“Yeah, sure, Basu. I’m in the shadows for this one.”
“Why is that not reassuring?” Basu sighed.
Jit was already hurrying Chandi out the back.
“Jit, what are you doing?” Chandi glowered at him as he tugged on her arm, and then they were in the tiny courtyard Basu used for growing herbs. The mingled odors of the tannery and the butcher assaulted her nose. Standing in the middle of the courtyard, looking rather bored, was a scruffy middle-aged man with a soft, round face and placid eyes.
“Meet ‘Ravi.’”
“What are you talking about? Ravi’s in -” She pointed inside with her free hand. He still had a hold of the other arm.
“No, you’re not understanding me. Meet Ravi’s double. I’ve found a way to clear your trail, at least for a little while.”
“Using some stranger off the street?”
“Just hear me out. This is Navid, and from what I can tell he’s got it in for Zartosht’s gang. More importantly, don’t he look a bit like Ravi?”
“I suppose… if you don’t look too closely, and maybe squint a little. He’s the right height, at least.”
“So we cover him up so that you can’t tell the difference, and you do all the talking to get your stuff back from the Parvana, ‘cause his voice just won’t do at all, and make like you’re leaving the city.”
“And then we sneak back in at night?”
“What? No! You go out of sight, like over a dune or something, then circle around to a different spot and stroll right on in, separately. Coming in at night is a terrible idea. It’d be like shouting ‘I’m hiding something’ in the middle of the street.”
Navid cleared his throat. “If I may?”
Jit was right; sonorous and low, his voice would never sound like Ravi’s, even if he could practice. Jit nodded; Chandi blushed as she realized how rude they were being, talking about him like he wasn’t even there.
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for you to go fetch your belongings yourself and then come back here? It’s likely you were seen bringing him, and the longer I’m in disguise the more likely I’ll be discovered.”
“Maybe… but the only times they saw me on my own, he’d given me explicit instructions to scream if anyone tried anything. And we’ve got a lot of camels. I’m not sure I could get them all back here on my own.”
“You’re on a long journey, then?” Even asking a question, Navid sounded like his mind was off floating on a cloud somewhere.
“We left from Sararaq. I lost track of how long we’ve been in the open desert – a while. Long enough we could be a long way off-course.”
“You left from where, now?” Jit asked. They both looked lost.
“Sararaq.”
“Never heard of it.” Navid sounded bored, too.
“It’s in the west, not far from the desert’s edge.”
“The desert has an edge?” Jit’s question was incredulous.
“Of course it does! Everything has an edge.” How ignorant could he be? It was almost like he’d never traveled… which of course he probably hadn’t. Not everyone was fortunate enough to be born Chèin’ii.
“If you say so.” Jit sounded dubious.
Once they had a rough plan agreed on, Jit asked Navid to return mid-morning the next day.
“Got nothin’ better to do, I suppose. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there’s a teraima cave calling my name.”
“Tcheh. Just keep yer wits about ya.”
“Hah! Right, kid. Never fear; the madam cuts us off right quick, she does.”
“I’ll believe that when I see it.”
Navid just waved over his shoulder without looking back as he let himself out of the courtyard.
“And that is the other reason he doesn’t get to talk when you’re at the Parvana. Damn sleepers.”
* * *
“You’re bringing me how many camels?” Basu stared at Jit and Chandi as though they’d both grown horns. Jit was wearing different color clothes and a turban as a disguise.
“We had eight with us…” Chandi answered.
“Jit, I don’t have stables for one! Look, tomorrow I’ll go out myself and talk to their innkeeper. I’m sure we’ll be able to work something out. Surely they’ve noticed by now that these two haven’t been in, and she’s a respectable woman.”
“But it’ll look weird if they ‘leave’ now without their stuff, and she can’t very well waltz right back to that same inn with their camels and stick them back in those stables.” It didn’t look like Jit was going to back down.
