Queste

T he huge door to the House of Foryx was almost as tall as the Wizard Tower doors. It was made out of great planks of ebony, fixed together with blackened iron bars and long lines of rivets. Around the door was a heavy frame carved with monsters and bizarre creatures that stared down at Jenna, Septimus and Beetle. They stood with the snow settling onto their wolverine cloaks, plucking up the courage to ring the long bellpull that emerged from the mouth of an iron dragon poking through the granite beside the door.



"Now, you remember what we decided?" Septimus asked Beetle.



"Yep. You and Jen go in and I'll wait outside. I'll give you three hours on the timepiece and then ring the bell. If you don't come out, I'll ring every hour until you do. Okay?"



"Great." Septimus gave Beetle a thumbs-up sign.



Jenna reached up and yanked hard on the bellpull. Deep within the House of Foryx a bell jangled.



Silently they stood in the steadily falling snow and waited...and waited.



After what felt like hours, the door creaked slowly open. A small, bent figure peered out.



"Yeeeeeeeeees?" it said.



Jenna stared at the DoorKeeper. She remembered Silas hunched over the storybook, putting on his funny, squeaky voice in which he pronounced the "R" as a "W," and making silly faces at her and her brothers. An attack of giggles overcame her.



The DoorKeeper looked somewhat affronted at Jenna's laughter. Usually no one laughed when they arrived at the House of Foryx. He reminded Jenna of a brown bat. He was small, with tiny hooded eyes, a close-fitting brown moleskin cap and a long brown cape made of some kind of closely cropped fur. Like a roosting bat, he clung to the doorknob as if he were afraid of being blown away.



"Um, may we come in, please?" asked Jenna.



"Dooooooooo you have an appointment?" asked the DoorKeeper, standing in the gap made by the open door, barring their way in.



"An appointment?" replied Jenna. "No, but - "



"Nooooooooo one enters the House without an appointment." The DoorKeeper said in his swooping, bat-squeak of a voice. He stared at Jenna reproachfully, his eyes like little black beads.



"In that case I would like to make an appointment, please," Jenna told him.



"Veeeeeeeeewy well. You may enter when you have made it. Good-bye."



"But how do we make - " The DoorKeeper began to close the door. "No - wait!" Jenna yelled.



Beetle leaped forward and put his foot against the door. The DoorKeeper pushed hard against Beetle's boot. A battle developed between Beetle's boot and the door, but inch by inch the DoorKeeper pushed Beetle's boot back. Beetle added his shoulder to the pressure of his boot and leaned against the door, but the strength of the DoorKeeper was out of proportion to his small size.



Jenna began to panic. They had to get inside - they had to. It was unthinkable to be so close to Nicko and to have the door slammed in their faces. She threw herself at the door, adding her weight to Beetle's, but still the door kept closing.



"Stop!" yelled Septimus. "We don't need an appointment." He thrust the Questing Stone under the nose of the DoorKeeper. "We've got this."



The DoorKeeper stopped pushing and looked at the Stone. He peered up at Septimus and said suspiciously, "What, are all of you on the Queste?"



"Yes," said Septimus defiantly.



"Typical. You wait thousands of years for one Appwentice and then thwee come along at once."



Jenna stared at the DoorKeeper in amazement. He spoke exactly as Silas had done - he couldn't pronounce his Rs. Did Silas know about the House of Foryx, she wondered? Had he been here once?



The DoorKeeper scrutinized them more closely, taking in the fact that only Septimus wore a green tunic. "You can come in," he said to Septimus, "but the other two can't."



Jenna panicked at the thought of Septimus going into the House of Foryx on his own. If he did, she was sure they would never see him again. She imagined herself and Beetle waiting outside for days, for weeks - months even, and then going home without him. That was unbearable. In desperation - remembering the next part of Silas's bedtime story - she said, "We demand the Right of the Riddle."



The DoorKeeper looked at her in amazement. "You what?" he asked.



Aware that Septimus and Beetle were staring at her as though she had gone crazy, Jenna repeated,



"We demand the Right of the Riddle."



"The Wight of the Widdle?"



"Yes," said Jenna very firmly, determined to keep a straight face - despite a suppressed splutter from Beetle.



"Vewy well," the DoorKeeper replied grumpily.



"Go on, then," prompted Jenna.



The DoorKeeper sighed and began to chant in his high-pitched voice,



"I spit like bacon,



I am made with an egg,



I have plenty of backbone, but lack a good leg,



I peel layers like onions, but still wemain whole,



I am long like a flagpole, yet fit in a hole,



What am I?"



Now Jenna understood Snorri's drawing. "A snake," she replied with a grin.



The DoorKeeper looked surprised and not particularly pleased. "Vewy well. You have two more. I think you will not be smiling then." Once more he began his chant:



"What force and stwength cannot get thwough,



I with a gentle touch can do.



And many in the stweet would stand,



Were I not a fwend at hand.



What am I?"



Jenna knew at once. "A key," she said.



Now the DoorKeeper was irritated. "Cowect," he said very reluctantly. "But you will not find this one so easy." He began once again, this time chanting much faster and in a whisper. They leaned forward to catch his words.



"I am only one color, but not one size.



Though I'm chained to the earth, I can easily fly.



I am pwesent in sun, but not in wain,



I do no harm, I feel no pain.



What am I?"



This time Jenna was stumped. What else was on the map? There was nothing she could remember.



"I'm wait - ing," said the DoorKeeper in a singsong sneer. "You have one minute to answer and then I shall let the Questor in. Alone. You two can go home - if you pay the Toll-Man enough." He gave a horrible chuckle.



In a panic, Jenna unfolded the map.



"No cheating. I said no cheating!" The DoorKeeper screamed excitedly. He snatched the map and began tearing it into shreds.



"No!" yelled Jenna, lunging forward to grab the map. "Give it back!"



"Jen, Jen, we don't need it anymore," said Septimus, pulling Jenna back. "We've got to keep calm and think."



"Twenty seconds," came the DoorKeeper's taunting squeak. "Fifteen seconds...ten, nine, eight, seven - "



Septimus summoned up Snorri's drawing in his mind - the snake, the key, the shaded House of Foryx.



"Four, thwee, two..."



And then he got it.



"One - "



"Shadow!"



The DoorKeeper glared at them. He said nothing, though the door spoke for him as he heaved it open with a chorus of groans and Septimus stepped over the threshold. But as Jenna went to follow the DoorKeeper began to push the door closed.



"No!" yelled Beetle. "You let Jenna in." He leaped forward and threw himself at the door. The DoorKeeper staggered back, the door flew open and Jenna, Beetle and Septimus fell into the House of Foryx.



The door slammed behind them with a bang.



"Oh no!" Beetle gasped, suddenly realizing his mistake. "Let me out, let me out!"



It was too late. Time was suspended.