Rebel of Fire and Flight


 Contents
 
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Contents
 Chapter 1: Khadija
 Chapter 2: Jacob
 Chapter 3: Khadija
 Chapter 4: Jacob
 Chapter 5: Khadija
 Chapter 6: Jacob
 Chapter 7: Khadija
 Chapter 8: Jacob
 Chapter 9: Khadija
 Chapter 10: Jacob
 Chapter 11: Khadija
 Chapter 12: Jacob
 Chapter 13: Khadija
 Chapter 14: Jacob
 Chapter 15: Khadija
 Chapter 16: Jacob
 Chapter 17: Khadija
 Chapter 18: Jacob
 Chapter 19: Khadija
 Chapter 20: Jacob
 Chapter 21: Khadija
 Chapter 22: Jacob
 Chapter 23: Khadija
 Chapter 24: Jacob
 Chapter 25: Khadija
 Chapter 26: Jacob
 Chapter 27: Khadija
 Chapter 28: Jacob
 Chapter 29: Khadija
 Chapter 30: Jacob
 Chapter 31: Khadija
 Chapter 32: Jacob
 Chapter 33: Khadija
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 Author’s Note
 About the Author
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Guide
 
 Cover
 Title Page
 Dedication
 Contents
 Start of content
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 Copyright
 
 
 
 Pagebreaks of the print version
 
 Cover Page
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 Title Page
 Dedication
 Chapter 1: Khadija
 Chapter 2: Jacob
 Chapter 3: Khadija
 Chapter 4: Jacob
 Chapter 5: Khadija
 Chapter 6: Jacob
 Chapter 7: Khadija
 Chapter 8: Jacob
 Chapter 9: Khadija
 Chapter 10: Jacob
 Chapter 11: Khadija
 Chapter 12: Jacob
 Chapter 13: Khadija
 Chapter 14: Jacob
 Chapter 15: Khadija
 Chapter 16: Jacob
 Chapter 17: Khadija
 Chapter 18: Jacob
 Chapter 19: Khadija
 Chapter 20: Jacob
 Chapter 21: Khadija
 Chapter 22: Jacob
 Chapter 23: Khadija
 Chapter 24: Jacob
 Chapter 25: Khadija
 Chapter 26: Jacob
 Chapter 27: Khadija
 Chapter 28: Jacob
 Chapter 29: Khadija
 Chapter 30: Jacob
 Chapter 31: Khadija
 Chapter 32: Jacob
 Chapter 33: Khadija
 Epilogue
 Acknowledgments
 Author’s Note
 About the Author
 Copyright
 
 
 
 
 
 
 The white men looked like birds. Or at least, Khadija thought they did. From her bedroom window they were tiny figures, no bigger than the length of her finger. She studied their bent knees, arms a blur like wings caught mid-flight as their desperate motions brought the deflated silk in their hands to life. Any faster, and she’d think they were the ones about to leave the ground instead of the hot-air balloon.
 She was too far away to hear the racist slurs leaving the merchants’ lips as they instructed the men to do their bidding, but she could certainly imagine what was being said as their fair skin reddened beneath the hot sun while the silk balloon swelled. And yet Khadija couldn’t bring herself to pity them. She envied them. For all their suffering and mistreatment, they still had a better view of the hot-air balloon than she did.
 The tip of her reed pen bled black ink across the paper as she sketched the bright globe of the balloon and crisscrossed it with sharp lines, marking each individual panel. She’d seen women in the bazaar sewing the squares of material by hand and stitching the more lavish ones together with freshwater pearls along the seams so that, once airborne, the balloon became a living, flying piece of art. She decided against including the white men in her drawing, or the wealthy merchants hovering close by, ready to leap forward at any moment should their balloons chance an escape with their livelihoods still aboard.
 Balloons were unpredictable creatures, after all, whisking men away on the next breeze with almost perfect obedience before becoming greedy and engorged, stuffing themselves with hot air until they burst spectacularly without warning. There were the lazy ones that slumped across the ground like empty carcasses refusing to come alive, and the furious ones with flames so hungry they licked the fabric and set the whole balloon ablaze. No matter how hard men tried, balloons were creatures they could never truly tame. That’s why she loved them.