Chapter 1 #2
No, that seemed too easy. And easy and I were not typically companions.
More likely it was some sort of enchanted menace with claws and a nasty disposition.
Either way, I drew my celestial blade, the strange dagger given to me by a lovesick Egyptian pirate who claimed the weapon had been crafted from a meteor in ancient times, prized by the pagan sun kings who once ruled his land.
God alone knew the veracity of such a fabulous tale, but there was no denying how the depths of the blade glimmered when I held it, nor the way I’d once used it to sever magical bonds.
With curses and wayward limbs, my companions climbed down to join me.
Dalila and Majed lit lamps and as the light flickered madly along the tunnel, I gave the walls another apprehensive look.
If this tunnel truly did date to the early centuries of Indian trade with Rome, it was astonishing that it still held up.
God willing it would continue to hold up while we explored. “We proceed?” I asked.
“With great caution and me in the lead.” Dalila slipped in front. “Should something require smashing, I’ll let you know.”
Scowling, I nonetheless relented and with aching precision, we ventured forth. Dalila swept the air with her staff, lightly tapping the floor, walls, and ceiling with it before each step.
“Stop!” Dalila threw her arms out as we turned a corner, nearly whacking me in the face. “The pits in the floor . . . do you see them?” She gestured to the dirt path, but I could discern little among the leafy debris and scattered rocks.
Tinbu had more luck, peering at a dark patch. “Could they be snake holes?”
“I suspect these contain a different sort of snake,” she replied. “Stand back.”
The three of us obeyed. Dalila knelt carefully on the ground, brushing a section of the floor with her sleeve and bringing her lamp close to reveal a bizarre grouping of stones. Each was carved with various body parts, as though spilled from the pages of an antique text of human anatomy.
Dalila grinned. “Oh, clever. A bit of humoral humor. Well, let us balance them.” Following up the explanation only she understood, she began rearranging the stones as though laying out gaming chips.
She had no sooner placed down the last one, then two bronze pipes, sculpted into the semblance of snakes, darted up from the holes, a hissing shriek coming from their gleaming metal fangs.
They spun to face off across the path and with a gush of steam, let out twin fiery bursts that would have roasted any unfortunate soul who happened to be passing between them.
My mouth fell open. Majed choked, and Tinbu raised his crossbow.
The Mistress of Poisons, however, looked only amused. She tilted her head in a gesture of respect, as though she were saluting an opponent over a well-placed chess move. “Just like the manuals claim,” she murmured. “So it can be done.”
“You were expecting that?” I asked in disbelief.
“Something like it,” she said calmly, sweeping past the snakes without hesitation. “I’ve read of such tricks, though not with the medical riddle; there seems to be a theme at play here.” She made a beckoning motion. “Come along. The snakes supposedly only have one good burst of fire.”
“Madness,” Majed muttered, the three of us moving as spryly as possible past the steaming serpents. “Utter madness.”
It wasn’t long before the sound of running water grew louder. The tunnel bent to the left and then ended at the bank of a canal. An extraordinary glass boat drifted in the rushing black water, held in place by golden chains.
Majed whispered a prayer of astonishment. “And you say you sense no magic?”
“Not here.” I breathed, taking in the wondrous spectacle. “This is all human ingenuity.”
“The people who designed this place were geniuses,” Dalila said, her voice uncharacteristically enraptured. “I wonder why the city was abandoned.”
“By the looks of it, the sea shifted away. Though I doubt the inhabitants went far.” I nudged Tinbu. “Some of your ancestors likely dwelled here, no? You must have inherited their talents.”
Tinbu blushed. “I doubt I could construct a vessel such as this.” He pulled the boat’s chain closer and knocked on the sturdy hull. “I have never seen glass this thick and yet it is so clear. The sort of workmanship that must have been involved . . .”
“Do you think it shall hold us?”
“There’s only one way to find out.” With the boat still tethered, Tinbu carefully climbed aboard. It swayed only slightly, barely dipping with his weight.
“The current is strong,” Majed warned. “And there are no paddles, no way to steer. We may be taken where we do not wish to go.”
I joined Tinbu. Warmth chased down my hand the moment my fingers touched the boat’s curved prow.
“I have a feeling this is the way,” I whispered, hating the words as they left my lips.
