DELTORA QUEST 2 Cavern of The Fear Emily Rodda
CONTENTS
Cover
Title Page
1 Secrets
2 Dangerous Times
3 Shadows
4 By Order of the King
5 Meetings
6 Treasure
7 Doran the Dragonlover
8 Discoveries
9 Grains of Truth
10 Pursuit
11 A Friend in Need
12 Mysteries
13 Gold and Scarlet
14 The Giving
15 The Bargain
16 The Fear
17 Nightmare
18 Rainbows
19 The Hand of Fate
DELTORA QUEST 2
Copyright
1 - Secrets
The flickering lamp made an island of light in the darkness. The wrinkled hand moved slowly across the page.
Outside, the city of Del lay silent, wrapped in sleep. Even those who had long lain awake, grieving for their lost loved ones, had at last fallen into uneasy slumber. The writer’s lamp was hidden. The only lights visible in Del burned in the palace on the hill. Lights to comfort the guards who stood watchful by the stairs. Lights that guided two shadows as they slipped through the palace grounds and into the most hidden of its doors.
Soon it would be dawn. But the writer worked on. He had lost all track of time. He had been alone so long that for him day and night had almost lost their meaning.
He ate when he was hungry, and slept when he was tired. And in the long stretches of time between, he wrote, his expert hand rarely faltering, his world shrunk to his secret island of light…
2 - Dangerous Times
As soon as Lief entered his bed chamber, he sensed that danger lurked within it. He glanced down at the Belt of Deltora. Light from the candle he held flickered on the gems set in their medallions of steel.
The rich red of the great ruby, the glowing green of the emerald, had dimmed. The Belt was warning him.
Lief’s stomach tightened. He drew his sword. His tired eyes searched the shadows.
He saw nothing. The room looked exactly as it had when he left it that morning. The barred windows were bare, and there was no trailing cover on the bed. Everything that could have concealed an enemy had been removed weeks ago.
Yet there was danger. He knew it.
He moved forward cautiously, ears straining for the slightest sound. The moon, sinking in the sky as dawn approached, cast its light into the room. The shadows of the window bars fell darkly across the bed.
Lief set the candle on the bedside cabinet. He stretched out his hand and, with one sharp movement, stripped the blanket from the bed. The white sheets and pillow gleamed unmarked in the moonlight.
‘Show yourself!’ he muttered.
Nothing stirred. He looked around the room again, his thoughts raging. What use was a king who was a prisoner of his own fears? Who could not do what his people most wanted him to do?’
He froze as a faint piping sound, a single note, piercingly sweet, filled his mind. The sound lasted for only a brief moment. Then it was gone.
Lief shook his head to clear it. The sound had come to him before. Once in the library, once here in his bed chamber only a week or two ago.
He had mentioned it to no-one. His mother and friends were already worried enough about him. If he had ringing in his ears, it was because he needed rest. And he could not afford to rest. Not until…
But he could not hide away from the people for too much longer. The calls for an attempt to rescue the Shadowlands slaves were becoming louder. Soon the people would begin to feel that their hidden king cared nothing for them. Slowly their trust in him would grow less, and at last vanish altogether.
Lief knew this as well as he knew his own name. His own father, kept away from the people, had lost their trust. That was how the gems had been stolen from the Belt, and the Shadow Lord had triumphed.
He gripped his sword more tightly. It will not happen to me, he told himself. Why else have I been working day and night, but to find a way out of this trap? Tomorrow…
At the thought of the morrow, he looked longingly at the bed. Perhaps, after all, his nerves had been playing tricks on him.
At that very moment, he heard a tiny scratching, so faint that he was not sure it was real. It seemed to have come from right beside him.
Slowly he slid the point of his sword into the edge of the smooth, white pillow. Gently he tilted the pillow upward.
And there, crouching beneath it, was a Plains scorpion, purple striped with black, and as big as a man’s fist. Alerted by the sudden movement, the scorpion reared up, its deadly stinging tail curved to strike.
With a shout, Lief flicked the pillow out of the way. Feathers exploded from its torn side as he smashed the flat of his sword down onto the bed. The scorpion, half-crushed, still struggled to attack. Panting, shuddering with disgust, Lief hammered it again and again, till finally it was still.
The door flew open and Doom, sword in hand, burst into the room. He stopped, staring at the oozing purple mass that stained the white sheet.
Lief sat down heavily on the edge of the bed. Feathers drifted around him, settling on his hair and shoulders. He tried to smile. ‘I had a visitor,’ he said.
‘What is happening?’ Jasmine was standing in the doorway. Kree, the black bird who was her constant companion, fluttered behind her. The small furred creature she called Filli blinked sleepily on her shoulder.
Jasmine’s green eyes were gleaming as brightly as the dagger in her hand. She moved into the room, taking in the situation at a glance.
‘A Plains scorpion,’ she said grimly. ‘That certainly did not come here of its own accord. But how—?’
‘Go back to bed, Jasmine,’ Lief broke in. ‘I am sorry you were woken. All is well.’
‘All is well?’ exclaimed Jasmine. ‘Lief, if you had put your head on that pillow…’
Lief shrugged. ‘Fortunately, I did not.’ He did not say how nearly he had done so.
Jasmine went to the window and tugged at the bars. They came away in her hand.
‘The bars have been sawn through, then replaced!’ she said. ‘So that is how the assassin entered.’ She glanced at the sky and her eyes narrowed.
Lief exchanged glances with Doom. They both knew what Jasmine was thinking, now that her first alarm had passed. What had Lief been doing all night, that he should come to his bed chamber for the first time as dawn approached?
‘I have been wakeful, but I feel tired now,’ Lief said. That, at least, was true, he thought ruefully. He ached for sleep. He pulled the stained sheet from the bed. He would lie on the bare mattress and be glad of it.
‘We will leave you in peace, then,’ said Doom, moving to the door.
Jasmine knew the words were meant for her. The man they all still called Doom was her father, but over the past weeks he had become as hard to talk to as Lief himself. Every day he was surrounded by people. Every night he disappeared on mysterious business of which Jasmine knew nothing.
He left the room, but Jasmine made no move to follow. This was the first time she had seen Lief alone in weeks. She was determined to speak to him.
But Lief would not look at her. He began to unlace his boots. ‘I must have a few hours rest, Jasmine,’ he said pointedly. ‘We leave for Tora in the morning.’
‘Tora?’ Jasmine stared at him, thunderstruck. ‘Lief, you cannot leave Del now! People are clamouring to see you. You cannot run away!’
‘I do only what I must,’ Lief muttered. ‘If you choose to think of it as running away, I cannot stop you.’