Escape From Riddler's Pass Read Online Free PDF Page B

grateful to be short , Jesse thought, as Silas bumped his head on a low outcropping for the third time.
    Jesse had a hard time getting a good look at the cave, since he was forced to walk with a slight stoop, but there were signs that the tunnels had clearly once been home to a civilized people group. Here and there a torch was lashed to the wall, and the stone nearby was darkened from soot. Jesse spotted a threshing floor for wheat, and a broken piece of pottery. Once, he saw something like a well, but Silas wouldn’t let him stop to examine it.
    â€œWe may need water if we run out of supplies,” Jesse pointed out.
    â€œWe have plenty in the packs,” Silas reminded him. “Now keep walking and stop talking.”
    Jesse did stop talking, but for a different reason. The packs . He felt his back, just to make sure. The pack of supplies was not there. Jesse could see the pack in his mind, almost as if he were actually looking at it. It was laying beside the mouth of the cave. That will be the first thing Captain Demetri sees when he and his men reach the cave .
    Ahead of him, Silas had stopped. I have to tell him. But how? Jesse could hardly picture Silas’ reaction, but he was sure he would be furious. And Rae, she’ll be even more angry. Oh, why? Why did it have to be me?
    Feeling like some ancient curse had turned his feet into the same stone that formed the cave walls, Jesse joined Silas and Rae. “Silas….”
    â€œShh,” he hissed, not looking back at him. Jesse glanced up to see that he and Rae were staring at something in the tunnel in front of them.
    A light was glowing dimly from behind a large rock formation that nearly blocked the path.
    â€œMaybe one of the Roarics forgot to blow out his torch,” Jesse said, half-jokingly. But the light flickered strangely, almost like it really was another torch. Ghosts don’t exist…do they?
    â€œI’ll look,” Rae volunteered, her hand lightly brushing against the hilt of her sword. “Maybe there’s a hole that lets in light from the surface.”
    â€œNo,” Silas warned, drawing his bow. In his hurry, he hit his head on the ceiling for the fourth time. “Wait for us!” But Rae had already stepped forward, darting behind the rock.
    In the next second, her scream echoed in the cave.
    â€œRae!” Silas and Jesse shouted together, taking the few steps to the formation in running leaps.
    â€œDon’t move,” a strange, deep voice commanded.
    Jesse froze. Captain Demetri?
    But the person who stepped from behind the rocks—a torch in one hand and a spear, which he held to Rae’s throat, in the other—looked nothing like the Patrol captain. He was a dwarf, one who barely came to Rae’s shoulders, and he had a long, dark beard and fierce eyes. His clothes seemed to be nothing more than a collection of rags, wrapped around him and tied with a length of rope.
    If he is a ghost, he doesn’t look like I imagined one would . The Roaric did look fierce and very annoyed by their presence, none of which was good for Rae, who seemed to be trying not to breathe.
    â€œPlease, take your spear away,” Silas said, slowly and calmly. He had also stopped at the Roaric’s command. “We mean you no harm.”
    The Roaric’s eyes darted to the bow Silas held at the ready. Silas, understanding his meaning, dropped his weapon.
    â€œJesse,” Silas said, never looking away from Rae and the Roaric, “put down your sword.”
    â€œOh.” Since he had never used it, Jesse often forgot he carried a sword at all. He pulled it clumsily from his sheath and let it clatter to the ground.
    â€œYou,” the Roaric said, nodding at Jesse. “Take her sword.”
    â€œYou mean Rae’s?” Jesse asked. He immediately felt foolish. What other “hers” are there in this cave? He practically had to pry Rae’s fingers away from the hilt to get