They made me sound like one of the haughty supernatural entities I had faced off against, and I wanted no commonality with such creatures.
But I did have a feeling, as though my heart had been hooked, a voice in another realm urging me onward.
“Oh, good, a feeling,” Majed muttered. “A feeling and a series of lethal riddles. By all means . . .” But he climbed aboard the glass boat anyway, offering a hand to Dalila.
We had no sooner released the golden chains than the tumultuous water carried us away in a mad dash of speed.
Seizing Dalila’s staff, I had to shove off the brick banks more than once to prevent us from being dashed.
Bone-white snakes with flashing ruby eyes twined around the roots hanging over the canal while translucent fish jumped to snap up the silver water bugs dancing along the surface.
Finally the water gentled and the canal widened, delivering us to a perfectly round lagoon.
No, not a lagoon, I realized, rather a sinkhole. Amber light spilled in from an oval of dusky sky impossibly high above our heads.
“We are in the very belly of the earth,” I remarked, looking up and wondering if there was any possible way to escape through there. Save sprouting wings, I did not imagine so.
Tinbu whistled. “Then the belly of the earth is rich as sin.”
“Why do you say . . . Oh.” I followed his gaze. “Oh, God is Most Compassionate.”
Curved around the sinkhole’s edge like a slender crescent moon was a pale pink beach so crowded with treasure that it was almost obscene.
Finely etched glass lamps, delicate porcelain vases, sculpted ivory figures, and ceramic casks of resins.
Enormous mother-of-pearl trunks filled with gold coins and silver ingots.
There was an entire chariot constructed out of brass and precious metals, studded with gems and attended by horses sculpted of red marble, their eyes flashing onyxes.
Smaller riches sat upon expertly worked teak furniture, gorgeous tables of banded chalcedony and glittering amethyst that might have hosted royal feasts and stools worked with intricate enamel designs.
The boat bumped gently upon the sand, and I jumped out, dragging it through the chilly water so my companions could disembark.
Dalila frowned at the other end of the beach. “Are those statues?”
I tore my gaze from the treasure hoard only to behold a new wonder: over a dozen life-size figures, captured in a variety of courtly scenes.
Musicians strumming gilded instruments, cavorting dancers frozen in mid-step.
Others held copper casks and votive offerings, fans of long-rotted feathers and strands of mummified flowers.
There were even more statues—armed ones—surrounding a raised marble dais half hidden behind the tattered remnants of silk canopies.
A shaft of light fell upon one warrior’s face, reflecting a molded metal cheek.
A metal cheek? But Majed was already coming to the same conclusion.
“Those are not statues,” he whispered. “Look at the joints, the gears in their hands. They are automatons.”
“Automatons?” Tinbu repeated. “I thought those only existed in stories!”
“The more fanciful versions do, but I saw one once as a boy. A gift from the caliph in Baghdad to the ruler of Kilwa. The automaton was in the shape of a maiden and played a flute when placed in a stream.” Majed’s expression grew nostalgic. “I thought it magical.”
Dalila cut through our dreamy visions. “Everyone knows this is a trap, yes? A couple of you lose your minds when it comes to riches.”
Tinbu and I had the grace not to glance at each other.
“Trap or not, I’m fairly certain that Mithridates’s mortar is near.
” My sense of magic had only increased, set against this otherwise incredible spectacle of human ingenuity.
It pulled hard in the direction of the marble dais and I took a step in its direction, almost without meaning to. “Follow me, but do not touch anything.”
We made our way toward the platform surrounded by the eerily still automaton guards.
Snaking a path through the piles of treasure, I could not help but gaze hungrily upon my surroundings.
There was just so much wealth on display, abandoned and ripe for plundering, that each piece seemed to insist on being admired.
An intricate mandala not of colored sand but emeralds, rubies, opals, and sapphires.
Finely blown glassware in the shape of paradisical flowers, and tiger-headed jade cups set upon carved rosewood tables with ivory peacocks as legs.
Before a fine table set for a feast, an automaton perched on each stool, a pair in the act of raising a glass to their painted brass lips, others turned as though chatting with their neighbor.
A rather disconcerting number of the figures bore carving knives and wickedly sharp utensils.
Their garments and features were astonishingly lifelike, the metal worked so skillfully that all their faces were unique.