Infinity Ring 05 - Cave of Wonders (10 page)

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, and 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?”

“Other what?” Riq said.

“The girl.”

Dak almost gasped. “Wh-what girl?”

“The girl my spies tell me you’ve been seen with.”

“We don’t know who you’re talking about,” Riq said.

“Really?” Guo Kan’s eyebrows lifted in mock surprise. “The Market Inspector and the vizier know exactly who I’m talking about.”

Dak’s shock prevented him from saying anything in response. The Time Wardens had been aware of them almost from the beginning.

“Now that we’ve cleared that up,” Guo Kan said, “I assume she has the device you use to travel in time.”

“We lost that device.” Dak lifted his hands and wiggled his fingers. “I’m pretty clumsy.”

“You are also a miserable liar.” Guo Kan called one of his men back inside. The warrior bowed, and Guo Kan said, “I want every tent in the camp searched for intruders before dawn. Get word out to the
tümen
commanders. Immediately.”

“Yes, General,” the man said, and left.

Dak swallowed, and worried about Sera. He didn’t know where she was, but there was a good chance they’d find her.

“She’s in the city,” Riq said. “She didn’t come with us.”

“Of course she didn’t.” Guo Kan’s gloating smile seemed to fill the tent. “If you are all the Hystorians have to send against us, the SQ has nothing to fear.”

“Funny,” Dak said. “The Time Wardens in the last eight places we’ve been all thought the same thing. Didn’t turn out too well for them.”

Guo Kan’s smile shrank just a little. “Tides change.”

“So does history,” Riq said. “We’ve changed it.”

“Not this time,” Guo Kan said. “I am the Divine Man. I do not fail. And your failure here, now, will make all of your previous victories worthless.”

His words stole the breath from Dak. Guo Kan was right. Failing just one mission would prove disastrous regardless of how much they’d accomplished. “Wh-what are you going to do with us?” Dak asked.

“For now, keep you here. I will find your friend and then I’ll take the device and put an end to all three of you. In the meantime, I have a city to invade. And a library of Aristotle’s books to destroy.”

Dak and Riq sat on the ground, tied to one of the tent’s support posts. They’d been left there for hours. Neither the guards nor Guo Kan had come back with Sera, and Dak chose to view that as a good thing. It meant she was still out there somewhere. Still free.

“I guess Sera was right,” Riq said. “About Tusi.”

“Guess so,” Dak said. “But do we have to tell her that? We’ll never live it down.”

Riq chortled. “You’re right. She’d milk that for all it’s worth.”

Dak laughed, too. “So what do we do, n — ?”

“Shh.”
Riq cocked his head. “Do you hear that?”

Dak paid closer attention. He heard a rhythmic sound, a deep and pounding drumbeat. The noise of high-pitched howling and voices shouting. The thunder of horse hoofbeats. It almost felt like the ground shook beneath Dak where he sat.

“The Mongol army is on the move,” Riq said. “It must be dawn. The siege of Baghdad has begun.”

“So we have to get back there,” Dak said. “We have to get back into the city and find some other way to save the books.”

“These ropes have a different idea about that.”

“Well, what can we do about them?”

“I don’t know,” Riq said. “Wiggle?”

“Worth a try.” Dak was aware of the fact that Riq was being sarcastic, as usual. But there didn’t seem to be any other options. So for the next several minutes, the two twisted, shook, pulled, and worked at the knots, hoping they would start to loosen. But they almost seemed to tighten on the boys the more they tried to escape.

“Got any other ideas?” Dak asked.

“Nope. And why do I always have to come up with the ideas, anyway?”

“What do you mean? I have ideas!”

“Like the one that landed us here? Like telling a story about time travel in front of half the city? I meant
good
ideas, Dak.”

Dak’s face fell into a deep scowl. He knew not all of his ideas played out how he imagined. He knew he sometimes did things without thinking them all the way through. But wasn’t doing something better than doing nothing?

“It always falls on me,” Riq said. “That’s how it’s been this whole time. Well, one day, I might not be there for you two.”

Dak was about to argue with the idea that Riq was the one who always managed to save the day, when the second part of what he’d just said really sunk in. “What do you mean, you might not be there?”

Riq was silent. He opened his mouth. Then he closed it. “Nothing.”

Dak wondered if this had something to do with whatever had been bothering Riq. Something to do with his Remnants, or whatever it was. “No, really, what do you mean?”

“Just drop it.”

“Fine. But don’t say I didn’t try.”

“I won’t.”

