Free The Dark Portal (The Gryphon Chronicles, Book 3) by E.G. Foley

paces behind him, as instructed. The moment they stepped out into the fresh evening breeze, rich with its autumn smell, the pink and orange sunset dazzled their eyes after the twilight underground.
    Emrys was wise to carry his dark glasses with him.
    Since the kids’ vision had not yet adjusted, they could hear the chattering of the frightened little goblins, but missed the startling sight of them rushing back up into the trees by the hundreds.
    By the time the world came back into focus for them, they would not have seen the tree goblins anyway, on account of their chameleon-like skin.
    When Jake had seen them on the ground, they had been the same pleasant green as the surrounding ferns and mosses. But as they scampered up the tree trunks, holding on and climbing with their large yellowed claws, they began turning brown and grayish; and when they vaulted back up into the branches, some of the goblins turned red, others yellow or orange, depending on the colors of the autumn leaves in the trees where they hid.
    Emrys walked about twenty yards ahead and pulled up a section of the sturdy brown netting that protected the door to the goldmine. He ducked under it, then walked over to where Jake had seen the goblins gather.
    The kids watched the head dwarf walk around, looking up into the trees, and then searching around on the ground.
    Emrys suddenly stopped, staring down at something by his feet.
    “Did you find something, Master Emrys?” Archie called.
    The head dwarf glanced over grimly and nodded, beckoning to them.
    “No thanks, think I’ll stay back here,” Dani said with an uneasy glance at the colorful canopy of trees overhead.
    Isabelle stayed back with her behind the safety netting, and little Ufudd remained to guard the girls, but Jake and Archie hurried out to see what the head dwarf had found.
    Emrys gestured to them to slow their strides as they approached. “Be careful, don’t step on them.”
    “What is it? What have you found?”
    He pointed at the ground.
    Jake looked down then and saw them: three dead goblins.
    T heir little greenish bodies were but stiff, dried husks, as if all the life had been sucked clean out of them.
    Alarmed and yet fascinated at this morbid sight, the boys bent down slowly, staring. Jake was surprised to find how the other goblins of their colony had apparently laid out their dead, arranging them in a row on a mossy stone veiled by a tuft of tall grass.
    The first looked newly deceased, but the other two had obviously been dead longer.
    “ What do you think happened to them?” Archie murmured, poking at one with a twig.
    “ Honestly? I have no idea.” Emrys shook his shaggy head uneasily. “Pixies didn’t do this. They’ll set traps for tree goblins to protect their own people among the branches. But pixies can’t do this.”
    “Do you think they might have found some gold somehow and eaten it?” Jake inquired. “You said it made them sick.”
    Emr ys shook his head. “It doesn’t look like that when they die of gold poisoning, either.”
    “May be some other disease, then?”
    “Not one that I know of,” Emrys said.
    “ Maybe they fell out of the trees and broke their necks,” Jake suggested.
    “ That would be extremely strange. They’re born up there, it’s their natural habitat.” Frowning, Emrys glanced up into the trees again. “Maybe I can lure one down to tell us if any of them saw what happened.”
    He reached into the pocket of his waistcoat and pulled out a small nugget of gold. Lifting it toward the treetops, he gave a low whistle. “Come on, now, I know you’re up there. Look at this here! Nice shiny gold. Come on down and have a word with your old pal, Emrys.” The head dwarf let out a few sharp, chattering sounds, at which the boys glanced at him in surprise.
    He shrugged. “I’ve picked up a little of their language over the years.” He did it again, clicking his tongue in a way that was difficult to imitate.
    It was enough to sna re the