The Spy's Door

by Maidie Reeve

  “I remember the Inn of the Black Feather near Malefic’s fortress in the world of gateway eight,” Twig said. “Maybe it’s a sign that we have to go there.”

  “Or maybe it’s a warning, and it means don’t go there,” Jun replied.

  “Maybe it doesn’t mean the inn at all,” said Aisha. “The gateway worlds are now different, and the inn may not even exist.”

  “Lots of maybes. Who knows what the old villain meant,” Basil said. “That crazy minstrel didn’t tell us anything helpful, and he gave us a sleeping potion so that he could escape. I wouldn’t trust anything that he said or did.”

  “He didn’t seem evil, and we haven’t been harmed. And he did make sure we stayed within a magic circle of protection.” Sophie looked thoughtful. “Maybe this is one of our challenges. To work out what this is for.”

  “I think I agree with you,” Jun said, as Sophie handed him the piece of parchment for safe-keeping. “We’ll take it with us, and we might work it out or, once The Book fixes itself, it might be able to help us understand what it means.”

  He folded the parchment, tucked it into his jacket pocket, and closed the zip.

  Everyone quickly tidied their clothes and ate their simple breakfast. Taking a risk, they drank some water out of the second flask that Morgan had left. Twig tried it first to see if anything bad would happen. Nothing did, so they each took a few gulps.

  It was time to go.

  “Stay close together. We don’t know what’s at The Third Gateway,” Jun said, stepping onto the path.

  The path continued to twist its way through the woodland, and the morning was overcast and dreary. The children hadn’t gone far when they glimpsed the remains of a stone wall through the trees. It was about twenty meters away. Jun held up his hand to warn the others to stop so that they could make sure it was safe before they went any further.

  “There’s not much wall left, but I can see an open archway which could be the gate, and I don’t think there’s anyone…” Jun was unable to finish his sentence.

  “Yes, there’s something there!” Sophie interrupted. “Look!”

  A small figure, covered in a dark hood and long cloak, ran out from under the cover of the trees, dashed up to the wall, and disappeared through the arch.

  “I reckon it’s the same creature that we saw yesterday. It’s probably been watching us, waiting for the best moment to lure us to our doom,” Basil said, and leered at Aisha.

  “Basil, I’ve told you to stop trying to frighten Aisha. And anyway, the creature could be keeping out of sight because it doesn’t trust us,” Sophie said.

  “Well, whatever it is, it went through the gate easily enough. Let’s see what’s there.” Jun set off at a fast jog, and the others followed.

  As they approached the arch they saw that the gateway was badly damaged. The gate had been torn off from its hinges, and now lay broken on the ground next to the crumbling wall. The entrance to the next world was wide open.

  Jun and Sophie led the way and peered through the gateway. All they could see was an empty blackness.

  “Do you think if we just walk through the arch we’ll be in the next world?” Sophie asked Jun.

  “Well, we saw the hooded thing go through, and the path leads into it. And we know that we have to follow the path.”

  “What if there’s an ambush?” Aisha asked in a quiet voice.

  “We have to go through the gate, but let’s go very carefully. I’ll go first, then you Basil. Sophie, you go in the middle to protect The Book, and then Aisha and Twig. Is that alright with everyone?” Jun looked at the others.

  “I suppose so,” Basil said grudgingly. “Give me your hands then.”

  Basil grabbed hold of Jun and Sophie’s hands. Aisha and Twig came next.

  Jun stepped through the arch and was swallowed up by the blackness. Basil saw Jun’s arm and then his own hand disappear as he walked behind him.

  “Ugh! I don’t like this,” he exclaimed, as he too quickly disappeared.

  Sophie, Aisha and Twig then stepped through the gateway.

  Jun was the first to emerge from the cloak of darkness that divided the gateway worlds of two and three. He was immediately followed by the other four.

  The morning sun struggled to be seen through a blanket of grey clouds. A chilly breeze caused the children to rub their cold hands together, and hug their jackets closer. They had stepped into another world under Malefic’s control.

