The Third Door by Emily Rodda

Author:Emily Rodda [Rodda, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781921989636
Publisher: Scholastic
Published: 2012-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

15 - The Watchtower

As soon as Jett had been taken away, Farr and his councillors left the square. The crowd followed eagerly. Dirk and Sholto stood waiting while the chattering tide surged past them. And at last the little square was as bare as a wave-washed shore except for the two who waited and the two standing invisible in the shelter of Rye’s hood.

The shock of Jett’s arrest could not overshadow the glad reunion of the four. Their relief at finding one another safe and well was so great that even Sholto could not hide his joy.

Dirk seemed to assume that Sholto had caught a glimpse of Rye and Sonia, and Sholto did not correct him. Neither did Sonia, who merely looked amused. Perhaps, Rye thought, Sholto had convinced himself that Dirk must be right, and that the call he had felt was simply his brain playing tricks. Sholto would believe anything before accepting that people could speak mind to mind.

Well, now is no time to make him uneasy by trying to persuade him differently, Rye thought. Soon enough there will be something more important I will have to make him accept. He touched the red bundle at his belt, feeling the shapes of the gold casket and the book, and silently warned Sonia to say nothing of them for now.

Food, at least, was no longer a problem. The red knapsacks, which had been given to Dirk and Sholto that morning on their release from the Riverside healer’s care, were packed with supplies. Soon Rye and Sonia were eating ravenously, talking and listening at the same time.

Dirk and Sholto had heard that Farr was to attack the following day, but they knew very little else. There had been no talk of war in the quiet chambers guarded by the Riverside healer. The only whisper they had heard on the streets since their release was that many of the soldiers would be armed with weapons called ‘flamers’.

‘Perhaps “flamer” is another name for “scorch”,’ Rye suggested hopefully. If Farr’s troops carried the deadly weapons Olt’s Gifters had wielded, they would be able to defend themselves from the Master’s grey guards, at least.

Dirk shook his head. ‘Nothing so powerful, I fear. Flamers sound like very crude devices—heavy, and difficult to aim, from what I heard.’

‘It does not matter what weapons Farr’s soldiers use,’ Sholto said restlessly. ‘The Master cannot be defeated by ordinary means. He commands powers that … that we cannot understand.’

It was the closest he had ever come to admitting that the Lord of Shadows was a sorcerer. Rye knew there would never be a better time to tell his secret. Hastily he freed the red cloth bundle from his belt and unwrapped it.

Dirk and Sholto exclaimed over the casket and looked at the disc inside with interest, but to Rye’s dismay they did not seem to feel the disc’s magic at all. And as he told them his plan, his words tumbling over themselves in his eagerness to explain, they both looked at him as if he had lost his senses.

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