I held my breath as the ground beneath us trembled with the movement. My eyes never left Kassim, who looked tiny before the great, yawning entrance to the cave now looming before him.
I took a few steps closer to him and the dark entrance to the Cave of Wonders. Everyone crowded forward, drawn by some force pulling us toward the vast doorway.
I peered in. Stone steps led down into darkness.
“We need light!” Hepzibah called to the soldiers, who jolted into action, bringing lit torches closer.
The vizier snatched one from the closest soldier and strode for the mouth of the cave, her eyes dancing with the flames. Kassim followed her, his face soft with quiet wonder.
Another soldier handed me a torch, snapping my body into movement. I gripped it with two hands, following Kassim down the stairs and into the warm, muggy air of the cave beyond. I kept the torch held low to illuminate the smooth stone steps beneath my feet. The staircase had no sides, dropping away into a dark abyss on either side. My stomach lurched with the thought that I might suddenly trip and fall, even though I’d always been sure-footed.
As more and more of us filed in with torches, the glow lit the vast chamber around us.
I looked up and gasped. The cave was made of gold. The light of the torches danced over the gilded rocks, flashing and glittering at every angle, highlighting the vast, golden monoliths and long, narrow stalagmites spearing up from the ground like fangs.
“Fool’s gold,” Aliyah whispered from behind me. “It’s practically worthless.” If anyone knew the worth of precious metals, I knew it was the thief.
I risked a glance over my shoulder. Aliyah and Namir were right behind me, and Makani trailed in last with the soldiers…much to my satisfaction. The princess followed the line of lit torches, like a fiery string of pearls winding down through the lustrous rocks. The light shone off her dark eyes as she stared at the glittering chamber.
“Probably thinks it’s real,” Aliyah sniggered softly beside me.
A rush of gratitude heated my chest, and I dug an affectionate elbow into the thief queen’s side as we moved to catch up with the others. Kassim and Hepzibah hadn’t paused for one moment to admire the fool’s gold. Their torches bobbed well ahead of me as they descended into the belly of the cave.
The vizier stopped suddenly at the head of the line. Ahead of her, the stairs came to an end beneath a vast archway.
“As soon as we step through this archway, there is to be silence,” the vizier called back, her echoing voice low in warning. “No one speaks. No one makes a sound. No whispering, coughing, sniffing, scuffing your feet, or drawing your scimitars. Is that understood?”
A low murmur rose from the soldiers farther back.
“Why?” I asked, my voice echoing loudly.
The vizier winced. “Because, Zadie, in my research, all mentions of the cave warned that the lamps would have to be removed without a sound. It’s why we’ve brought the street rat. Namir’s silent thief.” She gestured behind me, and Aliyah tensed. “When we get inside…” She addressed the group again, “she’ll collect each lamp and will bring it back to us. We’ll form a chain and carefully pass each one down the line, without moving or speaking, until they’re back to this point here, on the steps.”
“What happens if we make a sound?” I pressed, annoyed that the vizier hadn’t thought to warn us about something so important sooner.
“I bet nothing good.” Aliyah sounded grim.
“The warnings are ancient, but we should heed them, and beware,” the vizier snapped. “If you aren’t certain you can remain silent, turn back now.”
“Does everyone understand the plan?” Kassim’s face was golden in the torchlight, his amber eyes burning.
The vizier glared back at all of us lining the stairs. “We go in silently, the thief retrieves each lamp, and we pass them along the line to safety. Silently.”
Aliyah crossed her arms. “No noise or something bad happens. We get it. How about you start this no-talking rule right now?”
The vizier looked like she was going to argue, but thought better of it. Instead, she spun around, descending the remainder of the stairs. The approaching torches lit the archway, illuminating the An Nimivah script carved into the rock.
I glanced up as each step took me closer and closer to the words.
Reach the lamps beyond in silence, or face the wrath of the Guardian.
