Read Online The Silver Door by Emily Rodda - Free Book Online

away in her hand. It was a scrap of paper, its edges nibbled to lace by snails.
    Rye’s heart thudded as he recognised the writing on the fragment.
    â€˜Sholto!’ he breathed. He swung round to call Dirk, saw that Dirk was still busy with whatever he had found on the ground, and quickly looked back to read the scrap in Sonia’s hand.

    â€˜He found dead skimmers,’ Rye muttered. ‘Look on the other side.’ Sonia turned the paper over, and sure enough there were more words on the back.

    Sonia shook her head in confusion.
    â€˜It is from Sholto’s notebook,’ Rye said, battling the fear that had chilled him the moment he saw the paper. ‘But he would not have torn a page out. I do not know why it is here.’
    Then, suddenly, he did know. Ignoring Sonia’s exclamations, he thrust the magic snail shell into his pocket and began pulling stones from the top of the pyramid. As he had expected, the structure was hollow.
    He peered inside and found that the cavity contained some tatters of oiled cloth, the broken pieces of a clay pot, some lumps of candle wax, and the remains of a small book.
    The book’s covers had been eaten away. Most of its pages had been reduced to flakes of paper clinging to a threadbare spine. The few scattered fragments that had survived had been chewed almost to pieces. Rye gathered them carefully and showed them to Sonia with a rueful shrug.
    â€˜It looks as if Sholto filled an entire notebook in this place, and hid it when he moved on,’ he said, sliding the fragile scraps into his pocket to keep them safe. ‘He wrapped the book in oiled cloth and put it into a pot sealed with wax. No doubt he thought that was protection enough from the snails. But it was not. These snails are not like the snails that prey on the vegetable fields of Weld. They will eat anything, it seems, even wax and clay.’
    â€˜Perhaps that is their power,’ Sonia joked feebly. ‘Perhaps whenever you hold the shell, Rye, you will be able to eat clay too.’
    Rye smiled, though in truth he did not feel like it. He retrieved the little snail shell from among the paper fragments in his pocket, and weighed it thoughtfully in his palm.
    â€˜Rye!’
    Rye and Sonia jumped violently as the shout rang out. Dirk was hurrying awkwardly towards them, sliding and stumbling on the rocks. He was brandishing a dingy skimmer hook.
    That must have been what he found on the ground, Rye thought in confusion. But why is he—?
    â€˜Rye! Behind you!’ Dirk roared, his finger stabbing at the sky. ‘Put on the hood! The hood!’
    Rye spun round. Sonia was looking up, her face rigid with fear.
    A terrifying form was sweeping down through the cloud. It was a gigantic bird, a bird as big as a Weld house, with vast wings and a long, twisting neck that was spiked like the neck of a sea serpent.
    It was the monstrous bird of which Rye had once dreamed—the bird pictured on the silver Door.

8 - Discoveries
    T he giant bird opened its cruel, hooked beak and screeched. The sound echoed from the rocks, harsh, hideous, pitiless. Rye pulled the hood over his head and seized Sonia’s arm, but the monster faltered only for a split second before flying on.
    Now they could hear the sound of its wings, pounding the air like waves crashing on the shore. It was heading straight for them, its razor-sharp talons spread wide, ready to seize, to slash …
    â€˜It can still see us!’ Rye shouted. ‘The hood does not—’
    A shadow loomed over them. They rocked in the gale of the bird’s mighty wingbeats. The air filled with a vile, bitter stench.
    In terror they threw themselves down, covering their heads with their arms. There was the thud of running feet and the sound of labouring breaths, andthe next moment a heavy body was rolling on top of them, pressing them hard against the pyramid.
    â€˜Stay still!’ Dirk panted. ‘I will try to beat