The Library of Fates(48)

I looked down at my wrists and ankles. They were bound in cold, heavy chains. My heart was beginning to race.

“Only one way to get these two out of here without a fuss.” He gagged my mouth with a piece of cloth, and before I knew it I was being tossed in a large burlap sack. I tried to scream, desperation pulsing through my body like an electric charge.

The last thing I saw before everything went black was the shock and fear on Thala’s face.





Twenty-Three



“THREE FORTNIGHTS, that’s how long before we’re the richest men on the Earth!” a voice boomed.

A timid voice piped in. “Sir . . . what if it’s a trick?”

“Again, Spiro? A trick?”

The light was a searing white. I wiped the grit away from my lashes as I crawled out of the burlap bag. There was white sand everywhere the eye could see, and the sky was an intense, cloudless blue.

I turned slowly and saw them. Dressed in plainclothes, they sat in a line with their backs to me. A sorry-looking infantry unit of Sikander’s soldiers made of a ragtag group of young boys. And just paces away from them, two men arguing: the burly man who had captured me and the pale, wiry one who had confirmed my identity.

A hand gripped mine, and I snapped to attention.

“It’s all right, it’s just me,” Thala whispered. She was covered in sand too, but she was sitting on top of her burlap sack, her gaze fixed on the two men. Even though her hands and feet were bound in chains, there was a look of defiance in her eyes. Slowly, she raised her bound wrists and removed the gag from my mouth.

“Thala! Where are we?”

“Shhh . . . I’m trying to listen in. We’re in the desert. You passed out. We’ve been journeying for a whole day and night. Well, more like being kidnapped, thrown into burlap sacks, and carried around by these brutes.”

My heart sank as I saw my satchel in the burly man’s hand. He pulled from it the map to the Janaka Caves.

“Oh no,” I breathed.

“This is a cause for celebration! A good day for us, no?” the burly soldier said as he shook the map in the air, his voice filled with glee.

“But we have strict orders from Nico, coming directly from Master Sikander—”

“Boy, Nico is gone, and Sikander doesn’t know. And you know what they say about the things people don’t know.”

“What if he finds out that we captured his bride-to-be?”

“How will he find out? We’re already a day’s journey out of that city. And once we find those caves, what do we need Sikander for?” He rifled through my satchel as though it were his own and pulled out my dagger.

“No, no, no!” I whispered.

Meena had insisted I keep the dagger safe, and now both the dagger and the map to the Sybillines were in the hands of this man with crazy eyes.

“Spiro, stop your whining. You’ll thank me for taking matters into my own hands. All you have to do is ride this wave of good fortune that I’ve brought us,” he said. “Your job is to navigate, care for the horses, and cook our meals. You do that, and you’ll find yourself a very rich man in three fortnights. My job is to rally the men.”

“Yes sir.”

“You can do that now, can’t you?”

“Yes sir, Master Alexi.”

“Good, now you hold on to this,” he said, handing Spiro the map, “and I’ll take this gift that the princess brought us.” He waved the dagger in the air as he laughed heartily.

I wanted to stab him with the dagger. My dagger. My map. And yet I was helpless, tied in chains, held prisoner with no recourse.

Spiro looked back at the man, defeat on his face. “Very well, Master Alexi. The sun will be setting soon. We should try to get as far as we can before dark.”

“Come now, men! Let us be masters of our own destiny!” The burly man turned to his soldiers.

The soldiers stood up, but without ceremony. I watched them closely. They were young—my age, many of them so gaunt that it was shocking they were soldiers at all. I thought about what Thala had told me about Sikander’s army of the unwilling soldiers, young orphans. Just looking at this group of men made me wonder about the unfortunate circumstances and conditions that had brought them here.

And their silence suggested that they were afraid of Alexi, just as I could tell Alexi was afraid of Sikander from the way his lip quivered when he said Sikander’s name. Sikander’s entire army, his entire operation was built on men fearing the force of other men.

“What say you?” he asked his men. “Do you want to return back to your homes in Macedon the richest men alive?”

The soldiers looked ragged, starved, and exhausted. Some of them raised their fists in the air as though they had no choice, but the way they lethargically slumped their shoulders, the way their grim eyes stayed fixed on Alexi, made me wonder what they really thought.

Only Spiro was silent, squinting into the sun. This wasn’t lost on Alexi. I watched as his eyes narrowed at Spiro.

“Any other scared fools here?” he asked.

Silence.

Spiro approached me, wordlessly checking to see that I was still bound. He handed me a skin of water without making direct eye contact with me.

I watched him carefully, taking him in for the first time. He was slight with pale green eyes. Too pretty to be a soldier. And timid, from the way he spoke. But his words were measured and thoughtful. In fact, he appeared too thoughtful, too considered to be one of Sikander’s soldiers.