‘I hope it will not come to that,’ said Lief lightly. And, still wondering if he was doing the right thing, he unfolded the map.
Josef’s eyes widened. ‘Why, how did you come by this!’ he exclaimed in excitement.
‘You recognise this paper?’ Lief asked quietly.
‘Of course!’ Josef cried, touching the map with reverent fingers. ‘Doran the Dragonlover’s mapping style is unmistakeable! Ah, but what a tragedy that only a fragment remains.’
Lief stared at him in astonishment. This was not what he had been expecting the old man to say. But … Doran the Dragonlover! Of course!
That was why the markings on the fragment of map—all but the verse—had looked familiar. They were almost exactly like those on the map of Dragon Territories Josef had shown him just before the meeting.
‘What a fool I was not to have seen it,’ he murmured.
But Josef was not listening. His eyes had moved to the verse printed at the bottom of the paper.
‘Not only has it been torn, but someone has dared to scrawl their own words here!’ he said furiously. ‘What is this drivel? Sisters four with poisoned breath, Bring to the land a long, slow—’
He stopped, his mouth gaping. He swallowed hard.
‘Four sisters,’ he whispered. ‘The Four Sisters … Doran … Oh, how could I have forgotten? Why did I not think of it! How could I—’
Frantically he pulled the fifth volume of the Deltora Annals from the shelf. He flipped through the pages until he came to the Dragon Territories map. Then he slowed, and began turning the pages more carefully.
‘Josef, what are you looking for?’ demanded Lief, in a fever of impatience.
But still the old librarian did not answer. He was muttering to himself, completely wrapped up in his own thoughts.
‘Now, where is it?’ he said, glancing rapidly at every page. ‘It cannot be far now. Not far now … Aha!’
Recklessly he pressed the book wide open and pointed triumphantly at the left-hand page, which was covered with Doran’s writing.
‘Here it is!’ he said. ‘Doran’s final entry in the Annals. Read it!’
‘Josef, what—?’ Lief began.
‘Read it!’ roared Josef, his eyes wild. ‘Read all of it! You will see!’
That was all. On the opposite page there was only a beautifully neat report of a palace dinner, written by one of the librarians. Heading the list of people who attended was the name of Drumm, the King’s chief advisor.
Lief felt sick.
‘Doran’s words are wild, I know,’ said Josef softly. ‘It was said that his last, hopeless dragon hunt had sent him mad with grief. There are many references to it, later in the Annals. The thought of it always grieved Ranesh and me very much. Doran was a great man.’
‘Indeed he was,’ said Lief, looking down at the hastily written words. His stomach was churning as he imagined the desperation of the man who had written them. ‘And he was not mad, Josef. Unless being the only one to see the truth is a kind of madness.’
He pressed the book even further open, and pointed to a few tiny, jagged rags of paper clinging to the binding.
‘Look,’ he said softly.
Josef squinted short-sightedly, then recoiled.
‘But—but it looks as if a page has been torn out here!’ he exclaimed. ‘That is impossible! Once a thing was written into the Annals, it was written! It was strictly forbidden for anything to be removed.’
‘Drumm would not have cared what was forbidden,’ said Lief. ‘He was following the Shadow Lord’s orders. I think this is part of the missing page.’
He put the fragment of Doran’s map on top of the open book. It was clear at once that the thick, yellowed paper of the map was the same as the paper used in the Annals.
Josef stared, aghast. ‘Doran drew a map on the page opposite his words, to show where he thought the four sisters lurked,’ he breathed. ‘And that page was torn out! No doubt very soon after he wrote it, too, because the back of the map is blank. But how did you know?’
‘I only suspected,’ Lief said. ‘When you were looking for the story of the Four Sisters, I realised that the paper of the map was the same as the paper always used in the Annals. It could have been chance—but it was not.’
Again he stared at the final lines of Doran’s message.
… the Enemy is aware of me …
He swallowed. ‘You said that this was Doran’s last entry in the Deltora Annals?’
‘Oh, yes,’ said Josef unhappily. ‘He set out to find the Four Sisters of whom he speaks. But he never returned, and no-one knew where to look for him. He was never seen again.’
7 - Dragon Hunt
A few days later, Lief, Barda and Jasmine set out from Del on horseback, accompanied by a troop of palace guards. Lief carried with him both the fragment found in the table frame, and Josef’s precious copy of Doran’s Dragon Territories map.
As far as the people of the city knew, their king and his companions were going on their long-delayed tour of the kingdom, beginning in Broome, far to the east.
Only Doom and Josef knew their real purpose. To find the Sister of the East at Dragon’s Nest, to destroy it if they could, and perhaps, through knowledge of it, to guess at the hiding places of the other three Sisters.
‘I would give much to be going with you,’ Doom said as he farewelled them at the city gates. ‘But someone must stay to deal with things here.’
His mouth twisted in the familiar mocking smile.
‘And in any case, the three of you have done well enough without me in the past,’ he added. ‘I might spoil your luck.’
‘I doubt it,’ said Lief, clasping his hand warmly. He knew what it cost Doom to jest at this moment.
They were now all convinced that the kingdom’s future hung on this perilous quest. Hundreds of lastminute words of advice and warning must have been trembling on Doom’s tongue. But he held them back.
He knew that nothing he could say could help Lief, Barda and Jasmine now. He could only offer them his trust.
At a shout from Barda, the guards moved off, their heavy grey horses breaking into a steady trot.
With Kree swooping above them, the three companions followed. Their lighter, faster mounts, carefully chosen by Barda, snorted with pleasure, puffing mist into the crisp dawn air.
Lief rode Honey, a spirited golden mare with a flowing white tail and mane. Barda rode his favourite, a strong, sweet-tempered chestnut called Bella. Jasmine’s horse was the coal black Swift.
Lief looked back, lifted his arm to return Doom’s wave, and felt a pang of guilt.
‘Cheer up. What Doom does not know will not hurt him,’ said Jasmine’s voice beside him.
Jasmine was grinning, relishing her freedom from the city. Her long black hair was already tangling in the breeze. Filli peeped out from under her jacket. His tiny paws were clutching her collar tightly, and his black eyes were very wide. Plainly, he found horse-riding very alarming.
‘I am leading you into danger,’ Lief muttered. ‘And you are Doom’s child.’
‘Quite!’ Jasmine snapped, her grin disappearing. ‘Like father, like daughter. Have you ever known Doom tell all his secrets? Or to shrink from peril, for any reason?’
Lief said nothing. The relationship between Jasmine and her father, that strange mixture of love, respect and rivalry, was something he would never understand.
‘Besides,’ Jasmine said, in a milder tone. ‘Doom thinks we are going directly to Dragon’s Nest. There, we will be facing the Shadow Lord’s evil. Nothing we could do on the way could be more dangerous than that.’
Lief was not so sure. He fought back a shudder as he remembered …