Chandi stepped in. “Is there someplace else we could stable them? Safely?”
“Probably, for enough coin, but I don’t think it’s necessary,” Basu answered without a trace of heat. “Obviously, they were lying low until it cooled down enough they could make a run for it. Make sure you leave to the northwest, now; Vidyavana’s only a few days’ ride that direction, so it’s the most obvious choice to run to.”
So that’s where we are. She’d have to make sure to tell Ravi the next time he woke up. Basu said he was improving, and his color looked much better. “If he doesn’t have room for the camels, Jit, I think we should let him talk to the innkeeper. I’ll go with you when you go tomorrow, if you need me to.”
“That would…”
“Probably not matter for her cover at all.” Basu turned back to the notes he had laid open on his table and resumed writing.
“You’re right. Okay. Navid should be here any time now, assuming he’s not still off dreaming, and then his job just got easier. I’m going to shadow you two through the streets, just in case something goes wrong. I’ll catch up to you at the bottom of the dip after the first dune. If I’m not there within half a fist, start circling to the north and come in from the northeast. Tell the man with a scarred face selling dumplings in the market you’ll come to that you need to see Basu. Fake sick, if you have to, but do not tell him anyone you know is here. Only if I don’t show up within half a fist.”
“Got it. My fist, or his?”
“Navid’s… Where is he?”
“He didn’t seem like the sort to stand us up.”
“Maybe. He’s a sleeper; there’s no telling what they might forget, or when.”
Basu raised his head, evidently just now processing what they had said about Navid. “Wait, your whole plan relies on a sleeper?”
“A sleeper with a grudge.”
“But a sleeper. For all you know he’s passed out in his cave right now, and no way to know which one that is. I’d make a more reliable double!”
“You’re both too tall and too skinny, and your face is the wrong shape,” Jit countered.
“Yes, I know, and that’s my point.”
Someone cleared their voice from the doorway behind them. “Excuse me. I’ll have you know I am only a sleeper in the broadest definition of the term.”
“Ah! You made it. Great!” Jit turned his enthusiasm back on. It was amazing how quickly he could do that.
“Of course I made it. I told you I would.”
“So you say you still have a grip on the teraima, huh? Your eyes suggest otherwise.” There was a weighing note in Basu’s voice.
“I’m afraid I had the look long before I had the habit. Are we ready?”
“Just as soon as you’re both covered up for the open desert. We don’t need to stop at the Parvana, so we’ll just be heading straight northwest.” Just that quickly Jit had updated him on the new plan.
“Making a break for Vidyavana, then. Sensible plan for legitimate travelers.”
“Of course it is! What do you take me for?”
“A thug kid.” Navid’s voice was matter-of-fact. Basu held his sides for laughing so hard, and even Chandi chuckled as Jit glared at all of them – including Ravi, who was currently sedated and sleeping.
* * *
Chandi followed close on Navid’s heels as they made for the northwestern corner of the settlement, clutching her scarf close below h
er chin, only a little more anxious than when she had followed Ravi into the town days earlier. Only a little. Navid, for his part, strode with purpose, watching for pursuers but not overly concerned about them. Jit had said he would follow, but not to look for him, so she kept her eyes glued to the man’s back swathed in sand gear.
At one point, as they hurried down a particularly dark and narrow alley, Navid pulled her into a recessed doorway.
“Are we being followed?” She whispered.
“Almost certainly. But I don’t know if it’s just your young friend or not. Can you fight?”
“A little.”
“Good enough. Be ready, just in case.” He glanced both ways down the alley and then stepped back out and resumed his quick pace. Not many turns later they were outside the limits of the streets and in the open. Navid’s pace did not alter. Chandi wished she could run, but that would draw the wrong kind of attention.
They were nearly at the rise of the first dune away from the settlement when Chandi gave in and glanced over her shoulder. The desert was empty, and she exhaled a breath she didn’t know she was holding.
