Free The Silver Door by Emily Rodda Page B

impatiently along. She seemed to have a new surge of energy. It was all he could do to keep up with her.
    He saw Dirk glancing at the sky, and knew what his brother was thinking. In an hour or two the sun would set and the skimmers Sholto had seen would come out to hunt.
    As if he had felt Rye’s gaze, Dirk looked round. ‘We should stop and build a shelter for the night,’ he said.
    Before Rye could answer, Sonia looked over her shoulder at them, shaking her head vehemently. ‘We cannot stop now!’ she cried. ‘We are nearly there.’
    Dirk regarded her quizzically. Rye looked ahead. There was nothing to be seen but drifting veils of mist and endless, snail-covered rocks glimmering very faintly in the fading light.
    â€˜We are nearly at the end of the wasteland,’ Sonia insisted. ‘Do you not feel it?’
    â€˜Feel
it?’ Dirk repeated blankly.
    Sonia made an impatient sound. Her face was pale with exhaustion, but her eyes glowed with purpose. She tugged at Rye’s hand.
    â€˜Come on!’ she begged. ‘Just a little further!’
    â€˜No, Sonia,’ Dirk said, calmly but very firmly. ‘Your longing to get out of this place is deceiving you. There is no sign whatever that the wasteland is coming to an end. We must stop and prepare for the night and the skimmers. It is too dangerous to do otherwise. We will have little enough time as it is.’
    â€˜If Rye’s shell could protect us from that giant bird it can surely protect us from skimmers!’ Sonia argued, her voice rising. ‘We cannot stop so close to the end! We must go on! We must!’
    Rye hesitated, torn, glancing from one to the other. Dirk was eyeing Sonia with concern. Clearlyhe thought she had taken leave of her senses, and certainly she looked wild enough, with her strained face and burning eyes.
    Dirk’s way was best, and safest. All Rye’s commonsense told him so, and all his instincts urged him to trust the brother he had looked up to all his life. But still he hesitated.
    Sonia had been right before. She had been right in the Fell Zone.
    He met Sonia’s desperate gaze. He took a breath, and suddenly noticed something.
    â€˜I think the air has become a little fresher,’ he said slowly. ‘Easier to breathe. As if—’
    â€˜Yes!’ Sonia cried. ‘It is as I told you! The mist is ending! The snails are ending!’
    Dirk shook his head. He, at least, had noticed no difference in the air.
    But Rye had. He was almost sure of it. ‘Let us go on for a short while, Dirk,’ he coaxed. ‘Half an hour will not hurt.’
    â€˜I will remind you of that when we are still building our shelter at sunset,’ Dirk said grimly. But as Sonia set off again, pulling Rye behind her, he followed.
    As the minutes passed and the light continued to fade, Rye felt increasingly jittery. He was tormented by the fear that he had been wrong in taking Sonia’s side. And he had begun to feel he was being watched.
    I am just very tired, he told himself, as for the fifthor sixth time he jerked his head up and saw nothing to fear. This place is affecting me. I am imagining things, as Sholto did.
    But the feeling would not leave him. His vision blurred as he peered into the misty distance. Then his mouth went dry. He could swear that the land ahead had begun to quiver!
    He rubbed his eyes, but it made no difference. It was only when he looked down at the rocks beneath his feet that he realised what was happening.
    Slender tentacles were emerging from all the patterned shells. The tentacles were waving like blades of grass stirred by a breeze, making the rocks appear to tremble.
    â€˜The snails are waking,’ he murmured.
    â€˜They sense the day is ending,’ Dirk said, his voice full of meaning. ‘No doubt they feed in the coolness of the night.’
    â€˜All the more reason why we should not be here when the sun goes down,’ Sonia