CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT


    Jane grabbed Trinket’s arm and spoke through a jaw so filled with tension it was sending shockwaves up into her skull.


    ‘This is not going to happen.’


    Trinket jerked her arm away.


    ‘Do not touch the princess.’


    ‘You are a terrible princess. What happened to you supporting me in my quest to find the Wyld Book of Secrets.’


    ‘Your quest is not my priority.’


    Jane spoke in a loud whisper through clenched teeth.


    ‘Make it your priority.’


    ‘No.’


    Trinket turned back to the door and spoke in a wild tone, her voice raised up suddenly like it was bucking.


    ‘I don’t trust you … Emperor.’


    ‘Emperor’ came out like a swear word.


    ‘You need my key,’ Trinket continued. ‘So before I have this door opened I am going to set up a little insurance.’


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    ‘What do you mean … insurance?’ The Governor’s voice had the high tinny wind.


    Andrew stood with an authority of movement, and he aimed a beady eye at Trinket, the enemy to  be vanquished. Although he was trying to be bold, he could not stop shaking, like he was having a fit. Trinket’s slap to his face had rattled him, sent him a bit silly, damaged his ego.


    He yelled toward the door, ‘I can prove I am Elion.’


    ‘Shut your meatbox,’ said Trinket.


    ‘What do you mean by ‘insurance’?’ said the Emperor.


    ‘I will prove it,’ Andrew shouted again.


    ‘I will have the door opened in one minute,’ said Trinket, and she began walking toward the central tower, which rose sheer from the moat, its red bricks covered with a scum of purple moss. The only way into the tower was through the three doors at equal distance apart.


    Trinket approached the moat. She walked like a stick insect, with large precise movements. The moat was bordered by a circle of chiselled stones, running in a circle about 150 feet in circumference. The moat was twenty feet across and unfathomably deep.The water in the moat was an aqua and deep in the water there was submerged ice in blocks of darker blue.


    The bridges over the moat rose in steep arches to a central peak before falling down to where the doors were shut. Jane now knew (after the conversation she had had with Trinket on the journey from the catacombs) that the three doors that accessed the tower could only be opened when all three keys were turned at the exact same time.


    Still at the door, Andrew said, ‘I will fight Tom. I beat him at school and i’ll beat him here.’


    He slapped his hands against his chest.


    The Emperor said, ‘No more talking.’


    Andrew stepped back from the door and scowled. He nearly said something else but Jane said, ‘Don’t.’


    Jane’s face was long with worry, and her mouth was downturned. This adventure was not turning out. When the door was opened she would appeal to Tom to help her get the book. That was if Tom was even on the other side of the door.


    Trinket mounted one of the bridges. She stopped in the middle of the bridge and took the key from where it hung at her throat and slipped it over her head. She held it in two fingers and reached out over the moat. The key made a pendulum motion beneath the leather chord.


    ‘Now,’ she said to Jane. ‘Open the door for the Emperor to enter.’


    Andrew started sniggering, and he crossed his arms and positioned his body in such a way that it would impede Jane from stooping to release the bottom pin that held the door shut. He had lost control of the situation and now all he could do was make derisive noises and roll his eyes and stand in front of Jane.