Maria was not, in fact, impressed with the ancestral home. She didn’t like the fetid parking spot on the road, or the long, dusty walk through hawkers on plastic sheets and tea stalls peopled by undesirables who stared at her. She most certainly did not like the dilapidated disaster that was the front of the mansion, barely lit by naked yellow bulbs, if anything even more depressing at night.
They went inside, and Rais led her wordlessly to his uncle’s suite, which consisted of the bedroom, a small living room, and a balcony, sparsely furnished, but the most heavily warded part of the house and therefore the safest, even though there was a large gash in the defenses where the intruder had struck, which was, miraculously, slowly healing.
“Well, at least you can tell that it was a grand house at some point,” Maria said after a few minutes of awkward silence, which was strange because Rais had had many imaginary conversations lined up for just such a moment, yet nothing came out.
“Yeah, I might have exaggerated the grandeur of it a bit,” he said.
“You think? It’s a dump. Why the hell don’t you bulldoze it and build apartments?”
“There’s something in the will that prevents that,” Rais said. “Gotta go to the next male heir intact, or whatever. In fact, I might even be the legal inheritor of this edifice, until my cousin pops up.”
“Rais, he’s been gone for like ten years.” Her face softened a bit. “I don’t think he’ll be turning up anywhere. You’ve got to let that shit go, dude. What was he like anyway?”
“He thought he was a sterile mongloid freak,” Rais said, and smiled. “He was just a regular boy. Never complained much, despite the shit people put him through. Anyway, to business. You want a drink? I stole a bottle of vodka from Moffat.”
“Ugh. No.”
“So here, put these glasses on.”
“No.”
“Humor me.”
“I’ll look hideous, Rais.”
“Just look through them for god’s sake.”
“What the fuck? The room is full of spiderwebs! What is that shit? Invisible ink?”
“Spells,” Rais said. “Made of dark energy or matter or whatever. Djinn stuff. This is one of the artifacts my uncle left. You can see all the hidden stuff with this.”
“Wow. This place still looks like a dump.”
“Look, it would be easier if you just believed me.”
“Yeah, it would.”
“Um, here, take a toke of this pipe.”
“Hmm, not bad shisha.”
“Now look inside, see, it’s empty. I’m showing you actual magic. This is the Never-Ending Pipe. It steals smoke from the nearest living smoker. You’re lucky with the shisha, by the way. Most of the time, in this house, I just get Bangla Fives. You ever smoked a Bangla Five? It’s the harshest cigarette ever.”
“Okay, that’s interesting.” Maria tossed the priceless pipe aside. “Look, Rais…”
Rais, fortunately, had thought of this eventuality, that one day someone would question his sanity and evidence would have to be furnished to back up any wild claims of flying djinns and underwater monsters. There were pictures on his phone, of Barabas leaning out of the airship, capering around the cockpit; of the aeronaut Golgoras in his bestial glory; even one of himself posing with the three hairy Ghuls. These were not hazy action shots in bad light, but rather well-composed selfies in full ten-megapixel close-up, where it was possible to distinguish each oily pore on Barabas’s nose. The album was long, because Rais had been surreptitiously documenting his entire adventure, giant squid and all.
She went through them one by one, and her expressions told the tale, mocking at first, then frowning disbelief, and finally wide-eyed wonderment, an expression so unnatural to her face that Rais almost couldn’t recognize her. She hadn’t been impressed by anything since she was ten years old. He felt a rush of affection for her.
“So it’s real,” she said finally.
“Yes.”
“And you are… what? Being haunted by them? Possessed?”
“My uncle, whose armchair you’re sitting on, by the way, was an emissary. He’s been in a coma for the past ten years. Emissaries are kind of like human ambassadors to the djinn,” Rais said.
“And you’re one of them?”
“I am trying to take my uncle’s post. It is normally hereditary, but has to be ratified by a patron and a whole bunch of other courts and rules. Djinns love legal stuff. So I guess I’m an intern of sorts.” Rais paused. “Oh, and my aunt was a djinn apparently. She died giving birth to Indelbed.”
“A fine bunch of freaks in your family,” Maria said. “You’re the reason I’m in this mess—how’re you going to fix it?”
“The man who’s got your pictures,” he said. “He’s the one who took Indelbed. He knows what happened to him.”
“No.”
“What?”
“I’m not going to help you. Just fix this. I just want to get out of your whole sorry world once and for all.”
“Maria, this man is a traitor and a murderer. He probably works for Matteras, the most powerful djinn in existence. Do you think he’s just going to let it go at some dirty pictures? The second he thinks you’re messing around, he’ll torture and kill you.”
“I’ll just leave,” Maria said. She was shaking, either from rage or fear. Almost certainly rage. “My aunt lives in London. I’ll just take a flight out—you can have your stupid djinns all to yourself.”
“What about your parents? Your little sister? Will they be willing to leave too? Will they even believe you? This is a man who kidnapped and almost certainly killed a ten-year-old child—a child who was half djinn. Do you think he’ll hesitate to peel your dad’s skin off and wear it as a cape?”
“That’s sick.”
“They’re djinns we’re dealing with, Maria!” Rais said, frustrated. “They don’t follow any rules. And they don’t care about humans.”
“Okay, what’s your plan then? When am I getting out of this mess?”
“When I do,” Rais said.
“How, Rais? What am I supposed to do? Do you even have a clue?”
“I don’t know, just play along,” Rais said. “Try to find out more about him, where he lives, what he’s doing here. If I could just get him alone, I could find out what happened to Indelbed, and maybe it would all make sense.”
“What, you’d like ambush him?” Maria scoffed. “He’d kick your ass.”
“Yeah,” Rais said with a smile. “Probably.”
“What am I supposed to tell him? He’s going to want a fucking report.”
“Just tell him you’ve managed, with great difficulty, to get me into bed…”
“Gross. You’re enjoying this.”
“Sorry, I really am. I would never wish you harm, no matter what, you must know that,” Rais said. “I’m grateful you told me the truth.”
“I wouldn’t lie to you,” Maria said. “I mean, I’m not a liar.”
“Look, buy some time. We can figure this out. Tell him I’m hanging with Barabas.”
“The creep you brought to the party? He’s a djinn?”
“Yeah.”
“God. Why am I always stuck with losers? Where are all the cool fucking djinns?”
“Ah, so, you can sleep over if you like. I’ll take Indelbed’s room.”
“I’d rather sleep on the pavement. Just drop me off at home, asshole.”