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"Aa perversion ofthe ggyes," Mogget croaked out with effort Though his green eyes seeer at his own feeble explanation, he could say no htfully There seeainst her, from the moment she’d crossed the Wall--or even before that, if her father’s disappearance was anything to go by

She looked back through the telescope again and took soht faded, though at the sa of sympathy for the poor people the Dead had enslaved Many would probably freeze to death, or die of exhaustion, only to be brought back as dull-witted Hands Only those ent over the waterfall would escape that fate Truly, the Old Kingdom was a terrible place, when even death did not mean an end to slavery and despair

"Is there another way out?" she asked, swivelling the telescope around 180 degrees to look at the northern bank There were stepping-stones going there, too, and another door high on the riverbank, but there were also dark shapes clustered on the ledge by the door Four or five Shadow Hands, too h alone

"It seeriht?"

"The sendings don’t need to fight," replied Mogget "For there is another defense, though it is a rather constrictive one And there is one other way out, though you probably won’t like it"

The sending next to her nodded and panto through grass

"What’s that?" asked Sabriel, fighting back a sudden urge to break into hysterical laughter "The defense or the way out?"

"The defense," replied Mogget "The river itself It can be invoked to rise alht above the stepping-stones Nothing can pass such a flood, in or out, till it subsides, in a et out?" asked Sabriel "I can’t eeks!"

"One of your ancestors built a flying device A Paperwing, she called it You can use that, launched out over the waterfall"

"Oh," said Sabriel, in a little voice

"If you do wish to raise the river," Mogget continued, as if he hadn’t noticed Sabriel’s sudden silence, "then we in the ritual immediately The flood coues upstream If we call the waters now, the flood will be on us by dusk tomorrow"

Chapter 10

The arrival of the floodwaters was heralded by great chunks of ice that carave dirt boxes like stor anchored ships Ice shattered, wood splintered; a regular drureat wave that followed the outriding ice

Dead Hands and living slaves scurried back along the coffin bridge, the Dead’s shadowy bodies losing shape as they ran, so they beca and sliding over rocks and boxes, throwing human slaves aside withoutdown the river

Sabriel, watching fro as she sensed their last breaths gurgling, sucking water instead of air Some of them, at least two pairs, had deliberately thrown the a final death, rather than risk eternal bondage Most had been knocked, pushed or simply scared aside by the Dead

The wavefront of the flood caher, fiercer roar than the deep bellow of the waterfall Sabriel heard it for several seconds before it rounded the last bend of the river, then suddenly, it was ale, vertical wall of water, with chunks of ice on its crest like marble battle about in its muddy body It looked enormous, far taller than the island’s walls, taller even than the tohere Sabriel stared, shocked at the power she had unleashed, a power she had hardly dreaht before

It had been a siet had taken her to the cellar and then doinding, narrow stair, that grew colder and colder as they descended Finally, they reached a strange grotto, where icicles hung and Sabriel’s breath blew clouds of white, but it was no longer cold, or perhaps so cold she no longer felt it A block of pure, blue-white ice stood upon a stone pedestal, both lie and beautiful Then, following Mogget’s instruction, she’d simply placed her hand on the ice, and said, "Abhorsen pays her respects to the Clayr, and requests the gift of water" That was all They’d gone back up the stairs, a sending locked the cellar door behind thehtshirt and a cup of hot chocolate

But that si that see towards the to calm herself, but her breath raced in and out as quickly as her stomach flipped over Just as the wave hit, she screamed and ducked under the telescope

The whole tower shook, stones screeching as they moved, and for a moment, even the sound of the waterfall was lost in a crack that sounded as if the island had been leveled by the first shock of the wave

But, after a few seconds, the floor stopped shaking, and the crash of the flood subsided to a controlled roar, like a shouting drunk made aware of company Sabriel hauled herself up the tripod and opened her eyes

The walls had held, and though now the as past, the river still raged a mere handspan below the island’s defenses and was aln of the stepping-stones, the coffin bridge, the Dead, or any people--just a wide, brown rushing torrent, carrying debris of all descriptions Trees, bushes, parts of buildings, livestock, chunks of ice--the flood had claimed its tribute from every riverbank for hundreds of miles