Emily Rodda - The Silver Door

‘They’re spies, you dunderhead!’ the haggard woman said in a low, rasping voice. ‘More of the Master’s spies! Now!’

As she shouted the last word, she and the two men flanking her snatched their knives from their belts and threw themselves at Rye, Dirk and Sonia.

The attack was so sudden, and so violent, that even though Rye had been half expecting it, he found it impossible not to flinch. But his terror lasted only a split second. One moment his ears were ringing with Cap’s angry shout and Bones’ shrieks of protest, and all he could see were bared teeth, red-stained hands and the wicked points of knives. The next moment the three attackers had bounced backwards and were sprawling in the dust at his feet.

Cries of fear and amazement rose from the crowd. Many people fell to their knees, crossing their fingers and their wrists. Bones howled with delight.

‘Bones told you!’ he yelled, capering around the three on the ground, his dusty cloak flapping like the wings of some tall, bony bird. ‘Magic ones! Come out of the Saltings to save us, as was foretold!’

‘Shut your mouth, you crazy old fool!’ the woman snarled. Sullenly she clambered to her feet, dusting her hands on her filthy skirt, which seemed to have been made from the remnants of many other garments roughly cobbled together. The two men stood up, too, glowering and rubbing their heads.

‘Sorcerers!’ one of them said bitterly. ‘You’ve brought death to us all, Bones—death, or worse. They’re servants of the Master!’

‘We are no one’s servants!’ cried Sonia, her eyes blazing in fury, her face still pale with the shock of the attack. ‘How dare you say so? Your tyrant master is as much our enemy as he is yours!’

The kneeling people cowered, darting terrified looks at the sky. Bones whimpered, rattling his beads in agitation.

‘There!’ shrieked the haggard woman. ‘She’s trying to trick us into betraying ourselves! Only see the magic crackling in her hair and sparking from her witch’s eyes!’

‘You have nothing to fear from us, I swear it,’ Rye said, glancing angrily at Sonia, who tossed her head and turned away. ‘We mean you no harm!’

‘If we did, we would have done far more than simply defend ourselves when we were attacked, I assure you,’ Dirk added quietly, raising the skimmer hook.

In the dead silence that followed, the one-legged man called Cap limped forward, leaning heavily on his stick. He pushed aside his straggly hair and peered first at Dirk, then at Sonia and Rye. His eyes were grey and very shrewd.

‘You see it, Cap?’ Bones begged. ‘You see how it was right to bring them up-along? You feel the wonder of them?’

‘Yes indeed,’ Cap said slowly, his eyes still fixed on the visitors. ‘You can leave them in my care now, Bones. Take the sled over to the Den, there’s a good fellow. Four-Eyes will be by very soon and we don’t want to miss him, do we? Not tonight.’

Bones hesitated, glancing uncertainly from Rye, Sonia and Dirk to his loaded sled as if he could not decide which he valued more.

‘Go, Bones,’ his leader coaxed. ‘You’ll move more quickly alone. If Four-Eyes comes, let him look, but on no account agree to a trade. I’ll be with you as soon as I can.’

Bones gave a shuddering sigh, and nodded. He bowed to Rye, Dirk and Sonia and backed between the shafts of the sled. As he turned the vehicle around, the watching people gained a clear view of the great pile of bones and the mighty skull of the bloodhog for the first time. The sight seemed to drive everything else from their minds. They all jumped up, exclaiming in excitement.

Bones’ hollow chest swelled. His face split into a gummy grin. ‘Told you!’ he bellowed over his shoulder. ‘Told you ol’ bloodhog were a wonder! Wait till Four-Eyes sees him! Ho, we’ll feast tonight, me hearties!’

The sled rattling behind him, he loped back the way he had come, quickly disappearing into the gathering shadows.

‘May a sky serpent take the old loon!’ the haggard woman muttered.

‘Take care what you wish for, Needle,’ Cap replied mildly. ‘Who else would dare enter the Saltings and bring out the bones that keep us all alive? You?’

Needle scowled and turned away.

‘Finish here while I deal with our guests,’ Cap called to the gaping, whispering crowd. ‘Floss, will you—?’

‘Oh yes, I’ll bring your pickings along, Cap, for what they’re worth,’ grinned an old woman whose skin was so webbed with fine lines that it looked like well-used leather. ‘It’s painful enough watching you climb down the hole once a day, without watching you do it twice.’

‘So kind,’ the man replied with a smile and a mocking bow.

The exchange broke the tension. A few people laughed. Needle and her two henchmen scrambled up a large mound and crawled into the hole at the top one by one. Then Floss and the others disappeared into their own mounds, and soon only Rye, Sonia, Dirk and Cap remained above ground.

In the silence that followed, the companions became aware of an ominous growling, panting sound in the distance. Rye’s skin prickled. He felt Sonia grip his arm more tightly.

‘What is that?’ Dirk asked sharply.

‘Nothing that concerns you,’ snapped Cap, whose smile had vanished the moment they were alone. ‘Come with me.’

12 - Four-Eyes

Cap turned away from the mounds and began limping along the trail left by the runners of the sled. ‘Take care to tread where I tread,’ he called back over his shoulder. ‘The ground’s not safe.’

Rye, Sonia and Dirk followed cautiously, hands linked. By now it was almost completely dark. The panting sound was growing louder by the moment, but Cap did not speak again. Only when they had reached the track and scrambled down onto its pebbled surface did he turn to face them.

The marks of Bones’ sled continued across the track and disappeared into the darkness on the other side, but clearly Cap did not plan to take his guests any further. He had no intention of offering them shelter for the night.

Rye found himself feeling quite shocked. Even before the skimmer attacks began, no citizen of Weld would have dreamed of turning a traveller away at nightfall.

You are not in Weld now, Rye .

Indeed, Rye thought grimly.

‘This will lead you out of the Scour,’ Cap was saying rapidly to Dirk, pointing along the track. ‘Don’t stray from it or you’ll come to grief—the land on either side is studded with old jell pits. Only those who know what they’re doing can navigate it. Trust no one. There are spies everywhere.’

He glanced at Rye and Sonia then looked quickly back at Dirk, frowning with distaste. ‘And for pity’s sake, make those two cover their hair,’ he added. ‘Nothing is more likely to betray you.’

Rye found his fisherman’s cap and pulled it on. Sonia looked mutinous, then seemed to decide that the advice was good even if she resented the way it had been given. Silently she twisted her hair into a knot and snuffed out its brilliance with the ugly cloth helmet of the Keep orphan.

‘The track runs past the Diggings,’ Cap was telling Dirk. ‘If you manage to pass them in safety, which I doubt, it will take you on to where you want to go.’

‘And how do you know where we wish to go?’ Dirk asked coolly.

Cap snorted. ‘Do you take me for a fool? Even if I hadn’t heard your copperhead friend shout her feelings to the skies, there’s only one reason for people like you to have risked your lives trekking over the Saltings. You’ve come from across the sea to spy on the Master. Perhaps you even have orders to destroy him.’

Before Rye, Dirk or Sonia could speak, he held up his hands.