Merlin looked across the now dwindled campfire at the still-slumbering Cassandra. She looked innocent, somehow, and if he had ever seen a lovelier creature, he couldn't recall it. Of course, he did have a blinding headache.... She seemed to feel his eyes on her, and came awake; her eyes went directly to his, and their gazes locked. Her relief at his survival was evident, as a tiny, tender smile flickered across her lips.
Merlin smiled and said,"You know, you didn't have to do that. But still thank you."
She turned away, smiling to herself, happy for his gratitude, but not willing to let him know it. Then she looked at him, her face a beautiful blank mask, and said, "No thanks needed... It was selfpreservation. If you had died, where would—"
But an explosion interrupted her—a loud roar that seemed to rock the desert floor. The Cassandra looked up at the clear sky, confused. "Thunder? Without clouds?" Merlin
Merlin was noting a billowing of black smoke over a nearby dune. He sniffed the air and a familiar chemical scent tickled his nostrils. "That is not thunder ... but I think I know who caused it...." A tiny fellow came running out of the black cloud, like a figure fleeing a burning house; only Philos the scientist was not terrified, rather he was ecstatic. "It works! ... It finally works!"
Behind him was Saruman, who smiled at Merlin.
[A/N:Originally I didn't want to bring Philos in again, but I remember Saruman in the movie was also the creator of gun powder. So getting both of them here is good idea here.]
Running gleefully down the sandy slope, the soot-smudged little man saw the trio before him and his happiness only grew. As he ran up to them, he all but did a little dance. "Ah, I knew it!" the scientist said. "I knew you were close, my lady—I felt it last night. .. and an invention of mine confirmed it... so I headed this way."
Saruman walked up to them and spoke up,"He wanted to complete his magic powder formula, so brought him here."
Philos nodded in excitement added,"This man is like me, a genius. He helped me perfect the formula."
Saruman nodded said," He is a fellow scholar."
Philos smiled, he got along well with Saruman.
While Philos bowed, a low, respectful gesture, before Cassandra, saying, "My lady oracle .. . And you, wizard—hello!... You see? I have perfected the Yi Ti compound! My magic powder works!"
The two responded to this ball of enthusiastic energy with a stunned silence. "By the way," the scientist said casually, "would any of you happen to have any water? I'm utterly out."
Merlin questioned,"So did you find our allies?"
Saruman didn't say anything,but just gave a nod and said,"Yes, I came across Balthazar and Queen Isis's people."
Philos pointed in the direction and said,"Yes."
And within an hour, they had reached an oasis so beautiful, so perfect, it should have been a mirage; but it was not, it was real, as the birds circling over its ring of palms confirmed. Just beyond the oasis, mountains rose steeply, and the desert seemed only part of the world, now, not its entirety. Along the rock-bottomed pool, crystal waters shimmering under the sun, Cassandra knelt, cupping her hands with cool liquid. She glanced up at Merlin, standing beside her. She asked, "Do we dare drink? Or is it poisoned?"
Merlin touched the water and said,"It's safe."
She drank the water down, and the Akkadian crouched beside her and filled his goatskin pouch and several water bottles. "Where are they?" she asked.
"They are here," he admitted.
Men in leathers and animal skins, hard and fierce, rose from the holes they'd hidden in, tossing off rattan sand-colored mats, and aiming crossbows and slings at the little party.
"Oh dear," said Philos, on his knees by the waterside
Merlin had seen their like before... he knew these markings, the bone-and-bead necklaces.... Cassandra held tight to his arm as the bandits closed in on them —no escape possible, no fighting a crossbow aimed at the throat, not even if Mathayus had been in his full fighting form.
Merlin spoke up,"I am wizard Merlin and We are here to see Balthazar, Queen Isis and Lady Mohiam."
Merlin, Cassandra, Saruman and Philos—that unlikely quartet of desert travelers—were ushered from the oasis to the mountain range that rose from the idyllic water hole's edge. Here, massive rocks combined with the natural camouflage of hanging vines and the drapery of vegetation to shield a sizable entrance into a cavern. A caravan could spend the night at the oasis, and never suspect the nearness of the mountain lair of these bandits ... that is, the caravan lucky enough not to fall prey to their hidden hosts. Their scruffy captors led the little party through a dark, dank passageway, lighted by torch, until— astonishingly—the cave opened into a natural open-air amphitheater, the late-afternoon sun dappling an incredible temple-size area playing home to a staggering network of tents and walkways, a sheltered world of bare timber, rope, twine, and canvas, encompassed by greenery climbing, then succumbing to, the cliffsides surrounding. Booty was stacked and stored here and there and everywhere—stolen, no doubt, from Memnon's caravans by Balthazar.