The Silver Door

12 - Four-Eyes

Cap turned away from the mounds and began limping along the trail left by the runners of the sled. ‘Take care to tread where I tread,’ he called back over his shoulder. ‘The ground’s not safe.’

Rye, Sonia and Dirk followed cautiously, hands linked. By now it was almost completely dark. The panting sound was growing louder by the moment, but Cap did not speak again. Only when they had reached the track and scrambled down onto its pebbled surface did he turn to face them.

The marks of Bones’ sled continued across the track and disappeared into the darkness on the other side, but clearly Cap did not plan to take his guests any further. He had no intention of offering them shelter for the night.

Rye found himself feeling quite shocked. Even before the skimmer attacks began, no citizen of Weld would have dreamed of turning a traveller away at nightfall.

You are not in Weld now, Rye.

Indeed, Rye thought grimly.

‘This will lead you out of the Scour,’ Cap was saying rapidly to Dirk, pointing along the track. ‘Don’t stray from it or you’ll come to grief—the land on either side is studded with old jell pits. Only those who know what they’re doing can navigate it. Trust no one. There are spies everywhere.’

He glanced at Rye and Sonia then looked quickly back at Dirk, frowning with distaste. ‘And for pity’s sake, make those two cover their hair,’ he added. ‘Nothing is more likely to betray you.’

Rye found his fisherman’s cap and pulled it on. Sonia looked mutinous, then seemed to decide that the advice was good even if she resented the way it had been given. Silently she twisted her hair into a knot and snuffed out its brilliance with the ugly cloth helmet of the Keep orphan.

‘The track runs past the Diggings,’ Cap was telling Dirk. ‘If you manage to pass them in safety, which I doubt, it will take you on to where you want to go.’

‘And how do you know where we wish to go?’ Dirk asked coolly.

Cap snorted. ‘Do you take me for a fool? Even if I hadn’t heard your copperhead friend shout her feelings to the skies, there’s only one reason for people like you to have risked your lives trekking over the Saltings. You’ve come from across the sea to spy on the Master. Perhaps you even have orders to destroy him.’

Before Rye, Dirk or Sonia could speak, he held up his hands.

‘Tell me nothing! The less I know of you the better. Whatever you’re planning, whatever powers you have, you’ve no hope of defeating the Master. His sorcery is too powerful. One way or another, your mission will end in your deaths. But I daresay there’s no hope of persuading you of that, so I won’t waste my breath trying.’

He looked across the track as the panting noise suddenly stopped and a low hissing floated from the gloom.

‘Go now!’ he ordered. ‘I’ve given you all the help I can.’

‘You do not have to live like this any longer, Cap,’ Dirk burst out impulsively, gripping the other man’s shoulder. ‘You can get your people away. The other side of Dorne is safe now. We—’

‘Stop!’ Cap snarled, tearing himself free. ‘Keep your idiot thoughts to yourself, I tell you! Do you think we’d be here if there were any hope of escape? We’re watched continually. Our borders are sealed. The Saltings is death. We’re prisoners as surely as if we were behind iron bars, and we remain alive only because we’re no threat to the Master, and too old or crippled to be put to work in the Diggings.’

He glared at the companions through the tangles of his matted hair. ‘If you truly mean us no harm you’ll go, and go quickly. In general we’re left alone, but if you’re seen here you’ll attract attention we can well do without. Do you understand?’

Dirk nodded, clearly moved by the man’s plain speaking. Hoisting his skimmer hook more firmly onto his shoulder, he turned towards the dark horizon, trying to pull Rye and Sonia with him.

But Rye stood his ground. Cap’s voice had been steady but his nerves were strung as tightly as a tripwire—Rye could feel it. The man certainly did want to be rid of his unwelcome guests before they were seen. But this was not the only reason he was hurrying them away.

He was hiding something, and he wanted Dirk, Rye and Sonia to leave before they found it out. It was something to do with whatever was hissing in the darkness on the other side of the track. And it involved Sholto, too. Rye had never been so certain of anything in his life.

A terrible fear gripped his heart. ‘One thing, before we go,’ he said abruptly. ‘We are searching for one of our own who is missing—a thin, dark-haired man of about your height. Have you seen him?’

Cap ducked his shaggy head so they could not see his face. ‘I’ve seen no one of that description,’ he said. ‘Sorry.’

A weird, yodelling cry floated from the gloom beyond the track. Cap’s head jerked up. ‘I must go,’ he said. ‘Travel safely.’

Without another word he swung himself off the track and began hobbling rapidly towards the sound.

‘He is lying,’ Rye muttered. ‘Or at least he is not telling the whole truth.’

‘You are right,’ Sonia agreed. ‘He chose his words very carefully. Perhaps he did not see Sholto with his own eyes, but he knows something.’

‘Rubbish!’ Dirk snapped. ‘You are imagining things, the two of you. The man has helped us as much as he can. We should do as he asks, and leave him alone. By the Wall, is his life not hard enough, with that motley, quarrelling crew to lead and protect? The best thing we can do for him is to get away before that lunatic Bones fastens upon us again.’

He tugged Rye’s arm but Rye still resisted, shaking his head, and Sonia made no move to walk on either.

‘This is madness!’ Dirk hissed. ‘Rye, do as I tell you! Who is the leader here?’

‘No one!’ Sonia flashed back. ‘You may be older, Dirk of Southwall, and a great hero in Weld, but as you are so fond of telling us, we are not in Weld now! As far as I am concerned we are all equal in this. If Rye senses there is a secret to be uncovered, and I agree with him, then that is the end of it. Believe your precious Cap and go on alone if you will!’

