I caught sight of Rafi. The rest of the room faded away when I saw who he was talking to.
Seated at a round table in the middle of the room, facing away from me, was a woman. Her shaved head gleamed in the flickering light illuminating the swirling tattoos across her scalp.
My whole body twitched with the urge to start running again.
Rafi had delivered me to the Queen of Thieves.
6
Before I could decide if I was going to stay or run, Aliyah twisted in her chair to face me.
She looked just as she had in the royal treasury. She wore plain, dark pants and a shirt, the type of clothes meant to blend into the shadows. It looked just like the sort of thing Namir might wear, albeit slightly more formfitting.
“Come on.” Rafi beckoned me forward.
Even though the stone of my ring was turned toward my palm, I instinctively put my other hand over it, checking it was hidden from sight. I couldn’t let the thieves know I had the treasure they’d been sent to steal. I stepped through the door and slowly walked down another flight of stairs, scanning the belly of the cavernous cellar as I went.
No one else seemed interested in me. Shouts and laughter rang out as the thieves chatted amongst themselves. In the far corner, some swung in hammocks, and nearby, a girl with a dark braid running around her head like a crown threw knives at a target.
Aliyah sat at a vast table that could have easily seated Kassim’s whole council. She played cards with at least ten other people.
I walked toward her, forcing my shoulders back and holding my head high. There was no way she knew who I was. I just had to keep my cool.
“… kept up with me the whole time. She even jumped across the rooftop when…” Rafi trailed off when he saw me.
He jumped up to sit on the table, upsetting piles of cards and coins. Several of the thieves yelled and swatted at him. He just cackled and swung his legs.
“This is Aliyah,” he said to me. The woman’s piercing, almond-shaped eyes looked me up and down as I stood before her. “She can get your letter to Yadina.”
Creeping doubt walked fingers up my back. The Queen of Thieves would be able to get my letter to Yadina, but why would she lower herself to such a menial task, and for a stranger no less?
“Thank you,” I said, meeting her intense gaze.
“Don’t thank me yet.”
Her voice was low and grating, like a blade being drawn. The thieves next to her had already returned to their game.
“Rafi says you need an urgent letter delivered to Yadina.” Aliyah slid a dagger from her belt and jabbed the tip into the table in front of her.
I eyed the dagger warily. “I do. None of the bird merchants in the city can do it since the Phoenites took over the city.”
“Who’s the letter for?”
“A friend,” I lied without hesitation. “A merchant named Ambar. He trades in magical objects.”
“Below board, I take it?”
“What?”
“Illegal trades?”
“Uh… Yes,” I faltered. “So, can you do it?”
She cast me an assessing glance. “We can smuggle your letters to Yadina, girl.”
Several of the thieves sniggered.
Girl? Aliyah can’t be more than five years older than me. I ground my teeth at her patronizing tone.
“I have a name,” I replied crossly.
“She charges a silver coin to know it, though,” Rafi said with a wink.
I glared at him. I’d been happy to verbally spar with a young boy, but I didn’t think such impudence would fly with the Queen of Thieves.
“It’s Z-Zahra,” I stammered.
“You sure about that, Z-Zahra?” Aliyah mimicked with a smirk. “How about I just call you Z? I expect that’s about as close to the truth as we’ll get.”
I swallowed. Wow. I’m really bad at this underhanded stuff.
A fan of cards seemed to materialize in Aliyah’s hand. She slammed down three in the middle of the table, and several men and women groaned. She chuckled and pulled a pile of gold dinars toward her.
A handsome thief with a neat mustache threw his cards down. “There’s no way. You’re cheating!”
“Don’t be a sore loser, Faris,” Aliyah replied with a feline smile. She turned back to me. “Here’s the deal, Z. I will smuggle your letter to Yadina and bring you any reply. But there’s a price.”
“That’s not a problem.” I reached for my pouch of coins. “How much–”
“I need you to do me a favor.”
