Jasmine nodded and turned to Lief, pulling the coil of rope she carried from her belt.
‘Barda must lower you down, Lief,’ she said. ‘The stones on the sides of the Nest look far too loose to support you. Take my rope for Rolf. Then Barda and Lindal can pull you both up together.’
Lindal grinned broadly. ‘Why, how this little mouse is ordering us about, old bear!’ she jeered, digging Barda in the ribs. ‘Are you going to take that?’
‘It seems I am,’ Barda muttered, as Lief began tying his own rope around his waist. ‘I fear I have no choice.’
17 - Fire and Water
As Jasmine had feared, there were no safe footholds on the sloping sides of the Nest. The stones slid downward the moment they were touched, setting Lief swinging at the end of the rope like a puppet. And the lower he dropped, the colder it grew, and the more he was gripped by dread.
It is the Sister, he told himself, struggling to keep his mind clear. But his teeth had begun to chatter and his heart was pounding in his chest as though it would burst.
He landed awkwardly on the floor of the Nest, sinking almost to his knees in the bed of smooth stones. Stones slipped beneath his feet, and dried weed tangled around his ankles as he stumbled towards Rolf, the end of Jasmine’s rope clutched in his hand.
The stones are deep, he thought numbly. Very, very deep. How far down is the Sister of the East? How long will it take to find it? It may not even be below the floor of the Nest. It may be in one of the sides. What then?
Waves of sickness threatened to engulf him. Every step was an effort. He realised that he had begun to stagger.
This place will defeat us, he thought suddenly. Its evil is too strong. No-one could dig in these stones for more than a few minutes at a time. We are going to fail.
Fighting despair, he reached Rolf’s crumpled body and knelt down beside him.
‘Rolf!’ he croaked, the word sticking in his throat.
With a choking cry the Capricon sat up. He snatched at Lief and clung to him, his huge violet eyes swimming with terrified tears.
‘Oh, why did you abandon me?’ he moaned. ‘The guards did not protect me! You said they would protect me, but they did not! Oh, the screams—the blood—the fire! Never will I forget it!’
‘I know, Rolf,’ Lief muttered. ‘Be still now.’
‘The dragon seized me … carried me—’ Suddenly Rolf broke off and looked around in bewilderment. ‘But where are your friends?’ he squeaked. ‘Did they not come with you?’
‘They are waiting at the top,’ said Lief briefly. With difficulty he freed his arms and began looping Jasmine’s rope around Rolf’s waist.
‘Oh!’ Rolf covered his face with his hands and rocked from side to side. ‘Oh, soon the dragon will return! We must get away!’
‘Stay still then!’ begged Lief. He pulled at the rope to make sure it was secure, then hauled Rolf to his feet and, with the last of his strength, half carried him to the side of the Nest.
Jasmine was standing up above, keeping watch. Barda and Lindal were kneeling, peering over the edge of the Nest, the ropes gripped ready in their hands.
Lief signalled to them and at once they began to pull the ropes up, hand over hand.
Rolf looked up as the rope tightened around his waist and his feet left the floor of the Nest. When he saw Lindal’s grim face and straining arms above him, he shrieked.
‘Be quiet!’ Lief whispered.
‘But the woman of Broome is lifting me!’ cried Rolf in horror. ‘How could you let her lift me? She and her kind are demons who dance on the bones of Capra! She is not worthy to—’
‘Shut your mouth, Rolf!’ hissed Lief.
But Lindal had heard. ‘I am happy to drop you if you wish, Capricon,’ she called.
Rolf whimpered and pressed his lips together. He clung to the rope, a dead weight, as slowly he and Lief were dragged upward over the loose and sliding stones.
But the moment he reached the top, he scrambled away from Lindal, avoiding her hand.
‘Do not touch me, foul woman of Broome!’ he gabbled, tearing the rope from his waist and casting it aside as though it were poisoned. ‘Keep away from me!’
‘It would be a pleasure,’ said Lindal scornfully.
Barda gripped the hilt of his sword. ‘How do you dare to insult Lindal, who has risked her life to save you?’ he growled, looking at Rolf with contempt.
Eyeing the sword warily, Rolf crawled to his feet.
‘My king,’ he cried in a trembling voice. ‘Your man is menacing me!’
But Lief, still slumped on the ground where Barda had left him, knew he could not interfere, even if he wanted to. He felt sick and desperately weak, as though stricken with a grave illness. He could only wonder how Rolf could move.
Barda took a threatening step towards the cowering Capricon.
‘Lindal has more strength in her little finger than you have in your whole body,’ he growled. ‘She has a better brain than you will ever possess, and a bigger heart than a hundred of you put together!’
‘Why, thank you, Barda,’ murmured Lindal, raising her eyebrows. ‘Though, now I come to think of it, it is not so great a compliment.’
Barda ignored her. ‘Get out of my sight!’ he spat at Rolf. ‘Go and hide your miserable self from the dragon, and trouble us no more!’
With a gulp, and a last, beseeching glance at Lief, Rolf scuttled away. Soon he had disappeared among the giant stones.
‘Good riddance,’ said Jasmine calmly. ‘Now we can get down to work. How should we begin?’
Feeling her eyes upon him, Lief made an effort to sit up. A wave of dizziness overcame him, and he fell back with a groan.
He heard Barda and Jasmine exclaim, and felt them kneel beside him. He tried to focus on their anxious faces, looming above him amid a spinning haze.
‘I—I do not know where to begin,’ he mumbled. ‘I do not know what to do. The Belt does not help me. In the Nest, there is evil everywhere. It batters you from all sides. It is …’
Despair and die.
Another giant wave smashed on the rocks. Freezing water rained down on them and ran in streams into the Nest.
‘We have to get him away from here,’ Lief heard Barda mutter.
‘No!’ Lief managed to say. ‘The feeling is passing. Just give me a moment to—’
‘BEWARE!’
Lindal’s cry rose high and urgent over the sound of the waves. A freezing gale suddenly pounded down upon the rocks. A dark shadow swept overhead, blocking the sun.
Jasmine and Barda cried out, sprang to their feet.
And as they moved, Lief saw a horror above him—a vast, bloated thing of glittering scarlet.
The beast’s spiked wings sliced through the air like knives. The stunted mass of lumps and spines that was its tail twisted and thrashed. Its tiny red eyes, almost hidden amid puffy folds of scaly skin, were the mad eyes of a killer.
Who knows what might have happened to the body and brain of a beast that has slept for centuries?
Barda’s words roared in Lief’s mind.
Desperately he struggled to get to his feet, fighting the dizziness, the weakness. Desperately he fumbled for his sword.
Curved black talons, impossibly long, struck viciously downward. Lief rolled, and a claw missed him by a hair, scraping on the rock.
The creature roared in fury—a harsh, high sound like shattering glass. Fire belched from its gaping jaws. Boiling red slime dripped from its fangs and fell, sizzling, onto the streaming rocks. Steam billowed upwards.
Lost in the steam, blind and helpless, Lief gripped the Belt of Deltora.
He fixed his mind upon the great ruby. With all his strength he willed the dragon to feel the power of the great gem, to hear him and understand.
But the beast bellowed in rage and madness and came for him again, a monstrous glistening fury, red as blood.