The Librarians and The Lost Lamp by Cox Greg

Author:Cox, Greg [Cox, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2016-10-10T16:00:00+00:00

14

2006

“I can’t believe you talked me into this.”

Shirin was lying face down on the decrepit rope bridge, clutching a wooden plank with both hands. Flynn was lying directly behind her, doing the same. Smoke rose from the red-hot flames licking at the nearer end of the bridge, eating way at the ropes.

“Just hold tight,” he replied, “and brace for impact!”

Second thoughts assailed her. “But what if it can’t support our weight—”

The ropes burned through, and the bridge tore loose from its moorings. Still connected to the opposite end of the ravine, at least for the moment, it swung toward the cliff face with alarming speed, smacking into the unyielding stone with bone-jarring force. The impact bruised Shirin’s fingers and nearly caused her to lose her grip on the bridge, but she held on for dear life. Gravity tugged on her dangling legs until she managed to find a foothold on one of the planks below her.

“Flynn!” she shouted, once she caught her breath. “Did you make it?”

“Still hanging in there,” he replied from below her. “Literally.”

As hoped, the bridge had become a ladder, climbing up the side of the cliff. Risking a glance down, she spied Flynn holding onto the ladder right beneath her. Unfortunately, she also saw the flames at the bottom of the ladder climbing rapidly toward them, consuming the dry rope and wooden rungs. Smoke tickled her nostrils. A charred plank escaped the blazing ropes and plunged like a fallen angel toward the rapids far below, smoke and flames trailing behind it before it crashed into the foaming waters and disappeared from sight.

This is all my mother’s fault, Shirin thought. If she hadn’t filled my head with wild stories about Scheherazade …

Wasting no time, she and Flynn scrambled up the burning rope ladder until they reached the opening in the cliff face. Abandoning the ladder, she threw herself into the murky recess, then spun about to help pull Flynn into the cave entrance as well. To her relief, the gap was large enough to accommodate them both. He grinned at her in the dark.

“You see,” he said. “It worked!”

The flames reached their level, and they backed away from the heat. Moments later, the flaming remains of the ladder fell away from the cliff and plummeted from sight. Shirin gulped.

“Wait a second,” she said. “How are we supposed to get out of here now?”

Flynn shrugged. “One thing at a time, please. Let’s find that tomb first.”

His blasé attitude dumbfounded her, but she had no choice but to go along with it. “Just so you know, this is rather more peril than I’m accustomed to. I’m a scholar, not a daredevil.”

“That’s what I used to think, too,” he said.

Turning away from the opening, they faced a dark tunnel leading deeper into the mountainside. “A natural cave?” she asked.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Watch out for booby traps.”

“Booby traps? Really?”

“There are always booby traps,” he said. “Or guardians, or guardians and booby traps.…”

She stared at him, aghast. “How is

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