Understand that you will not get a third opportunity. If you fail, you will be sent to the Brightness.

Ombra did not respond. There was no need: the other beings could feel his fear.

As soon as the Watcher boy is strong enough, you will bring him here.

I will bring the boy here.

That is all. Go.

Ombra separated himself from the beings, moving back up the stairway and out into the desert night. He began to glide toward the palace spires rising in the distance. Just ahead, a large spider emerged on thick hairy legs from a hole in the sand. It sensed Ombra's approach and tried to retreat into its hole. Too late; the dark shape was upon it, then past it, leaving behind a dead, cold carca.s.s on the sand. Ombra took no notice. His thoughts were on the palace ahead and the boy who would determine his fate.

CHAPTER 24.

THE MAN IN THE WHITE ROBE.

MOLLY AWOKE TO FIND that the ship had docked. Through the porthole of her cabin, she saw that they were tied to a busy wharf, bustling with sun-browned men clad in loincloths and turbans. The men shouted in an unfamiliar tongue as they loaded and unloaded cargo ships with odd shapes and strangely rigged sails.

Molly squinted against the brilliant sun. She saw palm trees like those on Peter's island and a port city of baked-mud houses painted a blinding white. Donkeys laboring under towering burdens, sometimes larger than the poor animals themselves, trudged slowly up narrow streets, which they shared with ox-drawn carts and a jostling ma.s.s of humanitya"scores of barefoot, chattering children and sandal-clad men and women in flowing robes.

Many of the women, Molly noted with amazement, were carrying huge baskets balanced on their heads. But it was the sight of the majestic creatures next to the wharf that made her gasp with delight. She dressed quickly and ran to the big stern cabin, where she found her father busy disguising himself as a native. He had donned a long white robe and daubed his face with brown boot polish. He was now wrapping his hair in a turban.

"How do I look?" asked Leonard.

"Positively nomadic," answered Molly. "Are those camels out there?"

"Indeed they are," answered her father. "And I'm to ride one of them."

"Is this Rundoon?" said Molly.

"No, we wouldn't be safe there. This is Ashmar, just across the border to the west. The prince of Ashmar is an ally. I will pose as a carpet merchant and cross the border after sunset."

"To find Peter," said Molly, no longer smiling.

"Not quite yet. But soon, yes. Do you remember Bakari?"

Molly frowned for a moment. "The man from Egypt," she said.

"Yes," said Leonard. "That's the one." Bakari was a Starcatcher based in Egypt; he had warned the Starcatchers in England to "Beware the shadows"a"the first they had heard about Ombra.

"I'm to meet him here," Leonard said. "Our friend Ammm arranged it. Bakari has contacts in Rundoon. He will help us to find Peter and perhaps also find out what the Others are up to." He finished wrapping the turban and turned to face Molly.

"Well?" he said.

"Splendid!" said Molly. "Even I wouldn't recognize you. May I go see your camel now?"

Leonard frowned. "I'm sorry, Molly, but I can't allow that. Agents of Rundoon are surely watching this port. You and George must remain belowdecks. You must not be seen."

"But, Father!" she protested.

"Absolutely not, Molly. If word got back to Rundoon that an Englishman and his daughter had arrived by shipawell, we would be in great danger."

"So we're prisoners, George and I?"

"May I remind you," said Leonard, with just a touch of anger in his voice, "that you and George should never have boarded this ship in the first place?"

Molly reddened and looked down. Leonard let his reprimand hang in the air for a moment, then put his hand on his daughter's shoulder. In a much softer voice, he said, "It's for your own good, Molly. This place is very unsafe. If anything happened to you, I could not forgive myself."

Molly looked up, her face somber. "But what about you, Father? Isn't it unsafe for you as well?"

"I'll be careful, I promise." Leonard's eyes twinkled. "Besides, I'll have help." He nodded toward a small, ornately carved wooden box on his writing stand.

Molly looked at the box, puzzled. "I don't understand," she said.

Leonard tapped lightly on the lid. "Is everything all right in there?" he asked.

