Deltora Quest #5: Dread Mountain (4 page)

L
ief woke to the sound of voices. It was nearly dawn. Jasmine and Barda were already stirring, taking up their weapons, buckling the canisters of blisters to their belts. Ailsa, Merin, and Bruna were moving back from the spring. Lief lay still, remembering his dream. Though he must have slept for many hours after it was over, every detail was clear in his mind.

A terrible weight seemed to be pressing him down. It was the weight of his father’s danger and pain, of fear for his mother. Then he remembered his father’s glowing eyes, and those final words.

I am fighting my fight here, as best I can. You must fight yours …

Lief sat up, determinedly shaking off the misery.

“Jarred and Anna always knew that it might come to this.” Barda was standing beside him. His face was grim and drawn.

“You saw Father?” Lief exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You too?”

They picked up their sleeping blankets, shouldered their packs, and began walking together to the spring, talking in low voices. Jasmine followed, listening.

“I dreamed as soon as I fell asleep,” Barda said. “I knew you must be planning to do the same, Lief, but I wanted to see for myself how Jarred was faring. I learned little, but I saw him. He was sitting against the wall of a dungeon — in chains.” His fists clenched at the memory. “I could do nothing. If only I could have told him —”

“He knows!” Lief exclaimed. “He knows we are succeeding. It has given him hope.”

“He could
hear
you?”

“No. He found out another way.”

They had reached the spring. As they breakfasted hastily on dried fruit and travellers’ biscuits washed down with sweet water, Lief told of Fallow’s visit to the cell. Barda laughed grimly when he heard that he was suspected of being King Endon.

“My dear old mother would be proud to hear it,” he said. “So they have not noticed the disappearance of the beggar at the forge gates?”

“No,” said Lief. “Or if they have, they think you have just moved elsewhere in the city.” He frowned. “But I am a different story. When trouble started they went to the forge, because of Father’s history. They found I was gone. They searched the house …”

“And they found the book,” muttered Barda. “I told Jarred long ago that he should destroy it. But he would not. He said it was too important.”

Lief heard a small sound behind him and turned. Jasmine was pulling on her pack. Her mouth was set and her eyes sad. He thought he guessed why.

“I did not dream of anything last night,” she said, in answer to his unspoken question. “I tried to picture my father as I drank from the spring, but I was so young when he was taken away that I cannot remember his face. It is just a blur to me now. So — I missed my chance.”

“I am sorry,” Lief murmured.

She shrugged, tossing her hair back. “Perhaps it is for the best. Father has been a prisoner for so many years. Who knows what he suffers? It would torment me, knowing I could do nothing to help him. It is better to think of him as dead, like my mother.”

She turned away abruptly. “You had better make haste. We are losing time with this useless talk.”

She walked off, with Kree flying beside her. Barda and Lief quickly packed up their own bags and followed. Both knew that great suffering lay behind Jasmine’s harsh words. Both wished that they could help her.

But there was nothing to be done. Nothing to be done for Jasmine, or her father, or Lief’s parents, or any of the thousands of other victims of the Shadow Lord’s cruelty. Except …

Except what we are doing now, Lief thought, as he approached the place beyond the grove where the Kin and Jasmine were waiting. The Belt of Deltora is our task. When that is complete — when Endon’s heir has been found and the Shadow Lord overthrown — then all the prisoners will be free.

The Kin were waiting beyond the trees, at the top of a grassy hill. They had all gathered to bid the travellers farewell, except Prin.

“Little One would not come,” her mother explained. “I apologize for her. Usually she does not remain angry for long. This time it is different.”

“This time the disappointment is very great,” murmured Ailsa. “Poor Little One. I feel for her.”

Merin glanced up at the lightening sky and turned to Barda. “As I am the largest, you are to ride with me,” she said politely. Plainly, she was anxious to be gone.

Rather nervously, Barda climbed into her pouch. Lief had to smile at the sight, and despite their fears many of the watching Kin laughed aloud.

“What a large baby you have, Merin,” called Prin’s mother. “And how beautiful!”

Both Barda and Merin preserved a dignified silence.

Lief was to ride with Ailsa and Jasmine with Bruna, the smallest of the three. They climbed into the pouches in their turn, Filli chattering excitedly on Jasmine’s
shoulder. He plainly thought the Kin wonderful, and was thrilled to be so close to one.