  Standing on the path, five pairs of eyes quickly scanned what lay in front of them.

  Close by, the once thick forest had been cleared to make way for a small settlement which was surrounded by fenced enclosures. There were sheep in some of the paddocks, and cows in the others.

  There were about ten huts in the village, all clustered around a large green space. Each hut had its own vegetable plot and chicken coop. One of the huts was much longer than the rest, and grey smoke curled out of a central hole in the thatched roof.

  A rough track led from the gateway through the village, out the other side, and then through a valley of thick scrub similar to that of the previous world. The red brick path ran alongside the track.

  From where they stood, the children could see a few small, roughly dressed people tending the gardens. The men were wearing brown pants and tunics and wooden clogs. The women brown skirts, and jackets and clogs. All had lank dark hair, and weather beaten faces. They looked very miserable.

  As the children took in their surroundings, six goblin soldiers came out of the long hut and marched towards them. Helmets squashed their straggly black hair. They had big lumpy noses and thick lips, and their black eyes were narrow and close together. They wore leather jackets, and their pants were tucked into heavy boots. Each wore a short sword, and carried a long spear in their large hairy hands. They looked ugly and mean.

  “Just stay still and wait. They haven’t drawn their swords, or raised their spears, so they may not mean to harm us,” Jun whispered to the others.

  “I’m making myself invisible so that I can help if they turn nasty,” Twig murmured, and disappeared.

  The small troop of goblins stopped in front of the newcomers so that they barred the way forward. One of them stepped forward and grunted.

  “Who are you? I can see there are four of you, not five – lucky for you. We are expecting five dangerous criminals.”

  “Whew! Good on you Twig!” Basil murmured to himself.

  “What did you say? No talking amongst yourselves until you’re cleared.”

  The goblin leader was growing impatient. The troop edged forward, spears now raised, ready to attack if need be.

  “Show me your papers? Do you have the authority to pass?”

  “Our authority is that we are players of the game and therefore have the right to move through each world,” Sophie said, looking the goblin in the eye.

  “What game? We don’t know anything about a game. Show me your authority to pass, or go back the way you came.”

  “What are we going to do now?” Aisha whispered in Sophie’s ear.

  “Let’s think,” Sophie replied. “Morgan left us that piece of parchment. He said he would help us, so that must mean something.”

  “I hope you’re right. I wouldn’t want to go back, and be stuck in that last place,” Basil said gruffly.

  “Well, it’s all we’ve got that looks anything like a pass. Let’s give it a try,” Jun said as he took the small piece of parchment out of his pocket, and gave it to the goblin soldier.

  The goblin studied it carefully, and after several seconds, handed it back.

  “It seems to be in order.”

  The children were very relieved, but didn’t want to show it.

  “Can you tell us if anyone else has passed through here recently?” Jun asked the soldier. He hoped that they might find out if Morgan had come this way, or even what the mysterious hooded figure was.

  “We’re anxious to catch up with some friends if we can,” Soph
ie added.

  “Friends you say. We have seen no one who could be a friend of yours.” The goblin stared at them.

  Before Jun could ask if there was another way through the world of gateway three, the goblin soldier, still staring at them suspiciously, waved them on.

  “Don’t waste any more of our time. Just keep moving, and don’t stay in the village. This is a border town, and we are here to protect the lands of our master, not help the likes of you.”

  The goblin soldiers stood aside to let the four travellers through, and they walked away as quickly as possible. Twig remained invisible. He wanted them all to be as far away from the village as possible before showing himself again.

  “Let’s get out of here before they realize that we could be the ones they’re looking for,” Jun said quietly, and increased his pace.

  The villagers stopped their work and stared at the four strangers as they walked quickly through the village. The children remained very quiet, and were thankful when they soon reached the woodland on the other side.

