A giant rock formation loomed in the darkness, hundreds of stalactites formed over thousands of years hanging off numerous edges that protruded further and further the lower down you went, creating the illusion of a cascading waterfall.
Light from an old creaking lamp bounced off the walls and refracted through the strange curtain-like formations hanging from the ceiling of the cave, causing the thin sheets of banded calcite to appear to glow with a faint yellow light.
Three tiny silhouettes stood beneath the rocks, like ants before a hill. Three tunnels stood at the base of the rocks, each leading in its own direction. The three people talked amongst themselves urgently.
“Can you figure out which way he went, Ru Meng?”
The youngest boy of the three picked up dirt from the ground and let it fall from his fingers. The earth had just recently been disturbed.
“We’re on the right track,” Ru Meng said, “But I’m seeing other tracks here as well. We’re getting close to town. It might be hard to keep tracking him by his prints.”
“You recognize this road yet?” asked Hakimi.
Vardan nodded his head vaguely, “It’s familiar, but I can’t navigate that well until we get closer to town. You said he lived at Red Cliff, right?”
“Yes. Let’s hurry. We need to get there before he realizes what’s about to happen. Show the way, Ru Meng.”
“How much time do we have left?” Ru Meng asked as he walked down the tunnel in the middle.
Hakimi marched by his side as he said solemnly, “I was keeping count until I fainted, so I can’t be sure, but between fifteen to twenty minutes.”
The three of them ran down the tunnel, stopping briefly every time they came across a crossroads to decide which way to go. Between Ru Meng’s tracking skills and Vardan’s familiarity with the Nameless Town, they were able to figure out where to go.
Soon, they started to come across other humans as they got closer to the heart of the Nameless Town. Hakimi and Ru Meng looked down and walked away as fast as they could. Vardan, on the other hand, would flash a charming smile at every passerby while waving at them.
The smile seemed to spook out the passersby more than anything. When Vardan smiled at them, they would look down and walk away quicker while keeping a hand over their purse or bags. Vardan would scratch his head and chuckle nervously every time it happened.
A few minutes later, they walked out of the tunnel into a long, spiral-shaped cave that extended both above and below. Tiny wooden houses perched along the narrow edge of the walls, tiny dots of yellow light spilling out of their windows like a clumsy constellation sewn onto the dirty brown canvas of the wall. A few lamps hung from the walls, illuminating the dark roads that wound its way down the cave. An unusual sight in the Nameless Town, where the concept of ‘private property’ was more of a suggestion. A lamp hanging freely from a wall like that should have been stolen in a matter of minutes.
A bright glow emanated from the very bottom of the cave. Ru Meng looked down and saw what appeared to be a grandiose temple carved into the side of the wall. The bottom of the cave wasn’t just a narrow pit either. It appeared to open up into an even larger cavern that branched into many more tunnels and caves. Giant braziers roared at the front of the temple, sending plumes of black smoke up the cave. The large architecture and blazing fires at its entrance gave the place a strangely ominous countenance, as if it was a large gaping mouth ready to swallow anything and anyone that stepped inside.
“Here we are. Red Cliff. Nicest place to live in the Nameless Town. Most of the people here are Fang Chen Yu’s associates. The only place where no bandit, no matter how bold, will dare commit a crime. I’ve never been here myself. Most people stay in the Burrows down there,” Vardan explained as he pointed at the bottom of the cave.
Ru Meng gulped nervously. He only now understood the tremendous risk they were taking.
Hakimi nodded and strode past Vardan, taking the lead in the group. He had been here once, when Rayyan brought him along for an errand. Liao Hua and Chen Jin had been busy. He made sure to remember which house belonged to Rayyan that one time.
Up they went, climbing up the winding slope toward a particular house in the distance. Simple wooden posts joined together with ropes formed a rudimentary railing that kept people from falling off the edge. It was still early in the morning, but there were more people here, mostly women running morning errands or cooking breakfast outside their homes. A few men, dressed in new clothes that most could not afford, strolled down toward the bottom of the cave. Every one of them stared at the three boys with strange looks in their eyes.
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They did not look like they belonged here, three skinny boys in ragged clothes skulking about in the shadows. Hakimi and Ru Meng kept their heads down, but Vardan put on his affable smile and offered a polite greeting to everyone he walked by. It seemed to work. The people who stared at them would raise an eyebrow or two, but most quickly looked away and went back to their own business. It was a good thing they had removed their manacles from their wrists and ankles with the keys they found on Liao Hua.
However, Hakimi could feel the sharp gaze of two armed men transfixed upon them from across the cave. He tapped Ru Meng and Vardan on the arms and drew their attention to it. Two burly men wearing breastplates watched them warily, slowly moving toward them with hands on their swords.
“What do we do?” asked Ru Meng, “I think they’re on to us.”
