Emily Rodda - Cavern Of Fear

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!’

9 - Grains of Truth

Doom drew back from the table. ‘So—the Shadow Lord played the same trick on Pirra as he did on Deltora. He divided the people, made the land’s protection useless, then invaded.’

“The Pirrans allowed him to do it,’ Lief muttered, rubbing his hand over his eyes. ‘As we in Deltora did in our turn. He used their anger, their stubbornness, their ambition, their weakness…’

‘Your majesty!’

A white figure was hobbling slowly towards them from the back of the library. Josef.

‘Forgive me, your majesty,’ the old man mumbled, as he drew closer. ‘But I forgot—’

Lief scrambled to his feet and held out his hand. ‘Forgive me , Josef,’ he said. ‘You were trying to tell me of the Pirran Pipe, and I would not listen.’

Josef’s face lit with an eager smile as he took the offered hand. ‘You have read the Tale, then?’ he whispered. ‘You believe it contains a grain of truth?’

At Lief’s nod, he hurried on. ‘I am sure that each of the Pirran tribes would have treasured its own part of the Pipe, and kept it safe. So if the Pirrans still exist, the three parts of the Pirran Pipe exist also.’

‘I am as sure of it as you are,’ said Lief. ‘And I know the Pipe can help us, for I have heard its voice.’

Josef stared at him, awe-struck. ‘You must understand, your majesty,’ he ventured at last, ‘that the Enemy has the Shadowlands too firmly in his grasp now for even the Pirran Pipe to drive him out of it. All the Pipe could do, I believe, is weaken him.’

‘I understand,’ Lief said firmly. ‘Do not fear, Josef. All we hope for is time—time to get our prisoners out! But first we must find the Pirran Islands.’

‘Yes!’ Josef cried. ‘That is what I had forgotten to tell you!’ Swiftly he seized volume 5 of the Annals and expertly riffled through the back pages. In a very short time he had found what he was seeking: a series of maps.

He pointed to a small sketch above another, much larger, map of the western sea.

‘There is no signature, but I strongly suspect this sketch was made by Doran, our greatest explorer,’ Josef said. ‘He certainly drew the larger map below. I recognise his hand.’

‘Thank you, Josef.’ Lief’s heart was too full to say more. The map was so simple as to be almost useless. But to him it proved one thing at least. The Pirran Islands were not just a legend. They existed. And that meant they could be found.

Josef beamed. ‘It is my pleasure to be of service,’ he said. He bowed, turned, and tottered back to his room.

Lief reached for the paper and pencil. ‘I will trace this map,’ he said. ‘Perhaps we can find others with which to compare it.’

He looked down at the sheaf of paper in front of him. Now that it was in better light, he could see that the top page bore indented marks caused by Jasmine writing heavily on a sheet of paper above it.

He rubbed the side of the pencil tip lightly over the white surface. As he had hoped, the grooves in its surface began to show as white lines.

‘What does this mean, I wonder?’ he murmured.

‘You can ask Jasmine,’ said Doom, barely glancing at the page. ‘I am going to wake her, and Barda too. If they are to accompany me on this voyage…’

Lief looked up quickly. ‘Accompany us , you mean,’ he said. ‘I am going with you. Do you really think the Pirrans will give up their greatest treasure to anyone other than the king of Deltora?’

Doom frowned. ‘You are right,’ he said at last. ‘The king must be the one to ask the favour. But you must agree to this, Lief—Jasmine, Barda and I will be the ones to take the risks, if risks there be.’

Lief nodded reluctantly. Doom lightly touched his shoulder, and left him.

Alone, Lief stared again at Jasmine’s strange words. They made him uneasy. ‘O-M hills’ must mean the dangerous Os-Mine Hills, to the north of Del. But what the rest meant he could not imagine.

Ranesh had said that Jasmine was reading Volume 1 of the Annals —the very book open before him now. Lief began turning pages, finding more Tenna Birdsong Tales. The Tale of the Three Knights. The Seven Goblins. The Dragon’s Egg…