The City of Zirdai

by Maria V. Snyder

  She pulled in a deep breath and said, “Last one there is a rotten velbloud egg!” She took off running. Suddenly feeling six circuits old, she laughed. The sound was carried by the wind.

  For a few meters she worried that no one had followed her. That they all stood there staring after her as if she’d gone insane. Then a whoop sounded behind her along with the crunch and thrum of boots on the sand.

  Jaft soon caught up to her. He flashed her a big grin. “You run like a gamelu with a sore hoof.”

  “Better than smelling like one,” she countered.

  “Yeah, well, enjoy the aroma, because you’ll be downwind of me from now on.” With a burst of speed, he pulled ahead.

  Lian came up beside her and slowed to Shyla’s pace. “We’ll let that idiot burn up all his energy and then we’ll pass him while he’s bent over sucking in air.”

  “Sounds like this isn’t the first time you’ve raced him,” Shyla said.

  “Let’s just say he has issues with pacing himself.”

  “Oh?”

  Lian winked at her.

  “Oooh.”

  Vashi drew up on Shyla’s right side. “This is fun. I really needed to stretch my legs.”

  “With those long legs, you have an unfair advantage,” Lian mock groused.

  “And they’re handy in a fight.”

  “Modest, too. I’m beginning to hate her,” Lian said, but without any malice.

  Soon, they were too winded to talk. Shyla glanced behind her. Elek was a few meters back, while Aphra and Jayden jogged side by side. She wondered if they were biding their time. Or was Jayden keeping a slower pace for Aphra? The treasure hunter probably didn’t have the training the rest of them did.

  As predicted, they passed Jaft about a kilometer from Tamburah’s temple. While far from bent over, he puffed and complained with each step. “Stupid…sand…sucks…all the…energy…from my…legs.”

  When the temple was within sight, Lian and Vashi increased their speed. Shyla kept her slower pace to avoid expending too much energy. Elek passed her a few meters from the escape hatch. Vashi reached it first, then Lian, Elek, Shyla, Jaft, and Aphra. Jayden was the rotten velbloud egg. They all collapsed in the sand. And even while huffing for breath, they were still able to give Jayden a hard time over being last.

  “Someone had to erase our tracks while running at the same time,” he said in his defense, but otherwise didn’t seem to mind the good-natured ribbing.

  It didn’t take long for them to recover. After removingclosed druks from their packs, they opened them and entered through the escape tunnel.

  Aphra stopped to admire the faces. Exploring the carvings with her fingertips, she said, “These might be worth a few osees if you could remove them without damaging them.”

  “Really?” Jaft asked. “Who would buy them? They’re hideous.”

  “You’d be surprised what people will buy if they think it’s old and rare,” Aphra said.

  “There are thousands of them,” he countered.

  “Except the buyers don’t know that, do they?” Aphra smirked.

  “Ah, tricky.”

  They continued on to the judgment room. Shyla removed her copy of the map and spread it out on the altar. Jayden stood next to her.

  She pointed to Tamburah’s chin. “This is the starting point and I think that’s here in his judgment room. His eyes are where the maze is located. We just need to figure out which of these hallways is this line that leads from the starting point. We could try all six, but that would take too long. Do you remember the layout beyond each one?”

  Jayden picked up the map, holding it out in front of him. He glanced at each hallway, then back at the map.

  Aphra moved closer to Tamburah’s face. She poked the tip of her knife into one of the red tears on his cheek. “These are ruby chips. Also worth a couple osees.”

  “Can you sell them in Zirdai or would you need to go to Catriona?” Shyla asked.

  Aphra considered. “The prince stopped all the hunters here, but he didn’t arrest any of the buyers. I’m sure they’d be interested. As long as it’s not something big or significant. Why?”

  “Just in case we’re desperate.”

  Jayden finished his assessment. “That hallway matches the best. I don’t remember anything interesting beyond.” He shrugged. “I guess it could be hidden.”

  “Elek and Lian stay here,” Shyla said. “If anyone arrives, you can either fight or hide.”

