Night of Power

Anar Ali

Contents (29)

ALSO BY ANAR ALI

Baby Khaki’s Wings

VIKING

an imprint of Penguin Canada, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited

Canada • USA • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

First published 2019

“Genius in short.” by Barney Hoskyns, from The Guardian. Web. 19 Feb 2006.

Courtesy of Guardian News & Media Ltd.

Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers.

Rumi, excerpt from “Whispers of Love,” translated by Kabir Helminski, from The Rumi Collection, edited by Kabir Helminski. Copyright © 1998 by Kabir Helminski. Reprinted by arrangement with The Permissions Company, LLC on behalf of Shambhala Publications Inc., Boulder, Colorado, www.shambhala.com.

All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.

www.penguinrandomhouse.ca

Publisher’s note: This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA CATALOGUING IN PUBLICATION

Title: Night of power / Anar Ali

Names: Ali, Anar, author.

Identifiers: Canadiana (print) 20190043547 | Canadiana (ebook) 20190043563 | ISBN 9780670064267 (softcover) | ISBN 9780735234208 (PDF)

Classification: LCC PS8601.L41 N54 2019 | DDC C813/.6—dc23

Cover design by Rachel Cooper

Cover images: (field) Lynn Villalba / EyeEm / Getty Images; (lattice) DmitriyRazinkov / Shutterstock

v5.3.2

for my family

y mi familia

Cover

Also by Anar Ali

Title Page

Dedication

Prologue

Part One

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Part Two

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Works Cited

Acknowledgments

Prologue

MANSOOR VISRAM WAKES TO a fluting sound, a distant melody like a muezzin’s call. He half-opens his eyes. Dark fields extend to the horizon and merge seamlessly with the night sky. A perfect circle. The prairie hills are massive frozen waves. He feels something pecking at his feet. He lifts his head. A small domed shape bobs up and down at his feet, hammering at his icy body. The bird flies up and hovers over his chest. Her body is brilliant blue; her crown golden. Her breast is plump and glazed with rhinestone tassels instead of feathers. Mansoor is amazed that she can fly. He swipes the air and tries to catch her, but she flies up and out of reach. He plants his hands on the snow and struggles to stand, his veins a map of frozen rivers. The bird flies ahead of him and waits, like a siren willing him forward. A few steps and he falls to his knees. His clothes are an armour of ice. In the distance, the city lights are a pale smudge in the sky. He tries to stand again but his body jars, like a ship caught in icy waters. “Get up, Visram!” he orders himself. “Move!” Instead he falls, curls in the soft snow, and drifts off again. The bird lands on his shoulder. She nudges her way up to his ear and begins to sing.