Sister Of The South

15 - The Hidden Enemy

By the time Lief, Jasmine and Steven had climbed out of the pit, word had spread in the crowd that the plague was, after all, no threat. All but a few cautious souls had once again discarded their masks. Guards and townspeople alike were rejoicing.

Steven mumbled something about finding Zerry, and slipped away. Lief guessed that the thought of facing the curious glances of the crowd made him uneasy.

Few, in fact, had seen Steven and Nevets fighting the beast—the dreadful power of the Sister of the South had seen to that. Only a few more had seen the dragon destroy the Sister of the South.

But all of them knew that a great battle had been fought and won, and that something wondrous had occurred. They all felt a lightness of spirit, a flooding joy.

Many kept tapping their ears, or shaking their heads as if to clear their ears of water. A sound they had always known had gone. For the first time in hundreds of years, the dull, despairing song of the Sister of the South no longer hummed through the air and earth of Del.

Why can I not rejoice? Lief thought for the hundredth time. He gripped Jasmine’s hand more tightly. That small, rough hand had become a lifeline for him, a link to what was real, what was true.

He saw that Lindal, Manus and Gla-Thon had disappeared, and that Barda was now speaking to the guard called Dunn. As Lief watched, Dunn saluted, and left Barda at a run, shouting to his men.

The next moment, the guards had begun urging people away from the pit, and back towards the palace gates.

‘That will please the dragon,’ Lief said. His own voice sounded strange to him—as if it was coming from far away.

Barda was standing alone now—a tall, proud figure silhouetted against the sky. Jasmine hailed him, and he beckoned.

The moment they reached him, Filli leaped from his shoulder into Jasmine’s arms, chittering frenzied welcome. Lief took one look at Barda’s dulled, vacant eyes, started forward and embraced his old friend.

For a moment Barda returned the embrace. Then, embarrassed as always by shows of emotion, he pushed Lief away.

‘Pah! You smell of dragon, Lief,’ he said, grinning. ‘Keep your distance!’

Then the grin faded from his face. He blinked. A furrow deepened between his brows. He stretched out his arm.

‘Take my hand,’ he said abruptly.

Wondering, Lief clasped the outstretched hand. Barda blinked again. And then Lief saw that the blankness of his eyes had lessened.

‘It is the Belt,’ Barda said, his voice trembling slightly. ‘One of the gems is aiding my sight. I can feel it!’

And Lief remembered.

The opal … has the power to give glimpses of the future, and to aid those with weak sight …

He did not hesitate. He moved his free hand to the opal. He gripped it tightly.

Instantly his mind was filled with pictures. Grey, barren land. The skeletons of trees. A grey river, sluggish water thick as mud, with huge grey fish lying dead on the wrinkled surface. Monstrous creatures shrieking in the sky. And he felt …

Horrified, he tore his hand from the Belt. Panting, he looked up at Barda—at Barda’s dark, clear eyes regarding him curiously.

‘Was it—enough?’ Lief stammered.

‘Enough for now,’ Barda said. He waited. But Lief’s throat was dry. He could not speak.

‘What did you see, Lief?’ Jasmine asked quietly.

Lief swallowed. ‘I think I was in the Shadowlands,’ he said. ‘I saw the seven Ak-Baba. I felt … a terrible, helpless rage. Burning—’ His throat closed, and he shuddered.

‘That is what the Enemy will feel when he learns what has happened here today,’ said a quiet voice beside him. ‘Perhaps it is his future you have seen.’

Very startled, Lief spun around and saw Zeean, wrapped in a shawl and leaning on Lindal’s good arm. So absorbed had he been in his vision that he had not heard the two women approaching.

‘Zeean! How—why—are you here?’ he stuttered, as Lindal moved joyfully to Barda’s side, exclaiming over his cure.

Zeean held out her hand to show a huge emerald ring that Lief recognised as one of the royal jewels.

‘This finished what the emerald in the Belt began,’ she said calmly. ‘I was able to walk from the palace, with Lindal’s help. Sharn is still very weak, so Gers carried her. Doom and Gla-Thon brought Paff, and Josef’s body, I think.’

She put her head on one side and regarded Lief and Jasmine’s puzzled expressions in surprise.

‘Do you not know?’ she asked. ‘It seems there is a danger the palace will fall.’

‘What?’ Jasmine cried in horror.

‘Manus says that the hole in that foundation wall means that the palace is no longer properly supported,’ Barda said. ‘All or part of it will collapse if something is not done quickly.’

He pointed into the pit, and Lief saw the small figure of Manus directing a dozen guards. The guards were labouring to raise a vast pole—a tall tree trunk—in the centre of the hole in the palace wall. They kept glancing nervously over their shoulders at the topaz dragon, who was watching them narrowly, the spines on its neck raised.

And now Lief could see the ugly cracks running up the wall, running all the way up to the long windows of the great hall on the first floor.

‘Why you are all still standing here, I do not know,’ said Lindal. ‘Manus told you to clear the area! When I saw you, I could not believe my eyes! Come away!’

But as she spoke a chorus of triumph rose from the pit. The guards had succeeded in wedging the tree trunk into place. Manus looked up and saw the group watching him.

‘It will hold!’ he roared, punching the air. He turned back to his men, pointed to a second pole lying on the ground, and began giving orders.

‘Excellent!’ said Lindal with satisfaction. ‘Shall we go and tell the others, old bear?’

They strode away, laughing and talking.

‘Shall we go also?’ Zeean murmured. ‘I would be grateful for a chair.’

