The Last Odyssey (Sigma Force #15) - James Rollins Page 0,61
the time, but already large, became enraged and broke the man’s neck. She and her brother had fled afterward, but Kadir remained her protector always.
Eventually they drew the attention of the Sons and Daughters.
She suspected it was Kadir—whose reputation in the slums of Istanbul grew with his size—was the one whom they truly wanted to recruit. But her brother would never leave her side, so they were taken together. Little did they know that Nehir would prove to be the true warrior of the pair. Kadir was too slow, both in mind and body, and in many ways, his heart was too easily wounded. But he did as he was told.
Nehir, on the other hand, was swift with her knives, flawless with her marksmanship. But it was her sharp intelligence that allowed her to rise quickly in the ranks and eventually become the First Daughter of Mūsā.
Determination had driven her back then—and now.
She intended to live long enough to see this world burned away and replaced with a new paradise—a paradise where those who had died in Allah’s good graces would be returned to their loved ones. Including her lost children.
And now I am so near to seeing it happen.
With a lighter spirit, she continued down the stairs, summoned by Mūsā to the heart of Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom. This level of the buried city housed countless texts, some dating back to 1258, to the Fall of Baghdad, when Mongol hordes led by Genghis Khan’s grandson invaded the city, setting fire to mosques and homes, slaughtering its inhabitants. But the worst atrocity of all was the destruction of the city’s centuries-old academy of higher learning, the true flower of the Islamic Golden Age: the House of Wisdom. The Mongols had plundered the school, tossing its books into the Tigris River. It was said those waters ran black for days from all the ink—then later red with the blood of murdered scholars.
It was why, even today, the Sons and Daughters wore those colors.
But before the siege could be fully set, a scholar named Nasir al-Din al-Tusi—the first who would bear the title of Mūsā—rescued four hundred thousand books, stealing them away under the cover of darkness. It was those texts that became the foundation for the new House of Wisdom, one hidden from the world. To protect this secret, Nasir gathered the first Sons and Daughters, training them harshly and completely to be its warrior-scholars, guaranteeing that such an atrocity never happened again.
And it hadn’t.
The current Mūsā was the forty-eighth to rule the House of Wisdom.
And he will carry it to its greatest glory.
With utmost humility and respect, Nehir bowed and entered into the sprawling warren of rooms that made up the library. It spread over forty acres and now housed tenfold what Nasir had rescued.
She found her leader in a small chamber lined by rows of long desks. Mūsā stood behind one, flanked by two elder Sons, who served the library.
She paused at the chamber’s threshold.
Mūsā noted her presence and waved her forward. She crossed to the table, keeping her head bowed, her eyes cast down.
“My dear Daughter,” Mūsā said warmly, “Allah truly smiles upon you.”
“Thank you,” she muttered, feeling awkward at such praise.
“The two books you secured from Dr. Cargill have proven fortuitous. Monumentally so.”
He nodded toward the table’s surface, where the old volumes were spread open, with more books piled to either side, likely gathered for research into the revelations found within the texts recovered from the dhow in Greenland.
Mūsā touched one of them. “Herein lie the treacherous last words of the traitorous fourth brother to the Banū Mūsā. While his story is incomplete, we’ve discerned much in a short time, offering us hope to pick up the lost trail to Tartarus.”
Her heart pounded. She had hoped as much when she had been handed those old volumes and delivered them here.
At long last.
Mūsā straightened and stared at her. “I will pray that Allah continues to smile on you, though I already have faith that this will happen. For I have an important task for you.”
“Whatever you command.”
“You and your brother Kadir must go and search for that lost trail. I will send you with a cadre of Sons and Daughters, along with the two prisoners. Use one against the other to enlist their cooperation to help you find those threads. You will also take the Storm Atlas, as I believe it will still be of value in discovering the true path to Tartarus.”