Infinity Ring 05 - Cave of Wonders (4 page)

“That’s the mosque of the caliph,” Riq said.

“Who’s the caliph?” Sera asked.

“He was a religious leader of Islam,” Dak said.

The mosque had a high wall around it, decorated in bright blue hues that glinted like a lake in the sun. Onion-shaped domes crowned the wall’s four corners.

“He was also the ruler of Baghdad.” Dak pointed across the square. “And I bet that’s his palace.”

Beyond the mosque, another city wall surrounded the edge of the square, and beyond that, Sera saw an even larger building. It was decorated with reds, blues, and purples, its many domes and towers forming an imposing skyline over the city.

“That wall surrounds a couple of palaces like that one,” Riq said. “And a college, and the House of Wisdom.”

“So, how do we get inside?” Dak asked.

“The Gate of the Willow Tree,” Riq said. “The directions said it’s that way.” He pointed down a street in the far corner of the square.

They set off toward it. Sera was grateful for the open space, and the ability to walk without having to dodge oncoming camels. It was a bit warmer out in the sun, and the pleasant smell she’d noticed earlier just got stronger. When they reached the street Riq had pointed at, she realized why.

It was a whole market of perfume makers. The fragrances of basil and other herbs hung in the air, the scent of spices and oils and aromas Sera couldn’t identify. Sweet smells, sharp smells, and pungent, musky smells. There were more women here, too, outside the perfume shops.

“We just go through here,” Riq said, “and then . . . Where’s Dak?”

Sera spun around. He had just been right there beside her, and now he was gone. She scanned the market and spotted him over by a lemon and orange vendor.

“There he is,” she said. “What’s he doing?”

Dak climbed up onto a tall basket and held out his hands. “Come!” he shouted. “Listen to me!”

“Oh, no,” Sera whispered. This must have been his idea, the one he needed quiet for, and she could already tell it was going to be a bad one.

D
AK NOTICED
immediately that Sera and Riq were staring at him. Sera, especially, looked worried. Maybe he should have told them what he was about to do before he did it. But they never seemed to like Dak’s ideas, even though sometimes, his ideas worked out really, really well. Other times . . .

“Come, come!” As he shouted from his basket, a curious crowd gathered around him.

Dak knew they needed clothes, and to get some, they needed money, because so far, he hadn’t seen any clothes just lying around waiting for them to come along. He’d been going over what he knew about Baghdad, trying to figure out what they could do to earn some cash, when an idea came to him.

He remembered that there were storytellers who performed on the streets. They hadn’t seen one yet, but Dak didn’t see why
he
couldn’t try to tell a story. If people liked it and they tossed him a few coins, maybe they’d be able to buy some clothes.

But now that he was up there, with a bunch of people looking at him, waiting, he wondered if he’d made a mistake.

“Uh . . . Now I will tell you a story!” He waved his hand in an arc in front of him. He didn’t know why. It just seemed like a storyteller thing to do. “Once . . . upon a time!”

Sera slapped her forehead. Riq folded his arms across his chest.

“There was a djinn.” Dak congratulated himself for using the real word for genie. “And this djinn . . .” What? What should his story be about? Dak realized he probably should have figured that out before he got up here, but it was too late to back down now. So he grabbed the first thing that came into his mind. “This djinn had a ring that had magical powers. It allowed the djinn to travel backward in time!”

Sera was shaking her head now. Riq’s mouth hung open. What was their problem?

“One day,” Dak said, “the djinn met . . . a man. In the desert. And the man was wandering around, lost and depressed. And the djinn
goes, ‘Why are you wandering around lost and depressed?’ And the man, uh, the man goes, ‘Oh, I’m sad because my house burned down, and the fire destroyed . . . a book my parents gave to me. It was my prized possession.’”

Dak thought he was doing a pretty good job. The audience seemed to be interested. None of them had walked away yet. So he kept going.

“When the djinn heard this, he said, ‘I can grant you your heart’s desire. What is it?’ And the man was like, ‘Really? My heart’s desire is to have my book back.’ So the djinn used his magical ring and took them both back in time to the man’s house
before
the fire.”

Hey, this story is actually pretty good!
But Dak noticed a man standing at the back of the audience who did not look so happy. He wore a gray robe over a striped one, with a bright red turban wrapped around his head. Two fairly big guys — city guards by the look of them — stood on either side of him, and all three of them were glaring at Dak.

He kept going. “And they snuck into the man’s house, and the man from the future wanted to warn the man from the past about the fire, but the djinn was all, ‘No. You said your heart’s desire was your book.’” Dak felt his voice getting louder, and the words came faster. “So they went to the man’s library, and they found the book his parents had given to him, and they took it, and the djinn used his ring to take them both back to the future where they came from. And the man had saved the book, his one true desire. The end.”

Dak bowed low.

No one clapped. He looked up. A moment later, he heard the light clink of a metal coin hitting the ground in front of him. Then another and another. The audience broke up, going back to whatever it was they’d stopped doing to listen to him.

Dak hopped down from his basket, feeling proud, and collected the money he’d earned. He didn’t recognize the coins, and he didn’t know how much was there, but he didn’t care right then. As he picked up the last, Sera and Riq rushed up to him.

“What were you thinking?” Sera was talking in that hissing voice she used when she was mad at him but couldn’t yell because there were teachers around.

“What do you mean?” He held out his handful of coins. “Look!”

“That’s great,” Riq said. “But what about that thing you just did where you told the whole city about the Infinity Ring, and why we’re here?”

“I didn’t do that,” Dak said.

