Chapter 9: The Midnight Meeting
By sunset the travelers had reunited in the central hall of the copper castle. El-Hadar and Verethran had roamed much of the island together, but had found little more than untamed jungle and gained little more than insect bites. The four who’d wandered the garden and the grounds also could report nothing but disappointment. Though they all knew there was some deep mystery here, some dark secrets yet unfathomed, they could not pass the curtain of courtesy that shielded bin Abou and his unseen master.
“El-Hadar gets madder by the moment,” the sea captain said. “Never has he been lied to with such sweet words and polite smiles. Bin Abou gives us anything but information, and his master is generous with everything but truth.”
“Had we time, I could wear him d