“Good. And now I guess
I’ll
have to come up with an idea. A
good
one.” Dak looked up at the post where it joined with the top of the tent. He looked down at the foundation in the ground. It didn’t seem to be buried or mounted to anything. “What if we both try to pull the same direction to move the bottom of the post?”

“We’ll bring the tent down,” Riq said. “And they’ll know we’re trying to escape. There’re guards outside the door.”

“Then we run.”

Riq didn’t say anything.

“We have to do something,” Dak said.

Riq sighed. “Okay. Let’s give it a try. Gently at first.”

They shinnied their ropes up the post until they were both standing, and then they both pulled to the same side at the same time. The post lurched a little at the base.

“It’s working,” Riq said.

“I told you. Keep going.”

“Just a bit at a time. We don’t want to attract attention or bring the tent down until we’re ready.”

So for the next several minutes, they jerked and budged the base of the post a fraction of an inch at a time until it seemed like another tug or two would pop it free of the sand. The tent sagged a little, but so far no one had seemed to notice. Or at least, no one had come in.

“Okay,” Riq said. “When the post comes free, we’ll have to try really hard not to get tangled. We have to slide our ropes down off the post, and then somehow find our way out the entrance. Are you ready?”

“Ready,” Dak said.

“On the count of three. One, two, three!”

They pulled hard together, the base of the post popped free, and the top of the tent folded and fell inward on them. It caught them both in the same hollow, the silk fabric rubbing the tops of their heads. Shouts sounded outside, the guards now fully alerted. Dak and Riq maneuvered the ropes, sliding them back down the post, until they came off the bottom, and without the post, the knots fell loose and away from their wrists.

The sounds of the guards shouting drew closer, burrowing into the tent, coming toward them.

“Okay,” Dak said. “What now?”

“I don’t know,” Riq said. “This was
your
good idea!”

“Well, I don’t know!” Dak said.

They heard a sudden tearing sound behind them as the tip of a knife rent the fabric. Another warrior, cutting his way in to find them? Dak could only watch as the knife worked its way down, opening up a large, tattered slit.

“You guys coming?” came a familiar voice from outside.

“Sera?” Dak poked his head through the opening, and there she was, standing over them, knife in hand. Dak scurried out, and Riq followed after him.

“Let’s go,” Riq said. “Before the guards figure out we’ve slipped out the back way.”

R
IQ LED
them back through the Mongol camp, which seemed deserted compared to the previous night. They raced between tents, dodging and weaving, trying to stay out of sight of the women and children and others who had stayed behind when the army had marched out. Riq listened for sounds of pursuit behind them, but heard none. When they reached the edge of the camp, he saw a cloud of dust and sand ahead of them, kicked up by the riding army, rising up into the air over Baghdad.

“So, just for clarification,” Sera said, “we’re trying to find our way through that battlefield, and somehow get back inside the city to figure out a new plan to save the House of Wisdom, right?”

“Right!” Dak said.

“Easy,” said Riq with a wry smile.

“You were right about Tusi,” Dak said to Sera. “He’s not SQ.”

“I know,” Sera said.

“Well, you don’t have to be cocky about it,” Dak said. “You didn’t
really
know until I just told you.”

“No, I know because I asked him last night.”

“You did?” Dak asked.

“Yes.”

“You found him?” Riq asked.

“I did.” Sera shook her head. “He hid me when the camp was being searched. And then he told me where to find you two. But he still won’t help us save the library. Which means he might as well be SQ, even if he isn’t.”

“Well, that’s that,” Riq said. “We’ll make a new plan with Abi.” He started off across the desert sand. “The good news is that we’re moving
with
the Mongol army. Less likely to get trampled by their horses that way.”

“Thanks for that,” Dak said. “But you should know the Mongols were famous for being able to shoot their bows in any direction
while
galloping on their horses, with deadly accuracy. Even backward. Which is where we’ll be coming from.”

“Thanks for
that
,” Sera said.

“They’ll be focused on the city,” Riq said. At least, that was what he hoped.

They trudged across the miles of sand between the war camp and the city, getting steadily closer. Baghdad waited ahead, appearing helpless and small, while the Mongol army seemed to stretch from one edge of the horizon to the other, completely surrounding the city walls. The bulk of the army’s movement and forces seemed to be concentrated straight ahead of them on a part of the wall with a massive tower.

Riq didn’t think the three of them would be able to get anywhere near the gates on this side of Baghdad. They’d have to circle around and use the river to get to the House of Wisdom.