Page 36 of Tomb of Ancients
I’d done my level best to avoid Ara when I could. Henry was arguably more powerful and more dangerous, but Henry liked me. Or loved me. It depended on the day. Sometimes the hour. But Henry’s and my good-natured alliance against Ara’s—shall we say—testier nature shifted once Faraday joined us. He had shaken off the name Focalor, donning human clothes and human sandals, draping himself in a sand-colored smock and a beaded belt, a hood that shadowed his face, kohl smudged across his eyes.
He kept his injured hands deep inside his sleeves and wrapped linens over the places where his fingers were missing.
“I’ve had truck with shadows more solid than he is,” Ara said one night, crouching on a rug beside our fire. The road to Tuz Gölü was hilly but not unkind, and the passage of autumn into winter afforded us cooler climates for the journey. There was even a chill on the air that night, and I was grateful for the heat of the pup snuggled in my lap. “His heart is there”—Ara pounded her fist over her chest, leaving flecks of soot—“but it isn’t there, do you know what I mean?”
“What did Henry do to him?” I asked. “Besides the obvious...”
“He’s a thrall now—human, I suppose, but less than that.The book is what makes us, what allows and feeds our power, andmaskim xulasked the Black Elbion to strip him bare.” She glanced over her shoulder at the two men, who watered the horses, deep in conversation. Or rather, Henry pelted Faraday with questions, and the other man shrank and mumbled. “Once a commander of dark legions, he will now be little more than a stableboy.”
I shuddered, eyes wandering to her pack and the heavy black book I knew lay within. “I hate when you call him that.”
“Why?” She cackled and stirred the cauldron on the fire. “Because it reminds you of his true self? Because it reminds you why you should sleep in your own tent?”
“It’s quite honestly none of your business, Ara, and it baffles me that you deign to care.”
The hand stirring the pot went still. “Watch your tone, Upworlder. You’re vastly outnumbered and far from home.”
I shrugged, well accustomed to her empty threats. While Henry remained near, she would not attempt anything. “You seem to know much about the books. Did Henry interrogate you, too?”
Ara went back to her cooking, adding a dash of something into the cauldron. “What I know, he knows. The only difference is that I have a healthy fear of the answers he so boldly seeks.”
“Focalor paid a steep price for his knowledge,” I pointed out. “I can only pray we won’t owe the same.”
“We will, and worse,” she said. “Focalor is a fool, and he paidonly a fool’s price. Henry should know better than to chase this rabbit, and so he will follow it down the hole and never come back out.”
Henry’s voice suddenly rose, but I could not make out the words. His brows were knit with anger, and he used his height to loom over Faraday, trapping him against a large stone outcropping. I couldn’t help taking pity on the poor sod, and I shuffled Bartholomew off my lap, excused myself, and crossed the camp to where the two men stood.
“So she asked you that and you said what?”
“I... I could not think of the answer, and she... Oh, but it was horrible.” Faraday shivered against the rock and stuffed his hands deeper into his sleeves.
“My word, you’re simple. But then demons usually are. It’s not even that hard of a riddle. Moving on. What was the next question?”
“Henry, the food is practically finished. Could you not allow him a moment to recover?”
He shot me a silencing glare and put his hand on the rock next to Faraday’s head, leaning in. The poor man looked like he might tremble to pieces. “The next riddle—what was it?”
“A-Arms to embrace, yet no hands,” Faraday stammered, swallowing hard. “Pinches to give, yet no fingers. Poison to wield, yet no needle.”
“Please tell me you managed to get that one,” Henry muttered. “Please.”
“I—I did.” Faraday shook his head, turning to me with a pleading look. “At least, I thought I did. How could it be the wrong answer? She asked, and I was so sure! Then she bit me.And it went on and on. I didn’t know the others, but she wouldn’tstop. More questions! More... morebiting. I think... Oh, I think she enjoyed watching me struggle. No. No! We are too close to the salt. We should not even be speaking of this. I mustn’t speak the word.”
But Henry sighed, clucking his tongue. “Shall I fetch the book?”
“Henry.Please.” I was well beyond exasperation. This was torture, and the former demon was leading us to the salt and seemed to be cooperating with Henry’s questions. It was horrid enough thinking about bringing him back to the place where he had lost so much, and Henry could not spare even an ounce of pity for the creature.
“Tell me what you answered, and I will... I’ll let you eat,” Henry muttered, then curled his lip in my direction. “Happy?”
“Not exactly.”
Faraday’s sleeves rippled, and I could imagine him gripping his own arms with what remained of his fingers. At least we could stop this torment in a moment, and I vowed silently to try to protect Faraday from Henry’s prodding. The irony of it—an Upworlder shielding a demon from his own master!
Though I had to admit, I was somewhat curious... The riddle’s key seemed obvious enough to me, and I possess no aptitudefor puzzles. They had been speaking in Greek for my benefit, but Faraday fell back on his native tongue, sweating as he cowered against the rock and spoke. I felt the wind come and shake the grass and trees even before he answered.
“Zuqaqipu,” he whispered.
“Scorpion,” said Henry, for my benefit.
