Teri McLaren
pack for a candle and a firestone, struck a spark with the stone and brought flame to the candle, seeing plainly for the first time the Neffian's painted face.
Doulos nodded vigorously and reaffirmed his words. "I followed you because you are the rightful, true king of Sumifa. I understand that you travel in disguise, for they would kill you otherwise. Look around."
He took the candle and raised it to the walls in the cave, where Javin could faintly make out a series of pictographs etched into the stone, colored in vivid rainbow hues and spanning the entire length. Javin had seen a few of the characters before-on the juma scrolls at the university.
"See, here are the prophecies of the first juma, inlaid with ground pigments of precious stones so that we would not forget."
Doulos began to read the glyphs, his voice swelling with the import of the words. "There will come one from far away, out of the Circle, bearing the precious Book, and he will be the New King of Sumifa. His eyes will be like the dawn sky, he will have fire in his hands. He will destroy the djinn and bring freedom to all of Almaaz…"
Javin waited for him to finish. "You can read? Is it not illegal for Neffians to read?"
"Muje, all of us can read this language. It is our very own. We helped invent it, hundreds of years ago."
"Where do your people come from, Doulos? Why are you the slaves of the Fascini?" said Javin.
"We come from right here, Muje. We are those who are of mixed blood-part Fascini and part common Sumifan. I will tell you the story.
"A long time back, before the desert swallowed the old city, there was an evil prince, a worshiper of Caelus Nin, who turned into the wind and wrought great destruction. He was a sorcerer, and as he fought one of the Circle, another sorcerer, he killed the man and then caused the desert to cover his own city. It was said that nothing could harm him but one of his