8. A CODE AND A CHALLENGE

CHAPTER 8 A CODE AND A CHALLENGE The Dragon Masters studied the markings on the maze wall. There were pictures of simple objects and animals, like a tree and an owl. Rune says: See how these pictures repeat? I think they might be some kind of code. "Tree, house blob?" Drake said. Rune says: That shape is what the main island looks like from the sky. I have seen it when riding on Lysa.

"Tree, house, island, sun," Drake said. "Then there's a new line..." "The way the pictures are grouped together makes them look almost like words," Darma pointed out. Rune says: Perhaps each picture represents a letter of the alphabet. What if the tree is T, and the house is H, and so on? Drake tried Rune's solution. "T-H-I-S spells This," he began, working it out. "This. Is. A. Door. This is a door!" Yes! Yes! Yes! Rune signed. Drake frowned. "But this is a wall, not a door." "Anything can be a door," Darma said, and he pushed on the stone wall. There was a groaning sound as a chunk of the wall moved aside. "We did it!" Drake cheered.

They walked through the secret doorway onto a new path with walls on either side. They moved forward until the path came to a sudden stop. A huge crack in the land split the path in half. To keep going, they'd have to get across the gap. Drake looked down. The crack was very, very deep. And the gap was too far to jump across, and even too far for Worm to stretch across. Rune says: The path is too narrow for Lysa to spread her wings and fly us across. Drake nodded and studied the rocky gap.

Rocks he thought, and then he looked at Worm. He'd seen his dragon break rocks into pieces with the power of his mind. Maybe "Can you use your powers to build a bridge out of rocks?" Drake asked. Worm smiled. That sounds like fun. The Earth Dragon began to glow. A green light swept from the top of Worm's head to the end of his tail.

A rumbling sound came from the bottom of the gap. The ground underneath their feet shook. Then seven stone pillars rose from the depths of the gap. They stopped when they reached the top, making a stone pathway across the deep hole in the earth. Rune stared at Worm, wide-eyed.

Drake patted his dragon's neck. "Great job, Worm." "Excellent!" Darma cheered, and he stepped across the pathway. Rune, Lysa, Drake, and Worm followed. They hadn't gone far when the maze branched into three different directions. "Which way should we go?" Drake asked.