Silver - By Kailin Gow Page 0,26

good. Their opponent was dealing with them al easily, constantly moving, changing direction rapidly, and coming out with moves they simply didn’t expect. Against that, one more person wasn’t going to make much difference.

What she could do was try for the gate. The natural drift of the fight had taken it away from the front of the portal, so if Briony got very lucky indeed, she might be able to make it there while the three boys served as a distraction. It had to be worth a try.

She kept low, trying to maintain the il usion that she was too badly hurt to take any further part in the combat as she edged around towards the gate in every moment where the stranger’s back was to her. Only when she was sure that she was close enough did she sprint for it.

Briony made it perhaps halfway there before she saw that there was something wrong with the gate. Mist poured off it, not just contained within the gate now, but bil owing out onto the ground around it. In a matter of a second or two, Briony couldn’t even make out the stone arch. Even as she stood there staring, the mist flowed away, leaving nothing behind it. It was like the gate had never been there.

Back at the fight, the stranger seemed to have noticed the change. He shoved Fal on into his brother, knocked Jake from his feet with a whirling throw, and stood there, his eyes fixed on Briony. He smiled.

“I wil see you again, I think.”

“I wil see you again, I think.”

With that, he shifted, his dragon form appearing from nowhere. Before Briony could think to say anything, the great creature was airborne, moving away as fast as it had come. Briony was left standing there, unable to say anything, and with just one thought going round and round in her head.

Aunt Sophie was trapped.

Chapter 10

It was Jake who eventualy broke Briony out of her immobility, taking her hand and pul ing her gently away from the gate.

“Briony, we can’t stay here. The dragon might be back.”

Briony shook her head. “He won’t be back.”

“We don’t know that,” Kevin said.

“We do.” It was so obvious to Briony now. “He did what he came here to do. He kept us from going through after Aunt Sophie.”

Shaking free of Jake’s grip, she went back to where the gate had stood. There was nothing to see there. No flattening of the grass where the stone arch had stood. No dew on it as the aftermath of the mist. Even the signs of their struggle in front of it were fading. It seemed that this clearing was a place that wanted to keep its secrets.

“There has to be some way of opening it again,”

Fal on said, moving up beside her. “Maybe if we try drinking from the stream again?”

Briony was wil ing to try it, because it would be stupid to overlook something that obvious, but somehow she knew things wouldn’t be quite that easy. The dragon wouldn’t have left them alone there if it was. Even so, she knelt by the stream, cupping cool water in her hands and raising it to her lips.

Nothing happened. No mist rose, and no doors appeared. However this doorway to another world worked, it was more complex than that.

“It’s going to be al right, Briony,” Kevin said, moving to wrap his arms around her. Briony shook her head, stopping him. She needed to be strong right then, to think.

Not to let herself feel the pain of losing her great aunt like this. Besides, with Fal on there as wel , letting Kevin hold her like that would only start an argument. Briony sighed.

When had her life become so complicated?

“How is it going to be al right?” she asked. “You said it yourself, Kevin. There could be anything over in that world, and none of us understands how to get there.”

Kevin looked away for a moment.

“I don’t blame you for trying to talk me out of it, Kevin,” Briony said, guessing the cause of it. She moved in close to him, and this time she did hug him. Fal on would just have to deal with it. “I don’t think the dragon would have let me through regardless of when I tried.”

“We stil have to find a way to open it again,” Kevin said.

“Yes.” Briony moved away from him to look at the spot yet again. If she hoped that it would yield some fresh