Deltora Quest #3: City of the Rats (9 page)

D
arkness. Evil. Fear.

Trembling, Lief put the pipe to his mouth, and blew. Glowing bubbles drifted upward, lighting what had once been a vast meeting hall.

A giant snake rose, hissing, in the center of the echoing space. The coils of its shining body, as thick as the trunk of an ancient tree, filled the floor from edge to edge. Its eyes were flat, cold, and filled with ancient wickedness. On its head was a crown. And in the center of the crown was a gem that flashed with all the colors of the rainbow.

The opal.

Lief took a step forward.

Stop!

Lief did not know if the word was in his mind, or if the snake had hissed it aloud. He stood motionless. Barda and Jasmine came up behind him. He heard them
draw breath sharply, and felt their arms move as they raised their weapons.

Remove the thing you wear under your clothes. Cast it away.

Lief’s fingers slowly moved to the Belt around his waist.

“No, Lief!” he heard Barda whisper urgently.

But still he fumbled with the Belt’s fastening, trying to loosen it. Nothing seemed real — nothing but the voice that was commanding him.

“Lief!” Jasmine’s hard brown hand gripped his wrist, tugging at it furiously.

Lief struggled to shake her off. And then, all at once, it was as if he had woken from a dream. He looked down, blinking.

The palm of his hand was resting on the golden topaz. So it was this that had cleared his mind, and broken the great snake’s power over him. Beside the topaz the ruby glimmered. It was no longer bloodred, but pink, showing danger. Yet still it seemed to glow with strange power.

The giant snake hissed in fury and bared its terrible fangs. Its forked tongue flicked in and out. Lief felt the tug of its will, but pressed his hand onto the topaz even harder, and resisted it.

“Why does it not attack?” breathed Jasmine.

But by now, Lief knew. He had remembered some lines from
The Belt of Deltora
— lines about the powers of the ruby.

† The great ruby, symbol of happiness, red as blood, grows pale in the presence of evil, or when misfortune threatens its wearer. It wards off evil spirits, and is an antidote to snake venom.

“It feels the power of the ruby,” he whispered back. “This is why it is fixing its attention on me.”

Your magic is strong, Lief of Del, but not strong enough to save you,
hissed the snake.

Lief staggered as again its will struck at his mind.

“The opal is in its crown,” he panted to Jasmine and Barda. “Do what you can while I distract it!”

Ignoring their whispered warnings, he began edging away from them. The snake turned its head to follow him with hard, cold eyes.

“How do you know my name?” Lief demanded, holding the topaz tightly.

I have the gem that shows the future. I am all-powerful. I am Reeah, the Master’s chosen one.

“And who is your master?”

The one who gave my kingdom to me. The one they call the Shadow Lord.

Lief heard Jasmine make a stifled sound, but did not turn to look at her. Instead, he held Reeah’s gaze, trying to keep his mind blank.

“Surely you have been here for a very long time, Reeah,” he called. “You are so large, so magnificent!”

The snake hissed, raising its head proudly. As Lief had thought, its vanity was as great as its size.

A tender worm I was when first I came into the cellars beneath this city. A race of snivelling humans lived here, then. In their ignorance and fear they would have killed me, had they found me. But the Master had servants among them, and these were awaiting me. They welcomed me, and brought me rats to feed upon, till I grew strong.

Out of the corner of his eye Lief caught a glimpse of Jasmine. She was climbing one of the columns that supported the roof. Gritting his teeth, he forced his mind away from her. It was vital that Reeah’s attention remain with him.

“What servants?” he called. “Who were they?”

You know them,
hissed Reeah.
They are branded with his mark. They have been promised eternal life and power in his service. You wear their garments, to deceive me. But I am not deceived.

“Of course you are not!” Lief cried. “I was testing you, to see if you could really see into my mind. Who else would have known where to find rats, what would make them breed, and how to trap them? Who else but the city’s rat catchers? It was a clever plan.”

Ah, yes,
hissed Reeah.
There were few rats, then. My kingdom had not yet achieved the glory of its destiny. But my Master had chosen his servants well. They bred more rats for me — more rats, and more. Until at last the walls teemed with them, and disease spread, and all the food of the city was consumed. And then the people begged the rat catchers to save them, little knowing that they were the very ones who had caused the plague.

Its wicked eyes glowed with triumph.

“So the rat catchers seized power,” said Lief. “They said that the rat plague had come through the people’s own wickedness, and that there was nothing left but to flee.”

