The Scorpions of Zahir

by Christine Brodien-Jones

  Zagora felt the wind lift her hair so it floated out behind her. Her breath came fast and shallow; her heart thundered inside her chest. We belong to the desert now, she thought as they merged into the silence and mystery of the shifting sands.

  The wind echoed in her ears and she gazed into the light as the desert unfolded around her: half-buried fossils, abandoned stone tools, tracks of caravans, slices of strange and beautiful rock—mementos from the distant past. Straight ahead, as if floating above the sand, the rose-colored walls of ancient Zahir, silent and mystical, spread out before her.

  Keep calm, she told herself. Be brave. This journey, this mission—this is what I was meant to do. She now felt like everything depended on her.

  By the time they reached Zahir, their torches were still burning: a good omen. They entered the excavation site by climbing down a wooden ladder that had miraculously survived the past eleven years. Once inside the excavated casbah, they closed ranks, keeping in a tight knot as they navigated through tunneled-out streets, where the light seemed darker, the shadows more threatening.

  Zagora grew increasingly wary, watching the vultures swoop down. A growing unease sat like a stone in her stomach. Am I asking too much of everyone? she wondered, feeling tendrils of dread winding through her. We’re just kids.

  They edged along bumpy earthen walls, down passages that forked left and right. She knew the palace wasn’t far now. Heads bowed against the wind, they stumbled past ravaged towers and buildings, twisting down narrow streets, until at last they came to a tall semicircular gateway, edged with brilliantly colored tiles and Arabic calligraphy flowing across the top.

  Side by side, they walked up the staircase to the Royal Palace of Xuloc.

  “Hey, everybody, we can do this,” she said as they stood looking up at the enormous palace doors. “We’re smart and we’re tough, and we’re not scared of anything.”

  The others stared back with resolute expressions.

  “I am not afraid,” said Razziq. “I’m ready for battle, like the Round Table knights.”

  Mina and Duncan gave conspiratorial nods.

  Zagora held up her guttering torch, where a tiny flame still burned. “Okay, it’s now or never,” she said, twisting the ancient door handle. “Our mission is to rescue the Oyrx Stone, and nobody’s going to stop us.”

  Half falling off its hinges, the door clanked open and Zagora strode into the sand-blown hallway, waves of panic rolling over her. Torches held high, the others followed her inside. The palace was deathly still, except for the low moaning of the wind. Inside her head, the image of the Oryx Stone burned like a kindling fire.

  “Follow me,” she said. “Olivia’s laboratory is nearby, so we’ll go there first.”

  Halfway down the hall, she lifted the dusty tapestry, and one by one they ducked under it. “Careful, the floor is slippery,” she told them as they tramped down the yellow-and-red-tiled staircase. Remembering how Olivia had tricked her, Zagora felt angry all over again, but she was determined not to make the same mistake twice.

  At the bottom of the stairs, they stared at the dark windowless vestibule and bright orange signs.

  “ ‘Caution! Biogenic toxins, entry strictly forbidden,’ ” Zagora read out loud, just in case Mina and Razziq weren’t able to read English.

  Blue light spilled out through tears in the curtain that hung from the archway. Scarcely daring to breathe, Zagora tiptoed forward, step by wary step, and peered through a large hole while Duncan, Razziq and Mina raised their torches and the goat-hair broom, ready to strike.

  Seeing no signs of Olivia or her bodyguards, Zagora motioned for the others to follow, and bunching up together, they crept silently through the curtain and into the laboratory. Their clothing and skin turned blue and she said, “Don’t worry, that’s the ultraviolet lights.”

  “Look at those cages,” hissed Duncan, pointing to the glass boxes. “Oh man, scorpions! And snakes!”

  But Zagora was more concerned about the strange sounds coming from the other side of the glass wall. Running over, she peered through the glass at a honeycomb of caves, illuminated by blue floodlights. Her stomach did a slow turn as she watched the sharp-edged, angular shapes moving in and out of the caves.

  “The scorpions’ nest!” she breathed, and the others hurried over.

  “They are awake,” whispered Mina.

  Duncan scratched his head. “What the heck is Olivia up to?”

  “Ah,” said Razziq. “These creatures think they are in the light of Nar Azrak, yes?”

