“Lief!” growled Barda, his voice muffled by the cloth around his mouth and nose. “Keep moving, I beg you. We do not know how long the light pipe will last, and by nightfall we must be in a place of safety.”
“Somewhere, at least, where there are no rats,” added Jasmine. Furiously, she swept her hands from her shoulders to her hips, so that the rats crawling on her body fell squeaking to the ground.
A vivid memory, and a rush of astonished understanding, jolted Lief to his core. “And if we find such a place, we will say, ‘No rats here,’ and it will be a blessing,” he murmured.
“What?” Jasmine demanded crossly.
There was no time to explain now. Lief made himself move on, pushing the stem of the goblet into his Belt. Later, he would tell Jasmine and Barda. When they were out of danger. When …
Come to me, Lief of Del.
Lief started, looking around wildly. What was that? Who had spoken?
“Lief, what is the matter?” Jasmine’s voice seemed distant, though she was right beside him. He looked down at her puzzled green eyes. Dimly he realized that she could hear nothing.
Come to me. I am waiting.
The voice hissed and coiled in Lief’s mind. Hardly knowing what he was doing, he began to move fast and blindly, following its call.
The bubbles of light floated before him, shining on ruined walls, rusted metal brackets where torches had once burned, fragments of pots piled in heaps. Rats teemed in corners and clawed at his boots.
He stumbled towards the city’s heart. The air grew thick and hard to breathe. The Belt around his waist throbbed with heat.
“Lief!” he heard Barda shout. But he could not turn, or answer. He had reached a wide passage. At the end loomed a vast doorway. A sickening, musky smell billowed from whatever was beyond. He faltered, but still he moved on.
He reached the doorway. Inside, something huge moved in darkness.
“Who are you?” he quavered.
And the hissing voice struck at him, piercing and burning.
I am the One. I am Reeah. Come to me.
Darkness. 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?