Book I of III: The Swords of the Sultan Read Online Free

A few of
them, however, stared at the boy with a snobby expression.
    Upon the two nearing the entryway on the left
side of the room, the pair of posted guards there simultaneously
opened his door, yet again without a word spoken.
    As Baltor entered the long hallway—mainly
made of gray marble except for the black-and-gold carpeting—he saw
that there were six doors to the left and six to the right. In
addition, hanging in between each unguarded door was either a
beautiful scenic painting or a mirror—there were two crystal
chandeliers with dozens of burning candles in each. At the far end
of the hallway, which traversed for approximately a thousand feet
or so, there existed another set of double doors and two more
posted guards.
    Halfway down this hallway, she cocked her
head to look at Baltor, noted the bewildered expression on the
boy’s face, and hinted with a slightly mischievous smile, “There
are many more surprises waiting to be discovered.”
    Only seconds before their arrival at this set
of double doors, the two guards opened them—only a second after
Lydia and Baltor had passed, the guards closed them.
    It was then that she stopped in her tracks,
turned around, and gestured with her arms for the boy to take a
good look around.
    Of course, he couldn’t help but gape in shock
and awe at the fifty-foot tall brass statue of a beautiful woman
who stood upright in the very middle of this enormous and
aesthetically pleasing chamber, filled with artworks of all types
just about everywhere.
    Upon closer examination of the statue itself,
he not only observed that she wore a bikini that revealed most of
her beautiful figure, yet she stood on a blue marble pedestal that
rose three feet over the top of a blue marble pool. A very large,
square pool filled with water on the inside, and tons of imbedded
“sparkling jewels” on the outside.
    Only a few seconds later, he observed that
this statue’s right hand held a marble seashell that continuously,
and mysteriously, poured water into that pool. His immediate
opinion was that this artistic masterpiece’s monetary value had to
be “priceless!”
    Soon after, he began to look at all the other
very beautiful, yet much smaller statues or sculptures—made of all
types of expensive metals or woods and bearing a wide variety of
poses. Some statues were resting upon black or white marble
pedestals.
    A minute or two afterward, he began to look
at the hundreds of beautiful scenic paintings of all shapes and
sizes hanging on the black marble walls—there were no other exits
anywhere he looked, nor were there any other living occupants
besides he and Lydia.
    Perhaps as long as five minutes after their
arrival, the boy double-checked to make sure no one else was
around. There still wasn’t, and so he whispered, “With all of this
wealth you already possess, why do you need to be a thief?”
    Lydia smiled and answered in a normal tone of
voice, “Everything will be explained when the time is right, and
you are ready to understand.”
    She walked up to the front of the fountain
and reached out her hand. Grabbing a hold of an emerald that jutted
out, she twisted it.
    A black marble tile on the floor slowly
tilted upward, revealing a hole underneath. Just below the hole, a
ladder led down into the darkness.
    As she began to descend, her left eye winked
before she hinted, “Follow me… if you want to learn more.”
    Only a few seconds later, he was already
climbing down the ladder. Upon reaching the floor of this
underground tunnel, he observed that there was only one burning
torch nearby, providing a bit of additional light. It was hanging
in a post fastened to the wall.
    As he glanced back up to the top of the
thirty-foot ladder, the light from the entrance slowly disappeared
as the lid shut. Now this torch was the sole source of light,
providing just enough to see.
    After waving for the boy to follow, she
walked down a very long and zigzagging tunnel, where more flaming
torches