Deadly Magic

Part Ten

Sometime after he began to hallucinate, he noticed that light was coming from somewhere, yellow light, clean light.

A few minutes of pushing rocks aside and scraping away sand revealed that this, at least, was not a hallucination. A tiny pinhole, no larger than an ant tunnel, was filtering in the sunlight that the cave greedily sucked in.

"I see the sun!" Harry croaked excitedly to his friends, forgetting for a moment that they weren't real. "I see it!"

He scrabbled faster, pulling away loose stones and trying not to get so overexcited that he caused an avalanche. If he imagined that the carpet and cat helped him, so much the better.

Harry finally managed to force open a hole large enough to fit his head and shoulders into it after tearing off several more fingernails in desperation. When the stones refused to budge any further, he croaked in frustration. He would not be stuck in the cave until he died. That wasn't going to happen.

With a final push that used all of his remaining strength, he shot through and into the daylight.

He lay there for a moment, blinking into the blindingly blue sky.

Then Harry laughed like a madman under the deadly desert sun. The heat on his face felt alive, far more natural than the searing flames of the lava. At least if he were to die, it would be outside, looking up at the heavens.

But he wasn't going to die.

Tumbling into the sunshine next to him were Dusty and the magic carpet.

How could he ever have doubted their existence?

"Guys!" he cried happily, gathering them both into his arms. "You're real! We're all real! And alive! C'mon - let's go home!"

The carpet rose into the air and headed east.

Although exhaustion threatened to claim him, Harry kept his eyes open and forced himself to acknowledge the appearance of Kiacia on the horizon. The walls were too decrepit, the scene too dusty to be imagined. This wasn't a dream.

They covered the distance through the desert air far faster than he and the evil old man had on foot and hoof. A soothing wind lapped at Harry's face, and golden sand skimmed just below them like water. He wished he was feeling better and up to enjoying it. He bet that with a little nudging, he could get the carpet to take some of the curves faster and the dives harder. It was riding an eagle.

The carpet stopped in front of the camel watering station, perhaps a little harder than it needed to, causing Harry - with a bit of a flourish - to tumble into one of the troughs with a splash.

"What are you trying to tell me, Carpet?" Harry said with a grin, glorious water trickling down his neck. Dusty was already guzzling it down, but Harry waited until he got out and made his way to the well itself. He pulled up the bucket and ignored the ladle, pouring the sweet liquid directly down his throat.

It was only after he wiped his mouth with the back of his hand that he suddenly noticed they were still alone. He looked around suspiciously. There were no caravans arriving and watering their camels after the long, dusty road through the desert. There were no caravans leaving after filling up their water skins and letting their camels prepare for the journey. There were no vendors selling pastries to hungry and weary travelers. There were no hawkers trying to get the newly arrived to stay at their inn or pitch their tents on their property. There were no children offering to carry things or guide people through the city for a tip.

"Huh," Harry said slowly. "All right... Let's go grab a bite to eat. But, subtle-like." He twirled his finger and the magic carpet neatly rolled itself up. It flew over and positioned itself comfortably on Harry's left shoulder. Harry hopped up onto his right. They set off as casually as they could down the empty road.

As the three kept going deeper into the kingdom, the streets remained silent. The desert wind blew mournfully through abandoned stalls, houses, and squares. Far off, there was the sound of something that he couldn't quite make out. Like the distant whisper of a hot breeze before a storm. Other than that, nothing.

Kiacia wasn't usually a quiet city. Someone was always shouting: a merchant selling his wares, a rag collector, men yelling at each other. Very rarely was it in anger; that was just the way the people in his land communicated.

Harry scratched the back of his head. In his experience, creepy things that didn't make much sense usually added up to something bad. Like that day years ago when all of the doves and sparrows in the city flew up into the air at once. It was an amazing sight - and then there was an earthquake right after.

He resisted the urge to whistle, to fill the air with some sort of sound.

He jumped when a lone cat meowed from the top of a wall.

It wasn't until he was practically in the city center that he began to see signs of human life. People - stragglers, it seemed like - were running. Toward the main square. Toward the palace.

"Hey, friend," Harry said, grabbing one man by the shoulder. A little harder than a friend might. "Where's the fire?"

The man looked at him with confused black eyes. "Have you not heard? There's going to be a great parade for the new king! Let me go, I don't want to miss it!"

"New king?" Harry asked, surprised. "What happened?"

"The old one is gone! Long live Nik!" The man called out, and pumped his hand in the air in a strange, almost military salute. He broke out of Harry's grip and went scampering down to the palace.

"Gone?" Harry repeated in wonder. Just a week ago, he wouldn't really have cared one way or the other what happened to the king - or maybe he would have cheered a little for the regime change. Things couldn't have gotten much worse under someone new.

But then he met Prince Louis.

The king might have been a bad joke at best, but he was still Louis' father. He never had anyone else.

And, not irrelevantly, there was the little question of what happened to Louis now that his father was no longer king.

Harry began to run in the same direction as the man. There would be answers to at least some of his questions at the parade, or at least more people to ask.

Worry for Louis and curiosity did not deter him, of course, from zipping through a couple of hastily abandoned stalls and helping himself to a quick kabob, a square of flatbread, and a half dozen apricots. It had been at least three days since he had eaten, and it wasn't just riding the carpet that was making him light-headed.

The noise that he thought was the wind eventually resolved itself into the murmurs of a crowd. And then... music? Someone... a whole chorus... was singing.

He crept quietly up to the side of a building and slunk around the corner. But he needn't have worried about being seen; no one was looking at him.