  “You’re right, Razz,” said Duncan. “Maybe she believes that by using this light, it may make them stronger. And smarter. That the light from the planet is what they’ve been feeding off of to grow!”

  “Olivia told me she needs the Oryx Stone for her scorpion experiments. She knows they’re afraid of the stone and she says it’ll protect her,” Zagora told them. “That’s because she’s doing these creepy experiments with the giant scorpions. She wants them to get bigger!”

  She covered her mouth with her hands as a brown scorpion of immense size clattered swiftly toward her. It was easily six feet long, with four pairs of legs, huge claws and a barbed tail tipped with a stinger. Two shiny black eyes darted back and forth on the top of its head, and at the corners of its head were five more pairs—all staring at her with menace.

  She felt drops of sweat trickle down her face as the creature came nearer to the wall. With a violent movement, the scorpion whipped its tail against the glass. Mina screamed and dropped her broom. Zagora’s breath came in panicky gasps as the scorpion rose on sinewy legs, thrashing its tail, slime dripping from its mouth. Then it flung its entire body against the glass wall.

  Razziq gave a terrified shriek as the wall cracked. Zagora saw another scorpion racing up behind the first, preparing to slam itself against the glass.

  “Our torches have burned out!” cried Mina. “We cannot fight them!”

  “They’re breaking through!” hollered Duncan. “Run!”

  The children tore off, clutching one another as they sprinted wildly through the palace, trying to get as far from the laboratory as possible. On the third floor they ran through high-ceilinged rooms of drifting sand, where nothing looked familiar, and for a moment Zagora felt she had lost her bearings. Turning a corner, she saw a flight of marble steps, shabbily elegant, and she led the others up, feeling as if they were all characters in a fairy tale.

  They shambled into a room painted in bold yellows and greens, where she noticed signs of human life: thick carpets, oil lamps, a brass coffeepot on a tray. Peering through a double-arched doorway, she saw a room filled with Arabic designs, where a hot wind blew in through rounded windows. But unlike the other palace rooms, this one had shelves and trolleys stacked high with vials, beakers, flasks and petri dishes, and corked jars containing a dark amber liquid.

  A voice, flat and deadly, broke the silence. Zagora’s heart jumped into her mouth. The others came to a standstill behind her.

  “Well, well, who have we here?” Bracelets jangling, Olivia Romanesçu heaved herself up from a table covered with glass slides and a large black microscope. “Little Red Riding Hood and her riffraff pals.”

  Insulted by her mocking tone, Zagora refused to cringe under Olivia’s petrifying gaze. Don’t let her get to you, she told herself. Remember the stone. She lifted her head high. “We’re here to take back the Oryx Stone,” she said in a loud voice, taking a step forward, feeling emboldened with the others behind her. “We’re not leaving until we get it.”

  Olivia gave a throaty laugh as she gathered up her slides. “My, my, such bravado.”

  Zagora threw back her shoulders, the way she imagined Freya Stark would do. “The Oryx Stone doesn’t belong to you. It belongs to the Azimuth.” As she spoke, her eyes roamed the corners of the room, in case of a possible ambush. She hoped the others were watching, too.

  “You’ve come too late.” Olivia’s lips twisted into an ugly sneer. “The
artifact is on its way to Sotheby’s.”

  “You’re lying! You said you needed the stone for your experiments!”

  “I’ve changed my mind. The London auction house is anxious to have it, given the sum it will fetch. I’ll be a rich woman once it’s sold.”

  Zagora wasn’t sure whether Olivia was lying. Closing her eyes, she tried to focus her entire being on the stone, imagining it—spectral, opalescent and sublime. Opening her eyes again, she felt a warm current running through her, and she knew the stone was near.

  “The stone’s here,” she said with sudden conviction.

  Olivia’s cheeks flushed crimson. “You’re finished, all of you. Get out of here.”

  “We’re not going anywhere,” said Zagora defiantly as the others closed ranks protectively around her. She wondered how she could ever have considered Olivia glamorous.

  “We’re not leaving,” Duncan said huskily.

  Mina folded her arms and said, “We go nowhere.”

  “The Oryx Stone,” Razziq stated firmly.

  With an indignant huff, Olivia turned away from them. Zagora saw with alarm that she was heading for the bottles of dark liquid.

