Shimmer Read Free Page B

over the weather!’
    â€˜Mmm,’ replied Amurru absently. He sat in the small seat that had been specially designed to support his winged back, his eyes on the human boy.
    Kora looked back out at the boy. She liked the place that David had chosen for her globe. It was perched on a small shelf on the opposite side of the room from his bed, sandwiched between a silver football trophy and a photograph showing a much younger David beside an older man in an army uniform.
    From this vantage point she could look down on the boy, and she could keep an eye on what he was doing almost anywhere in the room. At the moment he was stretched out on his bed surrounded by new gadgets. His face was all concentration as he jabbed away at a games console.
    â€˜He is lazy and boring,’ said Kora. ‘All he wants are stupid toys.’ Lying next to David on his bed was a pile of new games for the console, and an iPod, its unused earphones dangling down onto the floor. Balanced precariously on his chest was an iPhone that flashed and jiggled with stupid messages from his friends that made him smirk. On the beige carpet by his bed sat a new laptop computer, still in its box, and on the far wall, amongst a tangle of posters of motorbikes and rock bands, hung an enormous, new TV. ‘And he is greedy.’
    Amurru nodded. ‘It is true that he has much to learn.’ His yellow eyes were shrewd. ‘But it is early days, Empress.’
    Kora screwed her face up. Her iced drink vanished and was replaced by a glass bowl piled high with wild red berries. ‘He is a human, Amurru. I doubt he can learn anything.’ She popped one of the berries into her mouth.
    â€˜Perhaps you are right, Empress.’ Amurru sighed, the air rattling out of his lungs in a gust of wheezy breath. ‘But he may surprise you, yet.’
    She doubted that anything the boy could do would surprise her. Hadn’t he already proven he was every bit as dumb as the humans in all the old stories? All those stupid wishes he had made since they had arrived at his house! She looked back at him. He must have grown bored with the game he’d been playing. He had dropped it onto the bed beside him and was now lying back against his pillows with his hands behind his head listening to his iPod. And he was looking straight at her.
    She stared back at him, glad that he couldn’t see her. The panoramic viewing screens inside her globe were oneway vision only. All he would be able to see would be the same dusty, grey rock he had first picked up.
    The corners of her mouth lifted as she looked at the white bandage he had clumsily wrapped around the burn on his right arm. He had wished for her to heal it, or at least to stop it from hurting so much. She really had enjoyed telling him that that was one wish she couldn’t grant. Genie magic was the most powerful magic in the universe. But there were some exceptions to its use and one of those exceptions was humans. Humans were impervious to genie magic. No human could ever be harmed, killed or changed in any way by a genie. There were two exceptions to this — the ancient process of harnessing and the ability to be shimmered from place to place by a genie.
    â€˜The boy is thinking about something,’ said Amurru, interrupting her thoughts.
    â€˜I am sure that is a very difficult task for him,’ she sneered.
    Amurru laughed, coughing out a strange choking sound. ‘Nevertheless, he has something on his mind, Empress.’
    â€˜He is probably trying to think of a new toy he has not wished for yet.’ Kora’s face was scornful, but she shifted uncomfortably in her seat. She didn’t like to admit that David’s direct blue gaze unsettled her, even knowing that he couldn’t see her. ‘Or maybe he is just thinking about his stomach.’ She looked at the crushed bundle of empty fast-food wrappers that had been squashed into the little rubbish bin next to his