The Conjurer (The Vine Witch) by Luanne G. Smith

The Conjurer (The Vine Witch) by Luanne G. Smith

Author:Luanne G. Smith [Smith, Luanne G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2021-01-11T16:00:00+00:00


CHAPTER NINETEEN

There in the open air, riding on the heat and gray smoke that wafted out from the top of a chimney, Sidra recognized herself again. Her fire smoldered within her once more so that she felt it in the tips of her fingers and soles of her feet. Still, she would never again experience the exquisite heat she’d once known from a single touch. A glance. A shared bed.

At first she’d cursed the fairy king for returning her to this place of cold remorse, but his instinct proved correct. She was even glad the girl had been sent with her. Sitting above the rooftops, gazing over the village where she’d once been consumed with the happiness of a thousand dancing flames after marrying Hariq, she knew she’d been set on the good path again. Her only regret was not understanding earlier the fragility of love. How a heart was housed in brittle glass. So easily shattered.

But now the fire inside her had returned. The old one had been right. There were circles within circles in the continuity between past and future. Let Jamra come, she thought. Enough of this jittery, nervous energy. Enough fretting over what might be. Hariq was gone to the next world. Soon she would join him, so might it be, and may it fill her with the scorching blaze of vengeance.

She settled within the heat wave rising from the chimney, hiding amid its smoke as she kept her eye on the sky, the street, and the ether around her. It was then, while tracing the movement of a tiny dust devil that swept along the cobblestones below, that she caught sight of a dog’s tail slipping around a corner. A tail in the same crescent shape found in the omen the birds had gifted her. But whose tail?

There’d always been jinn who came and went through the village. Others had taken up residence in similar older villages in the hillsides to the east. Or there’d been nomads, clanless jinn who roamed over invisible mortal borders, curious to see the whole of the world.

If this was the same dog who’d led Elena to her, he was familiar. Knew her. Knew the village. Instinct suggested Rajul Hakim had sent him. A guard dog to lead the witch to Sidra’s side and watch over the last events of her life. Perhaps the dog was one who paid tribute to the old one from a village closer to his cave. The tail disappeared up a narrow lane. She contemplated the risk. One was smart to keep watch for those about to charge the tent, but one was wisest not to neglect those already inside.

Sidra filtered through the air unseen from rooftop to street level. She followed the animal around the corner, hoping to catch a glimpse of the tail again, but the lane held only mortals. The jinni animated behind a palm tree and sniffed the air. Spice, salt, sand. Someone roasting a chicken in wine. Always in wine.



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