  “Or come warn us,” Jayden said.

  “Use your judgment,” Shyla said.

  Aphra said, “Jayden and I will go first. There might be traps. Shyla, you read the map and tell me which way to go. Then the muscles can follow to watch our backs.”

  “Why am I with you?” Jayden asked. “Are you going to use me to trigger the booby traps?”

  “Aren’t you the one who knows this place the best?” She didn’t wait for an answer. “You can point out anything that doesn’t look right.”

  “Oh. Okay.”

  “And you can trigger the traps,” she teased.

  “Not funny.”

  Shyla directed the group through a number of hallways of the dead. Their boots scraped on the rough stone floor. The air smelled of dust and abandonment. And that was another potential hazard—bad air. Gases might have built up in various pockets.

  Aphra held the druk out in front of her, shining the light on every crack in the floor and walls. She paused often, holding up her free hand, stopping them. Once she crouched down and tapped the hilt of her knife on the floor. When nothing happened she straightened and continued.

  The slow pace and the knowledge that a trap could spring at any moment created a tension so thick it tasted bitter on Shyla’s tongue. Only Jayden seemed unaffected, watching Aphra’s cautious movements with an amused disdain.

  That was until she cried out and tackled him, knocking him down right before a sword shot out from the wall he’d just been standing next to.

  “Scorching sand demons,” he said.

  Aphra shushed him and they remained quiet. Shyla and the others stood frozen in place. Afraid to move, she noted Vashi had drawn her short sword.

  “All clear,” Aphra said, rolling off Jayden.

  He regained his feet, brushing the sand off his pants. “That happened so fast. How did you know?”

  “I heard a click. These traps are old and many times there’s a delay. And sometimes they fail to trigger. Other times…”

  “Other times?” Jayden helped Aphra to her feet.

  “They skewer you without warning.”

  He shuddered and scanned the walls. “When the Invisible Sword had their headquarters below, we hardly came up here, but I was certain there weren’t any traps left.”

  Aphra glanced at Shyla. “We must be getting close.”

  “A few more turns,” she said.

  “Stay behind me,” Aphra ordered.

  No one argued.

  After a few angles and a half dozen more traps, which Aphra triggered so they weren’t surprised on the way out, they reached an empty hexagonal room. About four meters wide, it was smaller than Tamburah’s judgment chamber and a layer of loose sand covered the floor, but, instead of six doors, it had only one. The room was a dead end. Aphra checked it for traps as Shyla consulted the map, but it appeared they’d arrived at the area of Tamburah’s left eye.

  “Now what?” Aphra asked after she declared it safe.

  Shyla examined the room. There were no symbols or markings on the walls or floor, no switches or even cracks. Everyone waited for her. But she saw nothing. After another frustrated angle, she remembered. Shyla needed to see with the power of The Eyes. Gathering her will, she added…heat…to her gaze and scanned the walls.

  Yellow symbols glowed—one on each wall, five total.

  “Do you see them?” she asked, digging into her pack for a piece of chalk.

  “Them?” Jayden asked.

  She swept a hand out. “Th
e glyphs?”

  “No.”

  The rest shook their heads.

  “I do.” The others watched her as she traced them with the chalk. When she finished all of them, she relaxed and the glow faded. The white chalk marks stood out clearly against the reddish-brown walls. The curved graphics tugged at her memories. She’d seen these before.

  “That was…interesting,” Aphra said. She moved closer to study one. “This is familiar.”

  Shyla joined her. “I thought so, too.”

  “These crossed and hooked lines remind me of Wequain’s reign. It’s part of his crest. He had everything branded with his crest.”

  “Even his family and servants,” Shyla said, then tapped the middle of her forehead. “Right here.”

  “That’s horrible.” Jaft rubbed his arms.

  “Hence the moniker, Wequain the Horrible.” The king had done a few other notable things as well. “He also started using osmium as currency. And—” She stared at the symbol as its meaning clicked in her head.

