The Silver Door Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes were bleak.
    â€˜My good, brave friend, you are dreaming. If the Enemy sending the skimmers can be destroyed, surely it will be this Dirk, or someone like him, who will do it. Not you.’
    Sonia lifted her chin. ‘It will be me,’ she said. ‘I know it seems strange, but somehow I feel even more certain of that now. Rye and Dirk will be my witnesses—and perhaps their brother, Sholto, too. The Warden will not be able to deny me.’
    Her face seemed lit from within. Her eyes were glittering green.
    And at that moment Rye realised at last what was driving Sonia to risk the perils of the world outside the Wall. It had nothing to do with gaining glory for herself. She was doing it for Annocki—to save Annocki from the selfish whims of the Warden once and for all.
    â€˜Have faith, Nocki,’ Sonia urged. ‘Just a little longer.’
    Annocki bowed her head. ‘I will try. But Sonia, I fear for you! And it is not just because the land of the barbarians is so dangerous. It is … Oh, I do not know how to explain it! You have been away only a few days, but I feel a change in you.’
    â€˜A change?’ Sonia stared at her.
    Annocki nodded. ‘I cannot put my finger on the difference. But you seem more … more
alive
, somehow.’ She shrugged in embarrassment. ‘It makes no sense.’
    â€˜It does!’ Sonia seized her friend’s hands. ‘I
feel
more alive, Nocki. It is as if my blood has become richer, and is running faster through my veins. I thought I was imagining it, but if you sense it too …’
    Annocki looked troubled. ‘I fear you thrive on danger, Sonia. And if that is so—’
    â€˜No.’ Sonia shook her head. ‘It is the
place!
Everything is so big and bright! The sky is huge, and as blue as—as that!’
    She pointed to a little blue pottery horse on Annocki’s worktable, and laughed as her friend looked disbelieving.
    â€˜Truly!’ she insisted. ‘You can
breathe
out there, Nocki!’
    â€˜You can die out there also, Sonia,’ Annocki said grimly.
    Sonia paused, biting her lip. ‘Yes,’ she admitted. ‘But somehow … it is worth it.’

    Much later, long after the diamond window had been closely shuttered, Rye lay on a mass of cushions with Dirk by his side, trying to will himself to sleep.
    He had bathed luxuriously in a great tub with taps that gushed streams of steaming water. The cushions were soft beneath him. Most important of all, his stomach was pleasantly full. Annocki had eatenlittle, and Faene had refused food and gone early to bed, but he, Sonia and Dirk had picked the loaded dinner tray clean.
    Sleep should have come easily, but Rye’s mind would not rest. As soon as they were alone Dirk had seized the chance to try to persuade him to stay in Weld on the morrow. Rye’s determination had not been shaken, but he hated disagreeing with Dirk. The argument had unsettled him.
    And that was not all.
    How fantastic and unreal the stories of their adventures beyond the golden Door had seemed, when told to the Warden’s daughter in this rich, closed room!
    How confusing it was, to be back in Weld yet not to feel the old sense of home!
    How hard it had been to hear his mother’s quiet voice at the door, when she came with the dinner tray, and not be able to call out to her, or see her face to face!
    And most of all, how nightmarish it was to lie for the first time in days sweating and stifled in a hot, sealed room, listening to the hideous, flapping, scrabbling rush of skimmers flying in their thousands over the Wall of Weld.

5 - The Dream
    I t was very late when at last Rye’s thoughts began to drift and blend into confused dreams. Over and over again he half woke, turned restlessly and fell into another shallow sleep. And in the early hours of the morning, dreams became nightmare …
    Sholto was bathed in weird red light that drained all colour