"Naji, darling," she said. "I still might be able to help you, of course."
Naji picked up his shoulders a little, although he didn't turn around.
"Liar," I said. It didn't give me the satisfaction I'd hoped for.
She glanced at me as though I were as insignificant as a piece of pressed copper. Then she stood up and glided over to Naji, her dress rippling out behind her. She set one hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear. He sighed.
"The impossible curses are all from the north," Leila said. "A northern curse needs a northern cure. Even if it's impossible." She smiled. "Especially if it's impossible."
"What are you saying?" Naji asked.
"I can give you a boat."
"What'd you whisper to him?" I asked.
"None of your business." Leila swatted at me. "Naji, I can give you and your ward a boat and a promise of protection on the river."
"We can take care of the Hariri clan ourselves."
"I'm not concerned about some gang of unwashed pirates."
"What?" I asked. "Who else is after us?"
She twisted around, her hair falling in thick silky ropes down her spine. "The Mists, of course."
The garden suddenly seemed too cold. "What's the Mists got to do with it?" I was trying to sound brave, but my voice shook anyway, at the memory of a pair of gray eyes swallowing me whole. "Why didn't you say anything? I thought it was just the Hariri clan we had to worry about. I mean, you kept going on about us being under protection–" I was babbling. The words spilled out of my throat the way they always do whenever I let my fear get to me.
Both of them ignored me.
"The river will take you down to Port Iskassaya, where you can book passage to the Isles of the Sky."
"Kaol!" I shouted. "The Isles of the Sky!"
Naji and Leila both looked at me.
"I ain't going there," I said. "I ran out on Tarrin cause that's where he wanted to take me."
Leila gave me this teasing little smile, but I turned to Naji and said, "You can't really think–"
"It's the only way," Leila said.
"I ain't asking you."
"I agree with her, Leila," Naji said. "You know I can't go there."
"Thank you," I said. Finally, he had learned how to talk some sense.
"Oh, Naji, the enchantment from that charm is so strong I could feel it when you were three days away. They'll never catch you."
"I still don't understand why you'd send me there, of all places–"
"You know as well as I that if you want any hope of breaking an impossible curse, you'll need the magic of the Isles. And besides," Leila gave a bright smile, "it's where the Wizard Eirnin lives."
"I've never heard of him," said Naji.
"He's from the north, from the ice-islands. I studied under him as a child. Long before I met you." She smiled and pressed herself close to Naji and he sank into her like her closeness was a relief. "I've seen him cast impossible curses before. And a cure is only one letter off from a curse."
I snorted and kicked at the powdery dirt of the floor.
Naji gave her long hard look. "It's too dangerous."
"So cast some more spells. Someone as powerful as you…" She made her eyes all big and bright. Naji gazed moonily at her. "You'll be fine."
"And what about me?" I said. "Will I be fine? I know what happens when the untouched go to the Isles of the Sky. They get turned into rainclouds and dirt or they get sucked down to the depths and drown over and over."
"You aren't untouched," Naji said. "You healed me by the river."
I glared at him. "Well, I ain't as strong as you, then."
"I have to protect you before I have to protect myself," he said. "Leila is right about the magic–"
"Of course I am," Leila said, reaching over to toy with the curl of his hair.
I couldn't say anything, thinking about the idea that he was putting my protection before his own.
"It may be my only option," Naji said to me.
"My only option, too," I said. "You're not the only one cursed here. And I still don't want to go." But already I knew it might be worth it, if the Isles really could break Naji's curse. They were the place where the impossible happened, after all. It was just that their impossible was supposed to be the sort of impossible that's also horrible.
Naji gave me a sad, confused sort of frown.
"Of course," he said, "no merchant ship is going to agree to sail to the Isles of the Sky."
"No pirate ship, neither," I added. "And that's what Port Iskassaya is anyway, a pirates' port-of-call."
"How convenient," Leila said, "that you travel with a pirate."
Naji pulled away from her and trudged away from the flowers, back over to the center circle. "We need to talk," he said to me.
"Can't argue with that."
He gave me one of his Naji-looks. For a few seconds I didn't think Leila was going to let us leave the garden, but she didn't say nothing when Naji grabbed my upper arm and dragged me back into the dripping dimness of the house.
"Told you she ain't trustworthy," I said. "She's been planning that little performance the whole time we were here. I'd put money on it."
Naji didn't say nothing for a long time. Then he said, and it damn near knocked me over, "You're probably right. I was… hoping… that she wouldn't play any of her games with me. Not now. Not… with everything." He slouched down on the cot and stuck his head in his hands. "I knew she trained in the north, that's why I came here, but I truly hoped–"
"And what did she mean about protecting us from the Mists?"
Naji dropped his hands down to his sides. "Oh, her word is good for that," he said. "She wouldn't do anything to actually kill me."