Jack felt hot. He opened his eyes. Burning sunlight was flooding into the tree house. He and Annie were wearing long robes tied with cords. They wore white head cloths and pointy slip-on shoes. Jack’s backpack had turned into a leather shoulder bag.
“We look like characters in that book Aunt Mary gave us,” said Annie, “Tales from the Arabian Nights.”
“Yeah, like Aladdin and Ali Baba,” said Jack.
Shading their eyes from the bright sunlight, Jack and Annie squinted out the window. They had landed in the spiky crown of a palm tree. It was the tallest tree in a clump of palm trees. Thorny shrubs and sparse green grass grew under the trees. A small spring bubbled up from the ground. Surrounding the clump of trees were miles and miles of scorching sand.
“This doesn’t look like a golden age to me,” said Annie.
“Yeah, and where’s Baghdad?” asked Jack. He picked up their research book and opened it to the first page. He read aloud:
From 762 AD to 1258 AD, the Arab world had a golden age. During that time, a ruler known as a caliph (say KAY-liff) governed an empire that stretched for thousands of miles. The capital of the Arab empire was the city of Baghdad, an important center for learning and trade.
Jack looked up. “So the caliph is a ruler,” he said, “and he probably lived in Baghdad.”
“Yeah, but how do we get there?” asked Annie.
“Patience,” said Jack. “Remember on our last mission, we learned that we have to do things in order, one thing at a time.” He read the first part of Merlin’s instructions.
Ride a ship of the desert
on a cold starry night.
Ride through the dust
and hot morning light.
“I wonder what a ‘ship of the desert’ is,” said Jack, looking up.
“Well, whatever it is, I’m sure we’ll find it eventually,” Annie said slowly, as if she were trying to sound patient. “We could just sit here and keep an eye out for a big boat. Or …”
“Or what?” said Jack.
“Maybe we could use one of Teddy and Kathleen’s magic rhymes.”
“Not yet,” said Jack. “Merlin said to use our magic wisely. We just got here. We used two rhymes on our last mission. And we only have eight left to divide between three—”
“Okay, okay—” Annie broke in. “We can only use a rhyme when there’s absolutely nothing else to do, right?”
“Right,” said Jack.
“So …,” said Annie. “What do you think we should do?”
“We could start walking,” said Jack.
“Walk where?” said Annie. “Which way is Baghdad?”
Jack looked out the window. Beyond the palm trees there was nothing but sand and sky. In the distance were lonely dunes. The desert was eerily silent.
“We could, uh …” Jack couldn’t think of anything else they could do. “We could look in the rhyme book,” he said. Jack pulled the book of magic rhymes out of his pack. He and Annie read down the table of contents together.
“Make a Stone Come Alive,” read Annie. “We did that on our last mission. We can’t do that again.”
“It wouldn’t help, anyway,” said Jack. He looked at other rhymes. “Bend Iron,” he read.“We’ve already done that, too.”
“Turn into Ducks,” read Annie. She looked at Jack.
“No,” he said.
“Mend What Cannot Be Mended,” read Annie.
“Nothing needs mending,” said Jack.
“How about this one?” said Annie. “Make Helpers Appear out of Nowhere.”
“Well …,” said Jack. “Maybe …”
“Come on, it’s perfect,” said Annie. “That’s where we are—nowhere. And we could sure use some helpers.”
“Okay,” said Jack. “I’ll read the line Teddy wrote. You read Kathleen’s line in her selkie language.”
“Okay,” said Annie. She turned to the page with the rhyme. She held the book out to Jack.
Jack read in a loud, clear voice:
From far beyond, send helpers here!
Then Annie read:
The second that Annie finished the rhyme, wind gusted in from the desert, blowing a cloud of sand through the window. The wind shook the palm trees. Sand blew into Annie’s eyes. “Oww!” she said.
“Get back!” cried Jack.
Jack and Annie jumped away from the window. They pressed themselves against the wall and covered their faces. Gritty sand kept blowing into the tree house.
“It’s a sandstorm!” said Jack.
The hot sand piled into drifts all over the floor. Then the wind died down as quickly as it had started. The palm trees stopped shaking.
Jack and Annie looked out the window. The air was thick with grainy dust, making it hard to see. But the sand was still.
“I think it’s over,” said Annie.
“I hope so,” said Jack. “Why did our magic rhyme cause a sandstorm instead of sending us helpers?”
“I don’t know,” said Annie. “Maybe we said it wrong.”
Jack brushed the sand off their research book and looked up sandstorms in the index. He found the right page and read:
The season of the sandstorms begins in the desert in mid-February and continues all spring. Winds can blow as fast as 40 miles per hour. Sandstorms can easily cause travelers to lose their way in the desert.
“I don’t understand,” said Jack. “We don’t need to lose our way. We need to find our way.”
Just then the sound of bells came from outside.
Jack and Annie looked out the window. Through the haze, they saw four riders perched high on the humps of camels. The riders wore brightly colored robes. Behind them a dozen more camels were tied head to tail and loaded down with saddlebags. As the camels swung from side to side, bells tinkled from around their necks.
Annie grinned. “Helpers!” she said.