The Expedition: Chapter Eight

"I can explain!" Amelia pleaded with tribal chief Hadaj.

"This is not what it looks like!"

Hadaj stood there, staring down at the young girl with the same expression as when she first saw him, with a mixture of fear and anger. She thought he would kill her for finding the lamp on her.

"Where did you get this lamp?" Hadaj said.

Amelia opened her mouth, but no words came out; they were trapped in her throat! "I...the cultists chased me in a temple, and I found it there." Her voice quivered with emotion, filled with guilt about what she'd done!

Hadaj examined the lamp. "Were you stealing this? Are you a thief from another land who comes to steal from our lands so that you can show off your treasures in museums to your people?" He gave her a stern look. "Are you part of that group?"

Amelia shook her head quickly. "No! No, no, no!" The truth hit her like a punch to the gut: while she wasn't, her father certainly was. His expeditions returned home with shiploads of valuable treasures and artifacts to put in museums back home. Things that belonged to these people. Their culture. Their heritage. And because her people were more advanced in technical and magical arts, her culture could come and steal this culture's past and future away to put in a glass case.

We are relegating it to an oddity and curiosity for others to gawk over.

And it condemns these people as having no past and no future. That was the biggest sin she could imagine committing against any society or civilization; it made it hard for them to develop their history. To learn from past mistakes to avoid making the same mistakes again. Or have anything to call their own. 

She saw the pain on his face. It broke her heart. This man was full of anger, sorrow, and sadness. Yet he was a good leader and a fair-minded person. She knew if he found out what her father did, he would be upset, but he wouldn't kill her like she thought he would. But he might make her pay a terrible price by keeping this secret.

She closed her eyes and cried.

"I wasn't stealing," Amelia said weakly, "I grabbed it out of fear, and it had magic, so I used it to escape with my life."

She swallowed.

"And I found a true friend inside the lamp."

The crowd of warriors and women surrounding them gasped and backed up a step. They all looked at her strangely. It took a moment before Hadaj recovered from his shock. He smiled nervously and his hands started shaking. "Did the...genie come out of the lamp?"

Amelia nodded and smiled through her tears. "I would never give up a friend's home. I promised to help her. And the other genies living in the lamp."

Hadaj's hands trembled when he heard the words, and his eyes widened when he realized what he was holding. He cupped the lamp carefully as if holding a precious and tiny infant in his hands.

Fayla, her love, leaned close to her ear, "How many other genies?"

Amelia smiled and blinked at her friend. "There must be hundreds in there, djinn too? They don't have lamps, so they live together?" She stared at Hadaj, who stood with an amazed look. The tribal chief seemed afraid of the magical lamp in front of him! His worldview about how things were supposed to work crumbled around him as a sandcastle washed away by waves of a raging ocean.

Hadaj offered Amelia the lamp. "I am sorry, Amelia, for doubting you."

Amelia nodded and smiled and took the lamp from his hands. "Thank you. And your suspicions are justified. The ships I traveled here on were filled with those you hate from my world. And they come to take yours away. I can only offer you the truth and a promise never to betray you or your culture. And this lamp shall never leave these lands."

"What you hold there is something I do not know how to deal with," Hadaj said, his eyes deep-set in wrinkles as he let out a long sigh. "Those genies. They are from an age before ours—a very magical one. One where the Djinn King ruled these lands. When the dunes were green, and cities floated upon clouds above, great rivers flowed out of the sky to bring bounty to every tribe and people of our lands."

Amelia nodded. "And you don't know what shall happen if they return?"

Hadaj nodded. "They could be angry at how the land was spoiled. At how grand wizards sapped all life from the living and left our once-great land into ruin, the lands dry and despoiled, and nothing left living because of those who defiled their very home."

She could not imagine her genie friend Shayanna being angry, but then again, she could. After having been trapped inside a bottle for centuries without the freedom to move about, anything would set them off! They'd probably destroy everything around them! Just like her father had done to the tribes who attacked his camps!

Amelia blinked. "What do you call an angry Djinn?"

Hadaj bit his lip. "A devil." He sighed and shook his head slowly. "This is too big of a thing... Unfortunately, I won't be able to decide on this alone. If I am wrong and we make this decision ourselves, it will be dangerous. The other clans might rise against us; many factions are fighting amongst themselves here, even now." He looked back at Amelia, who stood there with the lamp in her hands. His expression softened when he saw her tears. "You did not come here to steal from my people or me. And the magic in the lamp can help my people."

Amelia swallowed hard and wiped the tears from her face. She took a deep breath before speaking to him: "I think my genie can come out of the lamp and explain more."

Hadaj stopped her. "This is a matter best left to our goddess, Kayala. Will you bring the lamp to the temple we are going to, so she may decide?"

Amelia knew Genie asked her to take the lamp to Sha'lal Ak'har and find a man named Dunaden. Should she do that? Or trust the tribe that fought to protect her life? What if their goddess hated genies? She promised to help Genie and Trey first, but now she did not know what to do!

Amelia nodded. "I will go to you to the temple. But you must promise to take me to Sha'lal Ak'har if I ask. I know I cannot make demands of you, but please, trust me. I would not ask if this was not important."

Hadaj smiled and bowed his head. He looked at all his warriors who surrounded them; they seemed unsure of themselves. They feared something powerful in their group that could kill them all. Their chief then spoke softly and with reverence into Amelia's ears. "I believe in you. Go with Goddess Kayala in your hand. She shall guide your path with wisdom and knowledge. We shall be ready to travel soon, Amelia, and I leave the lamp to you and your new friend Fayla's care - but under one condition."

"Yes, oh yes!" Amelia smiled and nodded. "Anything!"

Hadaj smiled. "You and Fayla are to be married and become members of the tribe!"

Amelia's eyes widened as she looked in shock at her friend and lover, Fayla. Fayla gave her the same surprised look, and then her face grew loving and warm, with the most beautiful smile her heart had ever seen.

Amelia wrapped Fayla in her arms and kissed her deeply as the tribe watched.

And a great cheer erupted from them all!

Amelia kept her forehead against Fayla's.

"I did not know two girls like us could be married."

Fayla nodded, eyes staring into hers. "I shall love you forever, Amelia."

The tribe hollered and shouted as Hadaj smiled as he watched the two embrace.

Amelia knew her decision meant she could never go home again and that this new life would be hers forever. She and Fayla would be married and choose the men who would give them children to raise as their own. She could never go home. She could never return to her studies. And she would never see her people or her father again.

A commotion broke out among the tribe as one of their scout riders crested a hill and rode quickly into camp on his horse.

The scout jumped off his mount and was offered a large gourd of water, which he drank thirstily before approaching Chief Hadaj and kneeling.

"Speak!" Hadaj said.

"I come from the Temple of Kayala!" the scout said. "I bring terrible news!"

A nervous commotion broke out among the tribe, and Hadaj raised his hand to silence them.

"Go on."

"The temple is surrounded by an army wishing to loot the temple," the scout said, his voice trembling like he would be struck dead for saying those words.

Amelia's heart raced, and she stepped forward. "By the death cult?"

The scout stared into her eyes. "No, much, much worse. The temple is surrounded by outsiders from another land who wish to raid it and take its treasures home to their lands."

Amelia felt the cold grip of realization grab her heart.

This was her father.