Suddenly, others materialized from a dozen hiding places: from behind boulders, from atop half-caved roofs, from inside ancient homes. They were mostly men, but there were a few women too. Karim was surrounded.
“All of us?” the old man asked.
Anger—and that new uncanny energy inside him—made Karim brave. “I’ll fight until my last breath,” he declared.
The old man narrowed his eyes, then loosed a dry chuckle. “This shrub has thorns, does he not?” Some of the others tittered in response. “Put away your prickles, sen. The girl and pup are alive and well.”
A young man emerged from the crowd, dragging a furiousSita along with him. She was bound and gagged, but otherwise unharmed. A woman led Behkai by a rope looped around his neck. The dog, unlike the princess, looked utterly carefree.
“Why didn’t you bark?” Karim huffed at the dog.
“I gave him a big piece of meat,” the woman answered.
Karim sighed. He was relieved, but still uncertain about the situation they’d bungled into.Who are these people?he wondered. The lilt in their voices was familiar, as was the expression the old man had used.
Put away your prickles, sen.
“You’re Red Landers, aren’t you?” he said.
The old man crossed his arms.
Karim took that as a yes. “But no tribe settles this far east. The Anen would have heard of you. I would have known—”
“No, you wouldn’t,” the old man broke in. “We’ve lived in this city a long, long time, sen. And we’ve gone to great pains to erase ourselves from memory.”
Much like Setnakht, Karim thought.I wonder if they know anything about him…“But why? Why would you want to be forgotten?”
The question brought forth a wave of bitter muttering from the crowd.
“Why?” the old man repeated. “Because our ancestors grew tired of the raids, the uncertainty, the constant fear of death. So they journeyed across the Iteru and beyond the reach of the river people and happened upon this place. We never went back. No one returned to the Red Lands to tell the other tribes what became of us. Perhaps they thought we perished in the desert.”
A name bobbed to the surface of Karim’s mind. “You’re the Hudjefa, aren’t you? I’ve only ever heard of you in the old stories.”
“All the better for us,” the old man said with a hard smile. “We left the outer edges of the city empty, reserving the homes at thecenter for ourselves. That way, our sentries have time to alert us to any intruders who might stumble in. Although you two are the first in many years.”
“What happened to the other intruders?”
“They were scoundrels and brigands, their only intent to kidnap, steal, and destroy. We dealt with them in the only language they understood.” He eyed Karim meaningfully. “Why areyouhere, sen?”
Karim raised his palms in a gesture of peace. “We came only to explore this place, hey? To search for information about the people who built it. If you give us a few hours to look around, we promise to leave and never return.”
The old man glanced at Karim’s pack, bursting with treasures. “Those don’t look like the possessions of a simple explorer, sen. Those look like the spoils of a thief.”
Karim opened his mouth to deny the claims, but he couldn’t because they were true.
A hairy brute with a scar across his cheek stepped forward, a stone mace gripped in one hand. “Enough talk, Elyas. Don’t give the sheep a name, lest you pity them when it comes time for slaughter.”
Sita shouted into the gag, struggling in her captor’s arms.
“Wait a minute,” Karim said, his pulse racing once more. “I thought you said we were safe here!”
Elyas looked pained.
“They’re no different from the others,” the brute said to the old man. “It doesn’t matter that he’s a Red Lander, nor that the other one’s a woman. They both have mouths to speak. Either one of them could condemn us all.”
“That’s not true!” Karim protested. “I swear on my life we won’t speak a word to anyone!”
“Elyas…” the brute urged.
