Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF

they weren't, then Tabletop and everyone in it would be destroyed. All of Atherton would fail.
    "If we are to learn anything from the past," he said, turning toward Gill with the best argument he could craft in short order, "we should know better than to think the Highlands will stop. Soon it may be too late to get the horses and the families out, and then what?' Everyone will be trapped in a growing darkness, and who's to say the Cleaners couldn't find a way in? We have to escape this place before our chance has passed."
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    *** CHAPTER 5 A HOUSE DIVIDED
    "You there!"
    The sound of the voice startled Samuel and Isabel. The man who'd shouted the words was outside the wall, where the two could not see.
    "I know that voice," whispered Samuel. "That's Horace!"
    Isabel put her finger to her lips and pulled a hard, dry fig from her pocket, expecting something terrible to happen at any moment and getting ready to fight. The two stayed very still and listened to the voices in the dark.
    "Get back!" screamed the guard stationed in the tower atop the gate. He was holding a sizable rock over his head. Samuel could see him looking down at Horace, a man who had, until only recently, been the main guard in the House of Power.
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    "Put the rock down, Joseph." Horace spoke with great authority. "It's me."
    The man with the rock let his arm hang loose. He was a young man, only twenty-five, and he had no family to speak of.
    "Horace? That you, Horace?"
    Isabel leaned her head out of the ivy and glanced over the stone rail where she saw another guard running through the courtyard with a torch.
    "Things are getting awfully busy around here," she said. "Maybe this is our best chance to find the source of water. That is, if you truly know where it is."
    This came as something of a surprise to Samuel. Can she really think I've lied to her? She appeared to be losing confidence in him.
    "Let's listen for another minute," said Samuel. "Then we'll go."
    The situation at the wall grew more complicated as Samuel and Isabel looked on.
    "It's Horace!" shouted Joseph from the tower.
    "Get rid of him!" said the other who had run up with the torch. He was a little older than Joseph but not nearly as seasoned a guard as Horace. His name was Tyler.
    Joseph turned back to Horace. "You know I can't let you in," he said. "Lord Phineus won't allow it."
    "I need to speak with him," said Horace. His voice was stern and even. He knew the man above him well enough to know that he'd very much like to open the gate but that it might cost him his life if he did.
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    "I'm sorry, Horace, but he can't be disturbed. It's the middle of the night. Maybe if you come back tomorrow."
    Horace was a man in possession of a thunderously loud voice, deep and powerful and made for distance. He liked to use it to its full effect.
    "You will open this gate and take me to Lord Phineus!"
    Joseph was torn between the escalating demands of the men on either side of the wall. "Wait a moment. Both of you calm down," he said softly, as if his quietness might bring things under control. But Horace only yelled louder, until finally Tyler could take no more and climbed up next to Joseph.
    "Are you sure we shouldn't be going?" asked Isabel. "I can't imagine a better diversion."
    "Just another moment," said Samuel. "I've a feeling this is important."
    "Horace, you must leave this place at once!" said Tyler when he'd arrived at the top.
    "I have something to say, and I will be heard!"
    Soon everyone who remained in the House of Power was awake and wondering what was going on outside. Even Samuel's mother had come running from her room at the sound of Horace's voice. She and a group of others stood by the giant gates and clamored for information.
    "That's my mother!" said Samuel, seeing her within the crowd below. Isabel had the feeling that Samuel might suddenly try to run or call to her without thinking about the consequences.
    "You know she's alive and well," said Isabel, responding
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