Chapter Seventeen

Mendu's inn was more like a nightclub with hotel rooms. From the outside it looked rather shabby, paint peeling from the sign that read in Arabic and English, "Luxor Inn."

When you first walked inside, you were almost blinded by the flashing of disco balls and spotlights. Bass music threatened to break your eardrums. There was a bar where everything from vodka to root beer could be ordered.

But the retro style could not conceal one thing: this building had been around for a long time. It was made of white stone, crumbling in some places. The windows did not have glass until ten years ago. The rooms were constructed of large stone blocks that fit so well together that you couldn't stick a playing card between them.

There was a set of stairs that wound their way through the house up to the roof, where there was a rooftop dining and lounging area. Bakura much preferred the roof to the blaring dance hall below. The cool night breeze danced through the palm leaves, and the car horns and engine noises from the road below were barely audible.

He reclined on an elegant couch that was made to resemble a lion. Sipping a martini delicately, he surveyed the landscape of the city. The sun had left twenty minutes ago, leaving behind a gentle violet dusk that settled over Luxor like a cape, seeming to muffle the sounds and sights, softening them until the buildings were no more than squarish purple forms jutting up into the evening sky.

Two hooded figures ascended the stairs, gliding up onto the roof and making a beeline straight for Bakura. He looked at them sourly.

"Having fun, ladies?"

"Don't play games with us, Baqir," said Akilah smoothly. "What have you done with my scales? You promised Shadi that none of this nonsense would happen!"

Baqir raised his hands, showing that they were empty. "I did not take the scales. But falsely accusing me does hurt my pride."

Ranya snorted. "You have no pride. And don't you realize this is serious? If some common thief has stolen the scales, we have no idea where he could have gone!"

"Use your eyes," snapped Baqir. "Surely you are capable of tracing a thief-"

Ranya reached forward and slapped him across the face. "Do not underestimate me," she snarled. Akilah darted in at him from behind, bending his arms behind his back. She forced him to his feet. "Come with us now, and explain this."

The twins frog-marched Bakura down the stairs and practically tossed him into a room. It was neatly made, with twin beds. By the window, encased by a circle of fire, was a small human girl, no older than eight or nine. She had curly auburn hair, mud-brown eyes, freckles and a very colorful vocabulary.

"Foolish humans," she screeched, trying to free herself from her imprisonment by banging herself against the fire again and again. "Foolish! Nasty! Stupid!" Swearing enough to make a sailor blush, she seemed to be unhurt by the ring that surrounded her, just contained (thankfully). Bakura would not want a little monster like this running around his room.

He could see that she held the Millennium Scales clenched tightly in her hands. "Let me go! No like this, stupid, foolish, nasty humans!"

She stopped and glared at them. "Why you stare like pigeons on wire? Fools! Stupid! Eyes blank and beady as pigeons!" She cawed triumphantly and began to throw herself against the barrier again.

"This little wastrel almost made off with my Millennium Scales," snapped Akilah. "Goodness knows if I hadn't had an anti-burglar spell on that thing…"

"That's wonderful and all, but could you let me go now?" asked Bakura sweetly.

The twins gave him one last burning gaze before bodily flinging him from the room.

Thud. "Ouch."

Akilah watched the girl try to escape for ten more seconds, and then lost all patience. "Shut up, you little mongrel!"

The girl stopped and stared. "What you call me?"

"Where did you learn to speak Arabic?" said Ranya derisively.

"Oh, I pick up word here and there," said the girl, waving her hands around to illustrate "here and there." "Me also speak some English, French, Japanese, Spanish. ¡Merdoso!" she demonstrated proudly.

"Basically, you can swear at people internationally," said Akilah in a bored voice. "Is there anything useful you can do, little monkey?"

"Me steal," said the girl. "Me like shiny things, like this. I fly by window, see this, come in window, take it, get trapped. You come in, I yell."

"Yes," said Akilah disdainfully. "And what exactly do you mean by 'fly?'"

"Me a sparrow," said the girl simply.

The twins gaped.

"Now, if you meanies let me go, I give you back the shiny."

"Fine," nodded Ranya, "But don't try any funny stuff, or you'll be burnt to ashes before you can say 'barbecue.'"