The Book of Wonders (24 page)

“Musty, please, where's Sinbad, the rest of the crew?” Zardi persisted.

“Gone, gone, gone,” Musty chanted. “A beast, some called him a Cyclops, came and kept on coming, night after night. Picking us off, gulping us down. Those of us that made it after the first night thought that the beast must have taken you and Rhidan.”

Zardi felt sick as she thought of Okre attacking her friends. She'd never see some of them again.

“But we haven't even been gone a day.” Rhidan's voice was thick with confusion and upset.

Angry color flooded Musty's face and he stopped chopping. “Are you taking me for a fool, boy? I know how long it's been. A moon has waxed and waned since I saw you last.”

“I think I'd better explain.” Khalila appeared by their side. “Time moves differently on different planes,” she said. “In Oli's dimension four hours passed, here four weeks.”

“And you didn't think to tell us?” Zardi glared at Khalila and quickly calculated how long Zubeyda had been praisemaker.
Fifty-six days
, she realized.
Only thirty-four days left until the Hunt
.

The djinni tossed her braids over her shoulder. “I didn't think it mattered. I wasn't expecting to come back to this place.”

Musty stared at her with deep suspicion. “Who are you?”

“A djinni,” Rhidan said quickly. “And a friend.”

Zardi bit her tongue. Khalila was many things, but she wasn't a friend. A friend would have told her earlier that time moved differently in Postremo. That Zubeyda only had little more than a month left to live.

The djinni held out her hand to Musty. “I'm Khalila. I'm sorry to hear about your shipmates.”

Musty shook her hand. “Did I hear right? You're a djinni?”

“You don't look surprised,” Khalila commented.

“I met a djinni once before, and he wasn't half bad,” Musty said. “So, you're hardly going to send me running into the trees screaming.” The shipmaster's eyes took on a glazed look. “Besides, I've done all my screaming and all my running away.”

“You can't blame yourself for running from the Cyclops,” Rhidan said, placing a hand on the shipmaster's shoulder. “We've seen him. He's a nightmare come to life.”

“Who said I was talking about the Cyclops?” Musty shook off Rhidan's hand. “I'm talking about that thing. That she-devil, the Queen of the Serpents.”

Zardi's eyes met Rhidan's. Her horrified bafflement reflected in his violet eyes. She remembered Roco talking about the Queen of the Serpents.

“She made mincemeat of that Cyclops,” Musty whispered. “A more bloody, more grisly sight I've never seen.”

“I think you'd better start from the beginning,” Zardi said, finally finding her voice.

Musty began his story, leaning heavily on the handle of his axe as if each word left him weaker.

“We tried to fight him.” Musty's voice cracked with grief. “But we were no match for his strength or greed. Our numbers dwindled, and wherever we hid the Cyclops always found us. Then Nadeem offered us a way out.”

“A way out?” Zardi repeated.

“He told us that we had an ally.” Musty snorted. “He had met someone called the Queen of the Serpents. The night after we lost Syed and the cook, the queen told Nadeem that she'd give us refuge. Sinbad made the only decision he could. He moved us into her kingdom, deep in the bowels of the earth.” Musty's eyes clouded at the memory. “The queen and her army of snakes then hunted down the Cyclops, tearing him limb from limb.”

“The Cyclops is dead!” Rhidan exclaimed. “So everyone is safe now.”

Musty let out a chilling laugh. “Safe?” he sneered. “You mean safely locked up. After the battle, the queen took us all prisoner. Nadeem became her advisor, helped to keep us locked up like animals in cages so that we could work on her blasted flying contraption.”

“But you aren't in prison,” Khalila murmured.

Musty cast his eyes downward. “She was going to feed me to her favorite snake, Satyan. She told me I was old and worn out. But Sinbad begged for my life and she set me free.”

“But why'd she listen to him?” Rhidan asked.

Musty was silent. His sunken, brown cheeks became ruddy.

He's embarrassed
, Zardi realized with some confusion. “What is it, Musty?”

“Well, you see, the queen is rather fond of the captain,” the shipmaster finally managed to say.

