Emily Rodda - Shadowgate

Jasmine bit her lip, but still she did not look up, or speak.

Steven frowned at her. ‘I did good trade with the Masked Ones, did I not?’ he said, a little coldly. ‘They wanted some Queen Bee honey. It is in short supply, but I agreed to give them six jars when I saw the goods they offered in exchange.’

‘Our weapons and our packs,’ Jasmine murmured. ‘Yes—I saw them in the caravan. Our packs are still sealed, just as we left them.’

Lief stared at her in amazement. She sounded as if the return of all their possessions was of very little importance.

Steven’s frown deepened. No doubt he had expected joy, or at least a word of thanks.

‘I think the Masked Ones had forgotten they had them,’ he said. They found them in an empty wagon, when they were rummaging about looking for things to trade. Then the fox-faced woman remembered the weapons, and brought them out, too.’

‘You recognised them?’ asked Lief.

Steven shrugged. ‘Of course!’ he said. ‘No-one could mistake your sword. I was astounded, and fearful, too, but I did not let the Masked Ones see. They said they had found your possessions by the side of the road. I doubted that was true, but it seemed unwise to challenge them. If they had fought me, Nevets would have killed them all.’

He grimaced as he spoke Nevets’ name.

How strange it must be to carry your brother within you, Lief thought. Especially a brother who is your opposite. Who is a savage… a killer!

Steven eyed Lief and tugged his rough beard. ‘I did not want the Masked Ones harmed, at the time,’ he added. ‘Perhaps I was wrong.’

‘No,’ Jasmine said in a low voice. ‘The one who caused the trouble was already dead.’

She pressed her lips together. Plainly she was going to say no more.

Steven tugged at his beard even harder. ‘They had thrown open every wagon in their search, so I was sure that you were not with them,’ he muttered. ‘But the wagons were all in confusion, as if they had been packed very hurriedly, for a quick departure.’

‘So when they had gone, you followed their wagon tracks back along the road,’ Lief said. ‘And so found Barda—’

‘And Kree, who led me on to you,’ Steven said.

He looked from Lief to Jasmine, and shook his head.

‘How did this happen?’ he burst out. ‘How is it that I find you in this state? Why, the last I heard, you were travelling the kingdom in fine style, on horseback and escorted by troop of guards!’

‘It is a long story,’ Lief said. ‘Steven, you must help us! We must move on. We must move on, towards the west.’

His mouth felt stiff. The pain in his face and neck stabbed at him mercilessly, and his dizziness had returned. He swayed.

Steven crouched beside him and took his arm. ‘We are going nowhere today, Lief,’ he said firmly. ‘Later, when you are more recovered—’

‘No!’ Jasmine broke in. ‘We must leave here now!’

Steven spun around. This time he was really scowling. His golden eyes darkened ominously, as if his savage brother Nevets was stirring within him.

‘Are you mad, girl?’ he snarled. ‘Lief is not fit to travel! Look at him!’

Look at him!

Filli wailed, and Jasmine buried her face in her hands. Lief felt cold. Cold to his very bones.

Jasmine lifted her head. She looked directly at Lief.

‘There is much to tell you,’ she said in a low voice. ‘But one thing I should have told you at once. It was cowardly of me not to do so, but then Steven came, with Barda, and I thought…’ You thought they would help you tell me, Lief thought. Tell me that, whatever it was that happened to me last night, my face will never…

He held Jasmine’s eyes steadily, bracing himself for what was to come.

Jasmine wet her lips. ‘Last night, all was confusion,’ she said. ‘There was panic, and screaming. People were running everywhere. You were in great pain, and not—not in your senses. It took Barda and I both to hold you down.’

Her voice trembled. She shook her head impatiently and went on.

‘The ordinary people scattered—fled in every direction. The Masked Ones threw everything into the wagons and left the field at a gallop. It was only after they had gone, and you had calmed a little, that we realised—realised that the Belt—the Belt of Deltora—’

The Belt? Lief thought in confusion. What has this to do with…?

He put his hands to his waist.

The Belt of Deltora was gone.

11 – The Trail

When the village clock struck nine, Steven, Lief and Jasmine were still in the field. A small fire was crackling between them, and Steven was pouring hot tea into cups. He had refused to go in pursuit of the Masked Ones.

‘They would not have touched the Belt,’ he said firmly. ‘To them, it is an evil thing. They learn to hate it from the cradle.’

‘Why?’ Lief said. He swallowed. His throat had been soothed by the Queen Bee honey Steven had given him, but it still felt raw.

He now knew the reason. It was because in the night, just before midnight, he had screamed in agony. Screamed, and screamed…

‘Later, I will give you something that explains the Masked Ones a little,’ said Steven, pushing a steaming cup into his hands. ‘For now, forget them and think about the ordinary folk who were travelling with them.’

Lief sipped his tea, staring at the cloud of bees swarming on the fence at the far edge of the field. He let his mind drift, knowing that it was best not to force his memory.

Gradually, much of what had happened the night before had come back to him. But he remembered nothing from the moment the clock began to strike midnight. He knew only what Jasmine had told him.

It was horrifying, almost unbelievable, but he knew it was true. In the mirror Steven had brought from the caravan, he had seen the proof—the raw patches on his cheekbones, chin and neck, gleaming scarlet beneath their layers of sticky green cream.

He shuddered, thinking how narrow his escape had been. How nearly he had been a Masked One for life, the beautiful blue bird face bonded forever with his own. A few more seconds…

He reached for Jasmine’s hand.

‘No-one but Barda and I were with you at midnight, Lief,’ she said in a low voice. ‘The Belt must have been stolen before then—while you were wandering alone in the crowd. Though how it could have been taken without you noticing, I do not understand.’

Her words stirred a memory in Lief’s mind. Bess, talking to Rust:

If he can take a purse from a man’s coat, without that man noticing, he can learn to deceive an audience with ease .

‘Zerry!’ he exclaimed.

‘Who?’ asked Steven, leaning forward.

‘The little thief?’ Jasmine cried at the same moment. ‘Of course! But Lief, how—?’

‘Some children jostled me in the field,’ Lief said slowly. ‘I remember now. Zerry was one of them. He must have taken the Belt then.’

He stared across the field, remembering.

‘Before that, I was feeling—confused,’ he said. ‘The Belt’s magic, and the magic of the mask, were battling within me, I am sure of it. One minute I would think I was a Masked One. The next minute a voice inside me would remind me I was not. And I could not stop shivering. But after I was jostled by the children, all that disappeared.’

‘Because the Belt had gone,’ murmured Jasmine.

Lief nodded. Absently, he noticed that the bees had risen from the fence. Now they were swarming back towards the road in a ragged stream.

He focused on them. He stared.

‘Zerry must have known exactly what he was after,’ Steven said thoughtfully. ‘An ordinary thief would have searched your pockets. That can only mean that, child or not, he is an ally of the guardian of the north—a servant of the Shadow Lord.’