Cave of Wonders

by Matthew J. Kirby

  “Well?” he said.

  “It’s . . .” Sera said.

  Dak waited a minute. “It’s what?”

  Sera wiped at something in her eye.

  “Are you crying?” Dak asked.

  “I GOT SAND IN MY EYE!” Sera said. She’d obviously been pushed too far.

  Dak’s voice softened. “Sera, I didn’t mean —”

  “Leave it alone, Dak,” Riq said. “She’ll tell you when she’s ready.”

  “Has she told you?” Dak asked.

  Riq looked at Sera. They’d talked a bit about their Remnants back during the Viking siege of Paris. And here they were again. What was it about battles that brought this stuff up? Sera shook her head at Riq, telling him not to say anything.

  Well, he sure didn’t like being put in the middle of this.

  “Dak, she’ll tell us when she’s ready.” Which was the truth.

  “You know what? I don’t like secrets!” Dak said. “I need to know what’s going on! It’s like we’re falling apart here, when we need to come together and be a team.”

  Riq had to admit the kid had a point. But he still wasn’t ready to say anything about his own problems yet, and apparently Sera wasn’t either.

  “Let’s just keep moving, Dak,” Sera said. “Please?”

  Dak folded his arms.

  Sera touched his arm. “Please, Dak.”

  Dak relaxed his frown. “Fine. Okay. Let’s go.”

  Riq was glad the two of them had worked it out, at least for now. They picked up their march again, the lights of the Mongol war camp pretty close now. Riq could see shadows moving in front of the campfires, silhouettes he couldn’t quite make out. He heard dogs barking and horses neighing, and the clamor and ring of metal.

  Once they reached the first few tents, Riq realized their plan was going to be a lot harder than he’d thought. The Mongol war camp was less like a camp and more like a mobile city. It was huge. And warriors stood armed and ready at every turn.

  “IT’S ENORMOUS,” Sera whispered. There were so many of the round tents, all arranged in a very orderly way. But what amazed Sera were the horses. They were everywhere. Lots of them. More than she could count. It seemed like the horses outnumbered the people five to one. Some of the horses had stuffed dummies mounted on them, as if the Mongols were trying to give the impression of more riders than they actually had.

  “Let’s look for Hulagu’s tent,” Dak said. “It will definitely stand out from the rest.”

  They snuck in between the tents, through the shadows, moving deeper and deeper into the Mongol territory. With each step, Sera had the feeling that this was the wrong way to go about saving the library. She didn’t think there was any way they would be able to convince Hulagu Khan to do anything. It was ridiculous. She thought they should instead try to find Tusi. She believed they could convince him somehow to help them. He was an amazing scientist, and he simply could not be SQ.

  But no one had listened to her, even though she’d been right about a lot of things before.

  The men in the Mongol army all wore the same uniform: a long wool coat that crossed in the front, buttoned under the right armpit, and was secured at the waist by a thin hide belt and wide sash. Leather armor was over that, to which scales and rings and other bits of metal had been attached. The women wore clothes pretty similar to the men, except without the armor, and some wore beaded, colored headdresses. They even wore pants like the men, which seemed practical for people who rode horses every day, and it made Sera smile.

  The smoke of the fire and the smells of the food they cooked filled the air, and Sera saw that Abi had been right about the diversity in the Mongol empire. The three of them could pretty much fit right in. Their translation devices picked up a few different languages from the snippets of conversation they overheard.

  They kept moving. And moving. All the tents started to look the same to Sera, and she wondered if they were going in circles.

  “Guys,” Sera said, “I’m just going to say one more time: I don’t think Tusi is SQ.”

  “Oh, for the love of mincemeat,” Dak said.

  “We’ve been over this,” Riq said.

  Sera wanted to yell at them, but she tightened her lips and kept it inside.

  More tents and more tents and more tents. And more horses.

  “You wouldn’t think they were going to battle tomorrow,” Riq said. “Most everyone seems to be asleep.”