  “She’s going for the venom!” she shouted. “Stop her!”

  She threw herself in front of Olivia, blocking a shelf of venom vials. With a look of cold fury, Olivia knocked her down. Zagora gave a cry of pain as her knee struck the floor.

  Looking up, she saw Duncan barrel silently across the room, Razziq at his side. They charged in a wild frenzy, knocking over a trolley of test tubes, colliding with Olivia just as her hand grasped one of the vials. With a shriek of alarm, Olivia pitched forward, curling her body and landing with a thump. The vial smashed on the floor. The boys tumbled around her, Duncan calling her an old witch, Razziq yelling in Arabic.

  “Watch out for the venom!” warned Zagora.

  A small object rolled across the floor, and she saw sparks of light flying into the air. In an instant Olivia’s hand shot out, her large fingers closing around it.

  “She has the stone!” cried Mina, jumping up and down. “She has the stone!”

  Wincing with pain, Zagora stood up, her head light as a puffball.

  Razziq leapt at Olivia, kicking and punching, trying to wrestle away the stone. Olivia sank her fingernails into his neck and he staggered back, clutching his throat. Enraged, Zagora sprinted across the room, ignoring her painful knee. Olivia threw a punch, knocking the breath out of her. Zagora lurched sideways, crashing into a shelf of beakers.

  “Leave my sister alone!” yelled Duncan.

  Struggling to her feet, she watched her brother hurl himself at Olivia, tackling her to the floor, knocking over glass tubes and bottles. Then she saw Mina spring catlike into the air. Squeezing Olivia’s fist with her wiry hands, Mina ordered, “Drop the stone.” Her voice was sharp and angry. Zagora stared at Mina, awed and a little afraid, hardly daring to breathe.

  Olivia tried to swing at the girl, but Duncan seized the woman’s arm, pinning it behind her back.

  “No?” said Mina with a cold smile. “Then we take it.”

  The girl expertly pried the woman’s fingers off the stone, faster than Zagora could have imagined possible. Then again, Mina was probably a pro at this sort of thing.

  Olivia stared at Mina with loathing in her eyes, unable to move because Duncan and Razziq had taken hold of her arms.

  “Long live the Azimuth!” shouted Mina, holding up the Oryx Stone.

  “We take back the stone!” hollered Razziq, and they all whooped. Zagora felt delirious with relief. They’d done it!

  Looking triumphant and wild, her face incandescent, Mina strode over to Zagora with the stone and dropped it into her hand with a regal gesture.

  “Hold on to it with your life,” said Mina in a solemn voice, “and never let it go—until you must. For what happens this day in Zahir will be remembered until the end of time.”

  As the Oryx Stone fell into Zagora’s trembling hand, ice-blue sparks flew out, and she stood marveling at its luminous glow. “Thank you,” she said, her heart warming to this high-wired girl with scorpion tattoos. “I’ll remember you, too, Mina—no matter what happens.”

  Mina smiled crookedly.

  Puzzled, tired and exhilarated, Zagora looked down at the Oryx Stone, lying in her open palm, brimming with ancient spells and enchantments. The stone was a mystery, an enigma, a gift from the universe. The stone, she realized, was their reason to hope.

  “I’ll have your heads for this!” bellowed Olivia, lumbering to her feet, arms swinging.

  Zagora noted with satisfaction that Olivia’s hair was tangled into clumps on her head and one sleeve of her jeweled dress was in tatters. Like Frankenstein’s monster, Olivia lurched forward, and Zagora darted away, knocking over a trolley, sending vials crashing to the floor.

  “Watch out!” screamed Zagora. “Scorpion venom!”

  She could see Mina and the boys running up behind Olivia, grabbing the woman’s hands and tying them behind her back, using a bungee cord she recognized from Duncan’s cache of desert supplies.

  Clutching the stone to her chest, determined never to lose it again, Zagora backed into another trolley. Glass cages fell, shattering across the floor, releasing a silver-green snake and dozens of tiny scorpions.

  “Fool!” shrieked Olivia, trying to break free from the bungee cord. “Look what you’ve done!”

  “Run, everybody!” shouted Zagora.

