Karim allowed himself to be dragged down the path, feeling like a boat that pulled anchor and was being swept away by a fast-moving current.
As he went, he mourned the bread that he’d never get to taste.
***
After a short walk, Aya led Karim to a large open area west of the palace. Unlike the verdant land on the east side, which was close to the oasis, nothing grew there except scrub bushes. In fact, there wasn’t much to see besides some broken stone archways and pillars, which lay half buried in the sand.
Overwhelmed with excitement, Aya released Karim’s hand and dashed through the ruins.
“Look! It’s over here!” she exclaimed.
Karim jogged up to her, amazed. The sand had been cleared away to reveal a huge black granite statue, which must have stood at the height of three men before it fell onto its side and wasburied over time.
How in the world did Sita and I miss this?he wondered. They’d been so focused on searching the palace, they hadn’t considered looking that far afield.
“Isn’t she pretty?” Aya asked, sweeping her fingers across the statue’s serene face.
It was a statue of a kneeling woman with one hand raised, her palm facing toward her in a mysterious gesture. She wore a pillar-like crown on her head, topped with what appeared to be a basket.
“Can you read what it says?” Aya asked, pointing to a line of Khetaran writing engraved on the statue’s back.
“No, but Sita can. We must fetch her right away. But first I want to check something.”
Standing beside the statue, Karim turned in a slow circle, surveying the open land around him, noting the placement of the ruined archways, the crumbled pillars. Then, without warning, he dropped to the ground and lay flat on his belly.
“I want to try!” Aya said and flopped down next to him. She was silent, staring off into the distance before spitting sand out of her mouth and asking, “What are we doing?”
“The people who built Perset probably chose this location because the valley is flat, hey?” Karim said.
Aya nodded. “If you built a house on a hill, it would fall down!”
“Right. And as you can see from this angle, the land around us is very flat. But you can also see that this area we’re in is lower than the ground around it.”
“You mean… The ground fell down, like the statue?”
Karim got back to his feet and brushed the sand from his clothes. “Exactly, young sena! That would explain why the arches and pillars collapsed. If the land beneath them sank, it would have caused them to topple.”
“But why would the land sink?” Aya asked.
Karim smiled, smelling smoke and honey on the wind. “Because there’s something built underneath it.”
Aya’s eyes bulged. “So…what I found…it’s good?”
His sorrows momentarily forgotten, Karim grasped the girl by her shoulders and declared, “Aya-sena, it is incredible! You are a genius!”
“I am?” the girl asked, confused and delighted. “I am!”
“Now, go quickly and fetch Sita. Tell her to bring a chisel, my bow drill, and a torch. And Aya, let’s keep this discovery to ourselves, hey? I don’t want the whole tribe descending upon us until we know what we’re dealing with.”
“I am a genius!” Aya said, by way of agreement, and took off running.
Allowing that invisible rope to lead him, Karim wandered the area before stopping in a place that felt different than the rest. Falling to his knees, he pushed his fingers into the hot sand, searching for the prize that would lead to all other prizes, the gateway to triumph or ruin or both.
Searching for a door.
13Karim
Karim was still working in that same spot when Sita arrived, weighed down like a donkey with tools and supplies.