  They all started to jog. After a few minutes they felt confident that they couldn’t be seen from the village, and that there were no goblin soldiers in pursuit. Twig also felt it was safe for him to reappear.

  “Before we reach the next gateway I’m going to try The Book again,” Sophie said. “It should have re-programmed itself by now.”

  They all stopped so that Sophie could take The Book out. She placed it on the path and opened it at the page for The Fourth Gateway. Everyone looked at it eagerly.

  Chapter Five

  A Surprise Attack

  The Book fell open at the page for the world of The Third Gateway. Sophie took a quick look at the preceding page, but it was blank. The Book had not been able to retrieve any information.

  “It doesn’t matter, because we can’t go back anyway,” she said to the others. “As long as it has enough information to help us get through The Fourth Gateway, we can keep moving forward in the game.”

  A faint picture of the children and Twig had now appeared. The magic words were underneath.

  The gate lies ahead through which you must go

  Although I can see a time of great woe

  Malefic brings his forces together

  They will meet and plot at The Black Feather

  But as for all five, it’s not safe to roam

  Fight for your freedom, or you will not reach home

  At the gate use your pass, it is step number one

  Then unmix the letters and step two will be done.

  “That’s meant to be helpful?” Basil sneered.

  “Yes, if you know how to read it. Just leave it to us, and we’ll work it out,” Sophie said curtly.

  “I think there are four main messages,” Jun said.

  “Yes, me too, and I think the first message is just like the minstrel said. We’re going to have a very bad time,” Aisha replied.

  Twig frowned.

  “If it’s as I thought, ‘The Black Feather’ is the inn we saw in the last game. It’s in the world of The Eighth Gateway, which is Malefic’s stronghold, and he’s using it as a base to plot against Eda.”

  “And I think I know what the third message is. It’s going to be really hard to keep us all safe throughout the rest of the game,” Sophie said unhappily.

  “I agree with all of that. But first, we have to get through the next gate, and the clue on how to do that is in the final two lines,” Jun said. “We know we have the parchment with the authority to pass, but it’s not enough. We’ll only know what the rest of it means when we get there.”

  “Okay. If you’re all so smart, let’s get to this gate and see if you’re right. Although I don’t know why we’re in such a hurry to get through it, seeing that we’ve had two lots of warnings.”

  Basil flung the words over his shoulder as he stalked off.

  Sophie put The Book away, and with the others, quickly caught up with Basil. No one spoke as everyone was very worried about what lay ahead.

  “I can see The Fourth Gateway. There’s someone there. Oh, good. It looks like the hobgoblin from our last game. That’s a relief. He was quite easy to get past,” Jun said, and quickened his pace.

  “Hold on! Slow down!” Sophie called out to Jun “There are two people there, not one. Look, it’s that hooded thing. It’s just touched the Hobgoblin’s arm, and now it’s going through the gate. I wonder what it’s up to.”

  They approached the gate cautiously. It was open, just like gates two and three.

  The hobgoblin was dressed in his brown waistcoat, short pants and hob-nailed boots. He raised his spear and stood in front of the gateway, blocking their entrance. He stared at them blankly.

  “Hello. Don’t you recognize us?” Sophie asked.

  “He looks a bit like a zombie to me,” Basil said rudely.

  “He’s not a zombie, but I think he’s in a trance,” Aisha said.

  “Show me your pass,” the hobgoblin said in an expressionless voice. “None may proceed without a pass. Show me your pass.”

  Jun took the piece of parchment out of his pocket, and went up to the hobgoblin.

  “Show me your pass. None may proceed without a pass. Show me your pass,” the hobgoblin repeated.

  “He’s like a robot. He must be under a spell,” Jun said, and handed the hobgoblin the drawing of the black feather.

  The hobgoblin looked down at the pass but his eyes didn’t blink. “All is in order,” he said without any expression.

  He handed the pass back to Jun.

  “You now have the right to give me the password. By the third count.”

  He took another scrap of parchment from inside his jacket, stared at it, still without blinking, and spoke.

