9

THREE WISHES

For two days and two nights, Emma sat at the beautiful well in Maimun’s palace, pondering what she should wish for. She was surrounded by the tame flamingos they had freed from Sahim’s cages, and Tristan often came to visit her. But when the third day dawned, Emma still didn’t have a last wish. And it was time for her to fly home.

So she went to Karim, who was just then carrying Maimun on his shoulders to the highest tower of the palace. “Karim!” she called. “I give up. I can only think of two wishes. Do you want to hear them?”

“Of course, my mistress!” Karim called back. He carefully put Maimun down behind the tower’s battlements. Emma looked into the genie’s eyes, which were as black as the night above the sea. She cleared her throat. “Right. My first wish is actually Tristan’s,” she said. “I don’t mind his short legs, but he’d like to be taller, because of the other dogs, and so . . . do you understand?”

Karim nodded. He put his hands together. “So be it!” he called out, so loudly that all over Barakash the lizards fell off the walls.

Blue smoke rose around Tristan, and when he and his wagging tail reappeared, his legs really had grown longer. And his head had somehow gotten bigger, too. Emma thought he looked altogether a little strange, but Tristan seemed very happy, and he went to give Karim’s blue fingers an approving lick.

“Wonderful,” said Emma. She cleared her throat once more. “Then here is my second wish. . . .”

“I’m listening!” Karim breathed.

“I wish that my brothers get an itchy scalp for three days every time they annoy me.”

“Three days! That’s harsh!” Maimun laughed. “I’m glad I don’t have a sister.”

But Karim just put his huge blue hands together again and called, “So be it!”

A cool breeze brushed through the hot air of Barakash, and a few wisps of blue smoke drifted past Emma’s nose.

“Right!” Emma said, while Tristan admiringly sniffed his long legs. “I should get home. After all, I want to see whether my second wish will also work. But I will miss the good weather.”

“And we will miss you, too, pasty face,” Maimun said, tugging at Emma’s sandy hair. Then he whispered something into Karim’s huge blue ear.

The genie raised his eyebrows and smiled. “A good idea!” he whispered. He got up and crossed his arms as he looked down at Emma.

“Since you don’t have a third wish, oh mistress of my heart . . . ,” he began. His voice sounded so deep and rich that it felt like a warm wind brushing over Emma’s face. “My caliph suggested I give you a gift. Something very rare, very precious . . .”

“P-precious?” Emma stammered. “If you’re thinking of jewels or something, I really wouldn’t know what to do with them.”

Karim smiled and clicked his tongue twice. Then he reached into the air as though trying to pluck a bird from the sky. He leaned back down to Emma and held out his hand to her.

On it lay a bottle, barely bigger than a yogurt pot. Emma could see a tiny figure behind the pale-green glass. It was as blue as Karim. “This is a young genie,” Maimun explained. “Barely seven years old, but genies grow fast. Come next year you’ll have to get him a bigger bottle.”

“Oh!” Emma said. She stared reverently through the green glass.

The tiny genie gave her a shy smile and bowed.

“What is his name?” Emma whispered.

“He is called Khalil!” Karim answered. “Which means ‘good friend’ in your language.”

Emma felt a little weak with happiness. “I hope he’s not afraid of dogs,” she said. Khalil was curiously pressing his nose against the glass.

“Ooh, no!” Karim laughed. “But the cold weather in your land might give him some trouble. You should get him something warmer to wear. It’s exactly ten days until he’ll slip out of his bottle for the first time. Always pay attention to his color. As long as he’s dark blue, he’s doing well.”

The tiny genie yawned and scratched himself behind one ear.

“He shouldn’t really do magic more than once a day for the next two years,” Maimun added. “And you should put him in moonlight every now and then. It’ll make him grow faster.”

“I’ll do that,” Emma answered. She held the bottle in front of Tristan’s nose.

Khalil looked a little alarmed, but he tried hard not to show his fear.

“Don’t worry, Tristan will protect you,” Emma whispered at the bottle. “My home is really quite nice, except for the weather and my four brothers. But they can be nice, too, sometimes.”

Then she said goodbye to Maimun and the dromedary and the blue-patterned grandmother, who even packed some honeyed dates for her, and Karim took Emma and Tristan home. This time they didn’t need a carpet. Karim carried them in his big blue hands.

They landed on the beach just as the sun rose.

And it was almost a little warm.