Emily Rodda: Isle of the Dead

Steam gushed from the dragon’s jaws. ‘I did not trust the other dragons,’ it hissed furiously. ‘I trusted Dragonfriend, whom I loved, and who knew my true name. Your foolishness angers me. I bid you farewell.’

With a dull clatter it unfurled its leathery wings.

Kree took flight with a squawk, the Kin cowered and Lief, Barda and Jasmine scrambled clear.

The next moment, they were again pinned to the ground by the gale of huge wingbeats. And when at last they were able to raise their heads, the dragon was far above them, a shadow in the dimming sky.

‘Jasmine!’ cried Lief in exasperation.

‘I merely spoke the truth,’ Jasmine shrugged, as Kree fluttered back to her arm.

‘Speaking of truth,’ Barda said. ‘I fear it is true to say that we are in a pretty pickle. Look around you.’

Jasmine and Lief turned and looked.

They were on a long point of land stretching out into the sea. A narrow road wound to the land’s end, where a lighthouse rose, tall, white and lonely. Wind whistled across the flat earth, bringing with it the sting of salt. Waves crashed against the rocks. A few seabirds wheeled above the foam-flecked ocean, their cries faint and ghostly.

‘This is a dreary place, indeed,’ Jasmine said. Filli whimpered under her collar. All that could be seen of him was the tip of his nose.

‘It would help if we knew where we were, Lief,’ Barda muttered. ‘You have the map—’

‘We do not need the map,’ Lief said slowly.

His companions glanced at him in surprise.

‘I know of this place,’ Lief went on, staring at the lighthouse. ‘It is called Bone Point.’

‘Well, whatever its name is, it is as flat as gnomes’ bread,’ scowled Prin. ‘We cannot take flight from here. We should never have let ourselves be forced down. Now we are stranded!’

‘Better stranded than torn to pieces in the air!’ snapped Ailsa.

Barda jerked his head towards the tall white column of the lighthouse. ‘The lighthouse has a viewing platform at the top. Surely you could take off from there?’

‘We could try,’ said Ailsa doubtfully.

Lief made a small movement, as if he was about to protest. When Barda glanced at him, however, he pressed his lips together, and nodded.

‘Yes. We have no choice,’ he muttered. ‘Even if the amethyst dragon senses the Belt and comes to us, it will not be able to carry us all.’

He squared his shoulders and began walking swiftly towards the lighthouse.

When Jasmine and Barda at last caught up with Lief, he was standing by the lighthouse door, staring up at the viewing platform. Protected by bright red railings, the platform circled the tall building like a necklace. Above it gleamed the windows of the light chamber, neatly capped by a rounded red roof.

Barda exclaimed in surprise and pointed to an engraved stone set into the base of the lighthouse wall.

‘Yes, the great Adin arranged for the lighthouse to be built,’ Lief said, glancing down at the stone. ‘It was just after he united the seven tribes and became king. This verse is printed in the Deltora Annals. Josef showed it to Mother and me, just before she left for the west.’

‘Why, it looks as new as if it was completed only yesterday!’ Barda said.

“‘The magic of Tora protects me…”‘ Jasmine read, and frowned in puzzlement.

‘Bone Point was part of the territory of the Toran tribe,’ Lief said slowly. ‘And, as we know only too well, the magic of the ancient Torans was very powerful.’

His companions nodded, remembering the disaster which had befallen the present people of Tora when they broke their ancestors’ magic oath of loyalty to Adin and his heirs. Their years of exile from their city had ended only when Lief, as king, forgave them for their fault in Adin’s name.

‘Adin asked the ancient Torans to protect the Light,’ Lief went on. ‘He feared that the Shadow Lord might plot to destroy it. It suited the Enemy for Deltora to be isolated—for foreign ships to stay away.’

‘So—the Light signalled welcome to people from lands to our west?’ asked Jasmine.

‘It did welcome them, no doubt. But its real purpose was to act as a guide and warning,’ Lief said. ‘A hidden spine of rock spears into the sea from the tip of Bone Point. It has been the death of many ships that ventured too near it in the darkness of the night.’

In silence they all turned to look at the sea.

‘The tide is coming in,’ Barda murmured.

Waves crashed hard on the tip of the point, and to the south of the lighthouse. But on the northern side, close to where they were standing, there was a sheltered bay. Shells littered the bay’s smooth half-moon of pale sand. Higher up, the faded remains of a small red boat lay almost buried in mounds of dry seaweed.

‘Fish may not be plentiful, but surely it is still worth throwing out a line, when food is so scarce,’ Barda frowned. ‘What is the lighthouse keeper thinking of, to let his boat go to ruin?’

‘There is no lighthouse keeper,’ Lief said. ‘Red Han, the man who kept the Bone Point Light in my father’s time, was the last. The Light has been dark since the Shadow Lord invaded and the Torans were banished from their city.’

‘But what of the foreign ships?’ Jasmine asked.

‘No foreign ships come near us now,’ Lief said. ‘Perhaps because of the danger. Perhaps because the people to our west take the darkness as a sign that the Shadow Lord still rules in Deltora. We do not know.’

‘But the Torans are back in their city now!’ Barda exclaimed. ‘Surely the Light can be made to shine again? And surely another lighthouse keeper can be found? It is lonely work, I daresay, but—’

‘It is not that,’ Lief broke in wearily. ‘It is something far more strange.’

He paused, then met his companions’ curious eyes and went on reluctantly.

‘Part of the spell the ancient Torans cast was that only the keeper of the Light, the one sworn to protect it, could enter the chamber where it burned. If a keeper became ill, or wearied of the task, he or she was bound to travel to Tora and solemnly resign before all the people. Only then could a new keeper be appointed.’

‘A foolhardy spell indeed,’ Barda said grimly.

Lief grimaced. ‘So it seems. But no doubt it did not seem so dangerous in the time of Adin. The ancient Torans were very sure of their power. And for many centuries all was well.’

He sighed. ‘But eighteen years ago, something happened at Bone Point. We do not know what it was. All we know is that the Light went out, and Red Han disappeared.’

‘No doubt he was easy prey for Ols or Grey Guards once the Torans had been swept away, and their magic no longer protected him,’ Jasmine said.

‘No doubt,’ Lief answered. ‘And the sudden loss of both the Light keeper and the magic of Tora explains only too well why the Light went out.’

‘Then why—?’ Barda began impatiently.

‘Do you not see?’ Lief exclaimed. ‘Red Han never resigned his trust! The Light chamber is sealed. The ancient spell still holds. And it cannot be broken—even by the present people of Tora.’

‘But—’ Jasmine frowned. ‘But—this must mean that Red Han is still alive, for surely his death would break the spell. Why has he not returned?’

‘Because he was unworthy of the trust placed in him!’ growled Barda. ‘He broke his oath and ran away when the protection of Tora was lost. And now he skulks in some corner of Deltora, afraid to come out of hiding.’