  HET MIET FO HET TREMAS SI GOMCIN

  “It’s gibberish!” Basil rolled his eyes, and made a loud sigh.

  “Yes, but think of the clue The Book gave us. Unmix the letters,” Jun replied, as he took the parchment out of the hobgoblin’s hand. The hobgoblin didn’t protest, but said tonelessly:

  “One.”

  “Oh no! I think we’ve got to solve it before he gets to three,” Aisha gasped. “Quick! Quick! Quick! Before he gets to three.”

  As she spoke Sophie and Jun were scanning the letters. Basil stood nearby watching them grapple with the strange words.

  “What can it mean? What can it mean?” Sophie repeated to herself.

  “It’s one of those anagram things. You know, when the letters are all jumbled up, and you have to make new word. I’ve seen my mum do it in word puzzles,” Basil said, sounding pleased with himself.

  “Yes, you’re right,” said Jun. “I can see it now. We need to be quick. I’ll do the first three words, Sophie, you the second three, and Basil, you do the last one.”

  The three of them examined the letters closely. “Got it!” they all yelled at once.

  “Two.” The Hobgoblin said.

  “We have the password. We’re giving it to you now,” Jun said and he, Sophie and Basil read out their words in turn:

  THE TIME… OF THE MASTER… IS COMING.

  As they spoke, Jun returned the piece of parchment to the hobgoblin.

  “Three,” said the Hobgoblin staring straight ahead. “You may pass.”

  He lowered his spear and moved away from the gateway entrance. He did not look at them again.

  “I don’t like the sound of that password,” Aisha said. “Knowing this game, it probably means something horrible.”

  All five approached the gate to get a better look at what was on the other side.

  From where they stood they could see that the path followed a high stone wall and then disappeared around a sharp corner. They could see that the land sloped gently away from the wall, and then flattened out into a narrow valley ringed by steep hills. Thick clumps of trees dotted the landscape.

  “I can’t see where the path leads to from here. All I can see is that it follows the wall for about fifty meters, an
d then goes around the corner,” said Jun.

  “Yeah, everything looks alright to me. I don’t know what that book is going on about,” Basil said sharply.

  “This used to be one of the worlds controlled by Malefic,” Sophie told Basil and Twig. “It probably still is, so there’s bound to be something dangerous here to try and stop us.”

  “Well, here goes,” said Jun as he stepped through the gate. He called back to his friends.

  “All clear. There’s no one here.”

  The others quickly joined him.

  They were now close enough to see that there were two round defence towers at the top of the wall.

  “This wall must be part of a castle,” Jun said. “I wonder if it’s the same one where we met Malefic and Grot. Although we didn’t know who they were at the time.”

  “They were in disguise,” Aisha added for the benefit of Basil and Twig. “Malefic pretended to be a young prince, and Dab Nilbog, who we thought was our friend, turned out to be Grot, one of his nasty goblins.”

  “What’s that up there?” Basil was squinting as he pointed to the top of the wall.

  The other four craned their necks trying to see what he was pointing at.

  “It’s that hooded thing!” Basil cried out. “Look, it’s running along the battlements.”

  “Hey! You! Stop! Tell us who you are, and why you’re watching us?” Jun shouted.

  “It’s no use. It’s gone,” said Sophie.

  “It hasn’t attacked us, so maybe it’s just a coincidence that it’s in all the same places as us,” said Aisha.

  “I don’t think there are any coincidences in this game. If Malefic still controls this world, then we need to watch out,” Jun replied grimly.

  “There’s only one way to find out if this world’s still under Malefic’s spell. We need to see what’s around the corner,” Sophie pronounced, and set off.

  They all quickly covered the short distance to the end of the wall, and then stopped.

  “Okay. Is everyone ready?” Sophie asked. They all nodded. “Then let’s go.”

  They rushed around the corner, and crashed into a wall of eight goblin soldiers who were all carrying rope. They had been expecting the children, and were ready to attack.