Season of the Sandstorms: A Merlin Mission (3 page)

T
he camel riders all silently watched the sun set over the faraway dunes. As the fiery ball slipped beneath the horizon, the desert was flooded with red light. As soon as the sun disappeared, the air grew much cooler.

Mamoon stood up. “It is time to go,” he said.

The camel riders put out their small fire. In the growing darkness, Mamoon helped them saddle up their animals and load them with baggage.

Then Mamoon came over to Jack and Annie. “You can ride those two sisters,” he said, pointing
to two camels kneeling in the sand. “Climb on, then come to the front of the line to ride with me.”

Jack and Annie walked over to the two camel sisters. Each had reins hanging from her neck. Saddles made from colorful cushions were piled high on their humps.

Annie patted the wiry, tan-colored fur of one of the camels. The camel looked at Annie with big eyes and fluttered her thick eyelashes. “Hey, Cutie,” said Annie.

The other camel nuzzled Annie’s neck. “Hey, Beauty,” Annie said to the other. “You want some attention, too?”

“
Cutie
and
Beauty
?” said Jack. He didn’t find either camel particularly cute
or
beautiful.

Annie climbed onto Cutie’s saddle cushion and picked up the reins. “Let’s ride!” she said.

Cutie rose awkwardly up from a kneeling position to a full stand. “Oh, wow!” said Annie, towering over Jack. “She’s really tall.”

Jack started to climb onto Beauty. But the
camel caught an end of his head cloth and began chewing it.

“Stop that!” said Jack, pulling the cloth away from her. Beauty opened her mouth wide and flashed rows of sharp teeth. Jack drew back.

“Don’t be afraid,” said Annie.

“Easy for
you
to say,” said Jack. “Yours likes you.”

“Don’t worry, Beauty likes you, too,” said Annie. “I can tell.” Annie’s camel began ambling toward the other camels waiting to head off into the desert. “Come on, Jack! It’s really fun once you’re moving!” she called.

“Fun,” muttered Jack. “Right.” He held on to the ends of his head cloth and put his leg over Beauty’s hump. The camel eyed him suspiciously. She swished her tail, slapping his back.

“Hey!” said Jack.

Jack tried to get comfortable on the saddle cushion. But Beauty spat at him and made a weird screeching sound.

“Quiet!” said Jack. He hooked his shoulder bag onto a saddle horn. When he was finally settled, Beauty turned her head and started chewing on his leather bag.

“No! Don’t!” yelled Jack. He tried pulling the bag away, but Beauty played tug-of-war. “Come on, let go,” Jack said. “Give it back, stupid!”

“Do you really think she is stupid?”

Jack jumped. Mamoon had ridden up behind him and was watching as he tried to get his bag back from Beauty.

Jack was embarrassed. “Um, she won’t let go of my stuff,” he said.

Mamoon grabbed the strap of Jack’s bag. He clucked his tongue, and the camel let go. She groaned as Mamoon hooked the leather bag back onto the saddle horn.

“For thousands of years, camels like this one have carried people across the desert,” said Mamoon. “She is truly a miracle of nature.”

Some miracle
, thought Jack.

“She can drink two barrels of water in ten minutes,” said Mamoon, “and then go for a week without drinking again. She can live many days without food, too.”

“Really?” said Jack.

“She is well suited to travel in the desert,” said Mamoon. “Her thick eyebrows protect her eyes from the glare of the sun. Her long eyelashes and the fur around her ears keep out the windblown sand.”

“Cool,” said Jack softly.

“Her feet are so tough, they do not feel the heat of the desert,” said Mamoon. “And they are so big that they keep her from sinking down into the loose sand.”

“Hmm,” said Jack.

“She can carry five hundred pounds of baggage on her back,” said Mamoon, “and travel one hundred miles in a single day.”

“That’s a lot,” murmured Jack.

Mamoon tugged on the camel’s reins and
clucked his tongue. Beauty breathed heavily as she rose up on her long, powerful legs to her full height.

Mamoon looked at Jack. “We must respect her and honor her,” he said. “In many ways, she is superior to us, no?”

Jack nodded. He thought of the words of Merlin’s letter.
To succeed in your mission, you must be humble.
He patted the camel. “Good girl, Beauty.”

Mamoon clucked his tongue again to coax the camel forward. Perched high on his saddle, Jack rocked from side to side. He did not feel at all safe, but he stayed calm. Beauty ambled over to Cutie. The two sisters stood together and snorted.

