Ilse Of Illusion

1 - The Rainbow Sea

Lief and Barda were silent as they paddled the frail boat through the world below the world. Jasmine sat in the front of the boat with Filli on her shoulder. Her eyes were fixed on Kree, who was flying ahead. In her hand was the tiny map that was their only guide to their next goal—the island of Auron.

Above their heads the soaring roof of the great cavern shimmered with opal light. The rippling water surrounding them was like liquid rainbows.

‘To think that this wonder exists below Deltora!’ Barda murmured, finding his voice at last. ‘I still cannot quite believe it.’

‘Nor I,’ said Lief. ‘The caverns of the Plumes—the gold, and the scarlet—were beautiful enough. But this place …’

Jasmine moved restlessly. ‘Beauty is all very well,’ she muttered. ‘But we do not know where we are!’

She held up the battered map. ‘Ranesh said he would trust Doran the Dragonlover’s maps with his life. But there are no landmarks drawn here. Just four islands, a dotted line which could mean anything, and a few cavern walls.’

Lief stared at the map, remembering the excitement with which he had traced it in the palace library in Del.

Little had he dreamed then that the Pirran Islands were not in the open sea, but hidden beneath Deltora itself. Little had he dreamed that a short journey to the Os-Mine Hills in pursuit of Jasmine was to lead him into this far longer and more dangerous quest.

With a pang, he thought of home. His long absence must be causing great anxiety. Not for most of the people, who believed their king was still safe in Tora. But for those few who knew he was not.

Doom. His mother. The old librarian, Josef. Josef’s assistant, Ranesh. And the girl Marilen.

Most of all, Marilen. What must she be feeling now? Frightened? Lonely? Bitterly regretting that she had ever agreed to leave Tora?

Doom had promised her father that she would be closely guarded. But spies, traitors and assassins were everywhere, as Lief himself knew only too well.

Into his mind came the memory of the first attempts on his life. Both were in the great entrance hall. First, a frenzied, babbling woman had tried to strike him down with a knife. When her attack had failed, she had turned the knife upon herself and died without giving any reason for what she had done.

Not long afterwards, a man who could only walk with the aid of crutches—a man called Moss, a trusted palace guard before the time of the Shadow Lord, Barda said—had seized Lief by the throat as Lief bent over the blanket where he lay.

The choking grip was like iron. It had taken three guards to break it. And then, as Moss was being taken away, someone in the jostling crowd had stabbed him in the back. That person had never been found.

After that, Lief had kept away from crowds. But he had learned that nowhere in the palace was truly safe. Even his own bed chamber.

And why? Why? Lief thought, as he had thought a thousand times before. Why would any Deltoran act as a servant of the Shadow Lord?

Impatiently, he pulled his mind back to the present. ‘Doran could not draw landmarks if none existed, Jasmine,’ Barda was saying, lifting his paddle from the water and stretching his aching back.

‘Do not wake Fury,’ Jasmine warned.

Barda glanced quickly at the cage hanging from his belt. But Fury the fighting spider had not moved.

‘It is more important not to wake Flash.’ Lief nodded at the second cage, resting in the bottom of the boat. ‘Flash was the loser in their last battle. He is the one who thirsts for revenge.’

‘We are fortunate that the movement of the boat lulls them to sleep,’ said Jasmine.

‘Indeed, for nothing else does,’ Barda growled. ‘If only we could have left them behind! This boat is cramped enough without giving room to caged spiders.’

‘I do not blame the Plumes for refusing to keep them,’ said Jasmine. ‘Who would want two beasts who think of nothing but fighting one another?’

Filli snuffled agreement. The huge spiders made him nervous.

They fell silent once more, gazing around them.

Unbroken water met their eyes on every side. The cavern wall through which they had passed to reach this glittering sea was lost in the hazy distance. There was no sign of another.

‘At least we know where we are in Deltora,’ said Lief at last. ‘When we first went underground in the Os-Mine hills, the cavern walls and roof shone gold like the topaz, the Del tribe’s talisman. But by the time we reached the island of Plume, the cavern walls were shining red.’

‘So we can guess that Plume lies below Deltora’s north-east—the land of the Ralad people, whose talisman is the ruby,’ said Barda.

Lief nodded. ‘And now we are in the territory of the opal. We must be moving west, beneath the Plains. And the island of Auron is near, I am sure of it.’

He broke off as sweet, piping music filled his mind—the music of the Pirran Pipe, calling to him through time. The sound had come to him before, but it was more compelling now. Because now he possessed the mouthpiece of the Pipe itself.

The mouthpiece hung around his neck. It was muffled in a red cloth bag and hidden beneath his clothes. Yet he could feel its power, as once he had felt the magic of the Belt of Deltora.

