They took the street ahead and to the left. By now, several hours had passed. Sorak wondered why she had chosen to set them down where she did when they had this far to walk. He saw no reason why she could not have landed the raft closer to whatever their destination was. The streets were certainly wide enough, and they had passed through several plazas that would have served equally well to land the raft. He was tempted to ask, but didn’t. There had to be a reason. Perhaps he could figure it out for himself.
It was after noon by the time they reached a large building with a columned portico in front of it. There Was a wide flight of stone steps that ran all around the front of the building, leading up to the arched entryway. Kara turned and started to ascend the steps.
“Is it here?” asked Ryana. “Is this the building where they kept the treasure?”
“One of them,” said Kara.
“I am tired of these riddles!” said Ryana, forgetting her respectful tone in her exasperation. “We have wasted half the day! We could easily have landed right here, instead of on the other side of the city! Or is it that you want us to waste time, so that we may encounter the undead? Is that part of the test, too?”
Kara suddenly held up her hand for quiet, cocking her head and listening intently.
“This way, quickly!” she said.
They hurried up the steps. No sooner had they stepped under the shelter of the columned portico than a large shadow passed over the plaza. A loud, screeching cry pierced the air, and they heard the beating of gigantic wings.
The creature came swooping down over the city, casting its huge shadow over the spot where they had stood moments earlier. The ominous sound of its wingbeats filled the air. Its shrill, reverberating cry echoed off the building walls as it passed overhead, momentarily blotting out the sun with its huge bulk.
Ryana glanced up. “A roc!” she said with astonishment as the creature passed over them. “But what is doing here, so far from the mountains?”
“It was sent by the Shadow King,” said Kara. “And it brings your old traveling companion, Valsavis.”
Sorak suddenly understood. “You knew that Nibenay would help him find a way to follow us,” he said. “That is why you left the raft on the other side of the city, to make him think that we are somewhere in that vicinity. You meant to throw him off and buy us time.”
“If he is, indeed, as good a tracker as you say,” said Kara, “then it will not take him much longer to find us than it took us to reach here. And there is still much left to do. Hurry. There is not much time left.”
She stepped through the archway and disappeared into the shadows of the building.
9
“Why must we be so afraid of Valsavis?” asked Ryana, her voice echoing in the darkness of the cavernous building. The sound of it startled her slightly, and she lowered her voice. “He may be skilled and dangerous, but could he really hope to stand against the three of us?”
“It is not Valsavis we must fear, but his master, Nibenay,” said the pyreen as she led the way. “That Valsavis was able to follow us so quickly proves what I had suspected all along. The magic I detected on him was some means for him to communicate with Nibenay. And with Valsavis here, the Shadow King has never been closer to uncovering the secret of the Sage.”
“Then the Sage is here?” said Sorak with amazement. “In Bodach?”
“No,” said Kara from the darkness just ahead. “But the secret to finding him is here.”
Ryana had no idea what that meant. She could barely see ahead of her, but she held onto Sorak’s arm, knowing he could see easily in the darkness, as could Kara. For his part, Sorak’s view was very different. He followed Kara down a wide, tiled corridor, past fluted stone columns that held up the roof high overhead. He had no idea what sort of building this once was. Some meeting hall, perhaps, or noble’s palace. Many of the tiles on which they walked were cracked, and some were missing. Here and there, the floor had buckled, and several times they stepped around some rubble where pieces of the ceiling had dropped down. He hoped the roof would not fall in on them. Near the entrance, sand had blown into the building, but now that they had gone farther inside, there was merely a thick layer of dust upon the floor. And after they had gone a little farther, he suddenly heard the last sound he would have expected to hear in such a place. “Water!” he said.
“Here?” Ryana said with disbelief, but a moment later, she could hear it, too. The unmistakable, old, familiar, trickling sound of water, like that of a babbling brook.
Ahead of them, Kara stopped and held her arms out, bent at the elbows, palms facing upward. She mumbled a spell under her breath, and there was the rushing sound of air being displaced, followed by a sudden spark of brightness that grew rapidly until it formed into a swirling ball of flame about the size of a large melon. Kara brought her arms up, moving them inward, then fanning them out, and the fireball divided into four smaller fireballs that whooshed across the room in four different directions, landing in four ancient iron braziers that suddenly erupted into flame, illuminating the large chamber in which they stood.
Sorak caught his breath, and Ryana gasped with astonishment at what they beheld. In front of them, taking up almost all of the floor space in the chamber, was a large, rectangular pool of water that sparkled in the firelight. In the center of the pool, there rose a stone fountain that sprayed water up into the air, recirculating and filtering the water in the pool. There was no way of telling how long it must have been here. Centuries, at least. And probably much longer.
“But... how can this be?” Ryana said with disbelief. It seemed to defy all rational explanation. “It is impossible!”
“You see it with your own eyes, do you not?” asked Kara, turning toward them.
“It must be some sort of trick,” said Sorak, “an illusion. One cannot always believe what one sees. How could there still be water in this pool after so many years? How could it still remain so clear? Where does it come from?”
“It comes from an underground spring deep beneath our feet,” said Kara, “under many layers of rock. The ancients truly had accomplished marvels in their time, during the age of science. This building was once a public bath. The fountain draws the water up from deep beneath the ground, and it is filtered by a system of porous rock that still serves its purpose after all these years. On the surface, Bodach appears to be a dead and ruined city, but there are many wonders to be found here if you know where to look, not the least of which is this.”
She walked over to the wall and reached into one of the recesses spaced at intervals around the pool and containing ornamental statues. She pulled a concealed lever. There must have been some sort of hidden counterbalance, for it moved easily. The arc of the fountain grew smaller, and after a moment, became no more than a trickle. And as they watched, the water in the tiled pool began to drain away. The water level dropped by inches, then by a foot, then farther still, and they could see something beneath the surface that they had not seen before for the darkness of the ceiling tiles, which reflected in the surface. As the water level dropped still farther, something metallic gleamed beneath it, and suddenly both Sorak and Ryana realized what they were seeing as the water drained away.
It was the fabled lost treasure of Bodach. As the water receded, they saw that the treasure filled the entire pool. It was an absolutely priceless hoard. They stared, open-mouthed, as thousands upon thousands of gold and silver coins gleamed in the soft firelight, among rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds, amethysts, and other precious stones. There were jewel-encrusted weapons scattered throughout the pile of riches, glittering necklaces and tiaras and brooches, bracelets and arm bands, chains of office and medallions, ceremonial armor made from precious metals, a fortune that made those of the richest sorcerer-kings of Athas pale by comparison. In a world where metal of any kind had become so scarce that weapons made of iron commanded prices few could afford, here was a mountainous horde of precious metals and jewels that rivaled even the most fanciful depictions of the treasure in the legends.