“It seems I escaped one land of tunnels only to reach another,” Leila commented, but no one answered her. Everyone was too aware of the dangers that lay ahead, and the group seemed content to ride in silence, with only the sound of the horses’ hooves clopping on the stone floor to break the stillness of this age -old passage.
Jafar al-Sharif spent the time with his stomach tightening in knots as he anticipated the ordeal to come. The prince, Umar, and Leila had no idea what sort of beings they would soon be facing; he did. It was sheer lunacy to believe an untutored wizard could control such powerful forces—but then, it was lunacy to believe he could even have carried his impersonation this far with such success.
If lunacy was required, Jafar al-Sharif would howl with the wildest madman.
