Magic Banquet by A.E. Marling Page B

don’t make sense together.” Old
Janny gazed at her hand.
    “Too much sugar dispels magic.”
    “Well then….” Janny jerked her hand up as if
to slap herself, but her palm stopped inches from her eyes. “It’s
gone. The spot is gone, and I can see so close up. Do all
fingertips have these little grooves?”
    Aja lowered a slice of speckled white to her
plate. She knee-walked closer to see the miracle. Old Janny’s skin
tightened around her body. Her cheeks turned from flabby to rosy.
She was a plump youth with a freckled face. Her bright eyes
squeezed with an emotion that looked like pain.
    The empress clasped Janny’s arm to her
chest. “Does the change hurt?”
    A dimple on Janny’s chin trembled up and
down. Between sobs, she said, “Do I—Am I—”
    “You’re lovely as a bunny,” the empress
said, “and young as hope.”
    “Young at last.” Janny wept.
    Aja returned to her plate, rubbing her hands
together. If an apple could turn back time, then a dragonfruit
could make Aja wise. She wouldn’t even need to study, as the other
scholars did. She could become an arbiter, perhaps even the next
vizier. A patron might sponsor her training in the academy for
enchantresses.
    She scraped off the last of the fruit flesh
and swallowed. She tasted pear with flavors of contentment and
understanding. The rind littered the plate like discarded rose
petals.
    Sipping her tea, she felt as if she drifted
in a pool of sunshine. The scent of lotus flower misted around her
with heady warmth.
    Aja set down her cup. I have to do
this . Bowing before Solin, she said, “I apologize for shouting
what I did about your leg. I was jealous.”
    He rubbed a six-sided tattoo on his hand and
nodded.
    When Aja stood, pain pricked her back. She
swatted behind her but did not feel any biting insect. “Now I must
say goodbye. I’ve already stayed longer at the Banquet than I
should.”
    “Are you sure?” He tapped the pouch holding
the Plum of Beauty.
    “I ate what I needed.” She waved to her
plate.
    Solin glanced at the cut rinds, then
narrowed his eyes. “You ate all the dragonfruit?”
    Aja couldn’t say what he meant by that.
Before she could ask, the paisley-dressed Janny cried out. She
threw her cup, shattered it in an arc of tea and porcelain.
    “It isn’t stopping.” Janny clawed at
herself. “Why won’t the pain stop?”

Fifth Course, Part III:
    Rotten
    Agony distorted Janny’s features, making her
appear old once more. “Hurts everywhere, like I’m stuffed with
needles.”
    “Oh, no!” The empress reached out to hug
her.
    “Don’t touch me!” Janny’s eyes rolled. She
lifted the apple core, flung it at the djinn. “What did you do to
me? Poison an old young woman? You weightless blob of flaming
ego!”
    The djinn lifted a hand, and the core
stopped midair. It revolved, and the djinn seemed to inspect it.
“Did you eat an apple seed?”
    “No.” Janny yanked off her turban, dug
fingers into her reddish hair. “Maybe one. What does it
matter?”
    “The flesh of the apple contains eternal
youth. Its seeds, mortality,” the djinn said. “Eating two seeds
would’ve killed you.”
    Janny panted. “What’s the cure? Tell me,
tell me, tell me.”
    The djinn gestured. A seed floated from the
core.
    Janny smacked away the speck of
blackness.
    Solin gestured with a crutch. “The Orange of
Health.”
    The swordsman was already peeling the golden
fruit. Its skin curled off in his fingers like a ribbon. Before he
could pull out a slice, the empress started her song.
    Her melody skipped and pranced, slowed, then
leaped in a joy of notes. That voice made Aja think of tinkling
chalices, the flow of wind between brass towers, and the resonance
of a chorus in a temple.
    Janny’s tears dried while she listened, her
face softening. The song had taken away her pain. It also pinned
Aja sitting to the carpet. She knew she should go. She had her boon
of maturity, her future, but she couldn’t move until the