He could feel, too, its yearning to be joined once more with the other two parts of the Pipe, from which it had been separated so long ago.

‘Lief! Barda!’

Lief jumped slightly as Jasmine’s voice broke the spell of the music. He saw that she was holding out her arm to Kree, who was swooping towards her.

‘Kree sees land ahead!’ Jasmine called excitedly. ‘Land!’

Land … Land … Land … murmured the echoes.

Lief’s heart beat faster as he and Barda plunged their paddles into the rainbow water and the boat began moving forward once more.

Far away, in the palace in Del, Josef the librarian sighed. The day was still young, but comparing the official library catalogue to the books actually on the shelves was a sad and tiring task.

Many books were missing. Some might have been put away on the wrong shelves. But most, Josef suspected, had been quietly removed and destroyed, because they contained things that the Shadow Lord had wanted Deltorans to forget.

At least I was able to save The Deltora Annals, Josef thought, glancing at the pale blue books standing in pride of place near the library work tables. So King Lief was able to read of the Pirran Pipe, the only thing which can help him save the prisoners in the Shadowlands. And he could see Doran’s map, which will lead him to the three parts of the Pipe when he returns from the Os-Mine Hills.

When he returns … Josef’s brow creased. Now he came to think about it, where was Lief? Surely he should have returned long ago.

The old librarian’s stomach knotted with sudden fear. Why, Lief and the Belt of Deltora were the land’s only defences against the Shadow Lord. What if …?

Ringing laughter disturbed the library’s silence. Startled and angered, Josef shuffled forward, but stopped when he saw where the sound was coming from.

His apprentice, Ranesh, was bending over the table where sat Marilen, the young Toran visitor who had spent many hours in the library of late.

Marilen had several weighty books open in front of her, but she was looking up at Ranesh, her eyes dancing. As Josef watched, Ranesh murmured something, and the girl laughed again.

Josef hesitated, very troubled. He was not wise in the ways of the world, but he had been young once. Something about that laughter, and the look on Marilen’s face, warned him that this situation was not as it should be.

Lief had asked Josef to make Marilen welcome in the library, but not to speak of her to others. Marilen was a very special guest, Lief had said, but her presence in the palace must be kept secret—at least until his return from the Os-Mine Hills.

Josef had smiled discreetly. He had not been in the palace long, but already he had heard the rumours that Lief had gone to Tora to choose a bride. He had no doubt as to who this beautiful, high-born young lady called Marilen was.

Now this same young lady was laughing with Ranesh in a way that did not seem at all fitting. And Ranesh was surely leaning far too close to one who was the future queen of Deltora.

Josef felt panic rise within him. Nothing but harm could come of this. Harm for the girl who had been put in his care. And terrible harm to Ranesh, who Josef loved liked the son he had never had.

Bitterly Josef blamed himself for being so wrapped up in his work that he had failed to see what was happening under his very nose. He had paid no attention to how much time the two young people were spending together.

I must stop this at once, before it goes too far! he thought wildly. I must speak to Ranesh. Send him away, perhaps. Just for a time. Until—

At that moment, Ranesh looked up and his eyes met Josef’s. His teeth flashed in a seemingly casual grin. But Josef knew his apprentice too well to be deceived. Josef recognised the gleam in those dark eyes.

It was the gleam of defiance. Josef remembered it from the days of the Shadow Lord’s rule, when Ranesh had often slipped back into their cellar home below the old pottery with bread, cheese or fruit under his jacket.

Josef, weak with hunger, had always eaten what he was given. But he had felt uneasy, nonetheless. He knew that Ranesh, once a homeless orphan surviving alone on the streets of Del, would not hesitate to steal to feed them both.

‘Did we disturb you, Josef?’ Ranesh called. ‘I am sorry. But Marilen and I have just discovered that we are both from the west. She is from Tora, I from Where Waters Meet. Is it not strange?’

‘I am going down to the kitchen for a warming drink, Ranesh,’ Josef said stiffly. ‘Please join me as soon as you can. I wish to talk to you about—about an important matter.’

He turned abruptly and hobbled out of the library. Nodding to the guards, he started moving carefully down the stairs.

Josef had never felt less like a warming drink. His fears had made him far too warm already. But he knew that the kitchen would be a safe place to talk to Ranesh, for Marilen never ventured below the library floor. Her meals were all carried up to her bed chamber by Sharn, Lief’s mother.

It is a lonely life for a young girl, Josef thought. No wonder she enjoys Ranesh’s company. And he must be flattered and pleased by the admiration of one so beautiful and high-born. But it will not do. No, it will not do.

Clinging tightly to the banisters, he began to move a little faster. Oh, let Lief be safe, and let him return soon, he thought desperately. Then there will be no need for me to send Ranesh away. Lief’s return will solve everything!