Yes. Across the river to another place where they would build again. When they were gone, I came up from beneath, and claimed my kingdom.

Lief felt, rather than saw, that Jasmine was beginning to walk along the great beam that spanned the hall right beside the great snake’s head — walking as easily and lightly as she had walked along branches in the Forests of Silence. But what was her plan? Surely she did not think her daggers could pierce those shining scales? And where was Barda?

The great snake was growing restless. Lief could feel it. Its tongue was flicking in and out. Its head was bending towards him.

“Reeah! The new city is called No Rats — Noradz,” he shouted. “I have seen it. The people have forgotten what they once were, and where they came from. Their fear of rats has broken their spirit. The rat catchers are called Ra-Kacharz now, and are like priests, keeping sacred laws. They carry whips like the tails of rats. They are all-powerful. The people live in fear and slavery, serving your Master’s purpose.”

It is good,
hissed Reeah.
It is what they deserve. So you have told your story, Lief of Del. Your pitiful magic, your
puny weapons, and your smooth tongue have amused me — for a time. But now I am sick of your chatter.

Without warning, it struck. Lief slashed with his sword to protect himself, but the snake’s first sweep struck the weapon from his hand as if it were a toy. It spun away from him, circling high into the air.

“Jasmine!” Lief cried. But there was no time to see if Jasmine had caught the sword. The snake was about to strike again. Its huge jaws were open, its fangs dripping with poison.

“Lief! The fire beads!” Barda’s voice sounded from the other end of the hall. He must have crept there, to try to attack the monster from behind. The giant snake’s tail lashed, and to his horror, Lief saw Barda’s body crash into a column and lie still.

The fire beads.
Desperately, Lief felt in his pockets, found the jar, and threw it, hard, straight at his enemy’s open mouth. But Reeah was too fast for him. The wicked head jerked to one side. The jar sailed past it, smashing uselessly into a column and bursting in a ball of flames.

And then it was only Lief and Reeah.

You are mine, Lief of Del!

The huge head lunged forward with terrifying speed. And the next moment the great snake was raising itself, triumphant, Lief’s body dangling from its jaws.

Up, up to the rafters, the hot breath burning …

I will swallow you whole. And your magic with you.

There was smoke. There was a crackling sound. Dimly Lief realized that the flames had raced up the column and were licking at the old wood of the rafters.

The fire will not save you. When I have devoured you I will put it out with one gust of my breath. For I am Reeah, the all-powerful. I am Reeah, the One …

Through a dizzy haze of terror and pain, through a film of smoke that stung his eyes, Lief saw Jasmine, balancing on a beam beside him. His sword was swinging in her hand. She had torn the red covering from her face. Her teeth were bared in savage fury. She raised her arm …

And with a mighty slash she swung the sword, slitting the monster’s throat from edge to edge.

Lief heard a hoarse, bubbling cry. He felt the beast’s jaws open. He was falling, hurtling towards the ground, the hard stones rushing up to meet him.

And then — there was nothing.

G
roaning, Lief stirred. There was a sweet taste on his lips, and he could hear a crackling sound, a tearing, chewing sound, and shouting, very far away.

He opened his eyes. Jasmine and Barda were leaning over him, calling his name. Jasmine was screwing the top back onto a small jar attached to a chain around her neck. Dimly, Lief realized that he had been given nectar from the Lilies of Life. It had saved him — perhaps brought him back to life as once it had done for Barda.

“I — I am well,” he mumbled, struggling to sit up. He looked around. The hall was filled with flickering shadows. Flames, begun and spread by the blazing fire beads, roared in the ancient rafters. The giant snake lay dead on the floor, its body covered by gnawing rats.
More rats were streaming from the walls and through the doorway, fighting one another to reach the feast.

For hundreds of years it has eaten them, thought Lief, dazed. Now they are eating it. Even fear of fire will not stop them.

“We must get out! Out!” Barda was shouting.

Lief felt himself pulled to his feet and slung over Barda’s shoulder. His head was spinning. He wanted to cry out, “What of the crown? The opal?”

But then he saw that the crown was in Barda’s hand.

Limp as a doll, he was carried through burning hallways. Jolting on Barda’s back, he closed his stinging eyes against the smoke.

When he looked again, they were staggering through the city gateway onto the dark plain and Kree, squawking anxiously, was soaring to meet them. There was a tremendous crash from behind them. The roof of the city had begun to fall.

On they went, and on, till they had nearly reached the river.

“I can walk,” Lief managed to croak. Barda stopped and put him gently on the ground. His legs trembled, but he stood upright, turning to look at the burning city.

