Under a Spell (18 page)

“I don't know.” She shook her head as she thought back to her interview. Her first shock had been to discover that the reason Malik had often described the Djinn Council as a bunch of old women was because they were, in fact, a bunch of old women. They also were just as scary as he had led her to believe. But funnily enough, after having to spend the last few days dealing with Melissa Tait and her
arctic gazes, Sophie hadn't felt remotely scared. And as for the demonstrations they'd asked her to do? Well, even though it had been a while since she'd used any magic, she quickly discovered that it was just like riding a bike, but without the ugly helmet or the uncomfortable seat.

“Well, I do,” Malik continued, still looking agitated. “It's because they'd decided to say no, and you know what? That's not good enough. In fact, I think I'm going to go in there and give them a piece of my mind right now. So what if I'm not the most fabulous djinn who was ever created from smokeless fire, I'm still Malik the Great, and that has to stand for something. Oh, and you know, they'd better not hold the whole getting-bound thing against you, because I'll tell you what, the way you managed to negotiate your way out of that was pure genius. In fact, you could probably even manage to get yourself unbound from Sheterum himself, and furthermore—”

“Who's Sheterum?” Sophie blinked, trying to keep up with Malik's rambling, as her grip tightened on the small silver box that her dad had given her and which was now perched in her lap.

“What?” Malik paused for a moment and gave a dismissive wave of his hand. “Oh, he's this techno-sahir who uses the Internet to track down and bind djinns. Hateful fellow. Almost up there with Solomon. Anyway, where was I? Oh, yes, if they think for one minute that they can—”

“Er, Malik.” Sophie tried to nudge him as one of the
old women from the Djinn Council suddenly floated out, holding a piece of paper. However, since he was noncorporeal, her nudge didn't work, and he kept on talking.

“No, I mean it, Sophie. Even though you didn't know I was on the basketball court with you because I was invisible, I heard the whole speech you gave to Melissa and Ben, and it was very moving. Especially the part where you told them what the guitar pick meant to you. The way you were emoting. You know, they could make that into a movie—oh, and Zac Efron could play me. Plus—”

The old woman djinn was now glaring at Malik through a pair of thick bifocals as she made a clicking noise with her false teeth.

“Seriously, Malik, enough.” Sophie tried to catch his attention again, this time by waving her hand in front of his face. “I think the waiting is over.”

“What?” He blinked for a moment before he glanced over to where the old woman was still hovering. His lip curled in distaste. “Oh, it's you, Farizad. I should've known.”

“Malik.” The old woman gave a curt nod of her head. “I can see that death hasn't stopped you from mouthing off at all. Anyway, the council has made a decision, so if Sophie, daughter of Tariq, would like to come with me, she can hear it.”

“Yeah, well, don't try and stop me from coming in this time, because I won't stand for it. As her djinn guide I have a right to be there, and you'd better not try to stop
me, Farizad, because we're not in Persia anymore.” Malik poked his bottom lip out much the way he did when Sophie wouldn't conjure him up any more Cheetos.

“No one's trying to stop you, Malik, you big baboon. Now come on, the early bird bingo starts soon, and you know how I hate to miss that,” the old woman djinn pronounced as she floated back into the council chambers, where Sophie had done her demonstration. The walls were covered with dark wooden carvings. Richly colored tapestry rugs were hanging everywhere, and a heavy smell of incense filled the air.

The cool tiled floor was dotted with decorative earthen pots filled with delicate palms, and in the center of the room was a selection of large cushions, which hadn't been there before. The old woman gestured for Sophie to take a seat while she joined the rest of the council members, who, instead of sitting on cushions, were all in large leather recliners that Sophie was pretty sure had come from Pottery Barn.

“Sophie, daughter of Tariq, we have witnessed your skills and considered your request. And we have decided to help you.”

“You have?” Sophie widened her eyes as her heart started to pound in nervous excitement, while next to her Malik's jaw went slack in surprise. “D-does that mean you know where my dad is?”