  “I think the Mongols slept pretty easy,” Dak said. “They know how it’s going to go down in Baghdad.”

  “What’s that up there?” Riq nodded ahead.

  An enormous white tent materialized out of the night sky, towering over the war camp. It seemed to be almost as big as a small baseball stadium. Sera figured that had to be Hulagu Khan’s tent.

  Now that they knew where they were going, the three of them hurried forward, but they hadn’t gone far before Sera noticed the closer they got to the khan’s tent, the more guards she saw posted, men wearing conical helmets with tufted points at the top, some with fringes of fur. Each of them had two swords, and some also had axes.

  “We’ll never be able to get close to Hulagu,” Sera whispered.

  Riq said, “Did you think he was going to send out an invite and roll out the red carpet?”

  “No,” Sera said. “I just don’t know how we’ll do this.”

  “I do,” Dak said. “I know just the thing.”

  Sera recognized that tone. It was the tone Dak used when he thought he knew just the thing, but hadn’t stopped to actually think through that thing.

  “Dak, stop and think first,” Sera said.

  Dak smiled. “I already did when I got the idea.” He started forward, toward a group of guards.

  “Dak!” Sera whispered. “Come back!”

  But he was already too far away to hear her.

  “That dumb kid,” Riq said.

  “Easy,” Sera said. “He’s still my best friend.”

  She and Riq watched as Dak strode right out of the shadows, swinging his arms wide in a high-footed march. Like he was trying to draw attention. The guards shouted a cry of alarm and swarmed him, weapons drawn.

  “Oh, for the love of mi —” Riq stopped. “Was I seriously about to just say that?”

  “Yup,” Sera said.

  Riq nodded. “Perfect. Just perfect. You stay here.” He crept forward a few steps, and then marched out of the tents toward Dak and the guards. They instantly seized him, too. Sera strained forward to hear what they were saying, chewing on her lip, watching and waiting. She had no idea what Dak had planned here, but it made no sense to her.

  After a few moments of questioning, the guards took hold of Dak’s and Riq’s arms and heaved them in the opposite direction of Hulagu’s tent.

  “No, wait!” Dak shouted. “We’re spies! From Baghdad! You need to take us before Hulagu! You were supposed to send us to Hulagu!”

  So that had been his plan. But now they were taking him someplace else, a prisoner. Riq was shaking his head. He glanced in Sera’s direction at one point, and gave a little nod, even though Sera knew he couldn’t see her. It was all up to her now.

  Sera was torn. Should she follow Dak and Riq and see where the Mongols were taking them, or should she go forward with the mission in the way she thought was best? If she did that, she would try to find Tusi.

  In another moment, she would lose sight of Dak and Riq. She hesitated, and the moment she had to act was gone. They rounded a tent and disappeared. Sera felt a sickening hollow spreading in her stomach, but decided to hope they could take care of themselves. She would work on saving the House of Wisdom. Fixing the Break. Saving her parents.

  Everything she did now was for them and to prevent the coming Cataclysm that would take them away from her.

  She turned toward Hulagu’s massive tent and crept forward. She actually had an easier time staying hidden without Dak and Riq. She was smaller and quieter than they were. The tent only got bigg
er as she got closer to it. When she finally had a view of the front entrance, with dozens of guards and horses, it confirmed to her that it would be impossible to get to Hulagu that way. Which was why her plan was better.

  But how could she find Tusi? She figured he, as the khan’s adviser, would probably have a nice tent, and it would probably be near Hulagu’s. Sera started scouting around. There was a ring of tents around the khan’s, and they were bigger and richer than the plain ones they’d seen since entering the camp. These were embroidered and painted. But none of them had any features that came right out and said, “Astronomer and mathematician inside.”

  It took quite a while, but Sera made it all the way around Hulagu’s tent, sneaking past guards and regular Mongol warriors, without finding any sign. She was frustrated and discouraged. If Tusi was inside one of the tents nearby, she had no way of knowing. If he was somewhere else in the vast war camp, she had no way of finding him at all.

