TWELVE
Kaveh pushed open the city gates, then peered outside. "There's no one here," he reported. "Just like I told you."
Aladdin breathed out a sigh of relief. If Gwandoya wasn't waiting for him, then perhaps he would be able to make it home alive. He still had a desert to cross, a daunting thought even with Kaveh's help.
"Do you have the wineskins?" Aladdin asked. He would drink the contents tonight, and refill them with water when they reached the oasis. After he had drunk his fill of water for the first time in a week.
"I have the wineskins, and everything else you wanted. I may not be a particularly powerful djinn, but I do have some talents," Kaveh said with a sniff.
Talents such as carrying enormously heavy loads, or moving heavy things, Aladdin knew now. And to be visible or not, as he chose, along with whatever he was touching. A week with the man had given him a greater understanding of both Kaveh and the city of Tasnim. But there was still one question he hadn't answered...
"Why are you helping me again?" Aladdin asked.
"To see this princess of yours," Kaveh replied. "I told you that."
Aladdin sighed. Kaveh could keep his secrets. Aladdin had enough to worry about. "Let's go, then, or we will never reach the city where she lives."
The sun might have sunk behind the desert dunes, but the sand still held its heat, which bit at Aladdin's boots. Boots Kaveh had insisted he take from the prince's things, along with suitable clothing for braving the desert. So now Aladdin wore fabric finer than even Kaveh, and leather so soft he wanted to stroke it. So if he died in the desert, at least his corpse would be well-dressed, Aladdin consoled himself, then snorted. Small consolation for failure. He did not intend to fail. He intended to live, and return home to his mother, and maybe, just maybe, see Maram again.
It was hope that kept him trudging through the desert dunes until the sun rose high in the sky, following Kaveh's directions even as the heat shimmered off the sand and blinded him. Every valley seemed an oasis, but when he reached it, there was no water to be found.
It was nearly noon when Aladdin reached the oasis, and he threw himself face down in the water, gulping his fill. He would have drowned there, perhaps, if not for Kaveh, who dragged him into the shade formed by a stand of palm trees. Aladdin fell into an uneasy doze, which turned into sleep as the sun sank once more.
Kaveh woke him at dawn. "Time to move, or you will be roasted alive," he said.
Aladdin managed to make it to the makeshift shelter Kaveh had constructed while he slept. Fallen palm fronds and some coarse sacking made a bower out of the hastily dug hole in the ground, but Aladdin was nevertheless grateful for it. Kaveh produced some nuts – Aladdin didn't dare ask where from – and a filled water skin, then told Aladdin to rest.
Despite spending all night asleep, Aladdin had no trouble obeying the djinn. He'd never walked so far in his life, and as soon as night fell, he had the other half of his journey to finish. If he survived the day.
To Aladdin's surprise, Kaveh woke him at sunset, and he almost felt optimistic about his chances of reaching home.
The oasis was scarcely out of sight by the time Aladdin disabused himself of that notion. The blisters he'd barely noticed on the first day had swelled to carbuncles in his boots, and the sun had found him inside his little shelter while he slept, burning his skin as surely as boiling water would. Yet on he slogged, for Aladdin knew he was headed home.
One foot in front of the other, until he could go no further. Aladdin fell to his knees. "I can't," he wheezed.
"I'm not going to let you die out here, so some corpse robber can pick me up. Get up!" Kaveh slid an arm under Aladdin's shoulders and heaved him to his feet. "If I have to carry you the rest of the way, we're going to reach the city!"
So Aladdin staggered on, while Kaveh helped him, until Aladdin saw what looked like the city gates looming before him, lit with the fierce light of a desert dawn. "I'm home," Aladdin mumbled.
"Not yet you're not. Where do you live?" Kaveh asked grimly, his grip tightening around Aladdin.
Aladdin pointed and mumbled something he hoped made sense. He was moving again, so Kaveh must have understood some of it, at least.
"Do you recognise this place?" Kaveh asked impatiently.
Aladdin peered blearily at the worn door he'd opened and closed a thousand times. "Home."
"Good." Kaveh shoved the door open.
Aladdin staggered inside, then pitched forward into oblivion.
Kaveh cursed. "Hello, lady of the house! Is this your son?" he called.
A woman emerged from the dimness, hastily wrapping a veil around her hair. "I...Aladdin?"
Aladdin was beyond responding.
"I found him outside the city walls," Kaveh said. "He said he lived here."
"He does! Oh, how can I ever thank you? Or repay you?" the woman asked, falling to her knees beside Aladdin. "You have answered a mother's prayer."
Kaveh smiled. "Granting wishes, who'd have thought?" While Aladdin's mother was distracted, Kaveh disappeared. For the moment, his job was done.