The Misfortune Cycle: River Desert

Chapter 28

What followed after that were more tears. Mohona cried as she spoke with Lanka and Torun spotted Ashraful wiping his eyes as well. Kalyani woke up after some twenty minutes, covered in a quilt. Mohona was in her undergarments underneath the shawl, and she was given Torun's clothes as well.

It wasn't too late, and Torun left Kalyani and Shuvo safe in their home when they went to visit Lanka in the hospital, taking the file of accusations with themv.

Holding Mohona, Lanka and Lamia cried as well. 

"In the port," Lamia said after she was done shedding tears, "They're saying it was a marsh gas explosion. I know it wasn't. Everyone knows it wasn't. A lot of people saw it. They're blaming us. They're gonna drive our camp out."

"Oh God," Mohona said. She was sitting by Lanka's bed, "first Lanka's leg, now—"

"Don't worry," Lanka said, settling back her head on the pillow and setting down the file on a bedside table, "Rain is starting again. The camp would have to be on the move soon anyway."

"But what about you?" Mohona squeezed Lanka's hand, "You can't row your boat like this. And doctor said six months of rest for recovery."

"I'll worry about that after the surgery."

Mohona kept her mouth shut, looking down and thinking.

Torun walked away from Lanka's bed and brought Abdul's stone out of his pocket.

He hadn't seen the Djinn after he had been eaten up by the darkness.

"Abdul," he said into the stone. No sound came back.

"Abdul," he said again. Nothing yet either.

What could be the consequences of getting a djinn of Sheikh Zamal's killed?

Torun was pondering what was in his fate now that Mohona was found, when something whispered near his ear, "what?"

Torun grabbed his ear and jumped away. Something white and cloudlike floated near where he stood.

"What is that?" Lamia asked, voice shrill and alert.

"Harmless," Abdul seemed like just a vapor, barely holding itself together from flickering out of existence, "Just checking if you're alive. You're gonna still appear when I call you?"

The mist bobbed up and down for a few second before Abdul's whisper came back.

"You still have one favor left."

Torun raised an eyebrow.

"You asked me to stop him," the mist wavered, "And I couldn't. So you still have one favor left."

"Oh," Torun looked at the stone.

What else had he to ask for?

Riches?

Foresight?

Protection?

He looked at the other four in the room.

Ashraful had his fine to pay back.

Lanka had her legs to fix.

Lamia had a better life to lead.

Mohona had another hell to crawl out of.

They all looked at him. Expecting him to make a wish. Not expecting him to make one for them.

"Look, I'm drained out," Abdul whispered in his ear, "Don't make me lift a building or something."

Torun looked at the stone.