The desert sky was bright with stars. Mamoon called to his men, and the caravan started moving forward.

The camels walked with a swaying motion. They moved two big feet on one side, then two
big feet on the other. Jack gripped the horn of his saddle as his “ship of the desert” rocked from left to right.

“Isn’t this fun?” said Annie, rocking alongside him.

“Sort of,” said Jack, shivering. Actually, he wasn’t having any fun at all. He felt seasick and was freezing in the night air. Also, he was worried about their mission. Would the caliph meet with them? If he did, how could they help him “spread wisdom to the world”? And if Baghdad was very far away, how would they ever find their way back to the tree house?

Mamoon slowed his camel until he was riding between Jack and Annie. “When I was a boy, I spent many cold nights in the desert riding with my father on journeys to the west,” he said. “At first, I, too, thought camels were foolish. I always longed for more blankets and for a smoother ride. I wished to be back in Baghdad in my own warm bed.”

Jack smiled. He liked the caravan leader.

“But over time, I have come to love the cold desert nights,” said Mamoon. “Now when I am
sleeping in my warm bed in Baghdad, I long to be here instead. I wish to be reading the wind and the stars.”

“How do you read the stars?” asked Annie.

“They have their own language,” said Mamoon. “At this moment, we are heading east, toward the Goat Star.” He pointed at the sky.

Jack couldn’t tell which star was the Goat Star. But he was filled with wonder. Thousands of tiny lights twinkled in the black dome of night. There were more stars than Jack had ever imagined. Some looked close enough to touch.

Mamoon started singing a song. The other camel riders joined in. Jack couldn’t understand the words, but the tune was soothing. The camels seemed to sway to the music.

Jack stopped worrying about how they would get back to the tree house. And he found he was actually enjoying the fresh desert air. He started to relax.

“Jack,” Annie said softly. “Guess what—we
just solved the first mystery in Merlin’s letter:
Ride a ship of the desert on a cold starry night.
”

“Yeah,” said Jack happily. “And it’s really fun.”

Suddenly a fierce shout came from the distance. Jack sat up straighter. His heart thumped.

“Bandits!” one of the camel drivers shouted.

J
ack looked around wildly. Dark figures on horses were galloping across the sand toward them. They were yelling and shouting.

“Oh, no!” cried Jack. “What should we do?”

“We will fight them off!” said Mamoon. “You and Annie take this box and ride to the dunes!” Mamoon pulled a flat wooden box out of one of his saddlebags. He thrust the box into Jack’s hands. “Hurry! Ride as fast as you can! Protect it with your lives!”

Jack frantically tried to stuff the box into
his shoulder bag. But Mamoon slapped the back of Jack’s camel, and she bolted forward. The reins slipped from Jack’s hands. He grabbed the saddle horn with one hand and clutched the wooden box to his chest with the other. He held on for his life as Beauty galloped across the dark desert.

Annie’s camel ran beside Jack’s. Like two racehorses, Beauty and Cutie thundered across the sand toward the distant dunes. Rocking crazily from side to side, Jack clung to the box. “Slow down!” he yelled. “Please!”

It was no use. Beauty ran like the wind. She and her sister practically flew over the desert under the starry sky. Jack wanted the camels to stop. But at the same time, he wanted to get far away from the bandits.

Finally the camels began to slow their pace. Jack looked back. He couldn’t see the caravan at all, and no one seemed to be following them.

When the two camels reached the dunes, they began plodding around the steep hills. Once they
were nestled safely between tall sand drifts, they stopped to rest. Beauty grunted. Cutie snorted.

“Thanks … thanks, girls,” said Annie, panting.

“I hope Mamoon and the others are safe from the bandits,” said Jack.

“Me too,” said Annie. “What’s in the box he gave us?”

Jack held up the flat wooden box. “I don’t know,” he said. “But Mamoon said we should protect it with our lives.”

“Maybe it’s a precious spice,” said Annie.

“I hope it’s more than
that
,” said Jack. “I’d hate to risk my life for cinnamon or pepper.”

“Should we look?” said Annie.

“I don’t know,” said Jack. “Mamoon might not want us to.”

“But don’t you think we could protect it better if we knew what it was?” said Annie.

“Maybe …,” said Jack. He could see Annie’s point. “Okay.”