“Unfortunately, we don't know where he is, but there are two things that we can tell you. First, he is still alive;
and second, he has been bound by a sahir named Sheterum.”

“Sheterum?” Sophie repeated in shock. That was the guy Malik had just been talking about. “The techno-sahir?”

“I see you've heard of him.” Another of the Djinn Council members nodded. This old woman was as fat as a house, with wispy gray hair pulled back from her face and a few unpleasant-looking stray hairs on her chin.

“S-so how do I unbind him?” Sophie demanded. She felt the blood pound in her temples, but the members of the Djinn Council just looked at her blankly.

“That is not our concern. Malik will tell you what we think of djinns who get themselves bound,” Farizad said in a sharp voice as she glanced up at another one of the strange-looking clocks. “And now, it is time for you to leave. More importantly, it's time for bingo.”

“What? No.” Sophie shook her head as she watched the twelve old women start to hover up from their recliners. “You can't go. I need more help. And what about opening this box? It could have something important in it.”

“Oh, yes.” Farizad paused for a moment and lifted a gnarled, arthritic-looking finger in the air. Sophie felt the box being tugged out of her hands, and she watched as it flew across to where Farizad was hovering. The old woman then snapped her fingers, and the silver lid effortlessly flipped back. Farizad eagerly peered inside it and pulled out a carefully folded parchment of paper. Then
she frowned as she tried to read it. Finally, she looked up. “Malik, you spent a lot of your dissolute years around mortals. What does this say, and is it in Tariq's hand?”

“A letter from my father?” Sophie immediately jumped to her feet, but one of the other old women raised a finger, and instead of crossing the cool tiled floors, Sophie felt herself being pushed back down into the cushions by an invisible force. She tried to wriggle free, but it was no good, and she was forced to watch helplessly as Malik floated over to where Farizad was holding on to the piece of paper.

“Well?” the old lady demanded. “What does it say?”

Malik paused for a moment and scanned it before he turned and shot Sophie an apologetic look. “I'm sorry, Sophie. It's not a letter. It's a recipe.”

“A recipe?” Farizad sounded almost as disappointed as Sophie felt. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I'm sure.” Malik bristled. “It's for spaghetti Bolognese. In case you didn't know, Tariq was quite the cook. Huh, well, will you look at that, his secret ingredient is nutmeg. Interesting.”

“Interesting?” Farizad spat in disgust. “You're just as bad as Tariq himself. He was once a brilliant djinn, but instead of working with the council to unleash his true potential, he turned his back on us and married a mere mortal. And look at him now: bound by one of the worst sahirs in our recent history and his only legacy is a recipe.”

“How dare you speak like that about my mom and my
dad?” Sophie felt a flash of rage go racing through her as once again she tried to stand up, but whatever was restraining her only tightened its grip.

“Sophie, daughter of Tariq, we will speak as we please, and you will show us respect,” the bearded old lady retorted. Then, without another word, the old women all floated out of the room, no doubt in the direction of the bingo hall. As soon as they were gone, whatever had been restraining Sophie suddenly disappeared, and she jumped to her feet.

“Malik, we need to go after them. How am I supposed to find my father without their help?” she demanded.

Malik shook his head. “I'm sorry, Sophie, but once the council members have made their decision, there's no changing their minds. And at least you know he's alive. Plus, he left you this lovely recipe, so I suggest we go home and try to make it.”

Sophie stared at Malik in disbelief as he waved the piece of paper in front of her face. Was he kidding her? “I don't want to make spaghetti, I want to find my dad. I thought you were my friend. I can't believe you're not going to help me. Hey—” she started to say as she stared at the recipe in confusion. “This isn't—”

“This isn't the right place to talk about spaghetti?” Malik quickly cut her off. “I completely agree,” he said in an extra loud voice, as if someone was listening. “Besides, looking at all those old djinns has given me a headache, which is why we should get going. Plus, Zac Efron is on
Ellen
today, and if you think I'm going to miss that, then you've got another think coming.” Then he clicked his fingers, and the next thing Sophie knew, they were both outside the Robert Robertson Middle School gymnasium again.

