Pandora Gets Angry by Carolyn Hennesy Read Free Book Online Page A

said.
    â€œThat’s only for advertising.” Mahfouza smiled. “Wang Chun Lo thought it would be simpler to bill us as four exotic Arabs, but in truth, we were from all over. Pandy, you are still on your quest to find the remaining evils, yes?”
    Pandy nodded.
    â€œBaghdad is such a small, backwater town on the Tigris. I cannot imagine a great evil taking up residence there. It was only my father’s business, providing goods to ships in port, which forced my mother to make a home there. The house still stands, I believe, but I fear my parents are dead.”
    â€œWhat?” Pandy cried. “How do you know? What was the message? Who told you?”
    â€œNo one told me. It was not that kind of message.”
    Mahfouza rose off of her floor cushion and went to a wooden trunk from which she pulled a carved box, not unlike the box that Pandy carried in her leather pouch.
    â€œThe day I left to join Wang Chun Lo, my father gave me a dagger. He told me that no matter where I was, if the blade was clean when I pulled it from its sheath, all was well with him. But if the blade was bloody, he had been terribly injured or worse. On that same day, my mother gave me a string of pearls, saying that if the string remained loose and I was able to slide the pearls back and forth, she was fine, but if the string was fixed and unmovable, she too was either injured beyond hope or already dead. For several years I kept both items in this box. I had pulled the dagger from its sheath many times and found it clean, and I had draped the pearls around my neck. Then, for several months I actually forgot to do these things, thinking that all was and always would be well. Shortly after you came to us in Egypt and we all learned what had happened and why you were on your quest, I became frightened.”
    Sitting again, she placed the box on the ground in front of her and lifted the lid.
    â€œAs it turns out, I had good reason to be.”
    Mahfouza held up the dagger and slowly drew the blade from the sheath. Blood began dripping everywhere, staining the carpets and cushions. She sheathed the dagger again and put it in the box. Then she took out a strand of large pearls, frozen in a straight line, not one pearl loose.
    â€œI don’t even know the exact day these items became like this,” she murmured.
    Replacing the pearls and closing the lid, Mahfouza looked at Pandy.
    â€œDo you know what ‘Baghdad’ means?” she asked.
    â€œNo,” Pandy said softly.
    â€œ Bagh means ‘God’ and dad means ‘gift,’” she said. “It is a gift from God. That is how I always saw it. The city is a trash heap, really, but I loved it. It is my home. And now I fear it is my parents’ grave.”
    Once again, Pandy felt the tremendous weight of the responsibility of her actions. If Rage was in Baghdad and Mahfouza’s parents had suffered because of it … it was all her fault.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she began. “I’m so very sorry.”
    But she was interrupted by the sound of heavy footsteps approaching and encircling the tent. Seconds later, two guards entered and took up their posts. Shortly after that, four guards shoved their way through the entrance. They surrounded a small, frail man and a youth appearing to be only slightly older than Homer; both were clothed in simple white robes. Shoving them into the center of the room, the four guards departed.
    â€œDon’t try anything funny,” one guard said as the tent flap closed behind him.
    The older man turned and looked from Mahfouza to Pandy to Homer, then his eyes came to rest on Iole.
    â€œDid someone call for a physician?”

CHAPTER SEVEN

The Tale of Douban
the Physician
    With his eyes trained on Iole, the man glided across the floor of the tent. Pandy noticed that neither he nor the boy were in chains, as promised. Perhaps even the captain realized there was nowhere to escape to. Mahfouza