  She kicked at the ground in frustration, and that’s when she noticed something. There were markings in the dirt. Geometric markings with writing next to them. The writing looked like Arabic, but the markings were clearly diagrams. Specifically, two circles, one half the size and inside the other. It was the Tusi Couple. A bench leaned up against the tent right in front of the markings, and Sera could picture the whole scene:

  Tusi, sitting on the bench, drawing in the dirt, working through problems. This tent had to be his. It had to be. Who else would have drawn these things?

  She waited until the guards had passed, and then sneaked around to the tent entrance. With a deep breath, she stepped inside.

  The inside of the tent was really comfortable. Thick rugs covered the floor in overlapping layers around a central wooden support post as thick as a small tree. Tapestries and silks hung from the sides of the tent, and tables around the room bore stacks of books and many brass instruments. In one area of the room, Sera saw a pile of cushions and pillows. When she focused on them, she realized there was someone sitting there, perfectly still, and she almost jumped.

  It was Tusi. Staring at her.

  “He-hello,” she said. “I didn’t see you there. Do you remember me?”

  “Of course,” Tusi said. “Why and how have you come here?”

  “I came with my two friends,” Sera said. “You met them. We came to convince you.”

  “Convince me of what?”

  “To save the House of Wisdom.”

  Tusi sighed. He looked down at his lap, and Sera realized he had a book there, which he closed. Here he was with his books, stacks upon stacks of them, but he refused to do anything to save the books of Baghdad.

  “Let me tell you something,” he said.

  Sera put her hands on her hips. “What?”

  “After making me his adviser, Hulagu Khan came to me before this military campaign against Baghdad and asked me if the stars would smile favorably upon it. Now, I had a choice to make. I knew Hulagu wanted to attack Baghdad. If I had told him the stars were ill-favored, he may have spared the city for a time, but he would have been upset with me. He may have even executed me. But if I told him what he wanted to hear, that the stars were favorable to his ambitions, then he would be pleased with me.”

  “So you lied?”

  “The movement of the stars is constant. However, the interpretation of those movements can be much more flexible.”

  Sera closed her eyes and shook her head. “That still just sounds like lying to me.”

  “You are young. When you are older, you will find that life is less absolute than you might wish it to be. There are few things you can truly rely upon other than the laws of the universe. And yourself.”

  Sera thought about that, and it sounded like a sad way to live. “I can rely on my friends. I can rely on my . . . family.” As she said the word, its meaning shifted in her mind, gaining a new weight, a substance that included her parents in a way it never had before.

  Tusi smiled. “If your friends and family be as constant as the movement of the stars, count yourself very lucky, indeed.”

  Sera walked over to the cushions and sat down. “The House of Wisdom contains many, many important books. They must be saved for future generations. Don’t you see that?”

  “Of course I see it. But there is nothing I can do.”

  “Hulagu Khan might listen to you.”

  “That’s not a chance I am willing to take.”

  “Are you SQ?” She blurted out the question before she’d decided if she should.

  “Am I what?” She saw no recognition of the name in his eyes. Just genuine confusion. If he had been SQ, he would have realized in that moment that she was a Hystorian, and things would have gotten a lot worse.

  Sera sighed, vindicated. “Nothing. My mistake.”

  “What is your mistake?”

  It was a mistake coming to you for help, she thought. But she said, “Nothing.”

  Tusi rose to his feet. “When the Ismā ‘īlī captured me and took me to their fortress at Alamut, I had a choice to make. I could resist and most likely perish, or I could adapt to them and continue my work. I chose to adapt and continue my work. When Hulagu Khan destroyed the fortress and freed me, I saw another opportunity. I could perish, or I could join him and continue my work. Again, I chose to continue my work.” He looked around his tent. “I continue it now, and I will continue it if every library in the world burns. The work is all that matters to me. My work. I can’t let anything get in the way of that, so I cannot risk what you are asking of me. Do you understand?”

  “I understand,” Sera said. “You may not be SQ, but you’re still not the man I thought you were.”