Sera lifted an eyebrow at him. “Magical ring that goes backward in time? Saving a book from a fire?”

Dak looked at the coins in his hand. “I
did
do that, didn’t I?” How could he have not realized he was basically turning their mission into a story? “Oops. What do we do now?”

“Hope there wasn’t a Time Warden in the audience,” Sera said.

“Uh-oh.” Dak remembered that guy with the red turban, and started looking around for him.

“‘Uh-oh’ what?” Riq asked.

Dak spotted him. He and his two guards were stalking toward them, and they looked even less happy than they had before. “‘Uh-oh’ him.”

“You! Storyteller!” The man in the red turban pointed at Dak. “Hold it right there.”

“What seems to be the trouble?” Riq asked.

“The trouble,” the man said, “is that I don’t remember issuing a permit for this young man to tell stories on the street.” He had a long, pointed beard and very deep-set eyes.

“You need a permit to tell a story?” Dak asked. “Really?”

“I am the Market Inspector!” The man’s glare trampled over all three of them. “And I decide what you need a permit for, and, yes, you need a permit to be a public entertainer. Do you have a permit?”

Dak gave a little shrug. “Well, no.”

The Market Inspector put his hands on his hips. “Then you must forfeit your illicit gain. Turn over the money.”

Dak didn’t want to. He had earned it. He had found a way to maybe buy some clothes. “Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t know. Can’t you just let it go this one time?”

The man’s eyes got sharp and narrow. “I
never
let things go.”

Dak looked at Sera and Riq. They looked back at him. He flicked his eyes in the direction Riq had pointed before. They nodded.

“Well, sir, I’m sorry,” Dak said. “If I’d known I needed a permit, I would have — RUN!” Dak launched into a sprint across the square, Sera and Riq close behind him.

“Seize them!” the Market Inspector shouted.

Dak looked back and saw the two city guards barreling after them as they left the Perfume Market and dove into the city.

The streets got narrower. They twisted and turned like a maze, climbing up and down steps, and they were as crowded as ever with camels and donkeys. People shouted at the three time travelers as they ran past, bumping into things. Dak accidentally knocked over a cart full of bread.

“Sorry!” he shouted over his shoulder.

Riq ran up alongside Dak. “Let me lead the way!”

He turned them down one street, then another. Dak soon lost all sense of direction, and he hoped Riq knew where he was going. But no matter how many turns they made or how far they ran, they just couldn’t seem to dodge the Market Inspector and the guards, who stayed right behind them.

“Apparently,” Sera shouted, “he really
doesn’t
let anything go!”

“Keep running!” Riq shouted.

Eventually, they burst onto a busier, wider street. There were even more people and animals here. More stalls and carts and shops. There was an old guy sitting on the ground nearby selling rugs, which he had laid out in stacks in front of his shop.

“I have an idea!” Sera looked back, and then led them to the rugs. She dropped to the ground, grabbed the edge of one of the rugs, and rolled herself up in it. Dak grinned and did the same thing.

“You have got to be kidding me,” Riq said, but soon he was rolled up in a rug, too.

The three of them lay there, side by side like burritos, while the rug seller just stared in surprise. Dak wiggled a hand free and flicked him one of the coins he’d just earned, then put his finger in front of his lips to say, “Shh.”

The old guy caught the coin, looked at it, and then glanced up as the Market Inspector charged out into the street. The rug seller winked at Dak, and looked away. Dak smiled, then ducked back inside his rug and tried to hold completely still.

Several moments passed. The sounds of the street carried on around them. Dak realized he was holding his breath, and at the same time realized he couldn’t hold it forever. How long would they have to lie there?

“You, Rug Merchant!” That was the Market Inspector’s voice. “We are looking for two children, one a Frank and the other a Persian like you, and an older youth with them, an African. Have you seen them?”

“Yes,
muhtasib
, I have seen them,” the rug seller said.

Dak went cold inside.

“Well? Where are they?” the Market Inspector asked.

“They ran that way,” the rug seller said. “Toward the Gate of the Sultan.”

Dak closed his eyes in relief. Then he heard the sound of several feet beating the road away from them, eventually growing distant and quiet until he couldn’t hear them anymore.

“You can come out now, little
pirashki
.”

Dak jerked sideways as the old guy lifted the edge of the rug and rolled him out into the street. He got up and dusted himself off as the rug seller did the same with Sera and Riq.

“Now that’s what I call a magic carpet,” he said.

Riq turned to the merchant. “Thanks for not telling him where we were,” he said.

“Bah.” The rug seller gave Dak back his coin. “The Market Inspector is a powerful and unpopular man. It pleases me to find ways to frustrate him.”

“Thank you,” Dak said. “What’s your name?”

“Farid,” he said. “And you are?”

“I’m Dak. This is Sera and Riq.”

“I am happy to meet you,” he said. “And now, I do not want to seem rude, but the Market Inspector will realize you have slipped out of his grasp and return this way soon.”

“Thanks,” Riq said. “We’ll get going. Could you tell us the way to the House of Wisdom?”

“Oh, the House of Wisdom is it?” Farid chuckled. “Are you scholars in addition to being rug testers?”

“Yes,” Sera said. “I guess we kind of are.”

Farid gave them directions, and they said good-bye to him. They weren’t as far off track as Dak had worried they would be after their escape from the Market Inspector. Before long, they were standing before the Gate of the Willow Tree, the great palace they had seen before much closer now. They had circled around it.

Riq pointed through the gate. “The House of Wisdom is on the other side.”

They’d made it.