Jack tried to open the lid of the box, but he couldn’t. In the dark, his finger pressed against a keyhole. “Forget it,” he said. “It’s locked.”

“Shh! Listen!” said Annie.

Jack listened. He heard a high-pitched moaning sound. It sounded like music from a violin. Wafting through the dry sand dunes, the haunting music grew louder.

“What
is
that?” said Jack.

“Uh-oh,” said Annie. “Now I hear something else.”

Jack held his breath. He heard hooves galloping over the desert. “The bandits!” he said.

“We have to hide the box!” said Annie.

“Where?” said Jack.

“In the sand!” said Annie. She clucked her tongue, and Cutie knelt down to the ground. Beauty knelt, too. Jack and Annie jumped off their saddle cushions and started digging in the sand.

The sound of hoofbeats grew louder and louder. Jack and Annie dug frantically. They threw sand behind them like puppies digging in the dirt.

“That’s deep enough!” said Jack. He placed the box in the hole they had dug. Then he and Annie pushed piles of sand back on top of it.

When they stood up, Annie gasped. “Look!”

A dark figure on a camel was silhouetted against the starlit sky. The rider was winding his way through the dunes toward them. Jack’s heart nearly pounded out of his chest.

“Should we use a magic rhyme?” Annie asked.

“We don’t have time!” said Jack.

The rider drew closer, until he stopped in front of Jack and Annie. “You are safe, no?” he said.

“Mamoon!” said Annie.

Relief flooded through Jack. He laughed. “Yes, we’re safe!” he said. “And
you’re
safe, too!”

“My men fought well,” said Mamoon. “The
thieves fled with only a few bags of pepper and painted beads.”

“And we kept your box safe, too!” said Annie proudly. She knelt and dug in the sand until she uncovered the wooden box. She handed it to Mamoon.

“Ahh, very good,” the caravan leader said.

“What’s in the box?” asked Annie.

“A priceless treasure,” said Mamoon. “I have brought it all the way from Greece. And I am taking it to Baghdad. Thank you both for guarding it with your lives. You are very special.”

“Sure, no problem,” said Jack. He still wondered what was in the box.
Gold? Silver? Precious jewels?

But Mamoon did not say. He put the box back into his camel’s saddlebag. “Let us be on our way now,” he said.

Jack climbed on top of his kneeling camel. He clucked his tongue. He was surprised and pleased when Beauty rose up on her tall legs.

“We will catch up with the others in Baghdad,” said Mamoon. “If all goes well, we will arrive in the city in the afternoon. We must head east toward the morning sun.”

Mamoon rode out of the dunes. Jack and Annie followed him. As their camels rocked through the chilly dawn, daylight shimmered over the sand.

“Mamoon, last night we heard strange sounds in the dunes,” said Annie. “Like music playing.”

“Ah, yes,” said Mamoon, “
the whistling sands.
”

“What are the whistling sands?” asked Jack.

“Some say it is magic,” said Mamoon. “But I believe that all things in nature have their reasons. That is why I like the study of
science
. Science says we must observe our world. We must make experiments and try to find out why things happen. We have learned the whistling is made by sands settling in the drifts.”

“Oh,” said Annie. “I’d hoped it was magic.”

“Learning the reasons for things
is
magic,”
said Mamoon. “True knowledge brings light to the world. And that is a magical thing, no?”

“Yes,” said Jack.

Annie nodded thoughtfully. “I guess, when you put it that way,” she said.

Swaying from side to side on their camels, the three riders traveled toward the dawn. As the sun rose higher in the sky, the desert grew blazing hot. A dry wind whipped through the air, making snaky patterns in the sand.

Mamoon halted his camel. He looked around and frowned.

“What’s wrong?” said Jack. “Are there signs of bandits?”

Mamoon shook his head. “No, it is the desert itself that worries me now,” he said. “It is restless.” He clucked his tongue, and his camel began walking again.

As they rode over the restless desert, the wind picked up loose sand and tossed it into the air. Jack and Annie lowered their heads to keep
the sand from blowing into their eyes. Their head cloths flapped in the wind. More and more sand started blowing. The desert seemed alive as the sand shifted and swirled.

Mamoon stopped again and looked about. The snaky patterns in the sand were blowing into round, curly patterns. Jack heard a weird moaning sound. “Is that the whistling sands again?” he asked hopefully.

“No,” said Mamoon. “That is the cry of a terrible sandstorm. And it will soon be upon us.”