***
She looked over the garden with a heavy heart. Despite her brave words to her companions, she had never attempted anything quite like this before and was sorely afraid she would fail. It was the utmost in arrogance to believe that she could succeed in this mad gamble—but not to try at all would certainly doom their mission to failure.
Leila began walking through the garden, letting her feet choose whatever path they would among the vegetation. She tried to put all extraneous thoughts from her mind, but found that very difficult. Now that she knew the true nature of this garden, all the plants seemed to take on hideous, unnatural shapes. She imagined a thousand silent screams from the imprisoned djinni, struggling to free themselves from their endless torment, and her heart beat rapidly with apprehension.
Her mind conjured up the image of Cari as she presented herself to the world: a young, slender adolescent girl with wide-set, intelligent eyes and long brown hair, a girl with features that would be considered lovely by any standards, even though she seldom smiled. Could she match that image with any of the flowers or plants here in the scarouche’s deadly garden?
She looked from side to side as she walked, carefully studying each of the blooms she saw. This lilac, that snapdragon, the azalea just beyond the edge of the path—to each flower she tried to put the face of Cari, and each one echoed back nothing at all. The garden was one huge open sore of falsehood, so many different layers of lies compounding one atop another that her senses were almost overwhelmed. Was it indeed arrogance to think she could spot one blossom of true beauty among so many perfumed deceptions?
Her meandering path took her at length to the ylang-ylang tree she and Jafar had passed yesterday. As it had done for Jafar, the scent instantly conjured up images of Cari, more clearly than the ones she’d already pictured. Could this indeed be her? Leila wondered. Do I dare trust to an omen this obvious?
She stared at the tree and thought of Cari, imbuing it with all the Jann’s youthful exuberance mixed with common sense. But, as with everything else in the garden, she felt nothing. If there was no special feeling of wrongness other than the feeling that pervaded the entire garden, neither was there anything to give her a clue of rightness. The ylang-ylang tree was like any other plant in this garden.
Leila turned away, tears starting to form in her eyes. “O lord Oromasd,” she cried out in frustration, “please forgive a foolish woman her arrogance in thinking she could solve the riddles set before her by beings far cleverer than herself. I only wanted to help my beloved Jafar, and I’m afraid it’s beyond my poor abilities.”
She wiped at her eyes with her forearm and, through the glistening of a tear, saw a spot of color just beyond the path. Blinking the moisture away, she saw a rosebush with a single bloom, a small golden bud tightly wrapped, just starting to unfold into glory. She stared at the bud, seeing its simplicity, its elegance, its purity. She tried to picture Cari’s face in the center of the rosebud, and found she could not. The rosebud was too much itself to be anything else.
She stared at the bud for many minutes, scarcely daring to breathe. She took a step closer and, with a hand trembling so badly she could hardly control it, she pulled the stopper from the small green bottle. Knowing it could well be the last act of her life, she held the bottle out to the perfect bud and sprinkled the tiny bit of remaining powder on the blossom. “Be as thou wert,” she said in a shaky voice. “And, if it be Oromasd’s pleasure, please be Cari!”
There was a flash of light and a puff of smoke. Leila screwed her eyes tightly shut, bracing for death at the hands of a vengeful djinn.
“What is this place? How did I get here? How did you get here? Where is my master?”
Scarcely daring to believe the voice she heard, Leila opened her eyes slowly to see the form of the young Jann standing on the path before her. Her body began trembling again, this time with relief.
Cari stared at her, exasperated. “What is wrong with you? Do you refuse to answer my questions?”
“Not at all,” Leila said, her voice on the edge of hysterical laughter. “I am just so glad to see you after all the trials we’ve been through.”
“Trials?” Cari asked sharply. “Is my master in trouble?”
“Not now. He and the others are down by the shore of this island, waiting for us. If you would carry me down there—”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Cari snapped. She rose into the air and hovered for a moment to get her bearings, then flew off in the direction of the coast.
Leila stared after her, then shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. “Well, it’s a nice day for a walk,” she said as she started out of the garden and down the hillside toward the beach.
“The Djinn Garden” is an excerpt from Stephen Goldin’s epic Arabian Nights-style Parsina Saga. If you enjoyed it, please consider reading the full tale in The Complete Parsina Saga boxed set.
If for some reason you’d prefer to buy the books individually, the four volumes are:
Volume I: Shrine of the Desert Mage
Volume II: The Storyteller and the Jann
Volume III: Crystals of Air and Water
Volume IV: Treachery of the Demon King
The individual titles are available at your favorite ebook retailer, and in paperback from selected stores.
ABOUT STEPHEN GOLDIN
Born in Philadelphia in 1947, Stephen Goldin has lived in California since 1960. He received a Bachelor’s degree in Astronomy from UCLA and worked as a civilian space scientist for the U.S. Navy for a few years after leaving college, but has made his living as a writer/editor most of his life.
His first wife was fellow author Kathleen Sky, with whom he co-wrote the first edition of the highly acclaimed nonfiction book The Business of Being a Writer. His current wife is fellow author Mary Mason. So far they have co-authored two books in the Rehumanization of Jade Darcy series.
He served the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America as editor of the SFWA Bulletin and as the organization’s Western Regional Director. He has lived with cats all his adult life. Artistically, he enjoys Broadway musicals and surrealist art.
OTHER BOOKS BY STEPHEN GOLDIN
(most titles available at your favorite ebook retailer)
Science Fiction
The Eternity Brigade
Scavenger Hunt
Assault on the Gods
A World Called Solitude
Ghosts, Girls, & Other Phantasms (short story collection)
Alien Murders
And Not Make Dreams Your Master
Crossroads of the Galaxy
Herds
Caravan
Trek to Madworld (an original Star Trek novel)
Mindsaga
Mindflight
Mindsearch
The Rehumanization of Jade Darcy (co-written by Mary Mason)
Jade Darcy and the Affair of Honor
Jade Darcy and the Zen Pirates
Agents of ISIS
Tsar Wars
Treacherous Moon
Robot Mountain
Sanctuary Planet
Stellar Revolution
Purgatory Plot
Traitors’ World
Counterfeit Stars
Outworld Invaders
Galactic Collapse
Surreal Humor
Polly!
Quiet Post
Fantasy
Angel in Black
The Parsina Saga
Shrine of the Desert Mage
The Storyteller and the Jann
Crystals of Air and Water
Treachery of the Demon King
CONNECT WITH STEPHEN GOLDIN
Learn more about him at his Web site.
Visit his book site, Parsina Press.
Get updates on his doings at his blog, The Ingesterie.
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Twitter handle: stevegoldin
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