‘How dare you!’ cried the Warden, though sweat was beading his forehead, and the colour was draining from his flabby cheeks.
‘You knew that only the most restless young men would become volunteers,’ Rye went on. ‘And you knew that once beyond the Wall they would never return. For safety, the Sorcerer Dann made the Doors so that from the outside they only open at the touch of a bell tree stick, like this one.’
He put his hand to the stick in his belt.
Someone in the room gasped. It might have been Jett or even Jordan. Rye did not turn to look. He kept his eyes on the Warden.
The Warden’s mouth was opening and closing like the mouth of a fish. ‘You cannot possibly know—’ he burst out. ‘That is, how do you dare to claim—?’
‘I know because you tried the trick again when my brothers and I defended Tallus, the morning after the tower fell,’ Rye broke in. ‘You opened the way to the Chamber of the Doors, so that we would run through it to escape from your soldiers. I daresay you locked it again as soon as you were alone.’
No one spoke. The Warden seemed to shrink.
‘And I know because of what I saw in a pool in the Fell Zone, the night before last,’ Rye went on. ‘The pool is called Dann’s Mirror, and it holds Dann’s memories—the memories he left there when he died.’
Wildly the Warden turned to Jordan, who was thoughtfully stroking his moustache. ‘Jordan, take me back to my room!’ he gabbled. ‘I—I feel unwell.’
‘Best to stay I think, sir,’ Jordan said stolidly.
‘When he was very old and frail,’ Rye said, ‘Dann told his best friend and advisor that he had decided to abandon Weld. He planned to lead his people out, so that the freer air of Dorne could restore their magic and they could help him rid the island of the tyrant Olt.’
‘Absurd!’ the Warden croaked, but no one paid any attention to him. Every eye in the room was fixed on Rye.
Rye knew that it was time to finish his tale—finish it and let go of his anger. Then he could free himself from this stuffy room, free himself from the sight of the Warden, whose eyes were darting right and left like the eyes of a hunted animal.
‘Dann’s friend pretended to agree, but secretly thought the plan was madness. He wanted things to stay just as they were. So he persuaded Dann to take him through the golden Door, and in the Fell Zone attacked him and stole the bell tree stick. He darted back into Weld, and the Door slammed behind him. Dann could not follow without the stick, and the attack had broken his strength, so he could not go to find another. He was locked out of Weld forever.’
‘The same trick,’ Crell murmured.
‘Yes,’ Rye said simply. ‘The false friend announced that Dann had died and left Weld in his care. No one thought to question him. But the secret of what really happened has been passed down from father to son in his family ever since, just as the office of Warden has.’
‘And when our Warden began to fear for his position, he remembered it and put it to use,’ Dirk said soberly.
‘Indeed,’ Sholto drawled. ‘Why break the habit of a lifetime and think of something original?’
Jordan had been whispering urgently in the Warden’s ear. The Warden’s shoulders slumped.
‘I have decided to retire,’ he said sulkily. ‘I appoint Rye of Southwall to take my place.’
Rye shook his head. ‘Even if I wanted to be Warden, which I do not, there is someone else who deserves the prize more than I do. Without her the quest would have failed, and my brothers and I would all be dead.’
He beckoned to Sonia. She returned his gaze, expressionless, and stepped forward.
The Warden crossed his fingers and his wrists. Then, his face a picture of horrified disgust, he picked up his robes, pushed past Jordan, and scuttled from the room.
Smiling slightly, Sonia turned to Rye. ‘It seems the Warden does not like your idea, Rye. And I do not like it either, though I thank you for the thought. When I first began, I did not know how alive I would feel outside the Wall. My future lies there, not here.’
‘But—but what of Annocki!’ Rye hissed.
Nocki will come with us, I hope. Her heart is set on Sholto, and I am fairly sure he feels the same.
Had Sonia not heard what Sholto had said? Bewildered, Rye shook his head at her. Sonia, Sholto plainly said that he would not marry Annocki!
‘Sholto said that he had no wish to marry the Warden’s daughter,’ Sonia said aloud, in a falsely casual voice that would not have deceived a child. ‘And as I have no wish to marry him, though I respect him with all my heart, that is just as well.’
‘At last!’ Annocki burst out, clapping her hands together in relief as Dirk whooped in amazement. ‘Oh, how I have hated this stupid charade, Sonia! How could you have insisted we change places?’
‘It could not be helped,’ Sonia retorted. ‘At first I would rather have died than let any volunteer know who I was. And later … well, I did not want to spoil things.’
Rye gaped at them both, feeling as if all the breath had been driven from his lungs.
‘Sholto guessed long ago,’ Sonia added ruefully. ‘I do not know how.’
‘Mostly it was the way you snapped out orders as if you were used to being obeyed,’ said Sholto. And at Sonia’s scowl he burst out laughing in a way Rye had not heard him laugh for many years.
Daily editions of The Lantern gave the citizens of Weld much to think about over the next few days. The chieftain of the barbarians and his gracious lady had visited the city, and as a token of friendship had made the magnificent gift of a pair of iron gates to fit the new gateway being made in the Wall. The Warden had retired to a farm in the Centre, due to ill health. There were to be elections for a new Warden, and it seemed that Jett of Northwall was the most popular candidate. Chieftain Farr had said that he and his people would gladly welcome visitors, and even settlers, from Weld as soon as the gateway was completed.
The heroes of the breaking of the Wall could not wait for the gateway to be completed. Much as they loved their old home, and however safe and comfortable they felt there, they had all grown used to fresher air and brighter skies.
To Dirk and Sholto’s great surprise, their mother had not only made no objection, but had announced her intention to go with them. She could visit Weld whenever she wished, she said, to visit old friends. But she liked the sound of the world outside, and would like to see it for herself.
Rye was not surprised at all. Dirk and Sholto had gone away long before Lisbeth had been forced to leave her home and seek work in the Keep. They did not realise how that had changed her.
So there came a time when Rye, Sonia, Dirk, Faene, Sholto, Annocki and Lisbeth stood together in the Chamber of the Doors and looked up at the words engraved in the stone.
‘So—are we agreed?’ Dirk asked. ‘We all choose the wooden Door—at least for now.’
‘I do, certainly,’ Lisbeth said firmly. ‘And not just for now. Chieftain Farr has told me that a house, several beehives and a flock of goats are waiting for me at Riverside. I expect a steady stream of Weld visitors there—Tallus, for one. And Rye and Sonia, at least, need a home until—well, for a good while!’
She glanced at Sonia, who grinned. Already a strong affection was growing between them, though Lisbeth still found Sonia something of a mystery. Warm-hearted Lisbeth could not understand how any young woman could bear so casually the knowledge that her own father disliked her. But in time, Rye thought, Sonia would no doubt open her heart to his mother as she had to him over the past few days. Then Lisbeth would see that though Sonia’s hurt was deep it was very old, and Sonia had found a way to live with it as she might have learned to live with any scar.