  “And?” Jaft prompted.

  “And it’s the number three!”

  “Great. How does that help us?”

  “Patience, Jaft.” Shyla examined the others. “Here are numbers one, two, four, and five.”

  “It’s a code. Get the right combination and…something happens,” Aphra said.

  “Something good or something bad?” Jayden asked, no doubt remembering his near miss with the blade.

  “It’s usually a surprise.”

  “Fun.” Jaft’s dry tone indicated he thought the opposite.

  “There are one hundred and twenty combinations with five numbers if you don’t repeat a number,” Vashi said. “But if you do, then it’s in the thousands. If the code is longer than five digits, then the possible combinations can be in the millions.”

  Shyla flipped between being impressed by Vashi’s math skills and despairing over the sheer number of possibilities.

  “Vashi was in charge of our treasury and ensuring we had enough supplies,” Jayden said.

  While interesting, it wasn’t helping. Shyla concentrated on the glyphs. The numbers weren’t in order on the walls either from left to right or right to left. Only Tamburah would be able to see them, so why not make it simple?

  Since she needed magic to find them, Shyla guessed she needed to use her power to…what? Touch them? It’d be a start.

  “I’m going to try pressing them from one to five in ascending order. You need to leave the room just in case there’s a bad surprise,” Shyla said.

  They moved to the doorway but remained there.

  Shyla went to number one and pulled her magic into her right hand. Taking a deep breath, she said, “Yell if you see or hear anything.” She placed her palm against the symbol. The rough wall was cool to the touch. Moving onto two, she repeated the action. Then three, four, and five. She kept her weight balanced, ready to dive or dash.

  Nothing happened.

  All right, what else was simple? “Now descending order.”

  “Are you going to try all hundred and twenty combinations?” Jaft asked.

  Was she? “Yes.” She touched five, then four, three, two, and one.

  A deep boom rattled the room. Then, starting in the middle of the floor, a line appeared in the sand and spiraled outward, growing larger with each rotation. It looked as if a giant invisible finger was drawing it.

  She looked at the others. “Can you see—”

  “The creepy death spiral? Yes,” Jaft said.

  Shyla joined her friends as it grew. With a thud, the middle of the room sank. Sand sizzled through the cracks in the floor as it continued to go down. The grating sound of stone scraping stone filled the air. The next spiral sank a moment later, then the next, and the next followed. Another boom vibrated through the soles of her boots. After a few heartbeats, the sand stopped. Silence descended.

  Instead of a flat floor, before them was now a ramp that corkscrewed down into the blackness.

  Thirteen

  The five of them stared into the darkness. For the floor to just drop away…that was impressive. She’d never witnessed anything like that before.

  “Who wants to climb down into the seven caverns of hell first?” Jaft asked.

  “Are you always this melodramatic?” Vashi asked him.

  Shyla glanced at Aphra. “Do you think there will be booby traps?”

  “It depends if Tamburah believed someone could get this far. Considering only he had been able to see the symbols, I doubt it. But I’m not relaxing my guard.”

  “Then you first.”

  “Thanks.” Aphra approached the lip of the ramp as if a venomous snake was coiled inside. She held a druk in one hand and her knife in the other. Winding around the steps, she slowly disappeared.

  The tension increased as Shyla waited. Perhaps she shouldn’t have sent Aphra down there. What if only someone with the power of The Eyes—

  “All clear,” Aphra called.

  Everyone let out a collective sigh of relief. With Shyla in the lead, they stepped down the series of ramps, each one smaller than the last, until they reached the end which rested on the floor a level below the hexagonal room.

  Aphra waited for them. She jerked her thumb behind her. “The maze awaits.”

  “What happened to your arm?” Jayden asked.

  Her sleeve was ripped and blood welled. “There are nasty traps in there.”

  “What a surprise,” Jaft said dryly.

  To Aphra’s evident amusement, Jayden inspected the wound and declared it shallow. He removed a bandage from his pack and wrapped it around her bicep.

