Emily Rodda - The Golden Door

Yet still he could see no sign of the Wall of Weld looming ahead. He told himself the Wall must be concealed by ancient magic. He forced himself not to think about what would happen if they could not find the golden Door by sunset.

Instead, he concentrated on following the path. Now and again, he caught sight of a thick, slimy web sagging between two tree trunks, and knew a fell-dragon must be lurking nearby, waiting for prey. He saw the shadowy shapes of other creatures, too, scuttling or sliding in the undergrowth. He had no idea what they were, but was heartily glad to be floating above them, however awkwardly, instead of hurrying fearfully past their hiding places.

There were no Fellan to be seen, but he knew they were below, and aware of him. Their voices were whispering at the edges of his mind. He refused to let the whispers trouble him — refused to try to make out the words. He gripped the feather more tightly and kept his eyes on the path.

“Rye, take us down!” Sonia said suddenly. “The scarf I left as a marker is below!”

“It is not time to land yet!” Dirk protested. “The Wall is not in sight.”

But Rye had learned that Sonia’s instincts were to be trusted in matters such as this. He forced himself to think of settling to earth and at last managed to half clamber, half drift down to the forest floor, with his companions trailing behind him.

He dropped knee-deep into the thick carpet of dead leaves he so well remembered. Pushing the feather back into the bag, he looked around warily. There were the countless trunks of giant trees. There were the great rocks, the dense undergrowth.

And there was Sonia’s red scarf, still knotted to a straggly bush.

The back of Rye’s neck prickled with the feeling that he was being watched. He pulled the bell tree stick from his belt. It was not much of a weapon, and he wished fervently that Dirk still carried the skimmer hook. He could see no fell-dragons, but his mind was full of whispering voices.

The nine powers …

Edelle said too much. The treaty …

Have faith.

Sonia darted to the red scarf and began to free it.

“This is foolish,” Dirk growled, holding Faene close to him. “You should have waited till the Door was in view.”

Sonia swung around, tying the scarf loosely around her neck. “The Door is in view!” she snapped. “Where are your eyes?”

She marched past Rye, toward a towering sheet of rock half shrouded by overgrown bushes. And suddenly, like a shape emerging from a mist, a shimmering golden Door became visible in the rock’s craggy brown surface.

Dirk and Faene gaped in amazement for a split second, then ran to the place. Rye stayed where he was, staring at the Door. There was something different about it, but he could not think what it was till Sonia spoke.

“There is no knob on this side,” she said in a strangely flat voice. “I had not noticed that before.”

“It is to keep unwanted visitors out, I daresay,” said Dirk. “Stand aside.” He put his right hand to the glinting carved surface and pushed.

Nothing happened. Cursing under his breath, Dirk pushed again, this time with both hands and as hard as he could, but still the Door did not move.

“Why does it not open?” Faene cried in panic.

“There must be a trick to it,” Dirk panted, running his fingers rapidly over the carving, trying to find a secret trigger. “Or perhaps … yes, of course! I have been declared dead! The Door no longer recognizes me!”

He looked over his shoulder. “Rye! Come and —”

His eyes widened in horror. He was staring beyond Rye, at something behind Rye’s back.

Rye’s stomach lurched. He looked around. Only a few paces away, a giant, mottled shape was peeling from the trunk of a tree. The fell-dragon dropped to the ground and raised itself on its hind legs. Its dripping jaws opened, and it seemed to grin.

Only then, with the cries of Dirk, Sonia, and Faene ringing in his ears, did Rye remember that he was not wearing the concealing hood. Quick as a thought, he reached up and pulled the silk over his head.

The monstrous lizard hesitated. Then it seemed to decide that a being who could vanish before its eyes was not worth pursuing. It dropped to all fours again and prowled toward Sonia, Dirk, and Faene.

Rye lunged forward. All he could think of was reaching his companions, to share the hood with them. Never had he moved so fast. In a blink, the bell tree stick was clanging musically on golden carving as his hands slammed against the Door.

And the Door moved. The Door moved beneath his hands. He heard a soft creaking sound….

“It is opening!” he yelled. “Hold on to me!”

He felt hands grip him. He saw a long, widening strip of blinding white light. He heard the fell-dragon bellow in baffled rage. Then he was jerked off his feet, and he, Sonia, Dirk, and Faene were swept together through the Door.

Emily Rodda is the author of the New York Times bestselling Deltora Quest series and has more than eight million copies of her books in print. Winner of the Children’s Book Council of Australia’s Book of the Year Award (Younger Readers) a record five times, Emily lives in Sydney, Australia.

Text and graphics copyright © 2011 by Emily Rodda

All rights reserved. Published by Scholastic Press, an imprint of Scholastic Inc., Publishers since 1920 by agreement with Omnibus Books, part of the Scholastic Group, Gosford, Australia. SCHOLASTIC, SCHOLASTIC PRESS, and associated logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of Scholastic Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Rodda, Emily.

The golden door / Emily Rodda. — 1st ed.

p. cm.

Originally published: Parkside, S. Aust.: Omnibus Books, c2011.

Summary: At night the skimmers fly over the Wall looking for human prey and the people of Weld huddle in their houses, but after his two brothers set out through the magic doors in an attempt to find the Enemy and don’t come back, young Rye knows that he must follow and find them.

ISBN: 978-0-545-42990-0

1. Brothers — Juvenile fiction. 2. Monsters — Juvenile fiction. 3. Magic — Juvenile fiction. 4. Adventure stories. [1. Brothers — Fiction. 2. Monsters — Fiction. 3. Magic — Fiction. 4. Adventure and adventurers — Fiction.] I. Title.

PZ7.R5996Gol 2012

823.914 — dc23

2012014947

First American edition, October 2012

Cover art © 2011 by Marc McBride

Cover design by Elizabeth B. Parisi

e-ISBN: 978-0-545-46993-7

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