Page 74 of Mistaken
They still held one another, so all he had to do was tighten his grasp before they whirled away to the house he had so recently made his, and which now felt truly like home because Sarah lived there as well. He let go once their feet were on firm ground, but only so he would be able to look more deeply into her eyes.
“Now that you have said your goodbyes, we must talk.”
A faint furrow appeared between her brows, but she sounded natural enough as she said, “I thought we’d already talked.”
“About some things, true.” He took her by the hand and led her over to the sofa, where they both seated themselves and she gazed at him, expression partly earnest, partly concerned. “But I want to make sure you know exactly what is to come next.”
She continued to hold his hand, saying, “I know how it works for djinn and their Chosen. Is this really all that different?”
“It is, only in that I am not bound by any agreements with the elders.” Abdul stopped there, trying to think of the best way to express what he needed to tell her. “I made no bargain to love you. I simply do, nothing more, nothing less. When I commit to you, you will also share in my powers and enjoy unending health and life. But if there ever comes a time when you weary of me, then I will let you go back to your people.”
“I could never get tired of you, Abdul,” she said, her voice hushed and fierce at the same time. “I love you, and I made the decision to be with you.”
Her words warmed him, but at the same time, he wanted to make sure she knew she had choices here. “I am glad to hear that,” he replied. “But still, I wanted you to know that you have more freedom than the Chosen do. You are not bound to me for all eternity unless you truly wish to be.”
“I do wish it,” she said. “I can’t imagine a future where I would ever change my mind.” She hesitated, although her fingers tightened on his as if she wanted to underscore her words. A garnet ring flashed on her right hand, one he hadn’t seen before, and he guessed it must be an heirloom she had recovered during her short visit to Los Alamos. “Thank you, though,” she added. “Thank you for telling me.”
“We promised always to be honest with one another,” he told her. “Even in this…or rather, especially in this. And now, I only want to say that your life is entwined with mine, just as my energy is entwined with yours. All that I have, I freely give to you.”
As he spoke, he knew that he had done much the same thing as the djinn when they declared a human to be their Chosen — a small part of his magic went to her, ensuring that she would never fall ill, would never be anything more than the perfectly lovely age she was now.
She stared at him, eyes wide. “Was that…was that it?”
“Yes, my love,” he said. “As I said, our energies are joined, and that means you will never get sick again, will never suffer an injury that does not heal almost at once…will never grow old.”
A long silence as she absorbed those words, and then she smiled. “That’s a lot to take in.”
“It is,” he agreed. “But you will have all the time in the world to learn how to live with it.”
She honestly didn’t feel a bit different. All right, a little thrill had gone through her as Abdul spoke, but that was more because she could recognize the solemnity of the moment even if she couldn’t exactly pinpoint how.
And yet…here they were.
Are you well, my love?echoed in her mind, and she blinked at Abdul, at his grave, handsome face.
“What was that?” she gasped aloud, and he smiled at her.
You did not know that the djinn speak to their partners thus? It is much the same for you and me, even though I am not precisely one of them.
Well, there was something. She supposed she’d heard somewhere that djinn and their Chosen shared a sort of telepathic bond, but because that little detail wasn’t anything that affected her day-to-day life in Los Alamos, she hadn’t stopped to think about it much.
I — I guess I knew something about it,she responded, marveling a little at how easy it was to slip into this kind of communication.I have to admit, it is kind of cool.
Very.Something in that inner voice changed as he went on,But because I am more than a djinn, I have other talents as well. I thought it might give you hope to see what I have envisioned for the people of Los Alamos and the world in general, just so you will know that you have not abandoned them, and instead are part of better times to come.
And then — well, Sarah wasn’t sure she could ever adequately explain the experience to anyone else, not when she was having a hard time grasping it herself, but it was as though she was seeing with Abdul’s eyes. Not the room where they stood, with its big kiva-style fireplace in the corner and the large windows that provided endless vistas of the high desert landscape surrounding them, but of a place it took her a moment to recognize as Española, since it was so very changed from what she knew of the town.
On either side of the Rio Grande, which was full of snow melt and moving fast, stretched fields of corn and squash and beans and so many other types of vegetables, all lush and green and approaching their peak. The ugly strip malls and gas stations and businesses that had crowded along Highway 68 were gone, and the road itself was wider, mainly because of a median thick with trees that ran right down the center. More trees lined either side of the highway, providing shade and shelter. Here and there, houses peeked out from among the greenery, but each sat on its own large plot of land, at least two or three acres. North along the river valley, grapes flourished in Velarde and Embudo and Dixon, and to the west, people gathered hops along the banks of the Rio Chama.
Everything was peaceful and lovely and flourishing, and her heart warmed at the vision. This was what they’d hoped for in Los Alamos, even when it seemed as if such a dream would be a very long time coming…if it ever arrived at all.
And beyond that, she saw djinn walking the streets of the mountain town that had been her temporary home, and humans strolling in Santa Fe, and people who seemed somehow in between and who she guessed must be the children of the djinn and Chosen who lived there, offspring who were neither quite one or the other, but a bridge between the two races.
It will be like this all over the world,Abdul told her.Or rather, the children of djinn and humans will come together to meet and learn from one another, and soon enough, those djinn who thought to live apart will become connected to them as well. It will be a better future for all of them, and as time passes, no one will even remember there was once a division between the two peoples. The devices will be set aside, and all will be able to come and go freely as they wish.
You really think that?She wanted to believe in such a wonderful vision of the future…and yet she couldn’t quite forget the bloodthirsty past of both humans and djinn.
I do.His inner voice was firm, unwavering.It is the only possible outcome of what occurred before.