I frowned, leaving the pouch untouched. “You don’t want money?”
“Oh, I most certainly do. It’ll be eight gold coins per delivery. But I need you to help us with something first.” Aliyah glanced at Rafi.
“She can do it, Ali. She wrote that letter herself.”
Aliyah turned to look at me again. She interlaced her fingers behind her head. I found my gaze wandering over the intricate patterns tattooed across her scalp.
“I need someone to help me on a job,” Aliyah said. “Someone who can read. I sent Rafi out to find someone. He brought me you.”
So it was no coincidence Rafi had offered to help me. I should’ve known it was too good to be true.
“I’m no thief. I won’t help you steal.”
Using a thief to smuggle secret letters was one thing, but helping the very same gang who had attacked my palace… Well, that didn’t seem like the actions of a future sultanah.
Several of the thieves looked up from their cards at my words. I glanced around the silent room. The thieves had slowly and quietly surrounded me.
The slight, knife-throwing girl with the tight braid crown strode over to stand behind Aliyah. She lifted her head like she wore a real crown and looked down her nose at me.
“And what’s wrong with being a thief?” she quipped, her voice light and dangerous as a nocked arrow.
I swallowed. I didn’t think she would enjoy my explanation of why legal trade systems were necessary for a flourishing economy.
“Lisha, peace,” Aliyah crooned.
Lisha. She had been one of the thieves from the treasury. I remembered the name. From the way she stood close to Aliyah’s elbow, she looked to be the queen’s second-in-command.
Aliyah unlaced her fingers. “We may be thieves, but we are also family.”
“How many in your family?” My mouth felt dry as I looked around. I was surrounded now, everyone watching our exchange intently. I resisted the urge to shield my ring again.
“Around forty,” Aliyah replied with an easy smile. “And be under no illusion. I am not inviting you, a stranger, to join my family. You have to prove your worth for that honor.”
I flinched. I didn’t want to join her raggedy band of criminals anyway.
“Why can’t you just read things yourself?”
As soon as the words left my mouth, I remembered my conversation with Namir that morning. What was it he’d called them? An illiterate bunch of street rats.
Of course. The thieves couldn’t read.
Aliyah didn’t look embarrassed in the slightest. “As thieves, we hire based on several different skill sets–”
“Lock picking!” one of them called out.
“Sleight of hand!”
“Slitting a throat quietly,” Lisha added, twirling a knife in her hand. Several of the thieves laughed.
“I didn’t ask for a list,” Aliyah snapped. Instantly, everyone fell silent. She looked back at me. “Our skills are not of the…scholarly variety.”
I looked around the group. I didn’t trust them, and I didn’t agree with their morals. But they were my best chance at getting letters to my sister. And now that I thought about it, having illiterate messengers delivering them was perfect. At least I knew they wouldn’t read the contents.
“I’ll only help you if you swear it’s just reading. I won’t steal anything.”
Aliyah pressed her hand over her heart. “I swear on my cold
, black, thieving heart.”
I pressed my lips together. “Okay then.”
Aliyah stood swiftly, her limbs moving like liquid. “We have ourselves a scholar!”
A cheer went up around the room. Several of the thieves drained their tankards and slammed them onto the table. Aliyah tucked her dagger back into her belt. “Saddle up. We’re heading out of the city.”
“Out of Kisrabah?” I asked. Just how far would I have to go?
“Only a short ride outside of the city walls.” Aliyah’s teeth glinted in the light as she smiled. “It’s time to pay the Order of the Scholars a little visit.”
7
The Order of the Scholars was based in a tower, a skinny, windowless structure that looked like a stick of charcoal wedged into the horizon, surrounded by huge, dusty slabs of rock jutting from the ground.
As Aliyah had promised, it hadn’t been far. The sun was still high in the sky as we approached, the dark, obelisk tower looming above us like an ominous shadow. I had wanted to ride today...even if this hadn’t been exactly what I’d imagined.
