Emily Rodda: The Shifting Sands

Jasmine stopped, alert, then swung around to face Lief and Barda. “Something is coming from the sky!” she called. “Kree —”

Screeching, the black bird dived towards them once more. Plainly he was terrified.

“What is it?” Frantically, Lief scanned the sky, but could see nothing.

“Something huge! Something very bad!” Jasmine snatched Filli from her shoulder and held him up into the air, a tiny bundle of grey fur, chattering with fear. “Kree!” she shrieked, “Take Filli! Hide him, and yourself!”

And at that moment Lief’s straining eyes caught sight of a black spot on the horizon. It was growing larger by the moment. In seconds Lief could make out a long neck and huge, beating wings.

“Ak-Baba!” hissed Barda. “It has seen the smoke.”

Lief’s blood seemed to chill in his veins. His father had told him of the Ak-Baba — giant, vulture-like birds that lived a thousand years. Seven of them were the servants of the Shadow Lord. It was they who had carried the gems from the Belt of Deltora to their perilous hiding places.

Obeying Jasmine’s command, Kree had snatched up Filli in his claws and was speeding with him to the other side of the band of water. There they could both conceal themselves in the long grass or shelter in a tree.

But Lief, Barda, and Jasmine had nowhere to hide. Behind them was the bare earth of the plain. Before them was a huge sweep of water, glittering in the dawn.

They floundered forward a few steps, but all of them knew it was no use. The Ak-Baba was flying with incredible speed. It would be upon them long before they could reach safety.

Already it could see the smoke of the burning city. When it saw three ragged strangers escaping from the plain it would know at once that they were enemies of the Shadow Lord.

Would it attack them? Or would it simply plunge down, snatch them up in its huge talons, and carry them away to its master? Either way, they were doomed.

The only possible hiding place was under the water. And yet Lief knew that this was no hiding place at all. From the air, the Ak-Baba would be able to see them as clearly as Kree had seen the schools of fish.

“It has not seen us yet,” Barda said rapidly. “Its eyes are fixed on the smoke from the city. Lief — your cloak!”

Of course! With wet, clumsy fingers Lief pulled at the strings that fastened his cloak around his throat. At last the cloak floated free.

“Down!” Barda hissed.

All of them took a deep breath and sank below the surface of the stream, holding the cloak over them like a canopy. It drifted above their heads, almost invisible in the water.

They had done their best. But was their best good enough to hide them from the sharp eyes of the Ak-Baba? If it had been dusk, perhaps. But surely, in this bright dawn light, the beast could not fail to notice that one patch of water looked a little different from the rest. Suspicious, it would circle above the place, watching, waiting …

And for how long could Lief, Barda, and Jasmine hold their breath? Sooner or later they would have to rise, gasping, to the surface. Then the monster would strike.

Lief’s fingers felt for the clasp of the Belt he wore under his shirt. The Belt of Deltora must not be captured with him. If necessary, he would unloose it and let it fall into the mud at the bottom of the stream. It would be better for it to lie there than for it to fall into the hands of the Shadow Lord again.

Already his lungs felt tight. Already his body was telling him to rise to the surface and breathe. Something nudged at his shoulder and he opened his eyes. Fish were moving all around him — big silver fish, their glassy eyes staring. Their fins and tails buffeted his head and face. They were closing in on him, crowding him.

Then, suddenly, it grew dark. A huge shadow was blocking out the sun.

The Ak-Baba was overhead.

Lief fought down the panic that threatened to engulf him. The shadow of the Ak-Baba had turned the water black. He could no longer see the fish, but he could feel their weight. Dozens were now swimming above the cloak, cutting the companions off from the surface, pressing them down, down …

Lief’s head was spinning. He began to struggle, his chest aching with the need to breathe. Desperately he pushed at the cloak above his head, but the fish were clustered together so tightly on top of it that they were like a living, moving ceiling, impossible to break.

His struggles became more and more feeble. He could feel himself losing consciousness, his mind drifting away from his body.

Is this, then, how it ends? he thought. After all we have faced … A picture of his mother and father at home flashed through his mind. They would be breakfasting now, in the forge kitchen. Talking of him, perhaps, and of Barda.

They will never know what became of us, Lief thought. Our bones will lie in this mud forever, and with them the Belt of Deltora.

Dimly he became aware of urgent nudges on his legs and chest. The fish were bumping against him. They seemed to be trying to push him upwards. And — the fish above his head were moving aside.

With the last of his strength he forced his trembling legs to straighten. His head broke the surface and he took huge, grateful gulps of air.

At first he could see nothing. The cloak was still draped over his head, clinging to his face. Then it fell away and he was left blinking at Barda and Jasmine, who were as gasping and bedraggled as he.

In terror he looked up. But the Ak-Baba was well past the channel, flying steadily over the plain towards the plume of smoke on the horizon.

“It did not see us!” he croaked, coughing. “It passed us by.” He could not believe it.

“Of course,” Jasmine grinned, gathering the drifting cloak into a bundle. “When it looked down at the water it saw nothing but a school of fish. Fish that it had seen a hundred times before.”

She patted her hands on the rippling surface. “Ah, you were clever, fish,” she laughed. “You hid us well.”

The fish swam about her, lazily blowing bubbles. They seemed pleased with themselves.

“I thought they were trying to drown us,” said Barda. “And all the time they were disguising us from the Ak-Baba. Whoever heard of fish coming to anyone’s aid?”

“These are no ordinary fish,” Jasmine assured him. “They are old and wise. They had no love for the rats who turned the plain on one side of their river into a wasteland. And they have no love for the Shadow Lord or his servants, either.”

“They told you this?” asked Lief, amazed.

The girl shrugged. “They are no ordinary fish,” she repeated. “They would speak to you, too, if only you would listen.”

Lief stared at the shapes beneath the water and concentrated with all his strength. But all he could hear was rippling and the sound of bubbles.

“I should have known we would not die in the river,” he murmured. “On the plain the opal showed me a vision of myself standing in the Shifting Sands. If I am to die anywhere, it will be there.”

He felt Barda and Jasmine’s eyes upon him. “Does the opal tell what will be? Or only what might be?” asked Barda abruptly.

Lief shrugged. He did not know.

Kree called from the other side of the channel.

“We must move on,” Jasmine said. “The Ak-Baba may return this way.”

With the fish swimming ahead of them to make their way easy, the companions waded on across the channel. When at last they had reached the opposite shore they turned and bowed their thanks.

“We owe our lives to you, fish,” Jasmine called softly, as Kree flew down to perch on her arm. “We thank you for your kindness.”