Emily Rodda - Deltora Quest #3 - City of the Rats

Shouting to Barda and Jasmine to cover him, he waded forward, unscrewing the jar’s tight cap. He dug out a handful of beads with his stiff fingers and threw them at the rats on the bank with all his strength.

There was a huge burst of flame as the beads struck. The light was blinding. Hundreds of rats fell dead, killed by the sudden heat. The horde behind them shrieked, and scattered from the burning bodies. The creatures already in the water scrambled and writhed in terror, leaping towards Lief, Barda, and Jasmine, their long tails switching and coiling. Barda and Jasmine slashed at them, defending Lief and themselves, as Lief threw another handful of beads, and another, moving slowly downstream to lengthen the wall of flame.

And soon a long sheet of fire burned on the river’s edge. Behind it the plain seethed. But where Lief, Barda, and Jasmine stood, panting and shuddering with relief, there was only rippling water, alive with red, leaping light. Dead rats were swept away by the tide, but no more took their places.

In a few moments there were splashes up and downstream as the rats began plunging into the river above and below the line of flame. But the distance was too great for them to swim in safety. The swift-running current pulled most of them under before they could reach their prey, and those that remained alive were easily beaten off.

So the three companions stood together, waist-deep in water, trembling with weariness but safe behind their fiery barricade, as the long, cold hours passed.

Dawn broke at last. Dull red tinged the sky. Beyond the line of fire a murmuring, scuffling sound arose, like a forest of leaves rustling. Then it was gone, and a great stillness fell over the plain.

Lief, Barda, and Jasmine waded to the shore. Water streamed from their clothes and hair, hissing as it fell onto the flames of their barricade. They stepped over the flickering embers.

The rats had gone. Between the river and the smoking remains of the campfire there was nothing but a tangled litter of small bones.

“They have eaten their own dead,” muttered Barda, looking sick.

“Of course,” said Jasmine matter-of-factly.

Shivering with cold, feeling as though his legs were weighed down with stones, Lief began trudging towards the place where they had eaten their food many hours ago. Jasmine and Barda followed him, quiet and watchful. Kree flew overhead, the sound of his beating wings loud in the silent air.

Little remained around the ashes of the fire except for three patches of brilliant red.

Lief laughed shortly. “They have left the Ra-Kachar garments and boots,” he said. “They did not like them, it seems. Why would that be?”

“Perhaps the garments still bear the scent of the fungus from the Hole,” Jasmine suggested. “We can smell nothing — but we do not have the senses of a rat.”

They looked around at the wreckage. Buckles from the packs, the caps of the water bags, the pipe that blew bubbles of light, a button or two, a few coins, and the flat tin box containing the last of the Water Eaters lay strewn on the hard clay among the bones and cinders. Except for the clothes from Noradz, nothing else had survived the rats’ hunger. Not a crumb of food, a shred of blanket, or a thread of rope.

“At least we have our lives,” said Barda, shivering in the light dawn breeze. “And we have dry garments to put on. They may not be the garments we would like, but who is to see us here?”

Wearily they stripped off their wet clothes and pulled on the red suits and boots of the Ra-Kacharz. Then, warm and dry at last, they sat down to talk.

“The jar of fire beads is almost empty. We will not survive another night on this plain,” said Barda heavily. “We must enter the city now, if we are to enter it at all. These strange garments will give us some protection, since the rats do not like them. And we still have the pipe that blows bubbles of light. If it works as we were told, it may be of use.”

They bundled up their wet clothes, collected their few remaining possessions from the ground, and began to walk towards the city.

Lief’s eyes prickled with weariness, and his feet dragged in the high red boots. The thought of the rat horde, crawling and fighting inside the crumbling towers ahead, filled him with dread. How could they enter the city without being covered and torn to pieces?

Yet enter it they must. For already the Belt of Deltora had begun to grow warm around Lief’s waist. One of the lost gems was indeed hidden in the city. The Belt could feel it.

The towers of the city rose dark and forbidding above their heads. Long ago, the great iron entrance gates had fallen and rusted away. Now all that remained was a gaping hole in the wall. The hole led into darkness, and from the darkness drifted a terrible, stealthy, scrabbling sound and the stink of rats. There was something else, too. Something worse. A sense of ancient evil — spiteful, cold, terrifying.

Lief, Barda, and Jasmine began drawing on the Ra-Kachar gloves and covering their faces and heads with the red fabric they had worn during the escape from Noradz.

“I do not understand how the rats became so many,” Lief said. “Rats breed quickly, it is true. And they breed faster when there is dark, and dirt, and food is left where they can find it. But why did the people of this city not see the problem, and put a stop to it before it became so great that they had to flee?”

“Some evil was at work.” Barda stared grimly at the crumbling walls before them. “The Shadow Lord —”

“You cannot blame the Shadow Lord for everything!” Jasmine burst out suddenly.

Barda and Lief glanced at her in surprise. Her brows were knitted in a frown.

“I have kept silent for too long,” she muttered. “But now I will speak, though you will not like what I say. That stranger we saw in Tom’s shop — the man with the scar on his face — spoke of the thorns on the plain. He called them the Del King’s thorns. And he was right!”

They were staring. She took a deep breath, and hurried on.

“The Shadow Lord has ruled Deltora for only sixteen years. But it has taken far longer than that for the thorns to cover the plain. The sorceress Thaegan’s enchantment at the Lake of Tears began a hundred years ago. The people of Noradz have been living as they do for centuries. And this evil place must have been abandoned by its people for just as long.”

She fell silent, staring moodily ahead.

“What are you saying, Jasmine?” asked Barda impatiently.

The girl’s eyes darkened. “The kings and queens of Deltora betrayed their trust. They shut themselves up in the palace at Del, living in luxury while the land went to ruin and evil prospered.”

“That is true,” said Lief. “But —”

“I know what you are going to say!” Jasmine snapped. “You have told me before that they were deceived by servants of the Shadow Lord. That they followed stupid rules blindly, thinking that this alone was their duty. But I do not believe that anyone could be so blind. I think the whole story is a lie.”

Barda and Lief were silent. Both could see why Jasmine would find the truth so hard to believe. She had fended for herself since she was five years old. She was strong and independent. She would never have allowed herself to be a puppet, dancing as a Chief Advisor pulled the strings.

Now she was rushing on. “We are risking our lives to restore the Belt of Deltora. And why? To return power to the royal heir — who even now is hiding, while Deltora suffers and we face danger. But do we really want kings and queens back in the palace at Del, lying to us and using us as they did before? I do not think so!”