Aliyah, who rode in front, dismounted. She still wore the same dark clothes as before, but now her head was covered in a scarf, a crossbow slung across her shoulders.
The rest of the thieves began to dismount, so I followed, sliding down from my perch behind Rafi on his stocky pony.
The vast, wooden doors were closed, bands of shimmering copper running along them in whorls. Aliyah crouched in front of the door, lock picks flashing in her hand.
“You’re breaking in?” I asked. “Isn’t this just a library? Couldn’t we just ask–”
“We’re thieves, scholar girl. What did you think? I’d booked an appointment with the head librarian?” Aliyah didn’t even look back from her work as she spoke, but I could hear the distaste in her words. “Only members of the Order are allowed to borrow books from this library. Besides, today is a day of rest for them. The library is locked because it’s empty.”
“You swore I wouldn’t have to steal anything.”
“I swore on my cold, black, thieving heart. What did you expect? And you won’t actually be stealing. You read. We steal,” she replied through gritted teeth, still fussing with the lock. “Ugh. This would be a lot quicker if I still had my key.”
Guilt flashed through me, closely followed by satisfaction. Aliyah’s key currently sat in my pocket.
After another minute, something clicked and the doors swung inward. A cheer went up from the thieves as Aliyah stood. She pushed through the doors, followed by Lisha, then Rafi and me.
We stepped into a large, windowless, stone antechamber. At the far end, illuminated by the torches flickering on wall mounts, stood three doors surrounded by stone statues and carvings of different animals and creatures.
The footsteps of the rest of the thieves echoed through the stone chamber as they filed in behind us. The hair on my arms and the back of my neck stood on end.
It’s just the cool temperature of the room. Nothing else.
Lisha grabbed my arm and pulled me roughly toward Aliyah at the front of the group.
“Get off.” I pulled out of her grasp.
“Time to read, scholar.” Aliyah pointed at the inscription above the three doors.
Words in the common tongue had been carved into the stone. They ran the length of the room in a long, ribbon-like banner. I was still too far away to read it properly.
I glowered at Aliyah, then walked down the three steps into the semicircle that surrounded the doors. As soon as I placed a foot on the flagstones, a tremor ran through the room and the door we’d entered through swung shut, cutting off the only sliver of sunlight.
There was silence.
Then the grating of stone on stone echoed through the room and I threw a worried glance back at Aliyah and the thieves.
From high up on the wall, one of the stone statues shuddered to life. It had the head of a jackal and wings of a roc, which sprouted from a short, human-looking body. The creature peeled away from the wall with a rough scraping sound, then dropped to land with a resounding thud on a ledge above the three doors.
“Intruder!” it shouted, its stone jaws crunching and snapping with the words. “The doors to the library will only open to those scholars worthy of the knowledge it holds. Solve the riddle and prove yourself, or lose your life in forfeit.”
Lose my life? “What are you?” I breathed.
“I am a great and wise ifrit, bound to protect the knowledge of the Order of the Scholars.”
So there was a spirit inside this stone gargoyle? And it had made it pretty clear the cost of failure would be my life. This was not part of the bargain.
I turned back to Aliyah. The thief queen looked at me over her crossbow, which was trained on my head. All the other thieves stood behind her, their weapons drawn.
“This is the reading you need me to do? Spirits, Aliyah. It’ll kill me if I get it wrong!”
“If you don’t do it, we’ll kill you,” Lisha spat, two knives gleaming in her hands.
A nervous laugh rippled through the thieves.
I ignored the dark-haired girl, flicking my gaze back to Aliyah. “You son of a roc! This wasn’t part of our deal.”
“How did you expect we’d break into a heavily guarded library? The knowledge contained in here is more precious than treasure to some people. Did you think we could ride up to the doors, shout a magic word, and it would just open for us?”
My whole body trembled with equal parts rage and fear.
“I’m waiting,” the stone spirit rasped. “Are you even going to attempt the riddle, or should I smite you where you stand?”