Ailsa’s pouch was warm and velvety soft. At first Lief was afraid that his weight would hurt her, but soon realized that his worry was needless. “A young Kin is far heavier than you by the time it leaves its mother’s pouch for good,” Ailsa told him. “Be comfortable.”

But comfort was the last thing Lief felt shortly afterwards. He had wondered how such heavy creatures could leave the ground. Finding out at first hand was terrifying.

The method was quite simple. Ailsa, Merin, and Bruna stood in a line, spread their great wings, and then began running as fast as they could down the hill. Their passengers, jolted unmercifully, could only hold on, gasping for breath. Then they saw what was ahead. They were running straight for the edge of a cliff.

Lief yelled and shut his eyes as Ailsa launched herself into space. There were a few dizzy moments of panic as the great wings beat hard above his head. Then he felt an upward rush and a surge of cool air against his face. He realized that the sound of the wings had settled down to a steady beat. He opened his eyes.

The earth below looked like a patchwork rug embroidered all over with little trees and narrow winding paths. Ahead, Dread Mountain already seemed closer. It was still hazy, but looked larger, darker, and
more ominous than it had before. Behind it were the folds of the mountain range that marked the border with the Shadowlands. They too seemed closer.

“How long will it take to reach the Mountain?” Lief shouted above the noise of the wind.

“We will have to stop when the light fails,” Ailsa called back. “But if we continue to have good weather, we should reach it tomorrow.”

Tomorrow! Lief thought. Tomorrow we will know for good or ill if the gnomes of Dread Mountain still watch the skies for Kin. If they do, it will mean our deaths. The gnomes will shoot down Ailsa, Merin, and Bruna, and we will go crashing to the ground with them.

He shivered. His hand stole down to the Belt at his waist and he lightly brushed the four gems set in place there. They warmed beneath his touch: the topaz for faith, the ruby for happiness, the opal for hope, and the mysterious lapis lazuli, the Heavenly Stone.

Surely all will be well, he told himself. Surely these gems together will keep us safe. But even as he thought this, words from
The Belt of Deltora
flashed into his mind.

†
Each gem has its own magic, but together the seven make a spell that is far more powerful than the sum of its parts. Only the Belt of Deltora, complete as it was first fashioned by Adin and worn by Adin’s true heir, has the power to defeat the Enemy.

The warning was clear. The gems that Lief and his companions had in their charge so far could help them on their way, but could not save them.

Lief took care not to let his fingers linger on the opal. He did not want to glimpse the future. If it was fearful, he did not wish to know it. He would face whatever fate had in store when the time came.

A
s the sun sank in a blaze of red, the Kin circled lower and lower, searching for the place where they planned to spend the night.

“There is water there, and food, and shelter from above,” Ailsa called to Lief. “It is a small forest where long ago we always broke our journey between the Mountain and the grove. We call it Kinrest.”

It was almost dark by the time they dropped to earth, their great wings beating hard as they sank between tall trees to the soft shelter below.

Lief, Barda, and Jasmine climbed unsteadily to the ground. It felt very odd to have firm earth under their feet again. They looked around. Kinrest was indeed a peaceful place. Ferns thickly edged the small stream that bubbled through it, and toadstools grew in clumps under the great trees. Somewhere near there was the sound of a waterfall.

“How the trees have grown!” Merin exclaimed excitedly, brushing leaves and twigs from her fur. “They hide the stream completely. And, see, Ailsa — the entrance to the big cave where we used to play is choked with ferns.”

“Everything looks quite different,” Ailsa agreed. “No wonder we took so long to find it from above. We should have visited it in our dreams long ago, instead of always going to the Mountain.”

Wearily Lief, Barda, and Jasmine sat down by the stream and watched as the three Kin began to explore. Jasmine put her head on one side, listening to the rustling of the trees.

“What do they say?” asked Lief eagerly. “Are we safe?”

Jasmine frowned. “I think so. The trees are happy to see Kin again. Many of them are hundreds of years old and remember past times clearly. But I sense sadness and fear in them also. Something bad happened here. Blood was spilled, and someone they cared for died.”

“When?” demanded Barda, suddenly alert.

“Trees such as these do not speak of time as we do, Barda,” Jasmine said patiently. “The sadness they are remembering could have happened one season ago or twenty. It is all one to them.”