“I never thought I’d see you stand on your own two feet again, my friend,” Barda said cheerfully. “That fall Jasmine gave you was —”

“It was let him fall or see him disappear into the snake’s belly,” exclaimed Jasmine. “Which do you think was better?”

She handed Lief’s sword to him. It gleamed in the moonlight, its blade still dark with Reeah’s blood.

“Jasmine —” Lief began. But she shrugged and turned away, pretending to be busy coaxing Filli out onto her shoulder. He saw that she was embarrassed at the idea that he would try to thank her for saving his life.

“Do you think it is safe to rest here?” he asked instead. “Having recently had every bone in my body broken, I do not think I could face crossing the river yet.”

Barda nodded. “Quite safe, I think. For a while, at least, there will be no rats here.” Then his teeth gleamed as he grinned and brushed his hands from shoulder to hip. “Noradzeer,” he added.

“Lief, how did you know, before the snake told you, that the people of Noradz had once lived in the City of the Rats?” Jasmine demanded.

“There were many clues,” Lief said tiredly. “But, perhaps, I would not have seen the connection if I had not found this.” He pulled the tarnished goblet from his Belt and held it out to them.

“Why, it is a pair to the goblet that held the Life and Death cards — the sacred Cup of Noradz,” said Barda, taking it in his hands and looking at it with wonder. “It must have been dropped and left behind when the people fled the city.”

Lief smiled as Filli’s small black nose peeped over Jasmine’s collar to see what was happening.

“No wonder Filli frightened the people in Noradz,” he said.

“He looks nothing like a rat!” Jasmine exclaimed indignantly.

“They hate anything small with fur. It must be a fear taught to them from their earliest days,” said Barda.

Lief nodded. “Like the fear of dropping food on the ground, or leaving dishes uncovered, because such things once attracted rats in the hundreds. Or the fear of eating food that has been spoiled, as it often was in the days of the plague. The need for such great care passed hundreds of years ago. But the Ra-Kacharz have seen to it that the fear remains, and keeps the people in bondage to them — and to the Shadow Lord.”

Lief was speaking lightly and idly, to blot from his mind the horrible things that had just happened to him. But Jasmine looked at him seriously, her head to one side.

“Plainly, then, it is quite possible for a people to forget their history, and to follow foolish rules out of duty, if they are born to it,” she said. “I would not have believed it. But now I have seen it with my own eyes.”

Lief realized that this was her way of saying that she was beginning to think that the kings and queens of Deltora had been less to blame than she had thought. Of this, he was very glad.

“Mind you,” Jasmine added quickly, as he smiled, “there is always a choice, and bonds can be broken. The
girl Tira helped us, though she feared.” She paused. “One day, I hope, we can go back for her and set her free. Make them all free, if they wish it.”

“This is our best chance of doing so.” Lief unfastened the Belt and laid it before him on the hard ground of the plain. Then Barda handed him the crown that held the great opal.

As it neared the Belt, the opal fell from the crown into Lief’s hand. His mind was suddenly filled with a vision of sandy wastes, of lowering, clouded skies. He saw himself, alone, among rippling dunes that had no ending. And he felt terror lurking, unseen. He gasped in horror.

He looked up and saw Jasmine and Barda watching him anxiously. He closed his trembling hand more tightly around the gem.

“I had forgotten,” he said huskily, trying to smile. “The opal gives glimpses of the future. It seems that this may not always be a blessing.”

Fearing that they might ask him what he had seen, he bent to fit the stone into the Belt. Under his fingers, its rainbow colors seemed to flash and burn like fire. Abruptly, his racing heart quietened, the fear faded, and a tingling warmth took its place.

“The opal is also the symbol of hope,” Barda murmured, watching him.

Lief nodded, pressing his hand over the dancing colors, feeling the gem’s power flood through him. And when finally he looked up, his face was at peace.

“So now we have the topaz for faith, the ruby for happiness, and the opal for hope,” he said quietly. “What will be next?”

Jasmine held up her arm to Kree, who fluttered down to her with a glad screech. “Whatever the fourth stone is, surely it will not lead us into worse danger than the other three.”

“And if it does?” Barda teased.

She shrugged. “We will face what comes,” she said simply.

Lief lifted the Belt from the ground and fastened it around his waist. It warmed against his skin — solid, safe, and a little heavier than before. Faith, happiness, hope, he thought, and his heart swelled with all three.

“Yes,” he said. “We will face what comes. Together.”