Aenir by Garth Nix, Steve Rawlings Page A

dripping on his head, just before it was taken over or whatever the Codex did and made to write the message.
    He looked back at the tree where he'd been sleeping, and saw the pattern of the Gulper's clawed feet heading down, and a few patches of green on the bark just above where his head would have been.
    "I feel sick," he said suddenly.
    Adras watched in total puzzlement as the boy staggered over to another tree and threw up. It seemed rather an excessive reaction just because his hair had changed color. Storm Shepherds changed color all the time.
    When Tal had stopped being sick, he turned back to Adras.
    "Adras," said Tal. "I think it's time we set down some rules. First of all, you must not go to sleep when I am asleep. You must keep watch."
    "But I feel sleepy when you're sleepy," answered Adras. "Because we share a bond."
    "I am the Chosen," ordered Tal. "You are my Spiritshadow. Or you will be. You must obey."
    "Why?" asked Adras. "Why shouldn't we work things out together?"
    Tal stared up at the sky. This was not how he'd imagined dealing with his own Spiritshadow.
    If only Milla hadn't interrupted him back at the Hill, he would have bound this hulking great creature properly. Now Tal had given away his shadow, instead of using it to secure absolute obedience.
    Adras mistook Tal's silence for some sort of sulk.
    "Well, if that's the way you want it," he said, "I'll sleep when you're awake. I'll sleep now."
    "No!" exclaimed Tal. "We need to keep moving. The sky is clear I'll be able to see well enough to find a path through the crystals."
    "But where?" asked Adras. "To find Odris?"
    "No!" said Tal. "We've been over that. The Codex at least I think it's the Codex - has sent me another message."
    He frowned, thinking about the arrow, and the pictures of the key and the letters that spelled out "Hazror."
    "We will head east, and there is somewhere called Hazror, where we will look for a key," Tal announced confidently. It was important to sound in charge in front of a wayward servant. He'd learned that as a child, instructing Underfolk.
    He didn't feel confident, though. What if he'd got the message totally wrong?
    "Hazror?" asked Adras. "Haze-roar?"
    "Yes," said Tal. "Do you know anything about it?"
    "I know something about a creature called Hazror," said Adras. His chest turned dark and stormy and lightning flashed at his fingertips. "Enough to know that we don't want to go anywhere near him."
     

 

     
     

CHAPTER TWELVE
     

    "no," said Milla, after she considered what Odris had said, and the Face's plea for freedom. "If Danir did indeed bind you here, it is not for me to free you."
    The Face snarled at this answer. Only the spell that bound it in place and the pact of the riddle game prevented it from attacking Milla.
    "But I will report what you have told me to the Crones," Milla added. "I do not think Danir would want any living thing fixed in one place for so long."
    "Tell the Crones!" spat the Face, a spray of cold water splashing over Milla. "What use is that to me?"
    "It may be, one day," said Milla calmly. "Now you must release me. I have answered three riddles."
    "The third was not a riddle," grumbled the Face. "I will ask another. Riddle the"
    It stopped, its tongue suddenly frosted, frozen in place. Its eyes rolled and its cheeks swelled as it tried to continue speaking, but the frost held it fast.
    Milla looked down and saw that the thin trickle of water that held her foot was frozen. Experimentally, she tried to shift her leg. The ice cracked and broke.
    She tried to move her hand. The water droplets there were now flecks of ice, and they fell off.
    She was free!
    She ran around the pool and away. Odris cruised above her, calling back toward the Face.
    "Hah! That's what you get when you try and cheat on the riddle game!" the Storm Shepherd shouted.
    Milla and Odris were a hundred stretches away when the Face's tongue unfroze. They heard its shout behind them, plaintive and sad.
    "Remember! Speak to