by Lucy Tempest
Everything was made from the most luxurious, precious materials known to mankind. Probably many unknown, too. My eyes did what my hands wished to, roaming over every article in reverent caresses. If I stopped to feel and test every piece—I would be here all my life, and need a few lifetimes more. If I’d been dazzled by the palace vault, I was flabbergasted by the cave. I wanted to find a bottomless bag and pack up the whole thing.
“Look who followed us in,” said Cyrus, pulling me out of my thoughts.
The flying carpet hovered behind us, and I could see its every detail now. Around eight by twelve feet, with gold tassels dangling from each corner, and woven with gold thread and silver silk, it had an elaborate medallion in the center and a border of intricate curvilinear designs of red, yellow and beige on a deep violet background.
Cyrus examined it, moving around it, checking under it, tracing its weave and sifting its tassels. It seemed to…appreciate his attention. I could swear it was leaning into his touch, arching into his palms and rubbing against him much like an affectionate cat.
My mother joined him in admiring the carpet, almost petting it when he turned to me, his eyes filling with reminiscing. “Remember when I told you there might be a flying carpet in the vault?”
“I probably remember every single word you’ve ever said to me. Why?”
My face heated at my blurted confession, then more at his intimate and very satisfied grin as he elaborated, “Well, I never found it, and really suspected the stories about flying carpets were just that, stories. Then we fall through the ground at a simurgh’s feet and land on one.”
“Were there many stories about different carpets?”
He nodded. “The most famous was about a King Salman of Idumea, who was said to have a carpet that was a hundred feet long and a hundred feet wide that moved so fast he claimed to able to have his breakfast in Zargoun and his supper on the peaks of Orestia.”
From what I’d learned about the Folkshore’s geography, Zargoun was a land south of Cahraman, and Orestia was a mountainous seaside region overlooking the Deep Red Sea. That was at least a two-weeks’ trip that he claimed to crunch into six or seven hours.
“But since flying carpets are real, maybe this story is, too? Maybe this carpet can take us back to Cahraman? Then to Arbore to search for Bonnie?” I hoped the glimpse I’d seen in that window where she’d ended up in Faerie wasn’t true.
He straightened from examining the textile work. “Ehh…even if this story was true, I think flying carpets only fly, not transport. It wouldn’t be able to get us out of here.”
I looked to my mother for a magical opinion, but she shrugged. “I’ve never seen one before so can’t tell what they’re capable of. I only heard stories, like the one Cyrus mentioned.”
My shoulders drooped in disappointment. “Oh.”
Cyrus rushed to add, “But maybe it can. It’s in the Cave of Wonders, after all, and Carpet here has already saved our lives once.”
His attempt to cheer me up was sweet, but the unlikeliness had already sunk into my rational side, blowing away the foolish hopes.
“Hello,” I greeted Carpet awkwardly, lightly tracing its amazing patterns. “You’re quite something, you know? And not just because you caught us midair and can fly.” It nudged my side with a tasseled edge and I burst out in ticklish giggles. I was so tired I ended up doubling up and coughing. Both Cyrus and mother rushed to me, and I could swear even Carpet was concerned. I straightened, wheezing. “I’m fine, really. But I’ll be even better if you happen to know your way around this place.”
Carpet, being a carpet, swirled its tassels.
I was taking that as a Yes.
“We’re looking for anything with magic, the powerful kind. If there are any magic bottles or lamps with genies inside, that would be great.”
The carpet bumped my thighs hard enough that I fell on it. Taking that as an invitation to take a magic carpet ride, I pulled my legs up, folded them, and held out my hand to Cyrus and mother. “Here goes nothing.”
He frowned. “That’s what you said before you jumped over that wall.”
“What wall?” my mother shouted.
I shot him a chagrined glance. You didn’t expose a girl’s risky behavior in front of her mother. “I didn’t jump!” I turned to my mother. “I climbed down the wall.” I turned back to him, wishing my glare could singe his gorgeous hide. “You were holding me up.”
“I still think it was a crazy risk,” he pointed out cheekily.
“It worked out, didn’t it?” I mumbled. “And we’re still in the middle of a crazy risk.”
“And it remains to be seen if it will pay off,” he said with a dramatic sigh, taking my hand and hopping beside me in the middle of Carpet.
My mother took both of our hands as we pulled her up. “You’ll still tell me all about leaping over walls and thieving some other time.”
I pinched Cyrus’s arm surreptitiously as I faced her. “In my defense, I had no other choice.”
“She could have let me…”
I tweaked his hard flesh harder. “I’m lighter and the one who made a living climbing up and down walls. You’re the one who hacks ghouls to pieces while cracking jokes.”
Mother looked between us quizzically, the look of alarm and regret in her eyes changing to one of delight, seemingly at our easy rapport.
She finally sighed. “I still need to know the dangers you’ve encountered in my absence.”
“So you can torture yourself over it? I think I’ll pass.”
Before she could answer, Carpet moved before we were properly settled, sending us tipping back, clutching at each other for stability as we soared higher.
Once we could see the whole cave from a bird’s eye view, I was stunned all over again.