“You mean she
fancies
Sinbad,” Rhidan replied.

“It's more than that. She's in love with him,” Musty revealed. “To save me, he promised to be her consort and spend his days praising her beauty with poetry. She agreed, and I became an exile.” Musty lifted his axe and brought it down on a coconut. “Enough. I must finish the ship if I'm going to get my crew home.”

Zardi led Khalila and Rhidan to one side. “We need a plan.”

“Let me guess,” Khalila said drolly. “Please can you get my friends out of the Queen of the Serpents' den and send them home?”

“That's pretty much it,” Zardi replied. “We can't leave this island until they're safe. And don't forget Musty.”

“Fine, but only because I want to get off this island once and for all.” The djinni frowned. “And I need the practice. Do you know how embarrassing it is to be told by another djinni that your skills are rusty?”

Oli's words about the Black Isle and how its sorcerers were not the answer to saving Zubeyda catapulted into Zardi's head. “Well, if you need the practice, save my sister and father as well.”

Khalila cracked her knuckles. “Sure, why not. That will show Oli.”

Zardi tried to keep her face composed. She couldn't believe how easily the djinni had agreed. Could her family's fate be so easily resolved? She imagined Zubeyda and Baba walking through the door of their home in Taraket. The look on Nonna's face. Zardi quickly made the wish that would free her friends and family before Khalila could change her mind.

“Keep your eyes on Musty,” the djinni said. “He'll be back in Arribitha in a moment as will the crew of the
Falcon
.” Khalila clasped her hands together, and Zardi looked over at the shipmaster, expecting him to disappear in a flash of light. But he didn't. He just continued splitting coconuts.

“Khalila, I don't think it's—” She stopped as she turned to face the djinni. The color had drained from her face.

“I have no magic,” Khalila said hoarsely. “It's not there.”

“Of course it isn't,” a voice like dry leaves said.

Zardi spun round. A woman, part snake, part human, towered over them. Her golden, wide-set eyes were ignited with glee, and more than twenty snakes, all ivory except one, which was red and gold, waited at her back.

“No, no, no.” Musty's howled protest was filled with dread and Zardi saw him drop to his knees as a ring of snakes surrounded him.

The Queen of the Serpents
, Zardi thought, looking back at the woman-creature in horror. Time slowed as she took in her appearance. The queen's head was wide and flat like a snake's, and her jaw tapered to a sharp point. The skin of her face and arms was fish-belly white and covered with a whisper-thin membrane of iridescent scales that sparkled in the amber light of the setting sun. Her hair was a knotted mass of rattail silver strands that reached her powerful-looking violet-colored tail, and her upper torso was dressed in a silver breastplate. Around her waist she wore a belt of silver hoops, and hanging from it was a strange-looking glass orb filled with red light.

“I stole your magic, djinni,” the queen hissed. “Who knew that my creator's spelltrap would work so well?”

“Spelltrap?” Khalila questioned. “What a ridiculous idea. I have been alive for over two thousand years. There's no such thing.”

“Oh, really?” The queen took the orb full of red light from her belt and dangled it from her finger. “This tells me differently. This is your magic. Every drop of it.” She giggled, and the light twinkling sound was monstrous coming from her mouth. “I captured it when you tried to transport the crew from the island.”

Khalila whirled toward Zardi and Rhidan, her dark brown eyes now black with rage. “I don't believe her. Wish something, anything.”

“Save us from her,” Rhidan said swiftly. “I wish it.”

Khalila closed her eyes and brought her hands together, but, again, no red glow illuminated her palms. She tried twice and then three times but still there was no light. The djinni's breath rattled in her throat. “I don't understand—how has this happened?”

“Vanity aside, I really have been frightfully clever,” the queen said.
“I
set up my creator's spelltrap in the jail where I'm keeping Sinbad's men. The first time you tried to take my prisoners, the spelltrap caught your magic and held it.” The queen grinned, showing white, even teeth. She looked round at them, her eyes resting on Zardi. “From what Nadeem told me of your character, I was sure you would come for your friends. So I let that worn-out shipmaster go free and sent one of my guards to watch him. As soon as you arrived I was informed.”

