Mistlyn

Chapter 19: She

The cold presence got colder. Cascading like a waterfall from my neck to my feet, the cold slithered down my body, taking hold of me. My teeth chattered as I huddled more tightly against Cogaje. His body felt cold.

"It's back," I yelled.

"I feel it," Cogaje said.

The wind started dying down.

The cold left me. The sand around my knees and feet turned cold, as if the cold has penetrated the ground. Weak waves spiraled down the sand away from me and towards the Jinns.

"Ya walay!" Junoon cried out. "What is that?"

"Ya walay?" I turned to Cogaje.

"It means something like 'oh my goodness'."

"If a Jinn is scared..." I said.

Cogaje shook his head. "Wait and see. I wonder..." he mused.

"Wonder what?"

Cogaje pointed ahead. "Watch. If She is who I think She is, then we're safe. But just watch."

I looked towards the three Jinns. Their eyes were wide in fear.

Thunder stabbed the air around us. The clouds looked pregnant with rain. But instead of bleeding water, gold dust came out of the clouds.

The desert's face shimmered with the dust, like a diamond sparkling in light.

The gold dust collected together near the three Jinn, as if an invisible magnet were near them. The gold dust figure formed a body, then two bodies, then three.

"It's Her," Cogaje said, a smile on his red lips.

"Who?"

But he didn't answer me. He only looked on at the gold-dust figure.

Three women were standing before the three Jinns. The one on the left was an elderly woman, in a dress of royal blue, with a cloak of black over the dress. On her head was a silver headdress, two diamonds hanging on either side of her head near her shoulders. In her hand was a black cup.

The middle lady was dressed in red and gold, her hair as black as a jaguar. A golden necklace hung from her neck, a golden band around her ankle.

The lady on the right was dresses in a silver dress, a black and blue braided rope around her waist. In either hand was a long, thin triangulated sword. A caracal sat before her feet, its eyes purple.

Dinjn bowed his head. Majnoon and Junoon followed suit.

"You've wronged these children," the goddess in the middle said. "You brought them out here to seal the Roc."

"I did it to raise the Dead Ones—" Dinjn began.

The goddess raised her hand to silence him. "You did it for your black necromantic purposes. You are being selfish." The goddess turned to the other two Jinns. "You two are not free of guilt, either."

The goddess on the left stepped forward. She held an obsidian cup in her hand. Turning her wrist, she spilled the contents of the cup onto the sand, the black and silver fluid mixing with gold dust debris.

"Mother," Dinjn said, his voice shaky.

The old lady raised her eyes to look at him, but kept pouring out the fluid from her cup.

"Please,' Dinjn pleaded.

"Enough!" the lady with the caracal said. "You've wronged us. We do not tolerate wrongdoings against us."