The Reading Test: Eragon, Chapter 9

There’s a little crack in the wall that I didn’t notice before. Has it always been there? … No, I don’t think so. I would have seen such a mark in the otherwise pristine surface. It’s on the same wall the sink is on.

I pick up the cube and creep over to the wall. The crack looks sort of like the library door, but in the wrong place and opened only slightly.

Inside the crack I see a gray stairwell. I can only poke my hand through…with some squirming I’m able to get my arm through, but the space between the door and the wall is so tiny, I can’t squeeze all of me through to get to the stairs. That’s my way out…how can I get it to open farther?

“Ow!”

The door tries to close with a whirring groan. I tug my arm free and jam the Rubik’s cube in the gap—the door strains against it, but the cube holds fast.

— — —

Chapter 9: Strangers in Carvahall

Kitty: Oh, that doesn’t sound ominous at all.
: “Well Dad, it’s time for me to go make something of myself.”
: “Okay, okay, I’ll stop resisting. Also here are some words of wisdom that sound deep but should just be common sense.”
: “Thanks Dad!” “Okay Eragon let’s head out.”

—

: “Howdy, mister miller-man. Are you here to take Roran away?”
: “Yes, he’s going to help me out with—”
: “YOU BITCH”
: “…Let’s get outta here, apprentice.”
: “Whoo, milling will be fun!”

—

: “Hey, Eragon.”
: “‘Sup Horst.”
: [furtively] “Uhh, you still got that ock-ray? ‘Cause there were a couple uspicious-say ypes-tay down here recently looking for someone with a lue-bay ock-ray, and you should probably ide-hay it. You atch-cay my rift-day?”
: “Huh?”
: “…Just lie low for a few weeks.”
: “Gotcha, Horst. Eragon out.”

—

: [sneak sneak]
: “TELL US WHO HAD THE SHINY ROCK”
: “It was Eragon. He has herpes.”
: “NO I DON’T YOU JERK”
: [look in his direction]
: [suddenly dizzy] “Whorrrgh…”
: “Eragon! Hey! Go home, stupid!”
: “Huh…? Oh, right…gotta get home…”
: “Also you have a silver mark on your palm. What’s up with that?”
: “None of your beeswax, old man, piss off!”

— — —

When I return from the library, the cube is still looking at me plaintively from between the door and the wall. The door has long since given up the struggle, but I don’t want to risk removing the cube, just in case the door shuts and I’m trapped here forever…

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