Khalila was a blur as she leaped from the ground and grasped at the spelltrap. The queen's snakes were faster, though, and four of them surrounded their liege, protecting her. The red and gold snake shot out toward Khalila with its velvety pink mouth open, showing sharp fangs. Zardi grabbed Khalila and dragged her from the attacking snake before releasing her bow from her belt and nocking an arrow. She stood firm.

The queen let out a hiss that Zardi understood as a command:
STOP
.

Zardi thought about the fragment of blue stone embedded into her skin.
My stone, it still works
.

The red and gold snake halted in its tracks, frozen, and then with jerky movements came to rest beside the queen, its sides heaving heavily.

The queen glared at Khalila. “Try to touch me again and I will not stop him from ripping out your throat.” She stroked the red and gold snake's head. “Satyan would be more than eager.”

Khalila did not reply. The fight had gone out of her. She watched with dull eyes as the queen reattached the spelltrap to her belt.

“Come, it's time that we leave this place,” the queen commanded. “You've had me waiting long enough.”

“I don't understand. What do you want with us?” Zardi asked, her bow still raised.

“My plan for you will be revealed in my own good time.” The queen pointed at the arrow. “I really wouldn't bother with that. Before you even fire one, my snakes will be upon you and the results won't be pretty.”

Zardi surveyed the serpents in front of her. There were so many.

The queen laughed. “Yes, I made sure that I brought my personal guards with me. Nadeem told me that you are a good shot, and many other things besides. He really has been incredibly helpful. For instance, I know all about your quest to find the Windrose and the Black Isle.”

Rhidan flinched, and Zardi recalled how they'd both stood on the beach pleading with Nadeem to give them the emerald eye, how they'd told him everything about their quest, the Windrose, even about wanting to free a djinni.

Zardi glared at their captor. The queen met her gaze.
She doesn't blink
, Zardi realized.
Just like a snake
.

“Of course, Nadeem had no idea just how important his revelations were.” The queen smiled to herself. “You see, we have something in common. You want to go to the Black Isle. Well, guess what? So do I. You are going to help me get there. And by the time I'm finished with those sorcerers there will be nothing left but corpses…”

“I
f I see another feather, I am going to poke my eye out with it,” Rhidan growled, throwing a giant, downy L plume away. “Thirty-three days,” he murmured. “I've been in this stinking prison for thirty-three days.”

“Why does she want to fly to this Black Isle anyway?” Mirzani peered down at the plans for the flying machine and fixed another feather into one of the glider's giant wings.

“We still don't know.” Zardi tightened a cord that connected the wings to the wooden triangular frame at the nose of the machine. She stood back, her eyes sweeping over the two giant wings made entirely out of Roc feathers and the leather harness that hung beneath it. Despite herself she was proud. The crew had done a great job of following the plans that the queen had given them.

“At least we're almost done.” Mirzani's narrow face broke into a smile. “We'll be out of here soon.”

Zardi could hear the excitement in the sailor's voice at the thought of being free, and she suddenly found herself remembering the day that she, Rhidan, Musty, and Khalila had been brought to the queen's lair. They'd been led deep underground through a set of tunnels as twisted as the roots of the tree etched on the Windrose. The way had been dotted with flickering torches lit with something other than flame, and giant snakes had guarded every bend. Eventually, they had been dumped in this prison. The crew had been quick to welcome them, but they had demanded explanations as well. Zardi and Rhidan had told them everything, introduced them to Khalila, and even explained about the quest for the Windrose.

Zardi rubbed her hands over her face tiredly. That had been over a month ago. Time was measured by the bowls of foul-tasting slop that were shoved through the hatch at the bottom of the prison door morning, noon, and night. Each day, Zardi expected the queen to come and ask whether she had the Windrose in her possession. But she never did, and every evening Zardi went to sleep knowing that in Taraket Zubeyda was ever closer to death.

Just one day until the Hunt
, her thoughts screamed.
Just one day until Zubeyda is killed
. Zardi closed her eyes to stop tears from falling, but in the darkness she saw her sister's terrified face, saw her mouth open in a scream for help.