‘Now I know how you escaped us the first time,’ it hissed. ‘You cheated! You are carrying powerful magic. But you will not escape again. This time you are alone, and it is twelve against one. No talisman can save you.’
Only then did Lief think again of Jasmine and Barda. Were they safe? Were they even now watching from the trees, trying to think of a way to rescue him?
Stay back, he begged them silently. There are still too many of them. I insisted on coming here. Now I must pay the penalty. But while you live there is a chance that the Belt of Deltora at least can be saved.
The other Granous shuffled. ‘Four of the pack went into the trees and did not come back,’ one growled nervously. ‘If this king has enchanted them …’
Their leader looked up with a snarl. ‘His sorcery does not frighten me,’ it snapped. ‘Watch me tear out his throat!’
Then, abruptly, its eyes widened in alarm. ‘Beware!’ it roared. ‘Enemies behind you!’
But already two of the shaggy beasts, the two that held the Capricon, were falling to their knees, mortally wounded.
Dark blood dripping from their weapons, Jasmine and Barda leaped back and faced the rest.
‘Kill them!’ roared the Granous leader.
Save them! Help me!
The Belt grew hot under Lief’s hands.
There was a tearing crash in the distance, and suddenly the sky overhead was filled with birds, birds in their tens of thousands. The hills echoed with their panicking cries and the sound of their frantically beating wings.
The other Granous howled and covered their faces, but their leader did not falter.
‘Die, sorcerer!’ it hissed. It bared its dripping teeth again, its lips drawn back so far that Lief could see its black gums.
The birds scattered. The sky darkened. There was a thundering roar. Something huge plunged downward.
The Granous leader looked up, and screamed.
Lief caught a terrifying glimpse of vast golden claws, heard the beating of mighty wings.
And the Granous was plucked, shrieking, up into the sky.
9 - The Golden Eye
Lief crawled to his feet. Terrified and leaderless, the Granous pack had fled. The Capricon lay motionless in the dust. Only Barda and Jasmine remained standing in the clearing.
They staggered over to Lief, and the three clung together for a moment, deeply shaken.
‘The dragon,’ whispered Jasmine at last. ‘It broke through the forest canopy, and came …’
‘It was the Belt,’ Lief said. His voice sounded hollow and strange to his ears. ‘The Belt called to it.’
As he spoke, he looked up. The topaz dragon was perched on the top of the next hill, like a bird on a tree. It was eating.
Lief shuddered.
‘Do you think it will come back?’ Barda muttered. ‘Perhaps we should—’
On the ground at their feet, the Capricon stirred and moaned. Jasmine knelt down beside him.
‘We can do nothing until I have bandaged his wound,’ she said. ‘He has already lost much blood. It would be a pity if he died, since we nearly killed ourselves to save him.’
Calmly she inspected the injured hand. The little finger was just a ragged stump, now once again bleeding freely. She pulled out her water flask and began to clean the wound.
Lief felt queasy, and turned away.
‘He is a strange-looking being. What is he?’ Jasmine asked in a low voice.
‘A Capricon,’ said Barda. ‘The first I have seen with my own eyes, though I have met travellers who told of sighting small groups of them in the mountains of the east.’
‘Are they wanderers, then?’ Jasmine asked.
Lief wondered if she was trying to keep her mind from her gruesome task with these questions.
Probably not. Jasmine was never squeamish. More likely she was trying not to think of the dragon still feasting on the next hill.
Determinedly, he turned back to face her. He, too, preferred not to think of the dragon.
‘The Capricons are wanderers now,’ Barda said. ‘Those that are left. But it is said that once they lived in a rose-pink city called Capra, the most beautiful city in the east. The people of Broome claim that their city is built on Capra’s ruins, but I do not know if that is true.’
‘I wonder why the Capricons left their home,’ Jasmine said, as she smeared ointment on the ghastly wound and quickly began to bandage it.
‘Perhaps they were driven out by servants of the Shadow Lord, as the people of the City of the Rats were,’ murmured Lief.
‘For what purpose?’ Jasmine tied the bandage firmly and sat back on her heels with a sigh.
‘Who knows?’ Lief said, his eyes on the dragon. ‘We might as well ask why the Shadow Lord wanted the City of the Rats to be abandoned. He could just as well have enslaved the people there as anywhere else.’
Barda shrugged. ‘In any case, it is ancient history. It is said that Capra was in ruins before Adin made the Belt of Deltora, and Capricons have always held themselves apart. Little is known of them.’
‘Dragons,’ mumbled the Capricon. ‘Dragons took Capra from us.’
His eyes fluttered open. They were a deep, violet blue, glazed with shock and confusion.
‘Once the Capricons were many,’ he said thickly. ‘Once we were a great people, with a great city. But the dragons envied us. They wanted Capra for their own, because it was rich and beautiful. So they attacked again and again, killing and destroying, till at last the Capricons were driven out, and Capra was in ruins …’
His voice trailed off. He lifted his bandaged hand and stared at it dazedly. ‘I … I am hurt,’ he stammered. ‘How have I …?’
Then his face changed as slowly memory returned. He began to tremble.
‘I came from the mountains of the east, to seek help from the king,’ he murmured. ‘Help for my people …’
Kree landed on Jasmine’s arm with a warning squawk. She looked up.
Lief glanced up too and his heart pounded as he saw that the dragon, its meal finished, had turned in their direction, and was spreading its wings.
‘Barda,’ he said urgently. ‘You and Jasmine move into the trees. Take our friend—’
‘I am Rolf,’ the Capricon broke in. ‘Rolf, eldest son of the clan Dowyn, heir to the lordship of Capra. I—’
Without ceremony, Barda hauled him up and began dragging him out of the clearing, his hoofs trailing in the dust.
Jasmine remained where she was, her eyes fixed to the sky. Filli, too was looking up, chattering fearfully. Jasmine murmured to him, and he crept beneath her collar. But Kree stayed on her arm, still as a statue.
‘Jasmine—’ Lief began.
She shook her head. ‘I am not leaving you, Lief,’ she said. ‘Do not waste energy arguing with me. Be ready!’
Lief looked up again, and for a wild moment could see nothing but empty sky.
Yet the dragon was coming. He knew it. He could hear the beating of its wings. He could see the treetops thrashing and the leaves flying, as if tossed by a gale.
The clearing darkened as something blocked the sun. Lief’s eyes strained as he searched for the shape he knew he must find.
Then, with a thrill of awe and terror, he saw it.
The golden dragon was hovering directly above the clearing, huge and menacing. Its whole underside was pale blue, blending perfectly with the afternoon sky, so that from below it was almost invisible.
As Lief watched, it began to sink lower, lower, its wings beating lazily, its terrible talons spread.
The Belt of Deltora seemed to throb in time to the wingbeats. Lief tore his eyes from the dragon and looked down. The topaz was gleaming like the sun.
His head was spinning. Dimly he realised that he had been holding his breath. He forced himself to breathe out, take in more air.
Dust was swirling about him. He felt Jasmine grip his arm, heard her shouting over the roaring of the wind, but he could not understand what she wanted of him.