The merchant’s lips parted to reveal a shining smile composed of gold, bronze, and white teeth. “Midnight Merchant. What a pleasure to see you in the flesh. I apologize for the late summons. I was entertaining important guests.” His eyes roved over her.

She imagined what he was seeing: a short, seemingly fragile woman dressed in layers of blue velvet shawls dusted with soft white. Stardust, she called the pattern. Appropriate, for it had belonged to her tribe. The Najima tribe. The Night Dwellers.

As was usual, the merchant stared at her half-covered face longer than at her robes. Most of the men in this business tried to intimidate her by looking right into her eyes.

It never worked.

“Please.” He gestured to the cushion on the other side of the table. “Have a seat.”

She glanced over her shoulder at Qadir, who had not budged from his spot by the door. Though the merchant had not acknowledged him, the mercenaries eyed him warily. Qadir showed no sign of being perturbed. But then, he rarely did.

Loulie sat.

The merchant offered his hand. “Rasul al-Jasheen. It is an honor.”

She clasped it. “Loulie al-Nazari.” She pulled her hand away quickly, wary of the way his eyes lingered on her iron rings.

“I must confess, I was not expecting you to be so… young.”

Ah yes. Because twenty is so young.

She smiled at him pleasantly. “You are exactly as I expected. One eye and all.”

Silence. Then, remarkably, the merchant started laughing. “That is where I get my title, yes. As you can imagine, it is also the reason I called you here tonight. I assume you have the magic I requested?” Loulie nodded. Rasul cleared his throat. “Well, let’s see it, then.”

She reached into her pocket and withdrew a coin. The merchant watched skeptically as she vanished it between her fingers. From his side of the table, he could not see the face on either side: a jinn warrior on one and a human sultan on the other. Every time the coin reappeared, it sported a different face.

Human, jinn, human, jinn.

“Must I remind you of our deal?” She held up the coin between pinched fingers.

Rasul frowned. “I already paid you in advance.”

“You paid in advance once. Now you must pay the other half.”

“I will not pay for a magic I have yet to see with my own eyes.”

Loulie did her best to ignore the stares of the armed men around her. Nothing can happen to me. Not while Qadir is here.

She shrugged, feigning nonchalance as she reached into her merchant’s bag. The bag of infinite space, Qadir called it, for it had a seemingly endless bottom. “If seeing is believing… She withdrew a vial. It was a small thing, no bigger than one of her fingers. The minute the One-Eyed Merchant beheld the sparkling liquid inside, he tried to snatch it from her hand.