Suddenly she shivered. “I think it would be safe to light a small fire,” she said. “The trees will surely hide the light. And I feel in need of cheer.”

The friends were crouching over the warming blaze of their fire, eating dried fruit and slices of nut and honey cake, when Ailsa called to them out of the dimness beyond the stream. Her voice sounded odd. Jumping up in alarm, they lit a torch and found their way to where she and the other Kin were standing by a large cave thickly overgrown with ferns.

“We were exploring our cave,” Ailsa said in a low voice. “We used to play here as young ones. We found some — things inside it. We thought you would like to see them.”

The three companions followed the Kin into the cave. The light of the torch flickered over the rocky walls and the sandy floor, showing the objects lying there: a few pots and pans, a mug, some old sleeping blankets lying on a bed of dust that had once been dried fern, a bundle of old clothes, a chair made of fallen branches, a dead torch fixed to a wall …

“Someone has been living here,” breathed Lief.

“Not recently,” Barda said, picking up a blanket and dropping it again in a cloud of dust. “Not for many years, I would say.”

“There is something else,” said Ailsa quietly.

She led them back to the cave entrance and parted the ferns that grew thickly on one side. A flat, mossy stone stood there, set firmly upright like a marker.

“There is writing scratched upon it,” whispered Bruna.

Barda lowered the torch and the three companions saw that there were indeed words carved carefully into the stone.

“A strange name to find on a gravestone,” muttered Barda, glancing at Lief and Jasmine meaningfully. “And a strange message to go with it.”

Stunned, Lief stared at the words. “Doom of the Hills is dead!” he breathed. “But this grave is old — ten years old at least, by the look of the stone. So the man
we
know as Doom —”

“Is someone else entirely,” Jasmine finished crisply. Her face was flushed with anger. “He is going by a false
name. I knew he could not be trusted. For all we know he is a Shadow Lord spy!”

“Do not be so foolish! That he does not use his real name proves nothing,” growled Barda. “We ourselves were going by false names when we met him.”

Lief nodded slowly. “He needed to conceal his identity. So he took the name of the man who lies buried in this place.”

“A man he betrayed and murdered, perhaps,” Jasmine muttered. “For he was here. I feel it!”

Barda would not answer her. Gently, he began to clear the ferns from around the stone. Lief bent to help him. Jasmine stood aside, her eyes cold and angry.

The three Kin looked helplessly on. Finally, Merin cleared her throat and clasped her paws. “It is clear that our find has caused you pain, and for that we are sorry,” she said softly. “We have eaten many leaves, and drunk from the stream. Now we will curl, and sleep. We must leave early in the morning.”

With that hint, she, Bruna, and Ailsa moved away and disappeared into the darkness. Shortly afterwards, Barda and Lief finished their work and moved back across the stream, with Jasmine silently following. By the time they reached the fire, the three Kin were huddled together, looking like a cluster of great rocks, and apparently fast asleep.

Lief wrapped himself in his sleeping blanket and tried to sleep also. But suddenly the forest seemed less
welcoming than it had before. A veil of sadness seemed to hang over the trees, and there were noises in the darkness: the breaking of twigs and the rustling of leaves, as though someone, or something, was watching them.

He could not help thinking about the man who called himself Doom. Despite what he had said to Jasmine, he had been shaken by the words on the gravestone. Doom had helped them, saved them from the Grey Guards. That was true. But had it been all part of a greater plot? A plot to gain their confidence? To worm from them the secret of their quest?

… the Enemy is clever and sly, and to its anger and envy a thousand years is like the blink of an eye.

Was it by chance that Doom had appeared in their lives once more? Or had he been acting under orders?

It does not matter. We told him nothing, Lief thought, pulling his blanket more tightly around him. But still doubts plagued him, and the night seemed to press in on him, the darkness full of mystery and menace.

Tonight we have all drunk from the stream, he told himself. We have not been drugged by the Dreaming Spring. We will wake if an enemy approaches. Kree is on the watch. And Jasmine says the trees feel we are safe.

But still it was a long time before he could sleep. And when he did he dreamed of a lonely grave and a
dark, bitter man whose face was hidden by a mask. Thick mist swirled about him, now parting, now closing in.

What was behind the mask? Was the man friend, or foe?