The wrath of the Guardian? Hepzibah didn’t mention anything about a Guardian...
I opened my mouth to ask her as much, then clamped my lips shut again. She was already beyond the archway.
The moment she stepped foot into the cavern beyond, a glowing light with a reddish hue flooded the vast chamber.
No lanterns or torches lined the walls. Whatever lit the cavern must be magical. Perhaps it was the Guardian the archway had warned of. Something skittered up my spine, the feeling of being watched crawling over my skin as I stepped through the archway.
The walls of false gold gave way to smooth expanses of dark rock, flowing and curving in strange, concave shapes. They rippled away, curiously perfect, forming the ceiling and the walls. Perhaps it had something to do with Hidu’s volcanic geography, and they had been formed by the lava that flowed hot beneath the islands. In the red light, it felt as if we walked through glowing coals.
I wrapped my free arm around myself to repress a shiver, despite the fact that the cave was already too warm, and sweat beaded around my hairline from the unwelcome heat of the torch. Shadows danced around the odd walls, steam rose from the ground, and every instinct screamed at me to leave this place.
There were no footsteps as our group walked slowly and steadily along the only path. Makani and her soldiers stopped close to the archway, with a soldier halting every few paces to form the human chain Hepzibah had instructed we make to pass the lamps out quietly.
I made sure I exaggerated each step, gently placing my foot against the hard rock.
A little way ahead, the path stopped abruptly, falling away to a broken patchwork of skinny monoliths, leading like stepping stones to a towering mountain of rocks in the center of the cave.
At the top of the mountain, metallic objects glinted in a crimson light. I squinted. I could just about make out a pile of gleaming lamps.
The spirits.
The vizier really expected Aliyah to leap across those, then climb to the top without making a sound?
Hepzibah had stopped where the path ended, gesturing for Aliyah to step forward. I squeezed her hand as she brushed past me, Namir close on her heels.
As the thief approached the vizier, Hepzibah began to motion with her hand toward the treasure, but Aliyah strode straight past her holding a one-fingered gesture close to the vizier’s face before leaping forward.
I held in a gasp as she landed onto the first stone pillar, graceful as a cat.
Namir stood at the very end of the path, ahead of even Kassim and the vizier, watching Aliyah like he’d just released a trained bird of prey into the skies.
Each time the thief crouched to leap from one rocky column to the next, my heart jumped into my mouth with her.
For once, the spymaster looked just as concerned. He was the only other person here who could feasibly have attempted the climb in silence. But I had no doubt the vizier considered Namir too valuable an asset, while Aliyah was expendable. I clenched my fists, glancing away from the thief queen for just a moment to glare at the vizier.
The sharp angles of her face looked even more haunted in the dim red light as she watched the thief. Perhaps she knew something we didn’t about the wrathful Guardian waiting to strike if we made so much as the tiniest noise.
Aliyah reached the base of the rock mountain. She tilted back her head so I could see the tattooed patterns running across her scalp, assessing the piled rocks before her.
Some of them looked loose, and the gaps between ledges were huge. Aliyah glanced over her shoulder, then took a step back toward us.
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Is she giving up?
The thief turned her back to us once more, then took a running leap.
My heart flew into my mouth as Aliyah flung herself across the gap between the pillars before clinging to the side of the rock mountain like a monkey, swinging herself up and clinging to ledges like they weren’t made of the same smooth stone as the curved walls. She pressed herself up onto the ledge at the very top, hands on hips as she appraised the lamps piled before her.
She couldn’t just grab the closest one, not without sending the whole glittering pile crashing to the ground. Instead, on tiptoes, she reached up for the shining brass lamp at the very top, gingerly removing it with two hands.
She tucked it under her armpit, spun around, and carefully picked her way back down the mountain. When she reached the stepping stone pillars, she lightly ran across until she was back onto the path once more.
Namir positioned himself at the head of our human chain, and Aliyah glared at him as she handed over the first of the lamps. I gently lowered the torch I held to the ground, resting it against the rock.