My thief side was quailing at that much treasure. My logical side was chafing at the waste. Who had ever thought hoarding all those wonders was a good idea? These things needed to be seen, marveled at, delighted in.
The endless sea of treasure beneath us grew indistinct the higher we rose until the hills of pricelessness looked like dunes of jeweled stars.
That was one perspective I’d never forget for the rest of my life.
I could only hope that didn’t turn out to be a day or less.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Deeper into the cave, the layout lost its symmetry, becoming a treacherous landscape.
It seemed to be an impossible obstacle course protecting items even more precious and unique than the ones in the ordered part. I hoped among those was a magic lamp to pit against Nariman’s.
I’d by now given my mother a full if brief picture of what had happened. Now I tugged her and asked, “Do you know how Princess Aurelia got the lamp to begin with?”
She scratched at her scabbing wound. “She claimed it was passed to every princess consort for generations before it was lost for ages. She rediscovered it then later gave it to her eldest daughter-in-law, then to Jumana. I think it was being passed down like a magical family heirloom, that not even she realized the power of the genie.”
I couldn’t believe Aurelia didn’t. For someone who’d been brought from Orestia to be sold as a servant or slave, then managed to elevate herself to dowager princess I doubted there was much Aurelia didn’t know. I actually wondered if her remarkable achievements had been made possible by the genie. Clearly, no one suspected that, including my mother.
“She might not have realized it had the power to do what it did for Nariman,” my mother amended. “Something of that scope is almost unimaginable.”
To this, I could agree. I hadn’t heard of a genie doing anything that extensive before.
Anyway, only one thing mattered. “Do you have no idea where she found it or if we might find another one here?”
She only shrugged. “Here would be the most possible place to find one. It’s said this is where all neglected, misused or undeserved riches or magical objects end up.”
Cy
rus frowned at her from over my head. “How?”
She pulled her shawl tighter and sighed. “Through the forces that make magic possible. My mother always said to never misplace anything precious or take it for granted or else it would end up in the Cave of Wonders. She said there were entities that roam the realms taking valuables away from neglectful, undeserving or dangerous owners.”
I set my chin on her shoulder, pretending she was telling me a bedtime story. “And?”
“And I always thought she was only trying to teach us discipline and responsibility. Now I believe she was right. She also told us stories of the adventurers who came here.”
I squished my cheek against her harder, nudging her to continue. “What happened?”
She let out a tired giggle. “As Nariman would say ‘shenanigans ensued.’” We both winced in unison, at her mentioning her once-friend and our constant-threat with such fondness. She looked away, clearing her throat. “All stories involved epic daring and danger followed by a last-minute rescue that would whisk them out of the rubble.”
The smile that had been creeping on my lips fell. “Rubble?”
“Everyone always disregarded the rules. I just remembered the major one being not to touch anything but the object of your quest.” She shuddered. “Thankfully none of us touched anything.”
I shuddered, too. “That happened when Fairuza inadvertently touched a statue’s hand in Mount Alborz and awakened the ghouls.”
“Lady Marzeya must have gotten the idea from here,” said Cyrus.
My mother pulled me closer with a humph! “I’m going to talk with that hag when we get home.”
“Please don’t,” I squeaked. “She might toss us into Duzakh this time.”
“The Well of Endless Despair? You know about that, too?”
“I have a friend who’s full of endless details about the region.”
“Ladies, I think I might have good news,” Cyrus said, drawing both our expectant gazes. “I once read about an enchanted chalice that granted three wishes to whoever fed it. It supposedly ended up ‘where all neglected treasures go’ to wait for someone worthy to find it.”
“And you think it’s here?”
“I don’t think, I know.”
“Huh? How?”
“Because another story said a hero found it in a cavern beneath a crystal mount where it sat above a sea of shells.” Cyrus cupped my chin and turned my head up. “Right there.”
Mounted on blue-opal walls, giant metallic clams opened to pour shimmering waterfalls into a circular, pristine emerald pool below. The cavern was brimming with thousands of them, varying in size and shade, spiraling up to a light so bright it made the ceiling disappear.
As Carpet took us closer, I saw inside the clams. Each had a different object. A bust with a bronze and amethyst crown, a broken sword, a lion’s hide, a cyclops’s skull, a jade gong and—a goblet carved out of a single ruby.
Cyrus unsheathed his scimitar and leaned away, reaching for the goblet.
I tugged him back, hard, turned to my mother. “Is there any way to tell if this is ‘the object of our quest?’”
“Not that I know of,” she said. “Adventurers always found out the hard way.”
“It should be it,” Cyrus reasoned. “We asked Carpet to take us to a lamp or anything of comparative power, and it took us here, where the wish-fulfilling goblet is. Anyway, I don’t have to touch it to feed it.”
“How exactly would you ‘feed it?’”
“Well, the chalice was once crystal, but became red from centuries of drinking in the offerings of those who beseeched it.” He waved the scimitar. “I’ll fill it with my blood.”
I gaped at him then blurted out, “No! Absolutely not!”
