Emily Rodda - Deltora Quest #6 - The Maze of the Beast

He turned, snarling, to Lockie the Stripe. “Row them to the bank,” he snapped. “Get them out of my sight! We’re going back to Broad River for repairs.”

By the time Lockie, very downcast, had dumped Jasmine and Lief and rowed back to the River Queen , steam was already pouring from the boat’s funnel. Moments later, the anchor chain clattered and the paddle wheel began to move. The boat turned and chugged away upstream, leaving the companions with only Dain’s pack and one blanket for comfort.

Jasmine was conscious, but could barely speak. She took another spoonful of honey and swallowed painfully. “What are we to do?” she croaked.

“Follow the pirates and get the Belt back,” muttered Lief, with more confidence than he felt.

Jasmine nodded, her head bowed. “They have Dain, as well as the Belt,” she said. “We must help Dain. Barda would have wanted us to do that.”

She was shaking all over. Lief took the blanket and wrapped it around her. Then he sat close beside her, for warmth.

“If only we knew where the pirates planned to go!” he said. “The water from the Dreaming Spring would have helped us find out. But all that remains was in the packs.” He looked up at the sky. The stars were fading. The pirates’ boat must already be far distant.

“We must go,” said Jasmine. “They are getting away!” She struggled to rise, but fell back almost at once. Lief covered her again with the blanket. His head was thumping.

“Barda would say that we should rest,” he said. “He would say, ‘What point is there in catching up to our enemies but being too weak to fight them?’ And he would be right. He was almost always right.”

“I am glad to hear you say so,” growled a familiar voice.

And out of the shadows walked Barda — soaked, shivering, but alive! The shock was so great that for a moment Lief could not speak. But his joy and relief must have shown in his face, for Barda grinned and clapped him on the shoulder as he sat down with a weary groan.

“Did you think I was gone for good?” he asked. “Well, so did I, I confess. But I managed to fight off the cutthroat who went over the side with me. And the worms, if worms there are, must have been busy with other prey.”

“The card-playing man,” Jasmine suggested huskily. She put her hand to her throat as she spoke, but plainly her pain was already easing, thanks to the Queen Bee honey. And her spirits had soared now that Barda had returned.

Barda nodded gravely. “Perhaps so. I remember little of getting to the bank. I came to myself only a few minutes ago. There was the sound of the boat. Then I heard your voices along the bank.”

“Barda, they took the Belt.” It was agony for Lief to say it. “My sword, all our belongings — and Dain.”

Barda took a deep breath. “So,” he said finally. “So we must deal with that.”

He crawled to his feet. “But first we must warm and dry ourselves. We will start a fire — a fine blaze. And if any more enemies see it and come to attack us, they are welcome. A gang of pirates and an Ol together could not finish us — let others try if they dare!”

Lief staggered up and went to help collect wood. The terrible despair that had engulfed him had lifted with Barda’s return. But as he plodded the barren sand, now slowly lightening with the coming of dawn, he still felt sick at heart.

It was all very well to speak bravely of following the pirates, of tracking them down. But by the time the companions reached the coast, the battered boat would certainly be hidden away in some sheltered bay. However were they to find it?

He saw some old planks that had washed up on the shore, and walked towards them. Then he realized that there was something else lying in shallow water just beyond the wood. It looked like a heap of rubbish and rags, but it was not. It was a dead man.

“Barda!” he called.

Barda came quickly, and together they pulled the body up onto the sand. “This is the pirate who went into the water with me,” Barda said. “He, it seems, was not as lucky as I was.”

Lief stared down at the gaunt face. In death, the pirate looked more pathetic than savage. He watched as Barda crouched beside the body and began pulling at the clothing, checking the pockets for weapons or anything else of value. There had been a time when neither of them would have dreamed of robbing a dead body. But that time had long gone.

Barda exclaimed and sat back on his heels. He was holding something in his hand — a thin package wrapped in oilskin. Carefully he unwrapped it. The paper inside was damp, but still in one piece. He placed it on the sand and Lief bent over it. Even in the dim dawn light, he could see clearly what it was.

“It is the way to the Maze of the Beast,” muttered Barda.

“The pirates are going to the Maze? But why? It is a place of terror.” Lief’s heart was thudding painfully.

“They would not care, if they had heard of a great gem hidden there.” Barda gritted his teeth. “And somehow they have heard of it, Lief. They are going to seek it. And now they have the Belt to help them.”

Two days later the companions stood on the shore, looking out at the vast, foam-flecked blue of the sea. Wind tore at their clothes and whipped their hair. During their cold, hungry journey they had seen several walled villages on the other side of the river, and even passed a bridge. But of the pirates there had been no sign, and even now their boat was nowhere to be seen.

To Jasmine, who had never seen the sea, the ocean was a fresh sight, and a source of wonder. To Lief, at first, it was like a breath of home. Not so much the sight, for the Shadow Lord had long forbidden the coast to the people of Del. But the sound and smell, and the taste of salt on his lips, were achingly familiar.

Yet after only a few moments the feeling melted away and a kind of loathing took its place.

This was not the coast of Del. This coast was bare and completely silent except for the wind and the pounding waves. There was no sign of any living thing. There were no fish jumping in the swelling water, or crabs scuttling on the sand. And Kree was the only bird in sight.

Lief found himself shrinking from the hissing foam that crawled towards his feet. Into this sea poured all the filth of the River Tor. Its clean, sparkling surface was a lie, for beneath it rolled all the waste and evil the river had been forced to carry for so long. Killer worms squirmed in its depths, feeding on the bodies of the dead, crawling on the wreckage of broken boats. And at the end of the long strip of sand to Lief’s left, under the headland that looked like a haggard face, was the place called the Maze of the Beast.

Abruptly Lief turned his head away so that he looked back across the river mouth to his right. Beyond the swirling water, more sand stretched away to another gloomy headland that rose from a base of flat, smooth rock. As he watched, a towering jet of spray spurted into the air from the rock. It was as though some giant creature hidden there was spitting a huge mouthful of water at the sky.

Jasmine hissed with shock.

“Do not fear,” muttered Lief. “It is a blowhole. My mother has told me of such things. Water forces its way through a tunnel under the rock, then sprays up through a hole far from where it entered.”

“I was not afraid,” said Jasmine hastily. “Only surprised — for a moment. But I am glad we do not have to go to that side.”