“I think we’re in the clear,” she said, pitching her voice low
“Maybe, but I wouldn’t say that until you and Jit are back at the sran’s.”
That was sensible advice, so she nodded. Moments later, they stood in the shadow of the dune and Navid was measuring the time. Now all that was left was the waiting.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“How would you like to go on a dig?”
“Excuse me?” Bahadur blinked.
Sanaz gaped, shocked that her husband would so flagrantly flout her in her own domain.
“One of my colleagues is organizing an expedition into the ruins of Kaddu Nagar. He thinks there’s another level underground, and he’s going to need guards.”
“The ruins of where?”
“Kaddu Nagar. It’s not far from here, so it’s been canvassed thoroughly, except he thinks he’s found evidence of more. Should be an easy job, and it pays well.”
“Count me in… Gita, will you be all right with this?”
She looked up from the book she was working through. “Mm? Go? Oh, sure. I’m sure I’ll be busy enough.” On the one hand, he was relieved she no longer needed to be with him all the time, and glad that she was taking to learning so well. On the other hand, it was still like there was something missing, and if he could only figure out what he thought he could put her back together again. Only, whatever it was had been lost before he met her.
“Okay. Then yes, certainly.” They could use the coin.
“Great. I’ll let him know, then.”
* * *
The expedition to the ruins of Kaddu Nagar was given much pomp and fanfare as they left the city – certainly more than Bahadur expected. Perhaps it was the timing – traveling once the rains began was treacherous at best – or perhaps it had more to do with the personality of the dig leader.
Scholar Fravardin au’Kul, historian of the guild, dressed like a merchant prince and often forgot where he laid his inkwell, Javed said. He carried a magnifying glass in the belt of his robes, although there was nothing wrong with his eyes, and a walking stick for, as he said, “dignity.” What he meant by “dignity” no one ventured to say, but Bahadur had a few guesses. He was also known to seek out and denounce those who might sympathize with Minu, and so Bahadur was to be extraordinarily cautious.
There was a delegation from each of the represented guilds at the staging area outside the southern gate. All of them found it necessary to speak – at length – before the expedition was allowed to leave. Bahadur saw some of the other guards, and even some of the scholars, yawning and fidgeting like children. He kept his face neutral; it wasn’t the first time he’d had to endure speech-makers.
After wasting half the morning, they were off. The dust of their camel train was a winding snake stretching farther ahead of him than behind. He had begun to think the storm two weeks ago a fluke. Certainly there hadn’t been a drop of rain since. If the weather held, the dig site should be only a few days away. If it didn’t hold, it could be a week or more.
“I’m telling you, there have to be at least three more levels to the city!” Scholar Fravardin’s voice carried over the train from his position near the middle. “The fifth city has to be there; it was a living memory when the oldest record was written.”
“And yet no one has ever found its remains, or even mention of it outside of a pair of unreliable texts. What makes you think you will?”
“Cross-referencing!”
Bahadur choked back a laugh. Scholar Fravardin probably didn’t realize how his voice carried. He was a little disappointed he didn’t get to hear the rest of that conversation. Fravardin seemed like an interesting sort, whatever else you said about him, and interesting was something that could not be said about the landscape. Outside Vidyavana’s walls was only rise upon rise of golden sand and rock. Any one of which could hide an ambush. He had to keep reminding himself of that.
* * *
The front of the camel train had passed through the outer walls of sun-baked sand brick before Bahadur realized they had arrived at the ruin site. Those camouflaged walls were the only marker of the dig’s location. Now came the tricky part; they couldn’t simply relax while the Scholars poked and prodded likely locations within the ruins. Bahadur had been informed that he would be expected to do the poking and prodding.
“Sometimes there are traps,” Javed had explained, “or sometimes time has left deadfalls that man never intended. A lot of us like to leave the dangerous work to those who are a little more… physically inclined.”
Bahadur had no doubt that Scholar Fravardin was one of those.