“Keep your head down and keep moving. We’re almost there. Rayyan’s house is just up ahead. Remember the plan. Do as I said and we will make it out of this alive,” Hakimi replied, uncharacteristically talkative.
Ru Meng did as he was told, but it was obvious that he was nervous as well.
Vardan placed a hand on his back.
“It’s alright. We talked about what to do. We just have to do it now.”
A few dozen more steps later, they stopped in front of a modest and traditional wooden house. There was no rain down here in Luo Shan, but the house still had sloped roofs. Ornately carved wooden panels and windows ran the length of the house, providing ventilation for its residents. The long stilts characteristic to a house like this were present as well, but modified to fit along the cliff and support the structure of the building. A portion of the wooden house was also clearly integrated into the wall itself, where rock had been carved out to make for more interior space.
The faint sound of a man’s voice chanting a prayer could be heard sailing through the wooden panels.
“What now? Do we still have to wait for Rayyan to finish the prayer? I don’t think we have the time to do that,” said Ru Meng. He could see the guards approaching slowly from a corner of his eye.
Hakimi paused for a brief moment to think.
“He didn’t foresee an attack because we made up our minds not to attack him until he finishes the prayer, but if we attack him now…it shouldn’t matter, because what has happened has already happened. What we do in the future cannot affect the past,” Hakimi rambled before coming to a conclusion, “We can attack him now! Before he finishes the prayer for today and realizes there’s an ambush waiting for him!”
The complexities of fighting someone who could see the future was too hard to grasp in its entirety, even for three children as smart as themselves. It wasn’t until now that Hakimi began to understand all of its implications.
In truth, precognition wasn’t a certainty. The future seen in a vision is necessarily one that can be changed, which is why Rayyan was able to use it to his advantage. Magic of this nature was incredibly rare and powerful. However, the mutability and unpredictability of the future were also precisely why it cannot be trusted. The complications of future sight only worsen when multiple parties are aware of it and actively attempt to work around it.
Fortunately for the three boys, luck was on their side and the odds ended in their favor. The previous morning, Rayyan had cast the spell and received no vision. He simply dismissed it as yet another ordinary day.
Vardan sprung into action the moment he heard Hakimi’s revelation. He wrapped the chains he took with him around his fist and threw his body against the door of the wooden house. The wooden door creaked and swung open without much resistance.
Rayyan was prostrating on all fours, dressed in his best prayer clothes and wearing a taqiyah on his head. He turned around when the door slammed open, but he had no time to react. Vardan lunged at him, arms wide open. Just when it seemed he would be able to tackle the man to the ground, he tripped on the uneven wooden tiles and crashed into the floor.
Hakimi immediately leaped forward and swung with Chen Jin’s rattan cane. Rayyan stumbled backward clumsily and the attack missed entirely, knocking over a shelf. Vardan let out a pained grunt as the shelf collapsed on top of him as he was trying to get up. Rayyan was still at a complete loss when the knife that had been placed on top of the shelf slid to a stop in front of him. He immediately grabbed the knife.
From a distance, Ru Meng could see the two guards sprinting toward them after their brazen break-in. They had to finish this as soon as possible, but everything was going wrong. Hakimi was doing his best, but it was clear from his uneven breathing that he was still suffering from the fight earlier. Vardan was pinned under a shelf and Rayyan now had a knife in his hands.
Ru Meng reacted immediately.
“Mo.Yi.Chü.Ke, Zak.Tin.Yün.Mo,” he chanted, trying to wrestle control of the blade in Rayyan’s hand.
The dagger wriggled slightly and shot out of Rayyan’s hand. To Ru Meng’s surprise, Rayyan’s grip hadn’t been tight at all. The dagger sailed through the air and embedded itself deep into the wooden wall. It wouldn’t budge no matter how hard Ru Meng tried. He had no choice but to give up on controlling the weapon.
Meanwhile, Rayyan stepped over Vardan and threw a kick at Hakimi. The wild, unrefined attack was lucky enough to catch Hakimi in the exact same spot he had been injured by Liao Hua earlier and the boy crumpled with a whimper.
Things were going from bad to worse, as if some strange force was actively working against them.
Ru Meng took out his iron tips and cast the Spell of Metalworking on them. The iron tips slowly hovered in his hands, but Rayyan was already before him. The soft-spoken man threw a punch at him. Ru Meng knew he needed to dodge, but somehow, his feet just wouldn’t move. The punch hit him in the forehead and knocked him off his feet. He wasn’t concussed, but the concentration over his spell was immediately broken.
Rayyan loomed over him, his face pale but tinged with an angry red shade. He looked down at Ru Meng with his jet-black eyes and opened his mouth to say something.
A heavy tome gilded with golden characters on the cover smacked him across the head from behind. The man dropped to the ground, stiff as a log.