There was a silence as this settled in. I chewed my lip. Since we hadn’t touched the eggs, did that mean there were other strangers on the island?
I exchanged a brief glance with Aliyah. Her creased brow suggested she had similar worries.
“From the look of it, this campfire was large enough to feed many people.” Rangi’s dark eyes narrowed as the rest of Kassim’s soldiers finally rode up to join us. Makani’s narrow shoulders slumped a little as she looked back at the eggshells, shaking her head.
“Do you want to keep going, princess?” Kassim asked, his voice gentle. “If you need to return…”
Makani and I both looked up. To my outrage, Kassim was looking at the Hiduan princess.
She turned her back to the remains of the eggs, her gray eyes stony as she tilted her chin toward Rangi. “Send two men back to the fort with this news and arrange a scouting group for when we return in a few days.” She addressed Kassim. “I won’t interrupt our journey to track them now, not when we’re so close to the cave. But rest assured…” She turned to Ahe, speaking only to him as she lay a hand on his beak, “whoever did this will pay.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
There was no mistaking the entrance to the Cave of Wonders.
It had been sculpted into the mountain itself, an entire façade of a grand building etched into the slab of rock.
“This is it,” Hepzibah announced unnecessarily as the last of the camels filed into the rocky clearing.
We all stared up at the entrance in silence.
We’re finally here. The sun had long since slipped behind the tall rocks, and the light reaching us down in the ravine was weak, shining on the smooth rockfaces surrounding us and the small gaps where narrow canyons disappeared farther into the mountains.
After so long searching for the cave, it was hard to believe we were finally so close to the treasure we had journeyed so long to find. Our arrival felt sudden.
A shiver ran down my spine.
There was no breeze, and the still air was heavy with an unpleasant sulfurous smell. Kassim dismounted, and the rest of us followed suit. None of us approached, hanging back to take in the sheer scale of the building. I had never seen anything like it, the way it had been carved out of the rock.
“This is really it…” Kassim’s voice was soft, his neck craned back as he looked up at the carvings. “After so long…we’re really here.”
“It’s incredible.” Makani moved to stand by the sultan’s side. “I haven’t been to this place since I was a child. Seeing it now, I regret not visiting since then.”
Kassim tilted his head, smiling down at the princess. “I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done for us, Mak. By bringing us here. We never would have made it here without you.”
The corners of my mouth downturned. And what about my finding the talisman in the first place?
My mind buzzed with worry. Not just about our expedition to the Cave of Wonders, or the vizier’s ulterior motive. For the first time in a while, I was worried about my betrothal to Kassim.
I twisted Tarak’s reins around my fingers. Makani had been Kassim’s second choice after Lalana…but the sultan wasn’t marrying Lalana anymore. The Hiduan princess was pretty and charming, like a sultanah should be, but she was also smart, confident, and a warrior. She had everything Kassim had liked about Lalana, and all the qualities I thought he was beginning to like in me, too…
Was it a coincidence Makani was our guide? Or had the vizier arranged all this to threaten our betrothal? I still didn’t understand what she had against me, but it felt like everything she did was designed to cause problems between me and Kassim.
I wrapped my shawl tightly around myself as the sultan walked up to the rockface and inspected the stone. Words were carved over the entire slab, even running onto some of the surrounding rocks.
From a distance, it looked like An Nimivah, but I couldn’t read it properly from where I hung back, letting the sultan, the vizier, and Makani examine the rock up close.
Is it instructions on how to open the cave door? My heart skipped a beat. Or could this be the answer to Tarak’s enslavement in the ring, that Mustafa told me about?
Tarak shuffled beside me in his camel form, his head leaning closer to the cave, his violet eyes narrowed. He was probably wondering the same thing. But I would keep my distance, even though I was as desperate to examine the cave as everyone else. I couldn’t translate it in front of everyone else, anyway. Not without having to explain how I could read a long-forgotten language of the spirits.