Sophie blinked and then looked at her watch. It was two minutes past ten, which meant that somehow she had been away for only a couple of minutes. She had no idea how it was possible, but it was obviously part of the whole “Djinn Council being on a different dimension” thing. Not that it was her biggest worry right now. She looked at the piece of paper in her hand and then looked up at Malik, unable to hide her confusion.

“What's going on? Why did you tell the council that this was a spaghetti recipe when it's really all about Solomon's Elixir? And, hey—” She suddenly frowned. “Is that the elixir that you said doesn't exist?”

“It doesn't,
well, it didn't
,” Malik replied, his voice tinged with excitement. “But according to this, it looks like your father might've managed to find a way to make it. Don't you see, not only was your dad a great cook, but he might've been on the verge of discovering the secret that every djinn for two thousand years has been searching for?”

“But I still don't understand.” Sophie frowned. “Why didn't you tell the Djinn Council about it? I mean, wouldn't they want to know about it?”

“Of course they would, but let me tell you something
about the Djinn Council. They may look like a bunch of old ladies who could use a dip in a tub of Nair and a visit to the mall, but underneath it all they are powerful djinns. And the one thing that powerful djinns like more than anything else in the world is more power.”

“And you think that if this really does turn out to be the elixir, it would be powerful?”

“More powerful than any of the other trinkets they currently have in their coffers,” Malik confirmed. “And more to the point, if you gave it to them, there is absolutely no guarantee that they would let you use it to help your father.”

“But we don't even know where he is. Maybe we could've done a trade with them for information or something?”

“Haven't I told you that you should never do deals with other djinns?” Malik reminded her as he made a tuttutting noise from between his teeth. Then he grinned. “Besides, you can stop looking so gloomy, because I promised you that
finding
your dad was always going to be the easy part, it was the getting him unbound that would've been tough. But now—”

“Now we stand a chance.” Sophie suddenly returned his grin: she finally understood why he was looking so happy. Then she turned and started to head down the hallway to wait for her mom out in the parking lot. It sucked that Sophie couldn't tell her that she was one step closer
to finding her dad, but hopefully the time would come when she wouldn't have to tell her anything. Instead, she could actually bring her dad back, and then they would be a proper family again. The thought made her smile.

W
OW, I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT.” KARA SHOOK HER
head in astonishment on Monday morning. “I mean, I thought I lost half an hour of my life last week when I was trying to finish Colin's tail and the glue I was using wouldn't stick, but you
literally
lost time. I mean, you said you were gone for over an hour, but it was only two minutes later when you got back.”

“Not to mention that you found out that your dad is still alive, and now you have a way to break his bind,” Harvey added. “Though, you know, it's kind of a pity that you didn't have the recipe sooner. It would've saved you a lot of stress.”

“I know,” Sophie agreed. “But on the positive side, if I'd had the elixir to break the bind, then I might never have figured out that sometimes I can fix a problem without actually using magic.”

“Could you just excuse me while I puke,” Malik chimed in from where he was lying across the top of a bank of lockers, peering down on them all. “Because if
that isn't the cheesiest thing I've ever heard, then I don't know what is. Next you're going to tell me that you spent the whole night doing your geography assignment by yourself just because it's the right thing to do.” Then he let out a disgusted groan. “
You did, didn't you?
Honestly, sometimes I think I should just wash my hands of you.”

“You watch
High School Musical
, and you're calling
me
cheesy? Besides, after the Moroccan almond debacle and the catastrophe of losing my magic, I didn't want to push my luck,” Sophie protested as she stifled a yawn and clutched her freshly printed assignment. Anyway, Malik could say what he liked; not relying on her magic so much was actually quite empowering. In fact, from now on she was going to think twice before she even considered using magic again, unless it was a total emergency.

“Well, I think it's great,” Kara said. “And really, all that matters is that things turned out just the way Sophie wanted them to.”