Lily took the delicate chain with the amethyst heart locket and clasped it around Roana’s neck. Roana opened the locket. Inside was a curl of hair – black, gold, and white plaited together into a tiny coiled braid.
‘My father, my mother, my brother and myself, plaited together,’ Roana said softly, tears filling her eyes and rolling down her cheeks. She turned her face away and climbed into bed, hiding her tears in the pillow.
Lily sat up to comfort her.
Ethan continued to prod at the base of the little box, which appeared to be a solid piece of wood. ‘I saw Lord Lazlac take the locket from your mother at the dawn ceremony. He said, “Very pretty. I would like a fitting memento of this historic day.” There was something a bit sinister about the way he said it, I thought.’
Ethan wriggled the right side of the box’s base. The base moved a little. Ethan gently pushed it, first towards the front and then towards the back. The timber strip slowly slid away, revealing a narrow cavity at the bottom of the box. A tiny gold key fell out, but there was nothing else inside the cavity.
‘Look,’ Ethan cried excitedly, jumping up from his feather comforter. The others crowded around on the bed. Ethan moved his attention to the other strips of the base. Now that the right-hand side had gone, this allowed the front part of the base to also slide away to the right. This in turn allowed the loose centre panel of the side to slip down to reveal a tiny gold keyhole.
Ethan placed the tiny key in the keyhole and turned it, his hands shaking with nerves. The lock clicked and the lid opened.
No-one could contain their excitement. Even Aisha was shoving her nose inside the box in curiosity.
‘What’s in there!’ ‘I can’t see!’ ‘Is it the Sun Gem?’ ‘Let me look.’
‘Cigars!’ exclaimed Roana in shock.
It was true. There was nothing inside the box but seven thick foul-smelling cigars.
Ethan dropped the box in disgust. Saxon grabbed the box and checked it again, shaking it thoroughly and tipping it upside down.
Lily broke open the cigars in case there was something hidden inside. Thick curls of tobacco fell onto the bed, reeking pungently. She swept up the scraps and threw them onto the fire.
‘It doesn’t make any sense!’ Lily snorted. ‘Why go to all that trouble to hide cigars!’
‘Perhaps Emperor Raef loves solving puzzles and smoking cigars,’ said Saxon half-heartedly.
‘We might as well try and get some sleep. Maybe we’re just too tired to think straight,’ Ethan moaned as he lay down and pounded his pillow in frustration.
Saxon put the box down beside the bed and blew out the candle. ‘Sleep well, everyone. Good night – I mean, it’s probably good morning now but sleep well!’ Everyone murmured good nights.
Aisha climbed up onto the bed and the girls groaned as she tried to find room to sleep. Charcoal curled up in the crook of Lily’s legs.
Ethan tossed and turned, trying to get comfortable, thoughts churning through his mind.
‘Oh, by the mighty Sun Lord, can’t you stop that thrashing around,’ complained Saxon grumpily. ‘I’ll never get to sleep with you making all that noise.’
Ethan sat up suddenly.
‘Light the candle again, Sax!’ ordered Ethan. ‘I just want one more look at that box.’
‘Oh, no,’ groaned Saxon. ‘Can’t we just go to sleep!’
Ethan crawled over, fumbling for the candle and tinderbox. Saxon begrudgingly lit it for him, grumbling under his breath.
Lily pulled the pillow over her head, but then curiosity once more got the better of her and she too sat up.
Ethan picked up the box and examined it closely once more. ‘I think you were right, Lily. It does seem very peculiar to go to so much trouble to hide cigars in a puzzle box with a secret lock, inside a sack of corn, in a heavily guarded Treasure Chamber. I think it must be a ruse to trick anyone who did manage to work out the secret of the box. There must be another cleverly hidden cavity. You would only go to this much trouble to hide something really valuable and really important.’
Ethan’s fingers slid firmly over the base, the sides and the lid, both outside and in. A small square of wood gave way right in the centre of the thick lid. With a strong push upwards, it popped out into Ethan’s hand. The top was the carved symbol of the eye and the crossed cutlasses – the sign of Emperor Raef. This was the lid to a tiny square box.