“I won’t do it, then.” Before I could sag in relief, he added, “If you have a better idea.”
I didn’t. I was at a total loss.
My mother set her hand on my arm. “Let him do it.”
“But Mama, with that much blood loss, you could die!”
“He won’t. The chalice isn’t too large.”
I thought it was huge. And the thought of watching him cut himself, bleed that much…
I extended a hand for the scimitar. “I’ll do it.” He refused and I hissed, “It’s like that time over the palace walls. I can’t carry you if you faint, but you can carry me if I do.”
He held it away. “If we’re talking logic, then I have more blood. And if I feel faint, we have Carpet to carry me now.”
“He’s right, Adelaide,” my mother said gently. “He has a better chance of surviving this.”
He touched the blade to his forearm and I cried out, “I thought you’d cut your hand.”
“Actually, a hand injury is more painful and crippling than a forearm one. Also, I need to cut a big vein for that much blood.”
I squeezed my eyes shut when the blade broke his skin. I heard him hiss and his blood started to pour into the cup. It soon became a drip then it stopped.
I opened my eyes to find him struggling to squeeze more out, but nothing came.
My mother examined his arm and her eyes widened. “It’s healing.”
He goggled at his arm. “How?”
My mother sighed raggedly. “It’s a protection charm we witches cast on our children. Nariman must have put this on you. I put one on Adelaide.”
My jaw dropped. “Really?”
“Have you ever been sick?” she asked.
I’d thought it was my sturdy constitution. Even when I’d wondered at my immunity, a magical reason hadn’t been one of the things I entertained.
But— “I broke my foot badly when I kicked a ghoul to death! It took the ring to heal it.”
“The charm only protects you from infections, and—as it did now—if it considers an injury life-threatening.”
“Lady Dorreya, please remove the charm.”
I wanted to scream no! I wanted that protective charm to cover him from head to toe, protect him from cuts to plagues. I could actually kiss Nariman for placing it on him.
My mother, thankfully, shook her head. “That kind of magic is tied to the life of the person who placed it.”
“So I find a way around the deadly mess she’s flung us in, and it’s her protection of all things that manages to thwart me.” He flung his hand in frustration and it collided with the chalice, knocking it over.
I barely pulled him back before the clam slammed shut.
The light overhead turned a burning red as an earthquake blasted through the cave, roaring its echoing anger all around us, slamming all clams shut and turning off the waterfalls. The now-dark pool roiled, crashed and spiraled up like a tornado over a stormy sea. Cracks tore through the craggy walls, shearing off boulders off their face.
I was clinging to both of them, expecting one to crush us at any moment when I noticed the cracks growing shallower as they traveled down. Then the whirlpool beneath us slowed until the water splashed down.
Were we over the worst? Was this a warning for merely knocking the chalice over rather than removing it?
My hopes choked as a thunder crack exploded in the overhead redness, shattering it, sending it hurtling down on us in a lethal rain of shards.
Carpet hurtled away from the deadly downpour, bucking off a crystal that had fallen on it. It only catapulted it into the side of my head and knocked me over the edge.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
The whiplash of crashing through the water paralyzed me.
The world darkened for endless moments—then it suddenly blazed red.
Blind panic overtook me as the burn in my lungs caught fire. I thrashed and groped at the crimson waters shrouding me until I burst through the surface with a screaming gasp.
Flinging back my drenched hair, I frantically splashed to avoid another hurtling piece of the ceiling and kicked to take refuge beneath a ledge.
The moment I fell still I heard echoes. Calling my name. Cyrus and mother.
Carpet must have whisked them to safety, deeming me a lost cause. But they’d never give up on me, would turn it around and look for me. I tried to call them, but my voice was muted by my watery hideout. I had to get out so they could hear me.
A sword-like crystal slashed the water before me, snapping me back to my current predicament. I could do nothing but listen to their frantic calls and wait for the crystal storm to abate.
The moment it did, I kicked towards the edge. As I started to pull myself up, my ring shot a solid beam of red light that nearly blinded me.
“What?” I yelled as I trod water, my head where the crystal had struck me pounding. “What do you want now? This had better mean you’re ready to answer a wish. If so, I wish mother and Cyrus find me.” I waited, and nothing happened. “Well, thanks for nothing.”
I moved and the stone reverted to its usual dullness. I turned to get out and its light was back on. It had to be telling me something. It just had to.
This was the worst time to contemplate how this ring functioned. But I had to test this.
I held my hand away and watched it glowing brighter, but once I moved past a certain angle it began to dull again.
It was acting like a compass!
This had to be it. It was leading me to a specific object, something that could help us out, in any sense of the term.
I moved it until it was flashing with the beat of my heart. Its light was the most intense when it had me pointing towards a clam mounted fifty feet above me.
Even with the clams open again, I couldn’t see what it contained from below. Whatever it was, I had to get it and fast.
I called Cyrus and mother as loudly as I could and waited. This thing was so high I’d rather have Carpet get me up there.
But when minutes ticked by and they still only called, I had to assume they were trapped. This thing the ring was pointing me towards might be what I could use to get them out.