Free The Golden Door by Emily Rodda Page B

ever find it again.
    He had lost his bundle, too. It still lay by the first net, and he was certainly not going back for it. Hewould just have to do without spare clothes and the box of supplies.
    But the stick, the bell tree stick, was at his feet. It, at least, had not deserted him. He picked it up, feeling its smooth, familiar weight in his hand.
    Sonia was kneeling by the stream, reaching down into the water. When she scrambled up, her arm wet to the elbow, Rye saw that she had scooped up a handful of the blue pebbles.
    She saw him watching her and raised her chin defiantly, as if he had questioned her. “I like them,” she mumbled, pushing the wet pebbles into the pocket of her tunic. “And they might be useful.”
    “Indeed,” Rye said politely.
    A boy with a stick and a girl with a pocketful of stones , he thought as he turned to go. What a fine pair of heroes we are, to be sure!
    They began to follow the stream, looking warily left and right. Neither of them spoke. Gradually the sounds of the lizard battle faded away behind them, and at last, all they could hear was the babbling of the water, the bell-like calls of the unseen birds, and their own plodding footsteps.
    “I would be dead now, if it weren’t for you,” Sonia said suddenly. “Thank you for — for what you did.”
    Rye glanced at her. She was staring straight ahead and frowning, as if the words had been hard to say. No doubt she was annoyed because she had had to be saved.
    “I am sure you would have done the same for me,” he murmured, replying to the thanks in the usual Weld fashion, though in Sonia’s case, he was not at all sure of any such thing. For all he knew, she would have left him struggling in the beast’s net.
    “Why did you want to leave Weld, Sonia?” he asked abruptly. “Surely being a Keep orphan cannot be so bad? Surely the Warden is kind to you?”
    She snorted with mirthless laughter. “The Warden? I have not seen the Warden face-to-face more than three or four times in my life! But that is not the point. I did not leave Weld just because I was unhappy. I left for the same reason you and all the other volunteers did.”
    Rye blinked. “You — what?”
    “I want to find the Enemy sending the skimmers and destroy him!” snapped Sonia. “I do not see why men only should have the chance to be the Warden’s heir! There now! Have a good laugh at me, if you will!”
    She quickened her pace and walked on ahead without waiting for an answer. Rye followed, wondering.
    They came to a place where the stream vanished from sight, though they could still hear it gurgling underground. The earth beneath their feet was carpeted in thick green moss. The ferns around them were giants — the trunks tall, straight columns of furry brown, the great emerald fronds arching gracefully overhead making a delicate canopy of livinggreen lace. It was like wandering through a deserted temple.
    Never had Rye seen anything so strangely beautiful. Awestruck, he walked on, barely aware of Sonia ahead, lost in a dream of shadowy green.
    He had no idea for how long he had walked when, slowly, it came to him that something had changed. It took a moment for him to realize what the change was.
    The birdcalls had stopped.
    Rye looked around dazedly. The light was dimmer and greener than it had been before. He knew that in the world above, the sun must be going down.
    An icy trickle of fear ran down his spine.
    “Sonia!” he called in a low voice.
    The girl was standing motionless between the trunks of two giant ferns that stood like sentinels not far ahead. She made no sign that she had heard him, but at least she had stopped moving.
    Rye ran to catch up with her, blessing the soft moss that muffled the sound of his footsteps. He touched her shoulder, but still she did not turn or speak.
    “Sonia, it is sunset!” he hissed, catching at her arm. “Past sunset! The skimmers —”
    He broke off as she shivered all over. With astonishment, he saw that