Occasionally, they came across the traces of other seekers’ camps or even battlefields: felled trees, huge pits and ravines, scorched earth, and even disturbances in the streams of the World River.
Sitting near the fire, Ramukhan, Salif, and Glen discussed what they should do next.
“Perhaps we should return to the Demon’s Heart,” Glen complained, “We will find nothing but corpses here. Maybe we’re the only ones left in this place.”
“Why would we return to the black desert?” Ramukhan shrugged. “We will be like blind kittens there.”
“All will be decided by the red comets.” Salif tried to hide it, but he was very tired from the journey. Only the fact that the boy was now carrying the old man on his own back made the situation somewhat bearable.
The old servant was right. It would only be a month and a half before the two red comets soared through the sky. The entrance to Mage City would be where their paths intersected. Moreover, according to most legends, the entrance would also open at that exact moment. However, that hadn’t stopped a huge number of seekers from participating in this dangerous adventure already. That was probably why Sankesh needed the key to the library, little Serra. She could, apparently, interpret the writing on the gate and open the entrance before the comets arrived.
“Once again, we find ourselves in a stupid position because of the barbarian,” Tilis commented.
Hadjar wanted to make a joke about the witch, him, and a stupid position, but he managed to bite his tongue. There was no need to antagonize her even further. The witch was already eager to duel him regularly with sharp words and remarks.
“Perhaps I can help.” Einen, who’d only spoken once this week, suddenly joined the conversation.
“What do you propose, islander?” Ramukhan asked arrogantly.
Over the past week, Einen had managed to not only recall Rahaim’s letter, but also decrypt it. The map that had belonged to the former desert sultan didn’t indicate the way to the entrance itself, but the region where it was located.
The Immortal, who was from these parts, but didn’t want to get involved in the race for the legacy of the past, had pointed them in the right direction. The area Rahaim had singled out covered nearly five thousand acres and was located about four days’ journey to the southeast.
“I’d wanted to keep this a secret,” Einen sat down next to the sorcerer and took a piece of cloth out of his pocket, “but here it is. A while ago, I received a letter encrypted in a special way. It immediately seemed familiar to me as it was what we normally used in my homeland.”
Holding the piece of cloth in front of him, Einen drew a map on the ground, and then indicated the squad and the area marked by old Rahaim on it.
After a few seconds of silence, someone Hadjar hadn’t expected to interject laughed skeptically.
“Do you really expect us to believe that?” Glen swung his saber over the marked area and looked at the people around him, “You, quite coincidentally, have had a map of this region all this time, and then you remembered you had it at the exact moment we decided to leave the route that leads toward the marked area.”
Glen stuck the saber in the center of the marked area, where, according to Rahaim, the entrance to the lost city was. It would seem that the Baliumian was rather quick-witted.
“Glen has a point,” Karissa nodded. “Of all those present, except for Hadjar, I know you better than anyone, Einen. Tell me, where did you get that map?”
“An old acquaintance gave it to me,” the islander shrugged. “He didn’t know that it’s a map. He still probably has no idea what it is.”
The residents of Underworld City looked at each other.
“Please tell me you don’t believe him,” Glen swore. “I’ve been able to smell bullshit from a mile away since the day I was born, and, by the gods, baldy’s little story reeks of it.”
“Do you perhaps have a fondness for it?” Hadjar couldn’t resist asking.
“Let me show you how much,” Glen growled, raising his saber.
“That’s enough,” Ramukhan stopped their argument. “I also can’t say I believe this map is legitimate.”
Hadjar and Einen looked at each other. If they failed to convince the squad of the map’s authenticity, the upcoming journey would get very complicated. Moreover, the map really was genuine. Rahaim had thought so, at least. And there wasn’t a single person who knew more about Mage City than the old man in the whole Sea of Sand.
“We can all sense a lie,” Hadjar said, “but no one can recognize it better than the World River.”
Einen nodded and pulled out his dagger.
“I swear,” he said, making a cut on his palm, “that this map is accurate. I got it from an acquaintance. I’m also not planning to do anything evil to the people gathered here by showing them the map.”
Einen’s blood flashed, and then the cut healed up, leaving a small scar behind. It would disappear in time or when they reached the marked area. One way or another, the World River had accepted Einen’s oath. It hadn’t turned his soul into a column of flame that had burned the islander to death from the inside, after all.
“Damn it,” Glen swore again. “Believe me, we’ll regret it if we listen to these two.”
“What other options do we have, Glen?” Ramukhan asked. These two had managed to become friends over the past couple of months. “Wander aimlessly through the Demon’s Heart while waiting for the comets? Thousands of other seekers are doing just that. Can you guarantee that we won’t come across someone we can’t handle? Or even Sankesh himself?”
“Can you guarantee that this map won’t lead us directly to him? Maybe Einen and Hadjar are his faithful dogs. Don’t forget that they served under Rahaim’s command. You said that he devoted his whole life to searching for the city. Don’t you find this coincidence a bit too... convenient?”
Ramukhan wanted to answer him, but stayed silent. He looked at Einen. The islander sighed tiredly, and ran the dagger across his hand a second time.
“I swear that I don’t serve Sankesh and I’m not a spy.”
Once again, the islander didn’t turn into a pillar of fire.
“We can quibble over his words for an eternity,” Hadjar decided it was time to put a little pressure on the others, “or we can pull ourselves together and keep going.”
They sat in the shadow of the jungle. It was so dark that the world around them had been plunged into a caustic twilight. In such an environment, many travelers could lose their nerve. Hadjar’s hint that the others were being cowardly worked.
Ramukhan rose and gave the signal for them to pack up.
“If we find nothing but trees and corpses there, then both of you won’t have the right to speak until the end of the campaign.”
That was fair. Neither Hadjar nor Einen argued with this condition.
They joined Glen in the vanguard, and the squad started moving farther into the depths of the oasis. They led their camels along, which got very nervous when they spotted a huge snake slithering along the branches above their heads, or when they heard a winged monster flying through the sky and singing a hunting song, its shadow covering a vast area.
They pushed on for about two more days, when suddenly, the jungle ended. Rather, it parted, revealing some ruins buried in golden sand.