“Now what?” Makani asked Kassim.
The vizier had both hands pressed against the rockface, running her long fingers across the rocky bumps and indents where the script spilled over the stone. “You touch it, Kassim,” she encouraged.
The sultan reached out, pressing his palm against the rock. Nothing happened.
“I don’t understand.” His dark brows lowered. “Which part is the door?”
Good question. The carved rock showed no signs of a doorway or any opening beyond the solid exterior.
“Try over here,” Hepzibah called, moving to the left-hand side of the rockface.
Kassim pushed his hands against the rock again, then pursed his lips when nothing happened. He turned to Namir. “Isn’t this one of the reasons we brought the thief? Get her to find a way to break in.”
“Aliyah?” Namir prompted.
The thief moved from her position lounging against her camel’s side. Everyone dropped back as she paced in front of the rock, stopping every few moments to crouch, tap, or press her ear to the stone. She actually licked it at one point, and a ghost of a smile crossed Namir’s lips.
After several minutes watching her antics in silence, the vizier cleared her throat impatiently. “Well?”
Aliyah shrugged as she spun around. “There’s no door.”
“What?” Several cries came at once.
“What do you mean there’s no door?” Makani sounded incredulous.
“I mean, there’s no entryway here.” She rapped it with her fist to demonstrate. “It’s solid rock. There are no hinges, no sliding mechanism, no cracks… Nothing.”
“You’re supposed to be able to break into anywhere.” Hepzibah sounded shrill. “That’s one of the reasons we brought you.”
Aliyah placed a hand on her chest. “I’m honored. But I don’t know what to tell you.” Her voice was hard. “I have many skills, but breaking through solid rock with my bare hands isn’t one of them.”
“Then perhaps this isn’t the door?” Namir ventured.
“You think these are naturally occurring rock formations?” the vizier scoffed, gesturing at the carvings.
Aliyah shrugged again. “He’s right. This could all be for show. There could be another door somewhere else.” She crossed her arms. “What about the words? This language written all over it and on the surrounding rocks...” Aliyah’s gaze found mine. “What do you think, scholar? Could it be instructions on how to get in?”
“They’re just stories.” Hepzibah waved a hand dismissively before I could reply. “Nothing useful.”
“Wait. You can read this, Hepzi?” Makani ran her fingers over the carvings.
So it was An Nimivah. And only Hepzibah and I could read it. Curiosity nudged me a few steps closer, but I was still too far away to make out any of the words.
“Look.” Kassim ran a hand through his hair, his face pinched in frustration. “I think we should sleep on it. We’re losing the light, and we’ve all had a long, tiring day. Let’s set up camp, then we’ll try again tomorrow. We might have just missed something really obvious.”
Hepzibah looked like she was about to protest, then thought better of it, spinning on her heel and striding away. Everyone else slowly retreated from the door, untethering the camels and muttering amongst themselves.
“We spotted a clearing a little way back. We should set up camp there,” Makani instructed, still walking alongside Kassim
.
I hung back, reluctant to leave until I’d had a chance to examine the cave on my own. Kassim was so preoccupied with the Hiduan princess I doubted he’d even notice I wasn’t with them. I clung tighter to Tarak’s reins, doubt sweeping over me again.
“Well, princess?” Aliyah materialized beside me, stroking her chin as she surveyed the carved wall before us. “What do you think?”
I shrugged. “I trust Makani can read a map. So I guess this must be the right cave.”
“Don’t you think cave was a bit of an inaccurate description? Cave suggests an opening…”
“Hmm…” My gaze returned to the words carved into the stone.
The thief queen let out a loud laugh. “Go ahead, scholar. Make your own investigations. The sultan won’t notice now that bird princess has his ear, and I’ll keep the spymaster distracted…”
She melted away from my side, and moments later I heard Namir give an outraged cry. In spite of everything, my lips twitched up. I would find out exactly how Aliyah had distracted Namir later.