The box emitted a m.u.f.fled, discordant clattering of bells.

No, Tink was saying, everything is not all right, because I am inside this stupid box.

"Only a bit longer," said Leonard. "We don't want the crew seeing you, now, do we?"

"Tink is going with you?" said Molly, with just a hint of jealousy.

Of course I am, you silly goose.

"What did she say?" asked Molly.

"She says she's sorry you can't join us," said Leonard.

Hours later, as the late-afternoon sun beat down on the Mich.e.l.le, Molly and George watched through a porthole as the tall, white-robed figure of Leonard Aster descended the gangway to the wharf, carrying the small wooden box containing Tink. Leonard was met there by a stocky man with a thick black bearda"Bakari, Molly a.s.sumed. He, too, wore a white robe, but his was stained and worn, as though he had been traveling. He led Leonard to a pair of kneeling camels.

The two men mounted the animals, a process that brought a smile to Molly's face. Her father, an accomplished horseman, nearly slipped off the unfamiliar wooden saddle as the camel abruptly rose to its feet. But he managed to hang on, and in a few moments the two riders were moving.

Molly and George watched them start up the narrow street. Immediately, they were surrounded by barefoot children, holding their hands up toward the camel riders and beseeching them for coins, food, anything.

Then something else caught Molly's eye: two men emerged from behind a building on the wharf. They were not dockworkers, and their full attention seemed to be on the two camel riders. The men started up the dusty street at a near trot, much faster than anyone else moved in this heat.

"Do you see those two?" said George.

"I do," said Molly.

"I don't like the look of them."

"Nor do I. Father said there were agents about. That's why we're supposed to stay belowdecks, so they won't see us. And why Father is in disguise."

"By the look of things," said George, "his disguise isn't working."

Molly nodded in grim agreement. The two men were trotting close behind the camels now. It was obvious: they were following her father and Bakari.

"Do you think we should try to warn your father?" said George.

"He said under no circ.u.mstances were we to leave the ship," said Molly. "We're to wait here until he comes back."

"Yes, but that was when he thought he wouldn't be found out," said George. "If they know he's here, thena""

George didn't finish the thought, but he didn't need to; Molly had been thinking the same thing. Maybe he won't come back.

She looked at George, her expression telling him all he needed to know.

"So," he said, "I guess we'll be leaving the ship, after all."

CHAPTER 25.

BAD THINGS.

PETER PEERED OUT THROUGH THE CELL BARS, looking in both directions to make sure there were no guards nearby. Then he stepped back to the center of the cell, exhaled, and rose slowly off the floor. He made his body horizontal and floated up to the ceiling, then became vertical and drifted gently back to the floor. He allowed himself a small smile.

James smiled, too, although the effort made him wince because of the still-raw wounds...o...b..a had caused him to inflict on his own face.

"Feeling better?" said James.

"Yes," said Peter. "Much. Another day and I'll be as good as new."

"Fat lot of good that will do," said Tubby Ted, sprawled in the corner of the cell he had made his own. "Flying won't help if they never let us out of here."

"We'll see about that," said Peter. He tried to sound confident, but Ted had a point: the boys were being held in a dungeon deep inside the palace. The iron cell bars that contained them looked out on a dim, torch-lit corridor with guards posted at either end. The only other opening in the cell was a small barred window at the top of the back wall. This window looked out on the palace courtyard, a vast s.p.a.ce surrounded by a high stone wall with guard towers evenly s.p.a.ced along the top. Inside the wall were two odd-looking, freestanding towers perhaps fifty feet high, tapering at the tops to sharp points. These were a dull reddish color, unlike any stone Peter had ever seen.

The boys had been given rough, itchy, camel-hair blankets to sleep on, and the two nights they'd been there had been far from restful. There were no beds, so they had to lie on the cold stone floor.

And then there were the monkeysa"a half dozen of them housed in a nearby cell. The boys couldn't see them, but they could certainly smell and hear them. At odd timesa"sometimes in the middle of the nighta"they would erupt in a loud chorus of shrieks and gibbering that made sleep impossible. Peter wished he had Tink with him; she could talk to monkeys.