Namir passed the lamp back to Hepzibah, who passed it to Kassim, who passed it to me. I cradled the simple oil lamp in both hands, the metal warm from being tucked so close to Aliyah’s body. The brass was dull, the engraved pattern simple. To think, such a modest item housed a powerful spirit.
The ring heated on my finger. Could Tarak sense the spirit in the lamp? Hoping he wasn’t still mad at me for telling Kassim how to get into the cave, I quickly passed it to the soldier behind me.
I watched as the lamp was passed carefully from soldier to soldier, until it finally reached Makani, who disappeared through the arch with it, her dark ponytail swinging behind her.
That was it. We’d extracted the first piece of treasure without any noise.
I turned around to find Kassim looking at me. He cocked his head to one side in question, and I tried to give him a reassuring nod.
Had Hepzibah warned him about the Guardian? No one else could have read the warning written in An Nimivah on the arch. Was I the only one who knew about the threat?
I looked over Kassim’s shoulder, seeing Aliyah’s brow furrowed, frowning up at Namir. I couldn’t see what he mouthed to her, but she shrugged and held up both hands, flashing all ten fingers at him so many times I lost count.
Was she communicating how many lamps were left?
Aliyah turned back, leaping across the columns of rock once more. I glanced back up to the top of the mountain, lifting my hair away from my clammy neck. The air in the cave was stifling, and getting hotter and hotter by the minute.
And if Aliyah’s estimates were right, we were going to be staying in here for a very, very long time.
Hours passed.
Long, sweaty hours, during which we were unable to really move or speak in the stifling, sulfurous cave as Aliyah went back and forth, collecting the lamps.
I blinked away the stinging sweat running into my eyes. I longed to roll my shoulders back, but was anxious that my aching bones would click, so I stayed perfectly still, feeling my muscles grow increasingly tighter.
Kassim’s sweat-soaked shirt stuck to his tense back, and beyond him, Aliyah finally retrieved what I hoped was the last lamp.
Each time she climbed up the mountain of rocks, she moved more slowly than before. She clambered down the rocks stiffly, the gracefulness in her limbs eroded by fatigue.
The thief hung from a ledge, then awkwardly swung to one side, landing heavily on the ground.
She was so close now, with just the columns to jump across. She leapt across the first one, then the second.
I glanced back up to the top of the piled rocks. Is that really it? Even if it wasn’t, I didn’t know how long the rest of us could keep going without a break, let alone Aliyah, who had been doing all of the physical labor.
She leapt toward the final pillar…and her foot slipped.
Her ankle bent to one side, then she toppled in slow motion, lurching over the edge of the narrow pillar. The whites of Aliyah’s eyes flashed, but she somehow stayed silent, even in the knowledge she was falling to her death.
I took a step forward, pressing my hands to my lips in silent horror as my friend fell.
Then dark arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her back away from the edge.
Namir…
I didn’t know how the spymaster had gotten to her so quickly, but he appeared at her side in a flash, pulling her toward him. They stood still for a moment, Namir’s arms wrapped tightly around her.
Aliyah finally twisted in his arms to face her rescuer, her face pale. When she saw Namir, she pushed away from him with a yelp, her terrified expression replaced by one of outrage.
The lamp went flying from her hands.
It clattered against the rocky pillar, bouncing clean off the edge and into the rocky chasm below, smashing and clanging against rocks as it went.
Everyone flinched as crashing sounds filled the air around us, echoing off the curved walls of the cave, like a thousand and one lamps had fallen from the sky and shattered against the rocks below.
Kassim took a step backward, blocking my view. I peered over his broad shoulder.
Aliyah and Namir had frozen atop the pillar, still standing side by side, the fury on Aliyah’s face melting into panic. No one moved as the echoes lessened, fading to a silence that rang in our ears just as loudly. I held my breath.
Nothing happened.
