City of Stolen Magic by Nazneen Ahmed Pathak

Author:Nazneen Ahmed Pathak [Pathak, Nazneen Ahmed]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780241567494
Publisher: Penguin Random House Children's UK
Published: 2023-05-19T00:00:00+00:00

The next day was Saturday, and a cranky Sal with a sore head ushered them all out for a bit of hush. Tipu and Yasser went for a walk round the recently opened Victoria Park, pedlar crew in tow. Some of the English strollers clutched protectively at their pockets at the sight of them, causing Yasser to bow and grin at them in sarcastic mock-humility.

Tipu paused by each of the trees in the park, straining to listen for the presence of a djinn. He found himself being slapped roughly on the back and jumped to find Yasser cackling and wheezing.

‘Poor little kuttah. You en’t going to find a spirit around these parts, nah? You were special only there – here, you’re just like the rest of us: poor, brown, and out of place.’

Tipu stared at the ground, feeling wretched.

‘Sal told me what Ali said. You came on the magic ship, eh? It’s a shame, I can’t deny. If you had any other powers, we could do such things.’ Yasser sucked air through his teeth.

Tipu thought back to Aaliya, still trapped on the moored Kohinoor. Guilt gnawed at his insides.

Yasser sucked on his bidi thoughtfully as they promenaded. ‘I remember the tree-djinn from my village. He made a man drown in the river. Poor beggar, he’d heard someone saying his goats had got in there. We found his body in the morning, on the riverbank.

‘I used to get a chill whenever I walked near that tree, but I never heard anything. Still, not just to hear them but to speak to them, control them, and not to be dead –’ He flicked an admiring eye at Tipu. ‘Well, you must have a real gift … Yes, it’s a shame indeed if it could only be used on the ship.’

His eyes suddenly gleamed. ‘Can’t you summon the djinn out of the tree?’

Tipu looked up at the trees. ‘She has to be bound to a tree to cross over into this world from the djinn-world. She can be unbound once she’s on our side, yes – but only if I say the right words. And unbinding a tree-djinn is dangerous. Once she’s free, she could possess people, start djinn-fires, create havoc. And what about the ship? If we free her, it’ll sink and all the lascars will be stranded here with no way to get home to their families. And no pay to feed them when they get back, either.’

Yasser was nodding impatiently. ‘Yes, yes. But it can be done? These words –’

‘I don’t know them. And if she says them herself, she’ll be extinguished. If we were in India, I could try to find out what they are. But not here.’

‘What do you mean, if you were in India?’

Tipu frowned. ‘We need a scholar, someone who’s studied Farsi and djinnspeaker magic. There are charm-writers on Brick Lane, but no djinnspeakers.’

Yasser scoffed and slapped Tipu on the back.

‘Arré, kuttah, this is London. Everything you have in India, in the world, you can find here.

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