Chapter 33

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Qita narrowed his golden eyes at our host. "I had no intention-"

"Intention or not, they're here," Dakin snapped as he strode over to the wardrobe and flung the pair of doors open.

He revealed a bland interior with a few clothes hanging from hooks. Our host leaned in and yanked on one of those curved bits of metal. The back of the wardrobe swung into the cave wall and opened a secret staircase carved from the stone that led down into the earth.

He looked over his shoulder at us. "Follow me and shut the door behind you."

The increasingly louder voices gave us little choice, and the three of us followed our guide into the underworld. I was immediately struck by the scent of water, and that only grew the deeper we traveled down the slippery stairs. A faint noise reached my ears far before I could see the source.

"An underground stream?" Ben guessed.

"Not quite," Dakin replied as we reached the bottom of the flight of stairs. He lit a torch that hung nearby and held aloft the light to reveal a long tunnel and the dark shimmer of water. "More like a river."

Ben, Qita, and I gawked at the large body of water that glided past us. Its easy waters lapped against the steep sides, carved through ages of continuous flow. The bank dipped into the river at a gentle angle and the clear waters allowed me to see the shallow depth in the center.

"So this is where you got that barrel of water?" I guessed.

Dakin nodded. "It's called the Sirun.

"Dak!" a voice shouted from above. "The palace guards are coming! Where are you, Dak?"

Qita's eyes dilated and my heart skipped a beat. Dakin grabbed an arm from both Ben and me, and yanked us toward the river. "You have to get out of here."

"What? Why?" I questioned him before I stumbled into the waters. A yelp escaped me at the bitter cold of the river.

"They can only be searching for you," he pointed out as he stabbed a finger upstream. "Follow the waters to an oasis north of here. It's a hell of a trudge and there are some paths on the way that lead back into the city, but you should get there-" Shouts rang up from above us.

"Get out of the way!"

"They've been spotted here before! Where are you keeping them?"

I turned to Dakin. "I think we'll have plenty of encouragement to get our asses moving, but what about you?"

He grinned and patted his stomach. "I'm a little too big to fit through those thin crevices now, so I'll bide you as much time as I can manage, but you'd better get going."

Qita stood at the edge of the river and clawed the air above the water. "I am not going-hey!"

I had scooped him into my arms and held him close. He wriggled a little and I playfully glared at him. "Keep doing that and you're getting dropped." That made him stop.

The sound of cracking wood made us all look up the stairs. Faint torchlight flickered into view.

"Run!" Dakin shouted as he rolled up his sleeves. "Now!"

Ben grabbed my arm and pulled me upstream. I looked over my shoulder and watched as Dakin marched up the stairs toward the light. We rounded a gentle bend and he vanished.

The sounds of our splashing feet drowned out anything I could have heard as we hurried through the drifting waters. Complete darkness overcame us and only Ben's hand on mine stopped me from running into the walls. I cradled Qita in my other arm and he clung to me with partially splayed claws.

After a few tense minutes, I felt us turn sharply leftward and we stepped out of the water. "Is this the way to the oasis?" I asked him.

"No. I'm going to stop the soldiers from taking Salah and his family to the Thaqiba."

"About time!" Qita hissed.

"But how are you going to do that?"

I felt his sleeve brush against my hand and the cloth had changed thickness and style. "I won't, but the Dragon Thief will."

"By the gods!" Qita exclaimed. "What sort of getup is that?"

Ben's voice had a slightly bemused tone. "The best kind."

We hurried along a pebble-strewn tunnel with rough walls for several minutes before Qita squirmed in my hold. "I hear marching men."

Ben stopped and we all listened. A soft sound like thunder reached our ears. "There seems to be a way out ahead of us," Ben spoke in our minds.

We moved forward another twenty yards and found ourselves at a wide crack. The ‘door' led into an abandoned basement. Ben used his strength to widen it and soon I stumbled out into dusty air.

