Rivers of Fire (Atherton, Book 2) Read Free Page A

whenever he came within a few feet of a flame. He cursed the boy Edgar in his mind, remembering how Edgar had burned all the hair off his head. It was a memory he couldn't shake. Sir Emerik took the torch with a shaky hand, holding it as far away from his face as he could. The flickering firelight made all the colors in the courtyard turn a bleary shade of orange.
    Before long, he was standing near the stone that Samuel had moved to enter the House of Power. Isabel could hear him standing directly overhead on the stone. She had a terrible thought that whoever it was might break through and fall on top of her. Or maybe the person standing above her knew of the old hidden drain cover and was getting ready to slide it off. She kept very still, barely breathing as she waited for the person to leave.
    From his hiding place, Samuel could see Sir Emerik as his
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    boots clicked back and forth on the floor of the courtyard. The landscape within the courtyard was full with deep green rows of hedges and bushes trimmed into curious shapes, and it was easy for a small person like Samuel to encase himself within the grasp of branches or vines, completely hidden from view. Samuel's anxiety rose as he watched Sir Emerik pause as if he'd found something. He had heard one stone sound different than the rest, as if it were covering a hollow space.
    Sir Emerik lowered himself to the ground, carefully whipping his red robe behind him, and then with one hand he ran his fingers around the edge of the stone, feeling for a way to remove it. As he looked at the dancing flames of the torch in his other hand, his eye twitched, moving him to set the torch down next to him where it burned dimly on the cold floor.
    Samuel didn't know what to do when Sir Emerik took hold of the square stone by its corners. It crossed his mind to bolt from within the hedge and run through the courtyard to distract Sir Emerik, but he couldn't risk anyone knowing of his presence in the House of Power. This thought froze him where he hid until Sir Emerik had removed the stone and was peering down into the drain.
    Sir Emerik held the torch down into the hole, but he didn't see anything, at least not anything he didn't expect to see. He sniffed the air and touched the dirt with his hands, then pushed the stone back where it had been. This time he noticed small dirty fingerprints on the square slab. Sir Emerik looked up, suddenly sure. Samuel has returned by this secret way. He must be found and gotten rid of.
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    Sir Emerik rose to his feet, waving the flame over the hedge as he searched the courtyard. "I know you're in here, Samuel," he said softly in a raspy voice. "You can't hide from me. You should know that by now." He remembered how he'd found Samuel only a few days before with a secret book, how the book had foretold the Highlands's descent into Tabletop, and how he'd captured the boy and locked him away in the House of Power. "Come out and we'll go to see your mother in the kitchen. She'll be very glad to see you."
    The idea of finding his mother seized Samuel and he nearly burst out of his hiding place. Samuel could hear and feel Sir Emerik getting closer. A few more seconds and he would be caught. He was ready to spring out of the hedge, to run into the twisting array of creeping plants. But just as Samuel was about to move there came another voice, much louder and meaner than Sir Emerik's.
    "Emerik!"
    The booming sound of Lord Phineus calling for Sir Emerik filled the air as he shouted from the window of the main chamber. Hidden in a part of the courtyard that lay beneath a thick canopy of vine-covered trellises, Sir Emerik was momentarily torn. Though he felt sure he was close to finding the concealed boy, he knew he should not keep his master waiting.
    "You can't hide from me for long, Samuel," said Sir Emerik. His eye twitched once more at the sight of the flaming torch in his hand. "You should come out now and save me the trouble of having to find