Jasmine took her arm. ‘We will go in the back way,’ she said. ‘It is far quicker from here—and there are no stairs.’

In silence they began to make their way to the back of the palace. They walked very slowly, for Zeean’s sake, and Lief was glad of it. He was not looking forward to what was ahead.

They reached the kitchen door and helped Zeean inside. A chorus of cheers rang out. Startled, Lief and Jasmine saw that the great table was crowded with people, all turned to them, smiling.

‘Why, even Marilen is here!’ Jasmine cried. ‘And Ebony!’

Lief gazed around at the familiar faces.

Marilen, glowing with happiness, Ebony perched on her shoulder. Ranesh, smiling. Gla-Thon, raising a goblet. Gers shouting. Steven, grinning broadly. The boy Zerry, taller than Lief remembered, his sharp eyes sparkling. Lindal, laughing and banging the table. Barda, beaming, pulling out chairs for Jasmine and Zeean. Sharn, very pale, royal emeralds gleaming at her throat, holding out her arms to him.

Only one was missing.

Lief went to his mother, and embraced her. ‘Where is Doom?’ he asked quietly.

‘He carried Paff back to her bed,’ called Gla-Thon, overhearing. ‘She has recovered a little, but she is still unconscious. He will be with us shortly.’

‘If he has not fallen asleep on his feet,’ Gers growled. ‘He looks like death walking. I offered to take Paff myself, but he would not have it.’

‘No doubt he thought the poor girl was sick enough, without being scared to death by your ugly face, Jalis,’ grinned Gla-Thon.

With a roar, Gers swung around, reaching for Gla-Thon but succeeding only in upsetting one of the jugs with his elbow. Wine flooded the table. Everyone jumped up, shouting or laughing. At the same moment, a black bird soared through the door, heading straight for Jasmine.

‘Kree!’ Jasmine shouted, overjoyed.

Lief took advantage of the confusion to slip away. Only Sharn saw him go.

Lief let himself into the library and walked silently through the maze of shelves. His hand was on his sword. His mind was blank.

A dim light glowed in Josef’s room. Lief paused and looked in. For a moment he thought he saw a hunched figure, ruler in hand, bent over something on the desk—something that Lief now knew must have been the plan of the chapel.

No … I have made no mistake. Oh, what wicked trickery is this? … If only I had remembered! Fool! Fool!

Then Lief blinked, and the vision was gone. The desk was empty, and Josef’s body was lying on the bed. Tomorrow Josef would be laid to rest with all the ceremony befitting a Deltoran hero, but he would spend this night in his own, humble room.

‘You will be avenged, Josef,’ Lief said softly. ‘Rest well.’

He glanced at the desk a second time as he turned to go. He had a niggling feeling that something about his fleeting vision had been wrong, but could not think what it could be.

He moved on to Paff’s room. Here the curtains were open, and the room’s air was golden with late afternoon light.

Paff lay propped up on pillows, exactly as Lief had seen her when he had first entered this room before sunrise. But she was no longer stiff and sweating. Her eyes were peacefully closed.

Beside her, in a chair dragged from behind the desk, sat Doom. A gleaming hunting knife lay across his knees. He raised his head as Lief entered the room. His shadowed face showed no surprise.

‘Stay back, Lief,’ he said softly.

‘You know I cannot,’ Lief said, moving forward.

Doom stared at him for a moment, then turned back to the sleeping girl. Her eyelids had begun to flutter.

‘Soon she will wake,’ he said. ‘I should have cut her throat before this. I do not know why I hesitated.’

‘Perhaps because you knew I would come,’ Lief said. ‘In your heart you know I must hear what she has to say.’

Doom shook his head restlessly. His long, brown fingers caressed the gleaming blade of the knife.

‘You do not know what it is to be utterly alone, Lief,’ he said. ‘You do not know the agony of having all you love torn from you. You have never felt the rage, the pain, the white-hot desire for revenge that burns from within until all that remains is dark despair, a yawning emptiness craving to be filled.’

‘I have not felt it as you have,’ Lief answered. ‘But I have felt the evil force that promises to fill the emptiness with riches and power in return for service to its will. And I know that other choices can be made. You know it too, Doom.’

Doom shrugged, and half-smiled. The knife fell clattering to the floor.

Paff’s eyes opened. She stared dreamily at the ceiling, then turned her head to look at Lief and Doom.

‘Josef?’ she murmured.

‘Josef is dead,’ Doom said in a level voice.

‘So … he is silenced,’ said the girl, her voice soft as a sigh. ‘How he hated and feared you by the end, Doom. He feared you almost as much as I did. But—but it does not matter now, does it? Nothing matters now.’

Tears welled in her eyes. Slowly she relaxed her fingers, and the emeralds spilled onto the white bed cover.

‘I tried so hard,’ she whispered, her voice so faint that Lief had to bend to hear her. ‘When I began, I had—such hopes! I thought of nothing but pleasing him. I did more—even more than he asked. And yet …’

‘And yet at the last he turned his back on you,’ Lief said. ‘He abandoned you. Why, Paff? Why?’

The girl stared at him through her tears. ‘Perhaps I tried too hard,’ she whispered. ‘Perhaps I did too much. My Master has many plans.’

And with the desperation of a trapped creature snatching at its only chance of escape, she threw herself forward and clutched the Belt of Deltora.

Lief tried to jump back, but Paff’s grip was as strong as iron. He watched in horror as her face twisted, her back arched. There was a ghastly smell of burning. And with a cry that was more relief than pain, the failed, abandoned guardian of the south fell back on her pillows, released from her torment at last.