered back from them, creating space. Morris gave a grin and saluted Ness. She returned his grin and then pulled them back up into the air and looked down.

But as she waved her heart plummeted. More Pestilents swarmed in from the side streets, others staggered from houses to replace those that had fallen.

‘We have to stop the djinn,’ Ness bellowed.

Azuli nodded, his face ashen.

The carpet whipped them through the sooty air towards the dome of St Paul’s. It loomed over the city, black and squat, making Ness think of some kind of beetle rather than a place of worship.

‘There, on the lantern,’ Azuli snapped, pointing to the tower that jutted up from the great dome. ‘Up on the golden cross.’

‘Mama, Father,’ Ness gasped. Her heart pounded.

Clinging, frozen, to the main upright of the golden cross that topped the cathedral stood Eliza and Anthony Bonehill. Zaakiel crouched on the left arm of the cross, cackling at the carnage that unfolded below.

Ness could see her mother’s fine features stained by tears, her blonde hair blown by the breeze. Beside her, Father’s dark face was calm and stern. No matter how uncaring they’d been, they were still her parents.

‘We can save them,’ cried Azuli.

‘No,’ Ness murmured, her throat dry. ‘It’s the djinn we need to catch. Get me in close,’ she hissed at the carpet. ‘Quickly, before he notices us.’

Ness dragged the carpet round and leaned forward so that its speed increased. Zaakiel stared up, consternation flickering across his face to be replaced with an evil grin. He jumped up, standing on the cross and swinging out to offer Ness the fullest target.

The carpet swept in. Ness felt she could almost touch Zaakiel. He wore some kind of robe that billowed in the wind. She could see the open sores where Morris had blasted him in the emporium. Ness pulled the stones from her pocket and readied herself to launch them at the festering creature.

‘It won’t work, Ness,’ Azuli cried. ‘His eyes – they’re stitched shut! The stones can’t hurt him!’

But Ness had already committed herself to the throw. She watched as the date stones passed straight through Zaakiel’s smoky form and rattled uselessly against the cross.

Ness steered the carpet down to the roof below the dome. She felt numb.

‘I’ve failed,’ she whispered.

‘We still have the sword,’ Azuli growled.

They turned to face the djinn as he floated down from the dome, his robes billowing in a pestilent breeze.

‘It is day seven, Necessity,’ Zaakiel hissed. ‘It’s time to grant your wish!’

I wish. I wish. but it
’
s all in vain
,

I wish I was a maid again.

‘D
ied for
L
ove
’,
traditional folk ballad

Chapter Twenty-nine

T
he
D
eath
w
ish

Zaakiel stood on the roof before them, a mocking grin stretching his pock-marked skull of a face.

‘Is that why you did that?’ Ness hissed through gritted teeth. ‘Stitched your eyelids, as protection?’

‘Yes.’ The djinn scowled. ‘But not against clumsily thrown date stones.

‘The second person to free me from the bottle was a woman. She wore rich silks and a golden crown.
This one has no need of gold
, I thought.
Maybe she will make a gracious wish
.

‘ “My husband’s mother is an interfering old witch,” the queen said. “For my first wish, I would have you turn her into the lowliest worm. For my second, I would have you send an ugly crow to devour her. And for my third, I would have you return to your bottle.”

‘I tried not to watch the queen’s mother-in-law as she melted into another form only to be consumed by the ugliest of birds. I couldn’t bear to see the terrible things men made me do, so I tried to claw my eyes out. When that didn’t work, I stitched them shut.

‘But three thousand years ground on. Every single man, woman and child who opened the bottle displayed themselves at their worst. A creature of pure magic cannot help but see, hear and feel every scream, cry and whimper. And every disgusting demand.

‘Make my sister ugly. Give me my neighbour’s house and farm. Kill my son. Burn that city to the ground. Give me more gold than I can ever carry home. Drown those children.

‘My words were twisted, extra wishes were tricked out of me. Every sin, every vice, every excess was indulged until I could bear it no longer. And I couldn’t even take comfort in the fact that for many of the wishers it ended badly, because too many of them profited from their perverse wishes while the innocent suffered.

‘
The next person who opens this bottle will have one wish and then I will kill them and be free
, I thought to myself.
Then I shall rid the blue-green earth of this infestation called mankind once and for all with a plague the likes of which have never been seen
.’

‘Just stop.’ Ness spat. ‘Why do you insist on telling me these stories?’

‘They are more than stories, Necessity. We cannot control the magic that flows in our veins,’ Zaakiel groaned. ‘You could not imagine the depths of man’s depravity; his cruelty has no limits. Your father, even –’

‘My father?’ Ness echoed, glancing upward to the distant figures shivering at the base of the golden cross.

‘Do you think your father wished for a wealthy inheritance without knowing full well that your grandparents would die?’ Zaakiel grinned, his needle teeth yellow against dark green gums. ‘And he has plans for you and I both.’

‘Let them go,’ Ness growled. Her mind felt numb. She was tired of riddles and puzzles and wishes.

‘He murdered Carlos Grossford knowing it would bring all of this,’ the djinn said, waving an open hand at the carnage below. ‘He is a devious and evil man. That’s why I put him up there. Even Anthony Bonehill can’t fly, and while he stands up there he can watch the destruction he has brought upon mankind through his greed and selfishness.’

‘Enough!’ Azuli snarled, slashing at the djinn with the scimitar. ‘I tire of all this talking. You are evil, Zaakiel, and you shall pay for your crimes.’

‘You see, you can’t trust them,’ Zaakiel said, stumbling back, a wicked grin darkening his twisted face. ‘This boy never gives up, does he?’

‘Azuli, don’t!’ Ness yelled.