  DAK’S IDEAS hadn’t been turning out so well lately. He couldn’t see what the problem was. They all seemed like good ideas when he first got them. But the trouble with ideas was that you often didn’t know if they would turn out to be good until it was way too late to change them.

  Like right now. Not a good idea to go walking up to Hulagu’s guards asking to be arrested. Obviously. But now Dak and Riq were captured, and the Mongols were taking them in the opposite direction of where they needed to go.

  “Sorry I got us into this,” Dak said.

  Riq shook his head. “I’ll be sure to give you a hard time about it later. For now, we need to figure out what we’re going to do.”

  “Sera will come for us,” Dak said.

  “Maybe. But we can’t count on it. If she’s smart, she’s working on fixing the Break, not our mistakes.” He paused, and then said very quietly, “The fate of the world is more important than any of our individual fates.”

  Okay, Dak knew there was something going on with the Cataclysm that these two weren’t telling him. He hated that. He hated not knowing. He hated the uncertainty. It got his mind going, and then his fears, and soon his fears were outracing his thoughts. But he figured there wouldn’t be any point asking Riq about it. Dak knew the guy didn’t like him much, and wasn’t about to open up.

  “Where are you taking us?” Dak asked the Mongol warriors.

  At first, they were silent.

  “The Divine Man,” one of the Mongols said at last.

  “What does he mean?” Riq asked.

  Dak shrugged. He had no idea. But when they arrived at a wide tent, he figured they were about to find out.

  The Mongol warriors shoved them inside and pushed them to the ground. Dak looked around the tent. It was supported by four columns, and had numerous tables laid out with maps and charts. There was one sitting area, with cushions and pillows, but no rugs. This tent was a tent of war, not a tent of luxury.

  A man looked up from the table he’d been leaning over and made eye contact with Dak. Dak immediately bowed his head. There was something about the man that provoked an instant fear. But Dak didn’t like that, so he made himself look back up.

  The man was not especially tall, but something about him felt as strong and hard as a bronze statue. He came around the table, slowly, a
nd stood in front of them, his hands clasped behind his back.

  “I am General Guo Kan,” he said.

  “That’s a Chinese name,” Riq said. “You’re working for the Mongols? I thought you were enemies.”

  “The great khan will accept anyone of ability, no matter how high or low one’s birth, or one’s nationality. Our army is full of men from all corners of the Earth. The engineers of our siege engines are the best minds in the world.”

  “Are you the Divine Man?” Dak asked.

  “There are some who call me that.”

  “Why?” Riq asked.

  “Because I have yet to be defeated in battle. Who are you?”

  Dak didn’t know what to say. What kind of lie could they tell that Guo Kan couldn’t pick apart easily?

  “We’re just travelers,” Riq said. “We arrived in Baghdad two days ago, and we decided to try to leave before the battle begins.”

  “But my men tell me you were asking to be brought before Hulagu Khan.” The general made a slicing motion with his hand, some kind of order, and the men holding Dak began to rummage in his clothing, and squeeze his arms and legs, his torso. They were searching him, and of course they came up empty. “No weapons,” Guo Kan said. “You weren’t going to assassinate him. So why did you wish an audience with him?”

  “We —” Riq faltered. “We’re just travelers.”

  “Judging by your clothing, your language, and your demeanor, you must have come from very far away.”

  “We did,” Riq said. “And we’d like to go now, if you don’t mind.”

  Guo Kan looked up at his men. “Leave us. All of you.”

  Dak wondered what the general was doing. Why did he want everyone to leave?

  When they were alone, Guo Kan smiled. “You don’t know who I am. But I know who you are. Believe me when I tell you, the libraries of Baghdad will fall. There is nothing you can do to change the course of history.”

  Dak snapped upright. He looked at Riq, then up at Guo Kan. “You’re SQ.” Dak had walked himself and Riq right into the hands of the enemy.

  “And you are Hystorians.” Guo Kan smiled again. “Correction. You were Hystorians. Now where is the other one?”