Emily Rodda - The Shifting Sands

Contents

Title Page

1 Flight

2 Forbidden Fruit

3 The Road to Rithmere

4 Lost in the Crowd

5 Win and Lose

6 Berry, Birdie, and Twig

7 Trouble

8 The Games

9 The Finalists

10 The Champion

11 Easy as Winking

12 No Choice

13 The Shifting Sands

14 Terror

15 The Center

16 The Cone

The Deltora Book of Monsters

Preview: The Golden Door

About the Author

Venture into Deltora

Copyright

The story so far …

Sixteen-year-old Lief, fulfilling a pledge made by his father before he was born, is on a great quest to find the seven gems of the magic Belt of Deltora. The gems — an amethyst, a topaz, a diamond, a ruby, an opal, a lapis lazuli, and an emerald — were stolen to open the way for the evil Shadow Lord to invade Deltora. Hidden in fearsome places throughout the land, they must be restored to the Belt before the heir to the throne can be found and the Shadow Lord’s tyranny ended.

Lief’s companions are the man Barda, who was once a Palace guard, and Jasmine, a wild, orphaned girl of Lief’s own age who they met in the fearful Forests of Silence.

So far they have found three gems. The golden topaz, symbl of faith, has the power to contact the spirit world, and to clear the mind. The ruby, symbol of happiness, pales when danger threatens, repels evil spirits, and is an antidote to venom. The opal, gem of hope, gives glimpses of the future.

On their travels, the companions have discovered a secret resistance movement made up of people pledged to defy the Shadow Lord. But servants of the Enemy are everywhere. Some, like his brutual Grey Guards, are easily recognized. Others keep their dark loyalty well hidden.

The three companions are lucky to have escaped the City of the Rats alive. But now they are stranded on the barren plain that surrounds it, having lost all their supplies. The opal has given Lief a terrible vision of their next goal: The Shifting Sands.

Now read on …

It seemed to Lief that they had been walking beside the river forever. Yet only one night and part of a day had passed since he, Barda, and Jasmine had left the City of the Rats in flames. The faint smell of smoke hung in the still air, though the city was now just a blur on the horizon at their backs.

They had long ago discarded the heavy red garments and boots which had saved them from the rats. Walking was easier now. But hunger and exhaustion were making the journey seem endless, and the fact that the landscape never changed did not help. Hour by hour the companions had trudged over bare, baked earth hemmed in on both sides by the waters of Broad River — waters so wide that they could barely see the far banks.

Though all of them badly needed rest, they knew that they had to keep moving. The plume of smoke staining the blue sky at their backs was like a signal to their enemies. It was a sign that something of great importance had happened in the terrible place where the third stone of the Belt of Deltora had been hidden. Should the Shadow Lord become aware that the stone had been taken, his servants would begin searching for the thieves.

And how easily they would find them on this bare plain.

Barda plodded beside Lief, his head lowered. Jasmine walked a little ahead. Now and then she murmured to Filli, who was nestled on her shoulder, but her eyes were fixed on the horizon. She was watching for Kree, the raven. Kree had flown off as dawn broke to survey the land ahead and to look for food.

He had been away for many hours. This boded ill for them. It meant that food and shelter were far distant. But there was nothing to do but keep moving. There was no direction to take but the one they were taking, for the Plain of the Rats lay in a bend of the river, and was bounded on three sides by deep water.

For centuries the rats have been trapped by the river that curves around their plain, thought Lief grimly. And now we are trapped also.

Suddenly Jasmine gave a high, piercing cry. A faint, harsh sound came back in answer.

Lief looked up, and saw a black speck coming towards them through the distant blue. With every moment the speck grew larger, and at last Kree was soaring down, squawking harshly.

He landed on Jasmine’s arm and squawked again. Jasmine listened, expressionless. Finally she turned to Lief and Barda.

“Kree says that the plain ends in a broad band of water that is almost as wide as the river itself,” she said.

“What?” Appalled, Lief slumped to the ground.

“The plain is an island?” growled Barda. “But it cannot be!” He sat down beside Lief, with a heavy sigh.

Kree ruffled his feathers, and made an annoyed, clucking sound.

“Kree has seen it with his own eyes,” snapped Jasmine. “A bar of water joins the two arms of the river. It is very broad, he says, but perhaps not too deep for us to wade. It seemed paler in color than the river, and he could see schools of fish not far from the surface.”

“Fish!” Lief’s mouth watered at the thought of hot food.

“How far?” he heard Barda ask.

Jasmine shrugged. “Kree thinks that we could reach it by tomorrow, if we move on through the night.”

“Then so we will,” Barda said grimly, hauling himself to his feet. “At least we cannot easily be seen in the dark. And we have no food, after all. We have no shelter, or anything to sleep upon but the bare earth. So what comfort is there in stopping? We might as well walk till we drop.”

So it was that in the pale dawn of the following day they found themselves at the end of the plain, staring, with eyes that prickled with weariness, at a gleaming sheet of water that blocked their path.

“Surely this is not a natural channel,” Lief said. “The banks are too straight and even.”

“It was dug by human hands,” Barda agreed. “Long ago, I would guess, as a barrier against the rats.”

Kree soared above them, squawking excitedly.

“On the other side there are trees,” murmured Jasmine. “Trees and other growing things.”

Without hesitation she stepped into the water, her eyes fixed eagerly on the ragged line of green ahead.

“Jasmine, take care!” Lief called after her. But Jasmine waded on without pausing or turning. The water rose to her waist, then to her chest, but no further. She began moving steadily towards the opposite shore.

Barda and Lief hastened after her, splashing into the cool stream. “When it was my task to keep you out of trouble on the streets of Del, Lief, I thought that you were the most impulsive, troublesome young pest in creation,” muttered Barda. “I apologize. Jasmine is just as bad — or worse!”

Lief grinned, then jumped and yelled as something brushed softly against his ankle. He looked down into the water and saw a flurry of sudden movement as several large fish darted away into the shadows.

“They will not hurt you,” called Jasmine, without turning around.

“How do you know?” Lief called back. “They could be feeling as hungry as I am. They —”

He broke off as Kree cried out and plummeted towards them, skimming the surface of the water and then soaring up into the air again.