The Secret Passage

They could almost hear them, just looking at the way the statues were desperate to get away made the screams vivid in their minds.

" What happened to Zamradad then? It got turned into the kind of treasure city we now see, we get it. But why is it underground?" Ali Baba wanted to hear the rest of the story, partially to distract himself and Zarqa from the disturbing vision their minds were conjuring, and Jamal met his eyes this time.

" It was the King's third wish that Zamradad never ever runs out of treasure, and to assure that, the earth split and swallowed it whole. It's also said that the valley above is the overflown treasure that couldn't been pulled along with the city when it sank underground.·

" What about the king and the people?" Zarqa asked worriedly, yet, curiosity glistened in her Sapphire eyes.

" You can take a guess. There was little to sustain them underground, especially so when all trees turned to gold, so when the famine struck and the king couldn't do anything for his subjects despite his piles of gold, the people of the city left it. As for King Jamshid, it's said that he never abandoned his treasure till his last moment..." Jamal punctured the last phrase with a tentative knock on the next statue of a man holding his hand up at something, or maybe someone as if trying to ask for forgiveness.

" What a horrible king, imposing his own obsession on his subjects." Irritation was written all over Zarqa's face at the way the king treated his people.

Ali Baba gave a short glance over his shoulder, as if to make sure no one was standing behind them. " Listen, you don't think the skeleton from earlier…" It made sense, the clothes it had on were nothing a commoner could get his hands on. They were especially tailored for the wealthy, he thought.

" It doesn't matter." Zarqa slapped the book closed rather loudly, forcing both boys to focus on the present again. " What matters now is that we move on, find the treasure, and get out of here."

" The treasure is said to have been lost in the throne room, where Jamshid first met the Jinn." Jamal heaved at one of the statues, face all red and sweaty with the effort of moving that weight. When it didn't budge even an inch, he bent down, panting to catch his breath.

" What are you doing?" Ali Baba was considering him as if he had suddenly grown a pair of antlers. 

" The door for the throne room was bolted shut. Only the king had the key."

" Then we might want to check our skeleton friend." Ali Baba shrugged, for it was the simplest option they got.

" He had no key on him. I know because I covered him. Also, it would be befitting because Jamshid lost the key, or so it was rumored. How can it be a lost treasure else way?" Jamal pointed before resuming his pushing. " However, the book spoke of a secret passage to the chamber. So I'm moving the statues to check underneath them."

Ali Baba watched him struggle for a moment before reaching to help, pushing along with him.

Zarqa took a step back and considered the foyer again, trying to think. " Jamal…"

" What?" He was out of breath as he answered her.

" How came the book had so much information on Zamradad and what happened to it? Even the secret passage to the throne room which ought to be… secret."

" It's my father's hunch…" he grumbled as he span so he was pushing with his back this time around instead of his arms. " He said maybe someone from Zamradad, or even the palace, managed to run and wrote all about it."

Zarqa looked down at the book in her hands for a second and then she opened it again, flipping through its pages. They were written in fading ink and it was smudged making it almost impossible to read. She could see the marks left by Jamal's father as he tried to figure out which word was which. No wonder it took a while with all the mess. There were also tiny lines written on the margin, she guessed it was his work as well.

Those she could read.

" 'Beyond the hall of screams lies the truth, a treasure lost from the hands of the youth. If it's entrance you seek, a key you do not need, but an unwavering bow, for a king you meet.'"

" I've thought about it the whole time but couldn't come up with anything other than it's probably on the ground." Jamal wiped away the beads of sweat glistening on his forehead while Ali Baba bent over, arm leaning on the statue they were moving and gulping for breath.

" 'An unwavering bow, for a king you meet'..." With one hand pressed around her chin in thought, Zarqa marched over so she was facing the golden double doors of the throne room. " 'A key you don't need.'..."

Much to Ali Baba and Jamal's befuddlement, Zarqa bowed down all of a sudden before jolting up, as if hit by some revelation. She bowed again and stood up, face clouded with uncertainty. Then she bowed thrice, and this time, her eyes glowed with a newfound hope.

" You figured it out? Tell us what is it?" Ali Baba demanded impatiently, part because he couldn't wait to know the answer, and part because he was annoyed that all his effort at pushing the statues was for naught.

" We don't need a key, we never did need one to get into the throne room," Zarqa spoke rather dreamily.

" Well, yeah. Secret passage." Jamal reminded her.

" Is it really a secret passage?" He was caught by surprise by her question. " Couldn't it just be, a secret way, a trick, to get in?"

Their eyes went wide as the girl explained. " We can't see it from here, but if you look down at the reflection of the door on the floor…" They did, and Ali Baba quickly caught on to it as well. Jamal however squinted as though struggling to know what he was looking at.

" There is a gab…" Ali Baba whispered as he ran to the door and looked up with a craned neck, inspecting it.

" You said the gold the king had stashed in his throne room would be missing sometimes," Zarqa looked back at the older boy and then at the book. " Seems we now know who did it."

" There is a small gap between the semi-circle and the door!" Ali Baba shouted, squinting at it.

" What a smart trick! The gap is unnoticed unless looking at it from beneath! Yet no one would notice it when the door is open! It's only seen when the door is closed!" Jamal marveled, his eyes sparkling with excitement as he walked over to him. " Do you think…"

" One way to figure out. Help me you both!" Ali Baba ran to the statue of a kneeling man. It seemed like the person had fallen and was in the middle of standing up and running when he was transformed.

Zarqa and Jamal joined him, with deep breaths, they began pushing the statue towards the door, inch by inch, their faces reddening with each step but they didn't stop until it was right in front of the golden door of the throne room.

Ali Baba climbed it up with ease and reached for the decorative arc, his hand slid into the gap and he gave it a gentle tug. It moved, yet only by an inch. " It's stuck…" Reaching to his dagger, he thrust it in between the pane and the wall, trying to loosen it. After some more jabs, the pane was freed, and with another tug, it rose up swiveling on an unseen axis, revealing a way inside the throne room.

" We probably need something to get inside," Ali Baba stated, looking back at Zarqa and Jamal. " I don't mind throwing myself from this distance, but you two..."

" True…" Jamal looked around before an idea crossed his mind. " Zarqa, help me out. Gather the short ropes used to secure the curtains."

At once, Zarqa got his intentions and nodded before each of them ran in opposite directions, untying the curtains and keeping the tussled holders. When they met again by the statue, they had about enough of them that when Ali Baba tied them together, they formed a long rope.

The boy then wound one end around the statue's neck and threw the other into the throne room. " This should do it. Jamal, you head in first."

Jamal was so excited that he didn't even wait for Ali Baba to continue his phrase to climb the statue, throw one leg over the doors, and use the rope to climb down. When the wriggling of the rope stopped, Ali Baba held a hand to Zarqa. " I will help you. You can't climb with that wound."

" I'm not fragile," despite saying that, she accepted the hand and allowed Ali Baba to pull her onto the back of the gold statue, all while whispering an apology to it.

" You didn't seriously apologize to a statue," Ali Baba's tone was of surprise and bemusement all the same.

" He was a human being before." Was her sole answer before climbing through the opening and down to the other side.

" You stay there." Ali Baba gently moved Morjana into his back before quickly following after them. When his feet hit the ground and he turned around, he bumped right into Zarqa.

" What's your problem?" Ali Baba asked irritatedly as he took a step back, only for his eyes to go wide with what he was looking at. The room was large, large enough that it would have been able to accommodate all of Al-yamama's people at once, filled with gold, silver, and colorful gems blinking and glistening brightly. However, what stood up the most in the whole throne room was the gigantic statue that occupied its center...