  Clutching the Oryx Stone, Zagora forced herself to keep running, despite the pain in her knee, but it was hard keeping up with the rest of them. Sometimes she heard odd noises—once a high-pitched laugh that couldn’t possibly be human—but she wasn’t sure if the sounds were real. As she raced through the first floor, the rooms began taking on a familiar look.

  Stealthily they moved through an archway to a room with yellow walls, which Zagora recognized as the ancient kitchen. Duncan stopped in his tracks, the others colliding into one another behind him. “What’s that barking noise?” he whispered.

  Zagora vaguely recalled Olivia’s telling her goons to feed the dogs, but she’d been so upset at the time she’d forgotten about them. Through the doorway she saw four animals with rough mottled fur and dark muzzles, straining at thick chains. One yawned and she saw several rows of long, sharp teeth. Staring at their striped manes, their hefty shoulders and sloping backs, Zagora realized with a sinking feeling that these weren’t dogs at all, but something far more dangerous.

  “Hyenas!” whispered Razziq.

  “Striped hyenas,” said Duncan knowledgeably. “Look at those incisors!”

  Zagora wondered what their chances were of getting away without being seen. Her throat constricted as one hyena stuck its head into the kitchen and gave a low, anxious growl. The man with the pencil mustache appeared in the doorway and smiled as he caught sight of them. She froze, overcome by an unreal sense of horror as she watched the man reach down with gloved hands and unhook the chain, shouting commands in Arabic. With a bloodthirsty roar, the hyena sped toward them, quickly followed by the others.

  Screaming in terror, the children took flight, sprinting up a wide staircase to the next floor. “I hate hyenas!” Mina yelled hysterically, grabbing Zagora’s arm as they raced along an inner balcony. From somewhere below came a bloodcurdling howl, and the four scattered in all directions.

  Suddenly aware that she was alone, Zagora took off down a sloping passageway, searching for another staircase, the Oryx Stone pressed to her chest. Too late she realized that the passageway went nowhere: instead it dead-ended at a door painted in shades of rose and mustard.

  She heard another howl, this time much nearer. Panicked, she twisted the knob, pushing against the door, but it stayed firmly shut. She glanced over one shoulder and saw a dark shape careering around a corner. Fangs exposed, the hyena hurtled straight at her. She kicked the door in a frenzy. The hyena was almost on her. She kicked harder, and a searing pain shot through her knee.
The air reeked of the animal’s fetid breath.

  How could she die now, just when they’d rescued the stone? One last kick and the door flew open. Zagora dove inside, slammed the door behind her and shot the bolt, almost sobbing with relief.

  Leaning against the wall, her breath coming in short gasps, Zagora readied herself for the next attack. Snarling, the hyena flung its massive body against the wooden door. Splinters flew into the air. Then silence fell. Peering through cracks in the door, she could see a squared-off snout, a muzzle shrunken back around the hyena’s sharp teeth.

  She was no match for a hyena. It was far too ferocious.

  As the creature thudded against the door, she saw a hinge fly off and heard a loud thump out in the hallway. The hyena let out a shrill, startled yelp. Unsure of what was happening, Zagora was too afraid to investigate. Her only thought was That’s it, next time he’s in. There was no way out except for a window. Climbing up onto the sill, she gazed hundreds of feet down—definitely too far to jump. Any minute the hyena would burst through.

  The sky was slowly darkening. Wind whistled, low and ominous, around the palace walls. Crooking her neck, she saw Nar Azrak on the horizon. The eclipse was going to happen without her!

  Regret and sorrow washed over her. She hadn’t gotten it right after all. Holding the Oryx Stone, Zagora clung to the window frame, waiting for the end and hoping it would be quick, saddened that she hadn’t said goodbye to her father or Duncan, or any of the others.

  The door stayed closed and no hyena came racing through, attacking with savage teeth. All Zagora could hear was a threatening silence. From the windowsill she watched a handful of stars glimmering in the sky, amazed that her heart was still beating.

  Thrumming with a mystical energy, the Oryx Stone glowed in her hand. The eclipse hadn’t happened yet; maybe there was still time! She jumped off the sill and ran to the door, peering through the cracks, no longer sensing the creature’s presence. Behind the door it was deathly quiet. Had the hyena given up and gone off with its pals?