Arta - the last princess

Chapter-12

With shaky legs, Pirbaba stood up. It was as if he was carrying all the weight of the world on his shoulders.

Slowly he approached the corner of the wall at the far end of the hall. They were all watching his every step. If someone had looked very closely and carefully, they could have seen a tiny mark on one of the tiles, it looked like a small lotus flower carving on the wall.

He pushed the tile with the lotus on it with his shaky hands. The sound of stones rubbing together echoed in the hall and a stony box came out of the wall. He took an irregular key shape thing out of the box and walked toward the door. The key was flat and It had an irregular rhombus shape with a round end.

Everyone was bewildered on how sophisticated the process of opening a treasury could be. Osman's heart was rattling in her ribcage out of excitement and anticipations.

There was a very thin and unnoticeable slot on the door that had been damaged a bit when Osman and his men had tried to open the door. Pirbaba inserted the key shape thing into the thin slot on the door.

It took several attempts before the key went completely inside the hole.

Pirbaba looked at Osman sighed sadly, then turned the key and stepped back.

There came several banging and rattling sounds. It seemed as if the walls inside were moving.

After a few long seconds, the heavy door slightly opened. Osman slowly walked toward the door but stopped.

He thought if Persians were smart enough to make such a complex door, there could be some sorts of traps inside as well. He stepped back and pushed Pirbaba to open the door and go inside. Pirbaba shook his head looking sad and proceed to open the door.

The door was extremely heavy that was out of Pirbaba's ability to open it. Osman gestured and three soldiers went and pushed the heavy door. As the door opened several thick and flat stones the size of the door were moving away making loud noises.

"So that's why we couldn't open the door. There was not just one door but several doors behind this door that heavily supported it. How smart!" Ahmad said looking astonished.

Now Pirbaba was walking inside with a torch in his hand and Osman and his men behind him.

Inside was completely dark and cold. Pirbaba touched a square looking bowl close to the entrance door with the torch, the same as the ones that Osman had seen in the bath pool hall before and an array of lanterns and torches illuminated the place.

***

Arta was struggling to free herself from the soldiers' grip on the way back to her room when soldiers stopped and bowed.

"What's going on here?" Sultan demanded

"Prince ordered us to take her back to her room"

"Release her immediately," Sultan said with anger visible in his voice.

Arta looked at the old man. She had seen Sultan once from a far distance when they were moving to the palace from the camp.

Arta pulled her arms and looked at the soldiers with hatred. Sultan came closer.

"What has happened to your neck ya benti" Sultan asked softly.

She looked at Sultan with anger and while clenching her teeth "Why don't you ask your son."

One of the generals behind Sultan came closer while his hand was on his sword "How dare you to talk to Sultan ..." before he was able to finish his sentence sultan raised his hand and stopped him. He bowed and stepped back.