It was another well-loved call and response.
Alizeh studied her friends’ faces a final time. Gently, she said, “I will go on alone. You will all stay here. And there will be no arguments.”
She saw the flare of shock in their eyes, the fraction of a second before they could form fresh words of protest. It was her cue to leave – and she would’ve done – except that just then a dozen hooded men and women appeared suddenly and without a sound, as if conjured from smoke.
Diviners now stood sentinel at intervals all along the corridor, so motionless Alizeh wondered whether she’d imagined them.
More to the point, she was mesmerized.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise to see Diviners in their own temple – certainly not when they’d cared for her with such dedication all these weeks – but Alizeh had never seen Diviners in the flesh, and she felt a strange thrill in their presence, a pull she couldn’t name. Strangest of all: she couldn’t see their eyes, and yet, somehow, she knew they were staring at her.
“Hello,” she said quietly.
In response, the priests and priestesses pivoted toward her in unison, their black cloaks shimmering like molten steel. As one, they pressed their hands to their chests and bowed their heads.
Omid drew a sharp intake of breath.
Alizeh glanced at him, registering the alarm in his eyes before noting a similar agitation in Deen and Huda. She herself felt a prickle of anxiety, for this synchronized response from the Diviners was unfathomable to her.
Not knowing how else to acknowledge a greeting from such esteemed figures, Alizeh chose to mirror the motion, bowing her head as she pressed her hands to her chest. “Thank you,” she said sincerely. “For everything.”
This time, the Diviners only vanished.
There was a moment of unnerving silence in the aftermath, during which Alizeh struggled to straighten her thoughts. The Diviners had healed her and cared for her; she couldn’t understand why they seemed unwilling to speak with her. Worse, she’d hoped to ask about her missing nosta, and now she wasn’t sure she’d have the chance.
In the end, it was Omid who broke the tension.
“By the angels,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know you were a Diviner.”
“Neither did I,” said Deen, his voice breathless.
“Were you meant to keep it a secret?” asked Huda, who looked almost afraid of her now. “Were we not meant to know?”
Alizeh fell back a step, she was so astonished. “No – that is – you misunderstand. I’m not a Diviner,” she said emphatically. “I’ve never even touched magic. They were only being polite –”
Omid was shaking his head. “When I lived with the Diviners,miss, they didn’t bow their heads at anyone except each other.”
“That can’t be true –”
“It is true,” said Deen, watching her closely. “Diviners don’t show that kind of deference to anyone outside the priesthood. They don’t even bow their heads before the king.”
TWENTY-THREE
ALIZEH DIDN’T KNOW HOW TOprocess this latest revelation. Omid’s limited experience with the Diviners of Ardunia surely didn’t speak for all Diviners everywhere, but Deen’s corroboration of the fact was giving her pause. Regardless, she wasn’t sure it was the right time to argue the point. Her mind was already struggling to process the deluge of the day’s declarations; it seemed impossible to add to this maelstrom the possibility that the Diviners might recognize someone like her as their peer – She, who’d never so much as touched magic –
Alizeh bit her lip, for that wasn’t precisely true.
She’d never thought of her own peculiarities asmagical, exactly, but she was forced to admit that the ice that ran through her veins was, irrefutably, a kind of magic. In fact, Alizeh had always been set apart from the other Jinn she’d known, for she’d been strange even among her own kind. It was onlyherblood that ran clear; only her body that healed itself; only she who could withstand the blaze of a fire. Her Book of Arya, too, was an enchanted object – one that came alive only in her hands.
Alizeh looked up at her friends; everyone was studying her warily.
This time, she really needed to sit down.
She moved unsteadily down the stone hall and pushed through the heavy wooden door of the courtyard, its entrance opening onto cracked travertine pavers. She heard the others following, their footsteps chasing hers, and as soon as she was outside she drew fresh air into her lungs, her legs nearly giving out as her body bore this latest shock.
The high walls of the courtyard, she noticed, were thick with flora, among them mature jasmine vines that released a honeyed fragrance carried by the breeze, and which brought her great comfort. At the center of the garden sat a large, circular reflecting pool, around which were arranged a series of crescent-shaped stone benches, fashioned in various phases of the moon.
Blindly, Alizeh sat down on one such bench. Huda sat down beside her. Deen and Omid took seats nearby.
