The Diamond Of Darkhold

Trogg explains how his family came to inhabit the abandoned city. Bandits raided their village, and the Troggs escaped death by hiding in their pigs’ mud pit. After learning the bandits might return, Trogg decided to move his family. He found the cave entrance while wandering around the mountain. Following the cave path, he found the abandoned boats. Since he could not get upstream, he searched for another way into the place where those boats must have originated. He found the crevice and saw Ember’s buildings from the ledge when the power came on briefly: “Like something breathing” (107). Doon knows this was the generator, almost dead. Trogg then found the path, jumped the moat, and walked to the city, where he scavenged planks for the bridge. Trogg shows Doon an hourglass he uses to keep time, explaining it must be flipped every eight hours.

Doon feels “horrified admiration” for Trogg’s daring and ingenuity. The generator lights the streetlamps briefly, and Lina peeks around the trash container to see Doon before setting out.

Trogg creates ankle cuffs on a chain with a padlock so Doon cannot run away. Doon is astonished that the pieces come from Ember’s Small Items shop, which was his father’s. Next, Yorick and Kanza lead Doon to people’s apartments above the shops. Along with Trogg, they loot anything useful, including canned food. Trogg wants any eyeglasses, as he is searching for “perfect vision,” noting that some eyeglasses allow the wearer to see for miles or in the dark. They load usable items into a wagon and move on to the next residence, leaving a wake of discarded possessions tossed about. 

After this “work,” they return to the Harken Square fire, where Minny gives Doon a lightcap. Trogg sends Kanza and Yorick off to get something, and he sends Doon and the other boy to the apartment the Troggs claimed as their own—Doon’s friend Orly Gordon’s old home—for water. Trogg keeps the spigots open there and the tub stoppered so that when the generator comes on, pumped water from the river collects for their use. Again, Doon sees that Trogg is a problem solver.

Doon suggests escaping, but the fearful boy refuses to consider it. He says he cannot run and would never leave behind his “treasures,” which Trogg took in retaliation for the boy being defiant. Back at the square, Trogg sits like a lord while Doon and the boy position the water near the fire. Trogg says he may remove Doon’s cuffs once he can be trusted. Doon, angry and impatient, knows pretending to be trustworthy would take too long.

Lina is afraid as she crosses the Outer Regions, though she realizes the trash may have been placed to mark the path. Sure enough, she finds the planks quickly, then overcomes her terror of the chasm by pretending she has an important note to deliver as an Ember messenger. Once up the path and outside again, she retrieves their blankets and camp gear, then sleeps in the cave until it is almost dark. 

When she wakes, she is shocked to see the roamer, her horse, and her sheep near the cave entrance. Lina begs for help, explaining that she has to get to Sparks to save Doon. The roamer, Maggs, reveals that the man who took over the underground city is her brother. Maggs is supposed to bring food and deliver it from the cliff’s edge in the crevice, but she wants to quit that responsibility and roam farther.

Lina offers to draw a picture (as Trogg cannot read) to communicate Maggs’s departure that they can drop from the edge if Maggs will take her to Sparks. Maggs says the best she can do is take Lina south and let her camp till morning; then Lina will have to go southwest while Maggs goes south. Lina’s drawing shows a shepherd waving goodbye, taking sheep away from the crevice, but Lina lies about the words she writes on the note, telling Maggs it says that she, Maggs, is quitting. In actuality, it tells Doon that she, Lina, is heading to Sparks.

Maggs sings a song about a hidden, helpful diamond. Lina thinks the song sounds familiar. She asks Maggs to show her where she got the Directions for Use book, and Maggs agrees.

Trogg reveals that he renamed each person in the family after cities in the ancient world associated with power, because he thinks of himself as a powerful individual. His son is named after New Yorick; his daughter after Kanza City; his wife after Minny-Apple, and himself after “the most powerful city of all: Washton” (139). He renamed the prisoner boy too: Scawgo. Doon tries to tell him the correct names he has seen in books (New York; Kansas City; Minneapolis; Washington, DC; and Chicago). Trogg insists that books are useless except for burning. Doon realizes that Troggs cannot read. Trogg sends Doon back to the apartment to fetch salt, and while he is there, Doon finds Scawgo’s “treasures” in a sack and hides them under a sofa.

Back at the square, Yorick and Kanza bring a stash of food that “she” dropped, including the dead body of a lamb. They give a note they find to Trogg, who realizes from the picture that “she” is no longer going to bring food. Minny wails, but Trogg thinks they have plenty and points out a shop without a sign where someone was hoarding. He makes Doon read the words on the note; Doon plays along with what he figures must be Lina’s plan after running into the roamer/shepherd: He claims it is a goodbye message reading, “No more from me” (146). Trogg butchers the lamb and sets it to roast over the fire. Having never had fresh meat, the smell makes Doon nauseous, but he eats all that he is given.

After lecturing on many incorrect facts about nature and the universe, Trogg announces that it’s bedtime and flips the hourglass. They all go to Orly Gordon’s apartment. To show off his power and authority to Doon, Trogg reveals the diamond he found before moving into the dark city: It is a six-inch-high blueish stone with many facets and “thousands of tiny bits” (152) inside that reflect the candlelight. It also has a gold loop on one end. Trogg calls it a jewel, and Doon recalls the word joule in the Directions for Use. Trogg found it in a special room carved in the side of the mountain. He believes ancient people worshipped it like a god. 

Trogg rewraps the diamond carefully, saying Doon is too late to ever have one for himself. Doon knows the diamond was meant for the people of Ember. Trogg sends Minny to watch the fire. Doon cannot sleep on the musty sofa; he whispers to Scawgo that there is something under the sofa for him and wonders where to find the key to release his bindings.

Back in Sparks, Kenny Parton feels hungry. He reflects on school, where Ms. Buloware tells them about transportation and inventions used in ancient days. He likes nature, as he got to observe and write down facts about ants last year; a bird and strawberries were his previous topics. He wants to see Doon, whom he admires; he goes to the Pioneer, where Doon’s father tells him that Doon is staying at Doctor Hesper’s to help out for a few days. 

Kenny walks to Doctor Hesper’s, but Torren tells him Doon should be at the Pioneer, and that Lina went there for a few days for a change of pace. Puzzled, Kenny realizes something is off. Kenny does not know that Torren, curious about Kenny’s confusion, follows him from Doctor Hesper’s.