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

him uncertainly. ‘The bird could not see us clearly. It was just lucky that your brother’s stupid hook was blown—’
    â€˜It was not the hood!’ Rye broke in, clenching his fists. ‘The creature might not have been able to see us clearly, but it could see us well enough to swoop downhere, right here, and attack! We heard the sounds of its beak and talons! Why did they not injure us? Why did they only damage the rocks around us?’
    He turned to Dirk. ‘Are you hurt?’ he demanded. ‘Show me your back!’
    Dirk hesitated, then, with a strange expression on his face, he turned so that Rye could see that the back of his shirt was whole, and quite unmarked.
    â€˜There!’ said Rye, fighting for calm. ‘You were between us and the bird, Dirk. Your back should be in tatters. And it is not!’
    â€˜No.’ Dirk looked over his shoulder and twisted his arm around to feel his back. He winced slightly. ‘It feels a little tender, that is all. As if it is bruised.’
    Rye shook his head in confusion. ‘Yet all around us the snails were torn from the rocks, and the rocks themselves were—’
    He chanced to look down, and saw with a small shock that the heaps of shells at his feet were moving. The snails were all calmly righting themselves and creeping slowly towards new resting places, slender tentacles waving in front of them.
    â€˜They were not damaged either,’ said Sonia, wrinkling her nose. ‘How strange! Their shells must be as strong as iron not to have been crushed by—’
    She broke off with a gasp. Her head jerked up. ‘The shell from the bag!’ she exclaimed. ‘Rye! Its power must be—’
    But Rye had had the same thought, at the samemoment. He had spread out his hand. The snail shell he had taken from his pocket just moments before the monstrous bird attacked was jammed firmly over the tip of his little finger, covering the nail like a grotesque growth. Somehow, while he was clutching it, it had worked its way into place without his noticing.
    â€˜Armour,’ he breathed. He tugged experimentally at the shell, but it would not budge. He suspected it would remain part of him until it sensed he felt safe from attack. He knew he should be glad of it, but the sight of it made him feel sick.
    â€˜So!’ Sonia cried, clapping her hands. She grinned fiercely up at Dirk’s startled face. ‘You see? You did
nothing
to save us, Master Hero! As it happens, it was Rye’s magic that saved
you!’
    Different expressions flitted across Dirk’s face—anger, disbelief, confusion, embarrassment, and finally, acceptance.
    â€˜Well?’ Sonia crowed. ‘What do you have to say for yourself now?’
    Dirk took a breath. ‘There is nothing to say except that I am sorry,’ he said quietly. ‘I did not mean to claim thanks I did not deserve. I did not understand.’
    â€˜Any more than we did!’ Rye exclaimed, glancing angrily at Sonia.
    But she was staring at Dirk, biting her lip, the spark of triumph slowly dying from her eyes. Dirk’s frank readiness to admit he had been wrong had thrown her off balance. Suddenly, in one of thelightning changes of mood Rye had noticed in her before, she was ashamed of her gloating.
    â€˜You did deserve thanks,’ she said stiffly. ‘Nothing changes the fact that you risked your life trying to shield us. So I, too, apologise.’
    Now it was Dirk’s turn to stare.
    Sonia turned her head away, tearing off the dreadful Keep orphan’s cap and shaking out her hair.
    â€˜So—which way should we go?’ she asked, with a briskness that sounded completely false. ‘With cloud hiding the sun so completely it is impossible to tell where north, south, east and west might be.’
    Rye knew exactly what they should do, though the idea filled him with dread.
    â€˜There,’ he made himself say, pointing towards the