18°41'34.2"N 12°55'10.6"E - Bilma, Niger

  25.05.2024 – 11:45 UTC +01.00

  “Your brother has disappeared again.”

  Walid’s voice echoed through the painful ringing. I felt the taste of metal in my mouth, as my mind raced to process the information.

  “How is that possible?” I asked. “He cannot even walk!”

  The world shook around me. It was the car that drove fast, although it felt like the whole world was. The car’s walls were closing in, threatening to crush me.

  Walid said something that I could not even hear. It was pure nonsense. Walid tried to explain himself, but I stopped him.

  “That is not possible!” I shouted back.

  He continued with more nonsense. The car’s windows were now black. There was no outside world, and the ringing was louder than everything else.

  ? ? ?

  “As I said, vanished into thin air,” Walid said, next thing I remembered. We were in his hotel room, his hospital bed left untouched, and even his wheelchair was in the room. There was no other sign of him – even his phone was lying on the table next to him.

  “That is not possible,” I said.

  His window was open, letting the warm breeze in. Outside, the branches of the Upside-Down trees stood still, their leaves rustling just enough to acknowledge the wind.

  “We are looking for him everywhere, madame. No one entered the Inn at all in the past hours. No one entered his room. The maid came to serve lunch, and he was simply gone.”

  I zoned out his excuses. They had failed me, but I understood. This was not their fault. It was mine, being stupid enough to believe that things would be as simple. Yahaya’s wooden model of Bilma had red paint smeared all over the Baobab Inn. Aisa knew where I was staying – she had left a letter for me. It could have been either of the two.

  Or whoever had caused my brother’s current condition, the first time he disappeared.

  “We have already searched the perimeter. He could not have gone far, even if escaping from the window, which must have been the only way…”

  “Shut up.”

  He did.

  I picked up my phone and called Yahaya’s number.

  I had to wait for it to ring, and while it did, I walked into Qadir’s room. I stood by the window.

  “A café of people with mass hysteria? But no quarry in sight,” I heard her voice through the phone. There was background noise from the traffic. “What am I doing here? Is that supposed to be a sign for me to interpret, Khalida?”

  I mustered the most confident voice I could choose.

  “Not at all. An unfortunate accident meant I had to opt for a safer location.”

  “And where might that be, I wonder.”

  “The Baobab Inn. Just out of town. Beautiful scenery.” The witch chuckled. Laughed, in a way that made my nerves twist. “Is that funny?” My voice broke.

  “Somewhat, it is. You know, little Catastrophe. The Baobab is a lair of little misfortunes. They lure people in and turn their lives Upside Down. You are a baobab of sorts. Luring me in.”

  “There is no luring Yahaya. If you want your quarry as much as I want my money. He is here.”

  For a few seconds, I could only hear background noise. Was she weighing up her options? What else could she do?

  “So be it.”

  The line died.

  “Madame?” Walid asked.

  “She will come. Bring the Egyptian to my room. And summon everyone here. They won’t find Qadir. Oh, and it’s time to seize this Inn.”

  ? ? ?

  Walking the stairs up to my suite was never as taxing as it was that afternoon. There was something definitive, and eerily quiet, about it. I didn’t notice it until I was sitting on my room’s balcony next to the Baobab’s branches.

  The afternoon sun scorched our surroundings, but a breeze persisted through the heatwave, rustling the leaves of the Baobab. I tapped my fingers on the table, looking at Nassor, sitting once again across a table, but now restrained with a rope. He was going nowhere, Curses or not.

  I sensed my Calling had given up on me, that it was disappointed. And now I had to make difficult choices.

  “What is in N’Djamena, Nassor?” I asked.

  He was observing all the flowers of the Baobab. I had asked the maids of the hotel to gather all the flowers, and they obeyed reluctantly. They had brought them to me, and I had adorned the little balcony. Their white bulbs contrasted with the brown of the wooden Inn.

  “I do not meddle with Curses,” he said, for a second time this day. He had found his spite back.

  “Don’t make me crash that little useless piece of heart.”

  He put his tied hands on the table awkwardly and said nothing.

  “Really, really soon… I will have to make a choice. You or the money,” I said.

  “And your brother?”

  You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

  Ungrateful man, daring to speak of my brother.

  “Not for your worries. Speak. And I will not hand you in.”

  He considered his options.

  “N’Djamena city is turning into a void site. You won’t see anything in the media; covens are seizing control of the territory. Our mercenaries, the ones we managed to retrieve, speak of an all-out war.”

  “And what of it? What do the Ngam Kúrà have to do with it?”

  “Why don’t you ask them?”

  “Do you want me to wait for them?” I asked back.

  He realized what I implied. It was time for him to speak.

  “They send resources. And the Kanem, they hired Cursed, like you. To retrieve a weapon of sorts. A series of massacres follows, from Sierra Leone to Burkina Faso. They are heading to N’Djamena. We wanted no business with it.”

  “Why send you? Why not send a text?”

  He hesitated.

  “This was not going to be a friendly breakup, was it?”

  He nodded.

  “We are supposed to kill Kabiru and all his lackeys. Complete clean up. No one left to speak of us in the area.”

  “So, if you survive, you have to kill me and everyone who saw you?”

  “Pretty much,” he responded. And as he did, he bit his lips.

  I smiled. I know if my Calling had a voice, it would use it to cry. Its intentions were meant to be unpredictable, but I had bested it.

  “Look how talkative you can be when surrounded by flowers. You say you don’t meddle with curses, but you are so easily fooled by them, as all you men are. Typical truth-luring hex. My last phone call gave me the idea.”

