I coughed, crawling away from the opening, trying to catch my breath.
“Dania, are you okay?”
“Fine, I just need a minute.” I inhaled a breath of fresh air before rubbing the dirt from my eyes and turning back to the cavity in the earth.
Like a sinkhole about to swallow us up, the ground opened into a dark cave beneath the dirt.
“Please don’t tell me you want us to go in there.” I looked over the edge into the waiting dark.
“Don’t be silly,” she breathed. “I am not nearly as athletically inclined as you are. I wantyouto go in there.”
I shot her a glare, pushed through the sick feeling of fear in my stomach, and approached the opening. If the djinn magic was in there, I would have to be the one to retrieve it.
“Souma wouldn’t have laid any traps,” Noor whispered from behind me. “If he had, he would have told me.”
“So why aren’t you going in there?” I shot back.
“Because if there is anything to fight, you are the best one for the job.”
“What would there be to fight?” I said, my brows rising to my hairline.
“Something unseen.”
For the first time, I realized what we were doing and what the repercussions were. We were going after a djinn treasure, a power so rare the emperor himself made a deal with a creature from another world just to use it.
And we were about to take it for ourselves.
I touched the hilt of Baba’s folding dagger under my kurta.
“When this is over, I’m teaching you how to handle yourself in a fight,” I called over to Noor.
“Why do that when I’ve got you?”
I snorted a laugh, dispelling some of the panic pressing against mychest. I swung my legs over the edge of the entrance, trying to see the bottom. I couldn’t jump down when I didn’t know how far it went.
“Do we have a rope?”
“No. But your grandmother gave me one of her dupattas—I could tie that around your waist and lower you down?”
“That might work.”
Noor pulled out a dark red dupatta from her bag, the shawl embroidered with a soft yellow thread in a northern floral design my grandmother often wore. I tied it carefully around my waist, and Noor held the other end.
“Don’t drop it.”
“I can’t promise anything.” She flashed a quick smile at me as I bared my teeth.
Then I clambered down into the dark.
Fourteen
Light filtered through the opening above and gave me just enough visibility to see in the darkness of the tomb. The air was cool and dry, the cave protected from the elements above by the stones covering it. It wasn’t that deep of a drop. I likely could have jumped down myself, but the dupatta around my waist gave me a bit of security, despite not knowing what waited for me.
My feet pressed into soft sand, and I ran my eyes along the walls of the cave.
It wasn’t a big space, and it was empty save for three large bags in the corner. I exhaled at the sight of them, and gold glinted in the scant sunlight from above.
Souma’s treasure.