  The action reminded Shyla of Rendor, who would have done the same thing if she’d gotten hurt. Or perhaps not. He might be glad not having to worry about her anymore. Silencing those depressing thoughts, Shyla strode over to the maze’s entrance. “Bring that druk, Jaft.”

  He stopped right behind her. She took the lantern from him and held it up. The walls were identical to all the others in the temple. There were two ways to go, left or right.

  “Don’t go left,” Aphra said.

  Wondering if Tamburah had memorized the correct route or marked it as he had with the symbols, Shyla used her magic. Sure enough, an arrow pointed right. It seemed too easy.

  “Would the correct path have booby traps?” she asked Aphra.

  “No. Otherwise, Tamburah would have to disable them every time.”

  “He was paranoid about thieves finding his valuables,” Shyla said.

  “In that case, we should proceed with care.”

  “Wait,” Jayden said. “Do we need to solve the maze? We don’t have enough time to figure it out.”

  “No. Tamburah marked the route,” she said.

  “Right then?” Aphra asked.

  “Yes.”

  Aphra once again took the lead. Shyla directed her and they moved slowly. When Aphra held up a hand, they halted. When the hunter crouched, Shyla spotted another symbol on the wall. And there were four more on the floor. It took her a few moments to decipher it.

  “There’s a safe path through the trap,” Shyla said.

  “How do you know?” Aphra asked.

  “I can see it.”

  She moved aside. “You first.”

  “Are you sure?” Jayden asked.

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  “Such confidence,” Jaft muttered.

  Shyla stepped on the first graphic on the floor. When nothing happened, she released her breath, bent down to trace her boot with the chalk, and moved to the subsequent one. After she finished, she spotted the next arrow.

  “Follow my footprints exactly,” she instructed.

  Without hesitating, Aphra went, then Jayden and Vashi.

  “And to think,” Jaft said, stepping onto the first print. “My parents encouraged me to join the monastery because I had dangerous friends. If only they could see me now.”

  After Jaft joined them, Shyla led. With the booby traps
marked, she was able to increase their pace. As she navigated the twists and turns, she wondered how Tamburah had been able to create symbols only the power of The Eyes could detect. Had he used a special ink or chalk? Whatever it was, it had lasted for over thirteen hundred circuits.

  So intent on searching for more symbols, Shyla barreled into another hexagonal room without noticing the skeletons at first. They sat on the floor with their backs resting on the walls and their legs splayed out in front. There were ten of them.

  “Friends of yours?” Jaft asked.

  “Maybe it’s a warning.” Aphra knelt next to one.

  “I think they were Tamburah’s servants who helped hide his treasure.” Shyla pointed to a rusted knife lodged between one of the skeleton’s ribs.

  “Speaking of treasure, where is it?” Jayden asked.

  Increasing her magic, she scanned the walls. Nothing.

  “Don’t tell me someone already took it?” Aphra’s voice held disappointment. She straightened. “Unfortunately, it happens more often than not.”

  No. Shyla refused to believe that they’d come all this way to find nothing. She paced around the room, almost tripping over the skeletons’ feet. That gave her an idea. Sweeping the sand away from the center of the floor, Shyla revealed a symbol. This one was a simple swirl.

  Shyla set her druk down, crouched and pressed both her palms to the swirl. She pushed with her magic and the ground collapsed underneath her.

  With a cry, she tumbled forward. Jayden shouted her name as she fell into a hole that expanded into steps. Rolling down the hard stone staircase, she kept her chin tucked close to her chest so she wouldn’t break her neck. She landed hard, sprawling at the bottom with a thump. Pain radiated up her back and ringed her ribs. Her lungs refused to work.

  Jayden rushed down the steps then bent over her. “Are you all right?”

  Unable to speak, she nodded. Aphra, Jaft and Vashi soon clustered around her in concern. The added light illuminated the room. Shyla caught a glimmer from the corner of her eye. She sucked in a breath and labored to sit up.

  Jayden helped her. “What’s wrong?”