Glancing around to make sure no one was paying attention to me, I stepped forward to investigate the decorative carvings running around the pillars and the indents in the rock.
The text was undoubtedly An Nimivah.
“What do you think?” Tarak’s lisping voice sounded by my ear, drenching the side of my face with camel spit. “Can you figure out how to get inside?”
“Eugh.” I reached up and scrubbed at my face with my sleeve, then twisted around to make sure we were alone. The clearing was empty. “No one’s here anymore. Can’t you turn back into a less wet form?”
“Sure,” Tarak slobbered, deliberately spraying me again.
He dissolved into a mist of lilac cloud, and when he reappeared, he’d turned into his human form, clad in the same uniform as the guards accompanying us. His brows knitted together, one hand toying with the hoop in his ear. “The merchant said we’d find answers about the ring where the talisman led us… Do you suppose this is what he meant? These carvings?”
I ran a hand lightly over the rockface, the stone cool and rough against my palm. “There’s only one way to find out…”
I chose a random passage and began to translate. The script had a weird intonation, like…a story. Just as Hepzibah had said.
I exhaled slowly, walking along the lines of text as I read them. The stories were carved into the stone, just like the story of the djinni had been carved into the fountain at the palace in Kisrabah.
Tarak prowled close behind me, his body hot behind my shoulder. “Well?” he demanded. “What does it say?”
My shoulders dropped a little. As much as I hated to admit it, the vizier was right. Stories were about as much use for solving the mystery of the ring as they were for getting us inside the cave. “Nothing helpful,” I said reluctantly. “They do seem like stories. Like the vizier said.”
I continued to skim them anyway, moving slowly along the wall, squinting as the evening light faded.
“Stories can be powerful,” Tarak insisted, grabbing for my sleeve. “They helped you with the ghuls, didn’t they? You don’t know–”
I held up a hand as my eyes snagged on several familiar words.
It was a sentence I had read before.
A sentence I wore on my hand.
He who sold our names to a prince.
I froze. The words were large, like the title to a story.
“What?” Tarak asked sharply. “What is it?”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. “I think…I think this is it, Tarak. Your story.”
The djinni hissed in a breath through his teeth. There was a pause before he spoke again, his voice tight. “Will you read it to me?”
I clasped my hands to my chest, hardly breathing as my eyes raced over the words that followed and I intoned aloud, “This is the story of the djinni who betrayed us all.”
I stopped, casting my gaze back to him. Tarak’s caramel skin had paled, the usual mischievous glitter gone from his eyes.
“Go on,” he said impatiently. “Don’t draw it out like this.”
I cleared my throat and began again. “This is the story of the djinni who betrayed us all. In the land of smoke and fire, he was a king among the djinn. He was powerful. He was cunning. But he was also foolish.
“The djinni-king allowed himself to be trapped in the world of men, lured in by the empty promises of the sorcerers of old. And so he remained, for a thousand and one years, until a terrible power stirred in the northern lands. In a dark kingdom above the mountains, a wicked prince longed to have power over not just one spirit, but to control us all. And he learned of our greatest weakness. He learned of the Book of Names and the djinni-king who would do anything to return to his kingdom of smoke and fire.”
My heart thumped in my chest so hard it almost hurt. A prince above the mountains… Was Tarak’s story somehow connected with the Phoenitians?
I continued to read aloud in a halting voice, “In exchange for his freedom, the djinni-king gave the book to the wicked prince. And in trading away our true names, he enslaved us all.”
I felt faint as I read, wavering on the spot like a snake charmed from its basket. Tarak was a king? And he had betrayed the spirits to the Phoenites?
“That’s it?” the djinni asked hoarsely. “That’s everything?”
I shook my head slowly.
“Then go on, Zadie.” He crossed his arms tightly across his chest.