Ethan prised off the lid. There, nestled in a bed of black velvet, was a huge round gem. A huge round ruby. Its deep warm heart glinted in the candlelight.
‘The Sun Gem,’ breathed Lily.
‘We did it. We did it,’ squealed Roana.
Everyone jumped up and down on the bed, hugging each other, exclaiming over the gem. Aisha cavorted around the room, barking with excitement, her whole body wagging with her tail. Saxon picked up his pillow and whacked Ethan over the head with it. Ethan retaliated with a blow from his cushion. Lily grabbed her pillow and whacked both the boys.
Feathers flew up into the air. Roana had never seen a pillow fight but she was not going to be left out. She thumped a pillow, which hit both Ethan and Lily. Saxon whacked her back. Charcoal scampered out of the way, her back arching and her tongue spitting. Aisha barked, jumping up on the bed too, leaping and snapping at flying feathers.
Lily threw her pillow across the bed, knocking Roana over. Roana squealed in indignation and grabbed Lily around the ankles. Saxon pummelled both girls while they were down. Ethan was just about to hit Saxon over the head with his pillow, when he saw the nearly full moon through the window, setting over the western wall of the palace.
‘Look at the moon,’ he called. ‘It’s nearly dawn.’
The four children collapsed on the bed, exhausted. Ethan carefully laid the Sun Gem back in its tiny box, and gravely handed it to Roana.
‘Here, Princess Roana,’ he said. ‘The Sun Gem belongs to your family. You should look after it until we find the Sun Sword.’ He looked around at the faces of the other three children. ‘But first the Moon Pearl. Today we must find the Sea Dragon!’
Ethan, Lily, Saxon and Roana have cracked the code, only to find that the Moon Pearl is being sent on a Sedah warship back to the land of the invaders. The only hope for Tiregian is for the four children to give chase in order to save the precious stone.
The fisherfolk can help. So can Saxon’s mysterious acquaintance, Fox, a disreputable smuggler who will do anything for a pouch full of Roana’s gold. But the sea is far more dangerous than the land. There are sea monsters, wild storms, greedy pirates, and the sheer power of the ocean itself – not to mention the deadly warship they are chasing.
Will Fox’s stealthy black sloop, The Owl, carry them to safety, or will the Moon Pearl remain in the hands of their enemy? And even if they make it home alive, will Sniffer be waiting for them?
Belinda has worked as a writer and public relations consultant for nearly twenty years. Her overseas adventures inspired her travel stories for the West Australian newspaper and Out & About With Kids magazine, amongst others.
Belinda comes from a very literary family, with a history of Australian writers stretching back 180 years – her great-great-great-great grandmother Charlotte Atkinson published the first Australian children’s book in 1841, and her sister Kate Forsyth and brother Nick Humphrey are both published writers. Belinda’s passion for children’s books was reignited when she had her own three children and began telling and writing stories for Nick, Emily and Lachlan. Belinda is currently writing the next two titles in the Sun Sword Trilogy.
Belinda lives in a tumbledown cottage overlooking the sea in Sydney with her husband Rob, three gorgeous children and lots of animals, including a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback called Asha (the real-life inspiration for Aisha).
A big thank you to everyone in my life, but particularly to:
Rob Murrell – for being my first reader, editor, research assistant, military tactician and best friend. His help was enormous, even being woken in the middle
of the night to check the final changes to the manuscript.
My sister, the talented writer Kate Forsyth, who pushed and encouraged me to finish this story, even when my computer crashed and everything was lost. Her advice, editing and encouragement were inspiring.
Gilly Evans, my mum, for giving us all an obsession with books and writing, and a lifetime of love.
My dad, Gerry Humphrey, for many true-life adventures, some of which have made it into these books.
My brother and fellow writer, Nick Humphrey, who kept asking when I was going to write a book, and Glyn Evans, who has always been there for us.
Zoe Walton at Random House and Pippa Masson at Curtis Brown, for giving me the opportunity to see the Sun Sword come to life.
Lastly, for being so enthusiastic, questioning, demanding and imaginative, I thank Nick, Emily and Lachlan Murrell, without whom this story could never have been written.
The True/False ambigram click here is reproduced with the kind permission of John Langdon. You can find more of his extraordinary work at his website: www.johnlangdon.net
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