The Guardian in the warning must have been no more than a tale to scare people away. A warm breeze carried through the cave, stirring the heavy air and lifting the damp curls away from my face.
I shared a wide-eyed glance with Kassim.
Then a roar ripped through the air, shuddering the rocks beneath us.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“What is that?” Aliyah shouted over the echoing roar, her voice hoarse as she took a staggering step forward. “Get off of me.” She slapped away Namir’s steadying hand, throwing him a venomous glare. “This is all your fault.”
Namir dropped his hands to his sides, paling as he glanced around the cavern with wide eyes.
“We have to leave!” I cried, my voice faint over the continued roars. They were getting louder. “The archway warned of a Guardian. I think this is it!”
The rocks at the top of the cave began to crumble, rubble cascading down the walls as the ground beneath us groaned and cracked like thunder.
“What’s a Guardian?” Kassim yelled above the din.
A long, dark shadow appeared on the distant wall, and a huge, horned demon made of rock staggered into the cave. A wave of molten lava flowed around its ankles as it strode toward us, its pit-like eyes roaming the area.
“Th-that,” I stammered, pointing, but everyone had already turned to look. Shouts filled the air as everyone began to scramble back toward the entrance, but the hard rock suddenly trembled unsteadily beneath my feet.
I threw out my hands to balance myself just as Aliyah appeared at my side, a haunted look crossing her face as she took in the Guardian’s huge, rocky body laced with veins of fire.
White, bony fingers gripped her shoulder. “The lamp you dropped, thief… Was it the last one?” the vizier demanded.
Aliyah pulled out of her grasp. “Yes, but–”
She yelped as I pulled her to one side, a huge, molten fist slamming into the rock where she’d just been standing.
The narrow pillars Aliyah had crossed earlier tumbled into one another with a crash, knocking each other over like a child’s game as the rock cracked and splintered, eaten up by the molten river beginning to flood the cavern. The lava rose steadily.
“Out!” Kassim cried, his voice echoing through the cavern as the fire-demon’s head swiveled in his direction, then it crashed toward the sultan with its fists raised.
Kassim rolled out of the way just before the fist smashed down.
The rocks beneath my feet suddenly fissured and cracked, sliding in two
different directions. I yelped, throwing myself to one side and feeling a rush of heat as the demon’s fist whooshed through the air right where I’d been standing.
I hit the ground heavily, the wind knocked from me, steam rising all around me.
The demon loomed, its dark eyes staring down at me. I opened my mouth to scream, but nothing came out.
This is it. I squeezed my eyes shut.
Then another yell sounded a little farther away.
The impact never came.
I opened my eyes to see the Guardian turning away from me and heading toward the sound. It’s almost as if–
“It’s blind!” I pressed myself to all fours and clambered to my feet, shouting above the din of the crashing rocks and shuddering cave. “Everyone stay silent!”
My shouts were enough to get the Guardian’s attention again, and I sprinted forward before it came crashing back to the part of the path I’d been lying on.
Everyone fell silent immediately, the echoes of my final words bouncing off the chamber walls.
Understanding dawned. It wasn’t volcanic activity that had carved the walls into such strange, concave shapes. It had been designed so the Guardian could hear everything, even the tiniest noise.
Luckily, the crumbling cave masked our footsteps as we scrambled toward the archway and the exit beyond. Aliyah and Namir were already way ahead, deftly leaping across the disintegrating ground. Kassim was close behind them, but he paused, turning back to mouth my name and frantically wave me to him.
Rocks crumbled away from the edge of the path, landing with hissing plops into the lava flooding into the cave. Some of the sturdier rocks floated on top, like lily pads on a molten lake, rising up from the bottom of the cave toward us.
Something flashed on one of the floating rocks.
The last lamp. The one Aliyah had dropped.
For a second, my body twitched. Can I run back and get it?
But everyone else was almost back at the archway and safety.
Palace of Wishes (2020 Reissue) Page 21