Dirk’s face darkened and Rye felt a stab of panic.

‘No!’ he exclaimed. ‘We must stay together.’ He pulled the hood of concealment over his head. ‘There! Now if we link arms we will not be seen.’

‘The skimmer hook is metal,’ Sonia warned. ‘It will still be visible.’

‘Just as a shadow,’ Rye said quickly, as Dirk scowled. ‘The darkness should cover it.’

He turned to his brother. ‘Dirk, all I ask is that we listen a while. If we hear nothing of Sholto we can leave as quietly as we came. Cap need never know we followed him.’

Dirk hesitated, then sighed heavily, and nodded.

They set off after Cap, following the sled tracks and keeping well back. It was dark, but not so dark that they could not see the limping figure ahead. At first the man kept looking over his shoulder, but at last seemed satisfied that he was not being followed. He put his head down and hurried on, very quickly considering his handicap.

‘For a half-starved man with only one leg he manages very well,’ Sonia whispered.

‘They all manage very well,’ said Rye, thinking of Bones, Needle and the old woman Cap had called Floss. ‘If they are indeed some of the exiles from Oltan, they have been seven years in this barren wilderness! It is amazing that they have survived, let alone that they are so strong.’

‘The weaker ones among them died early on, no doubt,’ Dirk said soberly. ‘Only the strong remain.’

His mouth tightened. ‘It is … a terrible thing. They came here to escape Olt, following a leader they trusted, only to find themselves trapped in a situation that is even worse than the one they fled. And the people they left behind have no idea!’

‘I would not have trusted any brother of Olt’s,’ Sonia said.

Dirk shot her a sour look. ‘You do not know what you might have done if you were desperate.’

Sonia shook her head stubbornly.

Ahead, a small light was showing, and shadows were dancing on the ground. The weird cry came again. Cap gave a hoarse answering shout and increased his speed.

As the companions hurried after him, they realised that the yodelling sound had come from Bones—Bones, who was dancing about in front of his sled, holding a flaming torch high, his skull-like face ghastly in the flickering light.

He was facing a monstrous, hissing shape that loomed above him in a cloud of steam.

Rye’s heart seemed to stop. For a split second he thought that the old man was protecting his treasure from some huge, ferocious beast. Then he realised that the hissing object was in fact some sort of gigantic vehicle.

The thing had no shafts, and no goats or horses to draw it. It was made of many odd sheets of metal bolted together, and was very strangely shaped—rather like a monstrous, armoured turtle with a high, square shell. In place of wheels, it had vast metal rollers. Steam billowed from a chimney at its nose, and a rusty tank bulged at its rear. On its battered side was a vividly coloured sign that had clearly been painted in haste by an untrained hand.

‘Ho, Cap!’ Bones shrieked, leaping and waving as he sighted the one-legged man. ‘Four-Eyes says five shivs of tarny root, half a shiv of sea biscuit an’ a bunch of travel weed for ol’ bloodhog skull!’

‘Not near enough,’ Cap shouted back.

‘Bones knows it!’ cried the capering man. ‘Bones tells him! You cheated Bones last time, Four-Eyes, Bones tells him—Cap says you did!’

‘Keep your voice down!’ Cap ordered, glancing nervously over his shoulder. ‘Leave this to me.’

‘There!’ bawled Bones, shaking his fist at the hissing monstrosity. ‘That be telling you, Four-Eyes! You won’t be cheating Cap—oh, no!’

A rich laugh rolled from the steam.

‘Now Bones, my old friend!’ boomed a deep voice. ‘I wish I had something truly worthy to trade for your treasure, but I can’t give what I don’t have, can I? My supplies are very low just now. And what’s all this talk of cheating? Why, I’m the fairest trader in all the Scour. My new sign tells you so! As you would know if you could read it.’

‘You can’t read it neither, Four-Eyes!’ Bones bawled. ‘An’ if it tells what you says it tells, it’s a liar!’

‘Now, take care what you say, my friend,’ the voice said, a hard edge entering the rich tones. ‘You are hurting my feelings. “Liar” is a strong word—very strong. And so is “cheat”, come to that. Why, it almost makes me want to leave you alone entirely! And how would you good people get along, I ask you, without the food I bring?’

‘Ha!’ cried Bones. ‘Little you knows, Four-Eyes! Us has magic ones to aid us now—wizards out of the Saltings! Food us’ll have in plenty, in days to come, an’ golden bowls to eat it out of, too!’

Rye felt himself grow hot. He heard Sonia groan softly beside him, and Dirk grunt in disgust.

‘Bones!’ thundered Cap. ‘Be still!’

But Bones was beyond listening to orders. He was shaking his fist at the vehicle, fairly dancing with rage. And what he said next chilled Rye’s blood.

‘Cap says stranger’s clothes an’ boots an’ bag of treasures was worth three times over what you give for them, Four-Eyes! You catched Bones on the track alone an’ you bedazzled him with your smoothy talk an’ your smiling ways!’

‘Dearie me!’ sighed the voice from the steam. ‘How could Cap say such a thing? As I remember, it was a very fair trade.’

‘Well, it weren’t!’ Bones bawled. ‘Six strips of salty goat an’ half a shiv of tarny root you give for the lot! Cap says Bones’d have done better to keep all stranger’s riches safe for the Den! Then us could’ve used them for the good of all—same as next day us used his bones!’