  I stood up to walk around the table. My hand caressed the flowers on the side of the table as I approached him.

  “Very easy to execute if you can hear the Nabd. And any flower would do, really. But the Baobab’s, well, they say, if you pick them up, lions will eat you. So, it seemed fitting it would make you talk more.”

  “I can cut you a deal, witch. I can see you are not with them. We have a long history, the scholars of Fezzan, and we, the Hunters of…”

  “Sleep,” I commanded, and he did. I had heard enough for the moment, and we were out of time. Another heart approached us. “I thought you would not come in time,” I said, “Aisa. But I knew you would not resist.”

  I turned around. The unnaturally tall woman looked even more impressive when the sun shone on her dark skin. She wore long white bell-shaped trousers and a flannel shirt. One of our men who escorted her stood behind her, further contrasting her height.

  “You can go,” I told him, and left us alone.

  “You are dramatic f??lé. You left no room for negotiation,” she said and tossed a letter on the table. I had made it to replicate the style of her letter, but instead of a lion’s head, I had drawn a flower on its cover. I read my handwriting as the letter tossed the decorating flowers over the table.

  COME TO ME OR I'LL WARN THE EGYPTIANS

  “I thought we had a lady’s agreement. And now you threaten?”

  I caressed Nassor’s head, who was deep asleep under my command. His heart wanted to wake up, but I needed him out cold for this.

  “I needed you both here,” I said, “Come.”

  Yahaya stepped out onto the balcony, dressed as always in her long robe. She seemed weak and unassuming standing next to Aisa – so I had to remind myself of her long-cursed limbs that could end a person in a moment.

  “For what? What is the meaning of this?” Aisa asked.

  “You tell me.”

  “Tell you what? Do you want more money? Fine. I can give you double and then get the fuck out of Bilma. I can’t work with bitches like you.”

  I had heard enough. I tilted my head, and I went for her heart.

  But it was impossible to grab, an impenetrable wall built around it, more natural than any Curse.

  I breathed in sharply. I needed to buy time. Luckily, Aisa had not realized my attempt.

  “Yahaya, care to explain to me?” Aisa asked. Yahaya turned to me for permission.

  “You may speak,” I said, and Aisa gave me a side-eye look. She understood how she had underestimated me the first time we met. Yet, she did not seem afraid, which enervated me.

  A light breeze shook the Baobab behind me. It was the three of us, and Nassor was fast asleep on this balcony, and I was intending to make it make sense.

  “Khalida believes that she can hold all of us. And we will tell her where her brother is. She has long captured my heart, and she hoped that she could hold you too,” Yahaya said and looked right into my eyes. She was not explaining for Aisa’s sake, but for mine, each of her words quickly proving I had miscalculated. “She does not know you are A?r-born, and she does not know hexes do not work on you.”

  I took a step back. A?r-born? What did that mean?

  Aisa turned to me. She pulled her long cigar out from her purse and lit it, taking her time as well, before she started smoking and puffing clouds of her nose.

  She wanted me to speak first.

  “Where is my brother, Aisa?”

  “The fuck I care.”

  “Yahaya,” I pointed to her, “I know she says the truth when she is speaking to me. And thus, I know she is telling the truth. Let me hold your heart too, and then I will believe you. Then I hand you the Egyptian, and I am on my merry way to find my brother.”

  Aisa exhaled a large cloud of smoke. She stepped towards me, waving the cigarette menacingly.

  “What kind of delusions of grandeur had taught a witchling like you to think you can command people? You are Cursed. So, what. Do you have real power, money, or knowledge? You are a clueless girl with a psychopathic ego. I saw it from minute one. Anyone would be running a fool’s death if they were to trust their heart in your hands.”

  Yahaya remained back, near the door of the balcony, and unblinking, watched Aisa approaching. Every step she took led her closer until her face was right above mine. She breathed smoke out right on my face, waiting for me to flinch.

  I felt Nassor twitch under my caress, as I pulled my Cursed hold from him and focused my remaining force over Aisa. It was impossible: while everyone else’s Nabd flowed like a river, hers was as cold and rugged as stone. I could hear it, but I could not redirect or change its course.

  My plan had always been flawed. When Yahaya first arrived and said she had no idea about Qadir, I thought I had figured out everything. Everything could be solved by holding people’s hearts, no longer guessing. I did not need my Calling to find truth. But even in that, I had never thought to ask how Aisa commands that respect and what Aisa’s deal was.

  As Aisa walked up to me, I knew I was powerless against her, but it was late. I had not listened to my Calling, and I would pay the price.

  She flicked her long cigarette back, and with her right hand, she grabbed me by the neck. I felt her fingers cold like marble, they held tight to lift me off the ground.

  “All flowers get plucked,” she said calmly, and I could see it:

  Her pulling me up, walking to the edge of the balcony. Tossing me out, plucked, and falling between the Baobab’s branches, each branch an unanswered suggestion, a question by a cosmic calling.

  Why did the lady in Waw al Kabir give me a map that led here, if I simply died?

  How was I supposed to find Qadir if I simply died?

  Where did Tiwalade want to lead me when I controlled her, and how would I get there, if I simply died?

  What did I not understand in my stay in Bilma, and, regrettably, I would simply die?

  The fall would be bloody. The branches would cut my skin and break my bones. I would end up on the pasture below, a clueless girl with a psychopathic ego, abandoned by her Calling. A Calling that made my head ring and the world spin, before I would end – ending it with me.

  “Sharara.”