“Smite?” I repeated faintly.
“Oh… Odd choice, but okay.” The jackal creature rolled its shoulders, and the torches in the room flared higher.
“No!” I cried hurriedly. “That’s not my choice. I choose the riddle.”
“So be it.” The spirit sounded dejected. “You have three chances to answer correctly. Then I default to smiting. Is that clear?”
“Crystal.”
I looked up to the long strip of words running across the wall, engraved into the dark stone.
“Read it out loud,” Aliyah demanded from behind me.
I ground my teeth. The last thing I wanted to do was obey any more of this woman’s orders. But to have all of them working on the riddle… I could do with the help.
My eyes found the start of the sentence in the top corner. “I am straight and curved. I am cold, even in sunlight. I at once kill and heal. What am I?”
Panic slowly rose in my chest. I didn’t know the answer.
A murmur filled the room as the thieves repeated the words amongst themselves. I turned back to look at them. Aliyah met my gaze with wide eyes, and I shook my head slightly. Her face darkened.
I repeated the riddle to myself, whispering the words out loud.
“What about rope?” one of the thieves shouted. “That can be straight and curved.”
“It’s not cold in the sunlight, though, Gadiel, is it?” Lisha snapped.
“What about a sorcerer?” Rafi’s boyish voice floated above the others. “They have magic that can kill and heal.”
“It doesn’t fit the rest of it,” I replied distantly, scanning the riddle for a third time.
“I don’t have all day, you know,” the jackal-headed spirit complained.
“Oh really? Where else you got to be, stone head?” Rafi taunted.
The spirit huffed, but didn’t reply.
It was no use. The thieves wouldn’t be able to help me. The ring suddenly felt warm on my finger. Tarak. If ever there was time to use one of my wishes, it was now, when I was, quite literally, stuck between a rock and a hard place.
I rubbed the jewel with my thumb. “Keep hidden,” I murmured softly. A tiny tendril of smoke wafted from the ring, then nothing. Where is he?
There was the lightest pressure on my shoulder, like a brush of fingertips. “Yo
u called, princess?”
I flinched at Tarak’s voice close to my ear. But he wasn’t standing next to me. I squashed down my chin to look at my shoulder out of the corner of my eye. The shell of a beetle glinted in the torchlight like a jewel, changing from blue to green to purple.
Of course, even as a beetle, Tarak had to look flashy. I shifted so my right shoulder was hidden from the thieves.
“Quite a pickle you’ve gotten yourself into here, princess,” the djinni continued in a soft voice. “A real life-and-death situation. Or death-and-death, depending on how you look at it.”
“Ssh!” I hissed.
The thieves’ chattering hushed behind me. They probably thought I was quieting them so I could think.
“You’ve had quite the day. Escaping the palace. Dodging the city guards. Now you’ve made some questionable new friends who don’t seem to care if you die.” His legs skittered over my shoulder, and I repressed the urge to flinch. “It seems you’ve made another deal, instead of seeing through the one you made with me.” He made a horrible clicking sound and something nipped at my earlobe.
“Ow!” I jerked my head to the side, then cast a wary glance over my other shoulder. Lisha and Aliyah, and several of the other thieves, had their eyes trained on me now. I didn’t have time for Tarak’s chiding.
“I wish to be able to solve this riddle,” I whispered.
“Granted,” came Tarak’s immediate reply.
I kept still, waiting for a rush of heat or a tingle or something to prove that the wish had worked. I didn’t feel any different. More distressingly, I still didn’t know the answer.
I looked back up at the riddle again, hoping that once I read the words, the answer would just pop into my mind by magic.
Nothing. I still drew a blank.
“It didn’t work,” I hissed under my breath. “I don’t know the answer. Do it again.”
“Hmm.” Tarak somehow sounded like he was repressing a smirk, even in his insect form. “That’s weird. I guess you wished for the ability to solve the riddle, rather than the answer.”
The Queen of Forty Thieves Page 4
