chest, and she locked it. It wasn’t quite airtight, but I thought it was. It was dark and I couldn’t breathe and I thought my heart was going to jump out of my chest. I screamed, and I couldn’t stop screaming. I heard her laughing. She said she was sure Kiya had punished her slaves this way, and I had to learn that every time I failed her, she would put me in this cage. If I was lucky, she’d remember to take me out.” She was looking down at the coffin-like interior. “She remembered in thirty-two hours.”
Dalai couldn’t have been much more than a child, Jill thought in horror. An experience like that would have scarred anyone, much less a vulnerable girl totally dependent on that monster. It was a wonder that she had not been totally crushed. “I don’t know what to say,” she said gently. “You’ll never be able to keep from remembering that time, and I can’t help what happened to you.” She added with sudden harshness, “But I’ll be there to lend a hand when you’re ready to throw that bitch into her own cage.”
Dalai looked at her in surprise. “I didn’t tell you that to make you feel sorry for me. I just had to make you understand.” She turned away from the chest. “She only put me in that chest one more time, and I knew what to expect, so it wasn’t as bad. But I couldn’t stop remembering that first night whenever she made me come down here.”
“I can understand why,” Novak said grimly. “But I don’t understand why you even came down today. We saw what you wanted us to see. You were right, we had to experience it for ourselves.”
Dalai shook her head and turned to Jill. “No, I had to make sure that you knew everything that happened here.” Her gaze was searching Jill’s face. “I think you do. You figured it all out. When I first saw your expression after I came down, I could tell.” She met her eyes. “Do you want me to put it into words?”
Jill couldn’t look away from her. That scent was surrounding her…The panic was rising. “No.” She whirled away from her. She couldn’t go yet, she knew there was one more thing to check. “I’ll be right back, Novak. Take care of her.”
Then she was out of the treasure room and stumbling down another short path. The pungent scent was stronger now, and she could see broken boards on the ceiling up ahead. She had to stop as she saw the dim light piercing the cracks in that wood.
Sickness.
Horror.
“Jill.” Novak was holding her. “Come on. Let’s go back.”
“I had to be sure,” she said numbly. “I couldn’t believe what Dalai was trying to tell me.” She was clinging to him. “That’s the schoolroom, Novak. It’s only a few yards away from Kiya’s treasure. The Kiyanis allowed that schoolroom to be built practically on top of their precious treasury. Dalai said Zahra’s great-grandfather moved the treasury here, and that was very smart, wasn’t it? I’m surprised it wasn’t Zahra. Because no one would disturb a village school or suspect what was below it.” She swallowed. “But I could smell the scent of that schoolroom the minute I came down here. The chalk, the burnt walls and floorboards…All that death…I know it so well.”
“I know you do.” He’d turned her and was leading her back toward the treasure room. “And it’s going to hit you harder any minute, so I want to get you out of here. That’s why I left your Dalai and ran after you.”
“She’s not my Dalai, she doesn’t belong to anyone. But someone should help—” She stopped and closed her eyes. “There’s more…She was trying to tell me, but I didn’t want to listen. I didn’t want to hear the end of the story.” Her eyes opened. “But I have to hear it now.” She pulled away from him and strode back into the treasure room. Dalai was still standing where she’d left her beside the golden cage. Jill crossed the room toward her. “The schoolroom.” Her hands clenched into fists at her sides. “It was all coming together before, but I need the words now. It wasn’t just a random attack, was it? Tell me.”
Dalai shook her head and said unevenly, “Zahra didn’t have enough cash to keep paying Varak, and she was afraid the Botzan army might take Robaku.”