A window high up on the wall revealed a wide street. Ben stepped back and peered out through the dirty glass. A dozen shadows passed by us, all of them holding spears.

"I can't smell my family among them," Qita spoke up.

Ben narrowed his red eyes at the street. "They'll need to pass through here to reach the northern gate."

"What if they already passed by?" I pointed out.

Ben pursed his lips. "Then we'll follow them, but I'll take lookout outside. You stay here."

"I can knock heads as well as anyone," I insisted.

"Not heads trained in combat," he countered.

I pursed my lips but couldn't argue. Ben scurried up the dusty stairs and slipped into the empty house. We could hear his footsteps on the wooden floorboards as he made his way out of what I assumed was the back door. My heart pounded in my chest as I stretched my neck to view the window.

"One moment," Qita whispered as he climbed atop my shoulders. "Move me closer to the window."

I did as bidden and pressed myself against the wall. Qita leapt onto the wide sill and used a paw to wipe away some of the dirt to better peer out. His glowing eyes darted over the landscape hidden from me.

"Nothing is moving out there," he whispered as he crouched down into a more comfortable position. "I have never heard the city so quiet as it is now."

I took a seat on the bottom step and sighed. The minutes ticked by and boredom intruded into my thoughts. How wrong I was to look on that with disgust as a sudden chill slipped into me. It wasn't like the one I'd felt in previous times. This was less combative but no less unsettling.

"What's wrong?" Qita called from his high perch. "You look like you saw a spirit."

I pressed my balled hands against my chest and shook my head. "I-I don't know. I just felt like something bad happened-"

"Hurry!" a voice shouted as a dozen soldiers rushed past our position. "The prisoners are trying to escape!"

I leapt to my feet and Qita stood at attention. He whipped his head left and right to follow their trail. They're headed toward the palace!"

I didn't think but spun around and clambered up the stairs.

"Hey!" the cat shouted as he leapt off the sill. "Wait for me!"

I kept the door open for him as I followed Ben's footsteps. They led through a main room and down a hall to the rear of the back of the house. I crashed out of the door and whipped my head left and right.

Qita followed behind me and turned left. "This way!"

We sprinted down the streets and I was nearly spent by the time we neared the steps that led up to the palace. A nervous crowd had congregated around the mouths of the streets and I mingled with them. All eyes lay on the stairs where the king sat in an open litter manned by two men on each post. He was surrounded by a dozen guards in elegant armor and carrying spears with wicked barbed tips.

A half dozen hard-scrambled soldiers pushed their way through the crowd. They pulled along another person with them whom they dragged to the bottom of the steps. My heart nearly stopped as they threw their captive to the ground. It was Ben.

"This is the man who tried to help the Sharif family escape, Your Highness."

Ramaal scowled down at the masked prisoner. "Remove his mask so I might see his face."

One of the guards stepped forward and grabbed the bottom of Ben's mask. He pulled it down and revealed a jaw that wasn't human. Scales completely covered the flesh and a pair of sharp teeth filled the mouth.

The guard stumbled back with a gasp as the king recoiled. "By the gods! What sorcery would make a monster out of a man?"

"Less evil than the fear that makes a king forget his duty to his people," Ben shot back.

Ramaal's eyes burned with fire. He whipped his head around to one of his assistants. "Bring forward the aqasa to me!" The man hurried forward and presented the sand orb to his king.

The king snatched the ball from its box and stood. He strode over to Ben and held aloft the orb. The ball didn't give any hint of light from within its depths.

Ramaal's look was one of fury and confusion. "Trickery!" he shouted as he threw the aqara to the ground beside Ben. "No man can have a face such as yours without the use of magic!"

Ben managed a toothy grin. "I guess I'm just lucky."

Ramaal sneered at him before his eyes whipped up to the soldiers. "Take him to the Thaqiba!"

One of the lead men blinked at him. "What for, Your Highness?"

The king's face reddened. "So he might rejuvenate the Thaqiba, you fool! Now take him!"