He looked down at the Belt around his waist. He saw the topaz, shining like a great, golden star. It was as if he was seeing it with new eyes, as he had seen for the first time, in the Forests of Silence.
At the beginning. At the very beginning. When he thought he knew exactly who he was. When Jasmine and Barda were still almost strangers. When he had no idea what fate held in store for him, for all of them.
He laid his fingers on the topaz, felt its golden warmth.
This was what he had forgotten … this. The dangerous, beautiful thing in the pit had almost snared him. It had almost drawn him in, with its dizzying promises of power, glory and freedom from the pain of loss.
And for the first time he saw fully the dark power which had enthralled his enemies, those others who had embraced the cause of the Shadow Lord. He almost understood them … Rolf the Capricon. Kirsten of Shadowgate. Laughing Jack. And the unknown enemy here, in Del.
I feel the evil presence, very near, king. It is time to put an end to it.
Lief turned his head towards the wall through which the voice had come. He felt he could almost see through the stone—could almost see the great, golden beast crouching there.
The dragon of Del. The dragon of faith.
Yes, he answered silently. It is time.
And his heart leaped as he heard the sound of massive talons raking the earth, as he heard the roar of flame searing stone walls exposed to the air for the first time in centuries.
The mortar between the stones at the base of the chapel wall began to crack. Then there was a scrabbling sound, and the stones themselves began to move.
And at that moment Lief heard a muffled shout beyond the wall. He held his breath, straining to hear.
‘It is attacking the palace!’ the voice roared. ‘It is clawing at the very foundations! Did I not tell you, Manus? This is what the dragons did to Capra! Ah—you foul, deceiving beast!’
‘Lindal, no!’ wailed Manus faintly. ‘Come away! Do not—’
There was a mighty roar of rage and pain, quickly followed by a high scream.
Lief was frozen to the spot, his mind flooded with the dragon’s agony, the dragon’s anger. He could not move. He could not speak. He could only imagine the blood flowing beneath the point of Lindal’s spear, the golden eyes flashing with fury, the huge, spiked tail lashing, crushing and maiming …
‘Lindal!’
The shout was Barda’s. Barda had staggered to his feet and stumbled to the far wall of the chapel. Now he was leaning against it, leaning against the shifting stones, one hand still pressed to his eyes.
‘Lindal!’ he bellowed. ‘Lindal, answer me!’
‘Barda, get back!’ Jasmine cried sharply.
There was the sound of grating stone. Barda jumped back just as a great gap suddenly appeared in the wall at his feet. Light poured through the gap, blocked instantly by blazing fire, and then by vast talons raking more stones away, and more.
Lief heard Filli squeal in terror. He did not turn. His eyes were fixed on the fiery wall.
The dragon’s voice hissed in his mind, cold with anger.
The giant woman speared me. I have dealt with her.
Lief’s breath caught in his throat. Instinctively he glanced at Barda, who had backed against the end of the marble platform and was now turning slowly, hands fumbling for the platform’s edge.
In anguish, Lief realised that Barda was blind. In anguish he remembered the searing flash of light that had burst from the warning stone as Barda struck it for the third time.
The dragon’s voice came again.
Hundreds of people and soldiers are running up the hill—enemies with clubs and swords. I will kill them all.
No! Lief thought back frantically. They are not enemies. Our enemy is within. Dig deeper. I am here, but the evil is below.
Through the charred gap in the wall he saw the flashing golden scales of the dragon, saw earth flying as the vast beast began to dig.
He tried to rise, but could not. It was as if his knees were fixed to the ground, as if the thing in the pit had thrown an invisible web around him, and was holding him fast.
‘Jasmine! Gla-Thon!’ he shouted desperately. ‘People are coming to defend the palace. You must go out and stop them from attacking the dragon!’
There was no reply. And suddenly Lief remembered Filli’s scream.
The hair rose on the back of his neck. Slowly he turned his head.
Gla-Thon was crumpled just inside the doorway. Her limbs were twitching horribly.
Plague …
But the word had scarcely shaped itself in Lief’s mind when Gla-Thon stiffened and jerked onto her back. Then he saw that it was not plague that ailed her.
There was something horribly wrong with her face. Her eyes were bulging. Her mouth was a gaping, bubbling black hole. Her nose was running with what looked like black blood. Thick, black blood was streaming onto the white marble floor.
Lief thrilled with horror. Frozen to the spot, he followed the stream of blood with his eyes. And then he saw, like a vision in a nightmare, someone twisting and thrashing in a pool of surging darkness.
It was Jasmine. A lighted candle still clutched in her hand, Jasmine was drowning in the black blood that seemed to have a life of its own, that seemed—
Lief moaned aloud as he saw the thick, black liquid for what it was. In the same split second he realised that this was how the guards at the entrance door had died. How Zon and Delta had died.
They had not disobeyed orders. They had not died of the plague, or accepted poisoned food or drink—from anyone. Taken by surprise, mouths and noses filled with clogging blackness, they had fallen and suffocated, unable to make a sound. And then the black slime had slipped away from them and gone on its way, leaving no trace.
‘Let them go, guardian!’ he screamed. ‘It is me you want! Let them go!’
‘Lief what is it?’ shouted Barda, his shoulders tensing, his eyes staring sightlessly around him. ‘What is happening? Lief—I cannot see …’
Black slime reared over Jasmine’s struggling body, surging towards Lief like a wave. But Jasmine’s face was still covered, and Gla-Thon’s mouth and nose were still plugged. Lief knew that part of the slime could overwhelm him while the rest remained with its present victims until all breath had gone, all life had ceased.
There was only one thing that would make it leave them, gather itself together in one place. There was only one threat it could not ignore.
He turned back to the pit. He let himself be drawn closer and closer to the edge.
He looked down to where the Sister of the South glowed in darkness. He felt attraction and repulsion, both at the same time.
‘I will destroy you!’ he whispered.
And, clutching the Belt of Deltora in both hands, he slid his legs over the edge, and jumped.
13 - The Sister of the South
Lief hit powdery earth, and rolled. The song of the Sister was like a knife cutting into his brain. He groaned in agony and curled himself into a ball, his eyes screwed shut. But still he gripped the Belt of Deltora, gripped it so tightly that his hands ached, and slowly, slowly the soothing power of the amethyst, the strength of the diamond, gave him the will to open his eyes.
He was lying beside a stone wall. The outside wall of the palace, he thought dimly, for through it he could hear the roars of the dragon, and the sound of digging. Painfully he turned his head.
There, not far away, lay the Sister of the South.
It was exactly the size and shape of the seven great talismans in the Belt of Deltora, but he could see it now for what it was—a false gem, a jeering copy.
Beneath its perfect, polished surface, beneath the veins of angry red that twisted and flashed in imitation of life, it was cold, dead grey to its core.