Cavern Of Fear

8 - Discoveries

It was deepest night when Lief and Doom returned to Del with Marilen. Like thieves, the three slipped into the silent palace by the kitchen door.

Sharn was sitting at the table, waiting for them. She jumped up, her face wreathed in relieved smiles.

‘You are really here!’ she cried. ‘When your message came that you would be back so soon, I could hardly believe it.’

She hastened to settle Marilen by the stove with a mug of hot soup. Then she drew Lief aside. ‘I have much to tell you!’ she whispered. ‘There is wonderful news, but bad news as well.’

Doom’s voice interrupted them. ‘I am going to wake Glock,’ he called from the door. ‘We should talk to him at once.’

‘Why Glock?’ Sharn demanded. ‘What has he to do with—’

‘I will tell you later, Mother,’ Lief said in a low voice, as Doom left the room. ‘Give me your news. The bad news first, while we cannot be overheard.’

He nodded towards Marilen, who was leaning towards the stove, warming her chilled hands. The girl looked delicate, defenceless and very tired. If she was frightened on her first night at the palace, she might beg to return to Tora. Such a request could not be denied, so it was vital that it was never made.

‘Guards reporting for duty on the third floor this afternoon found that the two men they were to replace were asleep, and would not wake,’ Sharn whispered. ‘We believe they were given a powerful sleeping potion in some ale.’

Lief felt the chill that always came over him when he thought of the third floor. ‘The sealed room!’ he whispered. ‘Had the wall been—?’

Sharn nodded reluctantly, seeing lines of worry deepen on her son’s face. ‘The mortar between the bricks had crumbled away, and some of the bricks had fallen. But the hole was small, and the door beyond was shut fast. Perhaps the intruder was disturbed before he could enter.’

‘We must just hope that is so,’ Lief muttered. ‘Has the damage been repaired?’

‘Of course,’ his mother answered.

She glanced at the drooping figure of the girl in the armchair. ‘Poor child. What a place she has come to! And she is so young…’

Lief smiled ruefully. ‘No younger than me,’ he reminded her. Or Jasmine.’

‘Oh!’ Sharn exclaimed. ‘That reminds me! The good news! The Deltora Annals has been returned to us. And it was Jasmine who brought it about.’

She had expected her son to be pleased. But even she was startled at the sudden, disbelieving joy that lit his face. Before she could ask him to explain it, however, Doom strode back into the kitchen, his face like thunder.

‘Glock is not in his bed!’ he muttered. ‘No doubt he is snoring under a table in some tavern in the city.’

‘Let him snore!’ Lief grinned. ‘We do not need him any longer!’

Soon afterwards, Lief and Doom were being excitedly welcomed by Josef. His white hair ruffled, the folds of his borrowed night robe flapping about his thin legs, he seized one of the books lying on the table.

‘I had no idea your majesty would be back so soon!’ he cried, flipping pages rapidly. ‘There is something I must show you! Something of great importance.’

‘I would like to see everything in its turn, Josef,’ Lief said hastily. ‘But just now I have some research of my own that—’

He heard a slight sound behind him and turned to meet the shrewd, hazel eyes of a dark man with a humorous twist to his mouth.

This, Lief knew, must be Ranesh, Josef’s apprentice. How silently he had approached! Unlike Josef, he had taken the time to dress before leaving his room at the back of the library. Perhaps that said something about the difference in their characters.

Ranesh was a man who would not rush to anyone’s bidding. He was a man who would weigh his decisions carefully. A man whose real character it would be difficult to know.

A man like Doom, thought Lief, glancing at his friend.

Doom was watching the newcomer. Lief knew that he was trying to decide if Ranesh was to be trusted

‘We should have tidied this table before going to our beds, I know,’ Josef was chattering, still searching his book. ‘But I wished to clean the shelves before arranging the Annals. I fear the library has been sadly neglected. Then I became very tired, and—’

‘Of course!’ Lief said, in a frenzy to have time alone with the precious books. ‘I am sorry that our arrival woke you, Josef. And you, too, Ranesh. Please return to your rest. We are quite able to—’

‘Ah, here it is!’ Josef cried. He placed the open book on the table and pulled out a chair. ‘Read, your majesty!’ he begged. ‘And here—’ He pushed forward paper and a pencil. ‘You can take notes with these, if you wish, as young Jasmine did this afternoon.’

‘Jasmine?’ Lief exclaimed. ‘She was reading?’

‘Oh, yes!’ Josef nodded. ‘She was taking notes from the Annals.’

‘From volume 1,’ Ranesh put in. ‘I happened to notice before she closed it.’

Ah, yes, you would notice, Ranesh, thought Lief. There is not much those sharp eyes miss, I fancy. He glanced at Doom’s expressionless face, knowing that Doom was wondering, as he was, whether Jasmine had somehow also heard of the Pirran Pipe.

‘Now, your majesty,’ urged Josef, waving at the open book. ‘Will you read—?’

‘Certainly I will, Josef, but only if you and Ranesh leave us,’ said Lief, trying with all his might to keep his voice casual and unhurried. ‘I will not be able to concentrate if I know I am keeping you awake.’

Josef hesitated, his eyes flicking from the open book to Lief’s face and back again.

‘We will speak again soon,’ Lief added, forcing a smile.

At last Josef nodded. Plucking at Ranesh’s sleeve to make sure his assistant followed his lead, he bowed and shuffled away.

Soon Lief and Doom heard the sound of their mumured goodnights, and doors closing at the back of the library.

‘At last!’ Lief breathed. ‘Now—to find this tale.’

He swung round to the table. The book lay open at the place the old librarian had been so anxious for him to see.

Lief glanced impatiently at the yellowed pages, the small, exquisitely neat printing. A name caught his eye. He gasped and stared.

‘Doom!’ he whispered. ‘Look!’