Wicked As You Wish (A Hundred Names for Magic #1) - Rin Chupeco Page 0,59
you’d better open up or I’m shoving a sword up where the sun doesn’t shine so hard, you’ll spend the rest of your life like a pig on a spit.”
There was a harsh grating sound, and the heavy stone slid sideways, revealing a cadaverous-looking man with large eyes and a wild bristly beard. He was hunched over and made odd, involuntary jerking motions with his shoulders. The path behind him was lit by torches lining the stone corridor, filling the crude hallway with a ruddy, orange light.
Zoe pushed her way past him. “We’re in!” she yelled back. “Hurry!”
One by one, the rest of the group retreated into the opening, Lola Urduja and the firebird the last to slip past.
“Close sesame,” Zoe instructed.
“The password is not—”
“Close the goddamn sesame, Cassim!”
The slab slid shut. Something large and powerful slammed itself into the walls from outside, sending the place shuddering.
“There is no need for threats,” the man accused, with another quick, convulsive jerk of his head.
“You’re not playing by the rules either, Cassim,” Zoe reminded him. “You’re here to guard the place and grant safe passage to anyone who asks.”
“But I smelled ogre on you,” the man whispered with a conspiratorial smile. He wore his dirty blond hair long, his clothes disheveled but otherwise intact. But to Tala, the rest of him felt off, a feeling that grew as he continued to speak. “Ogres and shades, ogres and shades. Never to the sanctuary before, never come. Lurking everywhere. Perhaps the sanctuary they will attack—” He broke off, staring toward Alex and the firebird.
The man slid to the floor with a hoarse moan, prostrating and gesturing, a look of such abject terror on his face that the young royal shrank back without thinking.
“Prince,” the man groveled. “Oh, good prince, young prince. Remember old Cassim when you ascend the Winter Throne and rule the world. Remember old Cassim when you grasp the Flame and Ice, and purge the lands of all that is evil and good. Remember old Cassim, the first of all men to honor you. Avalon’s salvation, Avalon’s damnation, all that is to come. And firebird, lovely firebird!”
“Here we go,” Ken muttered from behind Tala. He stepped past the group, then pointed his blade at the man, who was right on the verge of pawing at Alex’s knees, attempting to reach the firebird. Cassim recoiled.
“You know the rules, Cassim,” Ken told him. “No touching.”
“Ignore him,” Zoe murmured, as they shuffled past the kneeling man. Cassim, still muttering to himself, reached up again, defying Ken’s command, to grab at Alex’s pants leg as he passed, but Ken had his sword leveled, keeping him at a distance.
The staircase at the end of the passageway smelled of damp and rust, and spiraled upward. Leaving the still supplicant Cassim singing feverishly behind them, Ken began to climb the winding stairs, motioning for the others to follow.
“What’s wrong with him?” Tala whispered, torn between revulsion and pity.
“The same thing wrong with every criminal punished to guard the sanctuaries,” Lola Urduja murmured. “It’s a lonely place. We’re probably the first humans he’s seen in a while.” She stopped, spotting Tala’s horrified expression. “Ah, I’d forgotten. You don’t know much about sanctuaries yet.”
“Why is he being punished like this?”
Zoe shrugged. “Only convicts who have committed the most heinous of acts are sentenced like this. I asked a Cassim once what crime he committed to deserve this punishment, but he grew hysterical. I asked this Cassim, and he reacted the same way. Something about staying here turns them this way. Avalon doesn’t have the death penalty, and this is the harshest sanction they administer.”
“Cassims?”
“It’s the name they all have to answer to. A spell binds them to the place, and they can’t leave on their own until they finish their sentences. This Cassim’s a little too obsessed with some of the absurd prophecies flying around, I think.”
“What were all those things he said? About the Flame and Ice?”
“I don’t really know either,” she admitted. “I wouldn’t worry about it if I were you. He doesn’t strike me as someone with a solid grasp on sanity.”
Tala forced herself not to look back and watch the wretched figure they were leaving behind. What kind of horrific crime had he done to warrant such an eternal, lonely punishment? She didn’t want to know. There were far too many things happening today that she didn’t have time to process yet. The firebird, the ice maiden, Ryker’s betrayal…the Scourge.