The boys had not yet left the cell. The door had been opened only twice, both times to allow a mana"a doctor, apparentlya"to come in and examine Peter. The only other visitors were Slightly and Tootles, who brought food twice a day, pa.s.sing pots through the cell bars. It was an unfamiliar cuisinea"round, flat bread and strange-tasting pastes in small earthen pots. At first only Tubby Ted would eat anything other than the bread. But by the second day the boys' hunger got the better of them, and they wolfed it all down.

The food delivery was supervised by guards, but they did not speak English, so Peter used the opportunity to get information from Slightly, who had picked up some of the Rundoon language. Because of this, he was able to eavesdrop on King Zarboff's conversations. This morning he had brought disturbing news.

"A strange man came last night to see Zarboff about you," he said. "If it was a man. Very strange."

"What did he look like?"

"That's the thing: I never actually saw him. He was more like a cape with a black ghost inside. And the way he movedait gave me the frights, I don't mind telling you. Even Zarboff seemed scared of him, and Zarboff ain't scared of n.o.body. I swear even the snake was afraid of him."

"He's called Ombra," said Peter in a whisper. "You'd best stay away from him."

"Believe me, I will. But it's you he's interested in. Heard him ask if you're healthy enough yet."

"Healthy enough for what?"

"He mentioned the Jackal," said Slightly, with a look that told Peter this was not a good thing.

"A jackal? That's some kind of animal, right?"

"Not this Jackal. It's said to be out in the desert somewhere, along with the other tombs and temples. I never went there, mind you, and never want to. People say bad things happen out there. Zarboff went once and came back with a look of death on his ugly face."

"Why am I supposed to go there?"

"Dunno."

Peter was silent for a moment. "What about my mates?" he said.

Slightly's eyes swept over James, Prentiss, Thomas, and Tubby Ted, all busily eating.

"I'm to train them," he said. "They're going to help me and the other boys work for Dr. Glotz."

"Who?"

"Dr. Glotz works for Zarboff. Calls himself a scientist. He uses us as workers because he don't speak Rundoon. Those are his monkeys making all that racket."

"What are the monkeys for?"

"For Glotz's experiments."

"What experiments?" said Peter.

But before Slightly could answer, the conversation was halted by a guard, who shouted something and clouted Slightly on the head. He said something in Rundoon that Peter didn't understand; but the message was obvious: Shut up. The boys finished eating in silence, then pa.s.sed the empty pots back through the cell bars. Peter decided to risk asking Slightly one last question. He did so in a faint whisper.

"Did Zarboff say I was healthy enough to go to theathe tomb?" he asked.

Slightly nodded somberly. "Tonight," he said.

Five hours later, darkness had fallen and the boys were asleepa"all except Peter, who sat against the cold stone wall, waiting and listening.

Footsteps approached. Two guards. They opened the cell door, and the boys stirred. The guard gestured to Peter, who rose and walked out. James looked up but didn't say anything. The guards closed the door and, one in front of Peter and one behind, marched him through a maze of dim corridors, then up a steep flight of steps to a heavy door. The lead guard opened the door and shoved Peter outside and into the waiting arms of four soldiers. Next to them was a horse-drawn cart with a robed man sitting in the driver's seat, his back to them.

Two of the soldiers held Peter, gripping him so tightly that his arms hurt. The other two put a heavy metal ring with a chain attached to it around his neck. It felt cold against his skin. A lock clicked shut. The soldiers lifted Peter into the cart and locked the other end of the chain to a metal ring bolted onto the cart. They checked to make sure the lock was properly closed and the chain secure. Then they stepped away from the cart. The robed man flicked the reins, and the cart rumbled into the darkness.

In a few minutes they had left the city and were moving across the starlit desert. The air was alive with sounds and smells that were strange to Peter. Finally, he saw something in the distancea"pointed ears, then a giant head. It looked like an animal poised to strike as it rose out of the sands. The Jackal. Peter remembered Slightly's words: People say bad things happen out there.