The camels were led over to an area near the well and their camp. Javed had said this place was fairly well explored; to Bahadur’s eye, it was a wonder there was anything left to map. Then Fravardin’s rejoinder from the first day made him smile again. Cross-referencing. Right. Well, once your home’s been razed by demons, it’s hard to call anything crazy.
Now that he knew what he was looking at, even the uppermost portions of the ruined city were impressive. There was a statue of a many-armed man standing guard at what was once a major square. The figure was too worn by time and weather to make out any details at this distance, but Bahadur would have bet the whole of his purse that it was obsidian Khubhranta, and that his fingers had once shown a teaching mudra, or perhaps one of blessing. The streets were an even grid. As expected, those of more “physical inclinations” were directed to set up the pavilion tents and see to the animals.
“So do you think we’ll find anything this time?” This from a fresh-faced boy whose name Bahadur didn’t know.
“Hard to say. Never can tell what might happen on a trip like this. You just be careful when they tell you what to poke at.” That was Feroze. He looked to be a bit older than Bahadur, and based on his crooked fingers and the scars on his face he had learned that advice the hard way. His accent placed him from the south.
“I will.”
“That’s what you say now.” Feroze gave a tug on the pavilion cord he held to secure the knot. “But just you wait until they get in deep, where it’s all rubble and tumbled-over pillars and every shadow could be the next big discovery.” It was odd seeing a boyish glint in Feroze’s eye, a man who had been hard-bitten and grim since they met.
“You sound awfully excited about this yourself,” said someone on the other side of the tent.
“Why else would I have stuck around in Vidyavana, of all places?”
Bahadur laughed along with the other guardsmen, which drew Feroze’s attention. “What about you? You seem a little old to be new at the trade.”
“Not new to guard duty, certainly. Came to Vidyavana for information with someone else’s daughter and not much more than my wage from the trip in my pocket. Landlord’s a colleague or something of the guy in charge.”
“Oh so that’s ho
w it is.” This voice came from two or three poles past where Feroze was tying another cord.
“You know the rest of us had to wait in line for the job, right?”
“Well, no, and I wouldn’t have known about the line, either. Javed said he’d promised to ask, and I’m not really in a position to turn down jobs.”
“Tcheh. Dumb luck, then, is all. Can’t fault you for that any more’n we could fault the guy at the head of the line for being first. Well, who knows? Maybe you’ll stick around anyway.” Every other time Feroze spoke Bahadur thought the man wanted to spit something out.
“Perhaps.” Bahadur sorely doubted it, but tried to smile anyway. Vidyavana was unlikely to stay safe for long. “Are they going to be ready to start this afternoon, or will that wait for tomorrow?”
This produced another round of laughter from the veterans.
“They’ll want us to think they can start this afternoon if only we weren’t dragging our cursed heels getting all the equipment set up, but they spend long enough fussing over every instrument and trunk after we’re done with them that it’ll be midnight before any of them gets to bed.” Kamboja, on Bahadur’s other side, looked like he had been a little better at avoiding injury than Feroze.
“Scholars really are a breed apart, aren’t they?”
“You got it. But they’re better that way. More interesting.”
* * *
It was early the next morning when Scholar Fravardin declared their preparations complete and ordered a number of the guards down to the fourth city. Feroze was along, but Kamboja waved from his perch on a stack of chests near the perimeter.
The bones of the city became more elaborate the farther they went. Bahadur couldn’t tell how much of that was the city itself and how much was related to the length of exposure. Soon they were walking down a steep, narrow staircase cut into a rock wall. The steps’ edges were not yet worn by wind and sand. The crevasse they descended was also narrow, and deep enough that Bahadur could not see the bottom. Fravardin and the other scholars at the front of the group carried torches but had not yet lit them. A cool breeze blew up the crevasse into their faces. Its smell was clean, if not exactly fresh, and it bore with it the promise of day-long shade.
Advent of Ruin (The Qaehl Cycle Book 1) Page 24