I kept reading. “We howled with rage. We fought and bit and screamed against the trappings that tied us to the world of water and stone. But we could do nothing. Forced to stay, we watched the story of the human world unfold.
“We watched as a great, golden prince stole the book and defeated his rival, the prince in the kingdom above the mountains. We hoped the golden prince might free us. We wept when he did not. He told the world he had destroyed the book, so we could never be summoned again. But instead, the golden prince hid the book and buried us all beneath the sand, locking us away with his blood magic.”
My own blood turned to ice in my veins. Blood magic. I forced myself to read out the final few lines.
“Here we remain, until the golden princes free us again with their blood. But the djinni-king who betrayed us did not get his freedom. We cursed him to remain in the human world of water and stone long after we have returned to the world of smoke and fire. We stole his memories of his kingdom, of what he had done to return to it, so he would never try to do the same again. And here he shall stay.”
The vast rock frowned down at me as I finished the story. Tarak’s purple eyes widened, his lips thin and white.
I held up my knuckle, tilting the ring in the light. Whatever the spirits did to curse the djinni, it worked, because Tarak had been trapped in this ring ever since.
The dizziness swept over me again.
Tarak was a djinni-king, and the mountain before us was filled with the spirits who had cursed him.
“So… It says I betrayed all the spirits in the Book of Names?” The djinni’s voice was low. “And those spirits are inside the cave? The same cave we’re trying to break into?”
I nodded numbly.
“Are you sure?” Tarak sounded pained.
I gave him a scathing look, my heart still thumping painfully in my chest. “Do you remember any of it now?”
Tarak ran a hand through his glossy brown hair, leaving it sticking up in every direction. “No… Well, maybe. I remember the Book of Names. But the rest of it… I can’t quite remember. What you’re saying sounds right somehow. Familiar.” His throat bobbed as he swallowed. “I betrayed my kind.”
For once, Tarak looked cowed, no quips or jokes on his lips. He looked back warily toward the cave, the carved building almost black as the day turned into night.
I bit my lip. The djinni in the story didn’t sound like the Tarak I knew. “What should we do, Tarak?”
“I don’t know.” The djinni wrapped his arms
around himself, rubbing his hands up and down his arms, like he was trying to warm himself. “But if that cave opens and hundreds of vengeful spirits are let loose…” He turned his purple gaze to me. “Zadie, you’ve only ever encountered spirits bound to small objects like me, Papyremes, and Chimaeus…”
“That’s not true,” I cut in. “I fought the fire spirits and ghuls in the desert, and they weren't bound to anything.”
Tarak shook his head slowly, his expression growing more pinched. “The spirits in this cave will make what those ghuls could do look like child’s play. The names in that book belong to some of the most powerful and dangerous djinn and ifrit from my realm. If they’re bound to the cave, they can’t be let out, under any circumstances.”
“Do you think they’ll want to find you?”
“I imagine they’d love to.” Tarak leaned back against the stone, tilting his head back to look up at the sky above us that was now a deep lilac, the first stars beginning to appear. He wiped his hands down his face. “Look, I know you want to help the sultan open that cave. But you have to believe me when I tell you these spirits are dangerous.”
Tarak’s voice was tight with emotion. I’d never seen him like this before.
“I do believe you–”
“I know what you’re like, Zadie. You’ll help the sultan just to prove to him you can.”
My brow creased. How could he think I’d put him in danger like that? “Tarak–”
The djinni squared his shoulders, his chiseled jaw clenched. “I guess that’s our deal done then, princess. You found out why I’m in the ring. You don’t need to help me anymore.”
“Tarak…” I reached out to squeeze his arm, but he grabbed my hand instead.
The moment our palms touched, heat rushed through me and tendrils of lilac smoke coiled around my arm, just as it had back in the treasury when I’d first made the deal with Tarak. The sweet, musky smoke disappeared, leaving my forearm tingling.
Palace of Wishes (2020 Reissue) Page 19