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

“Noradzeer,” murmured the people, bending their bare heads and brushing their bodies from shoulder to thigh.

Barda and Lief glanced at each other. Both were thinking that the sooner they could leave this strange place, the happier they would be.

Jasmine was clambering to her feet, looking fretfully around the great room. The black-clad people murmured, drawing back from her as though her tattered clothing and tangled hair could somehow contaminate them.

“Where is Kree?” she demanded.

Reece turned his face towards her. “There is another of you?” he asked sharply.

“Kree is a bird,” Lief explained hurriedly, as he and Barda stood up also. “A black bird.”

“Kree will be waiting for you outside, Jasmine,” Barda muttered under his breath. “Be still, now. Filli is safe, isn’t he?”

“Yes. But he is hiding under my coat and will not come out,” Jasmine hissed sullenly. “He does not like it here, and neither do I.”

Barda turned to Reece and bowed. “We are most grateful for your care of us,” he said loudly. “But with your kind permission we will be on our way.”

“It is our time to eat, and a platter has been prepared for you,” said Reece, his dark eyes sweeping their faces as if daring them to object. “The food has already been blessed by the Nine. When food has been blessed, it must be eaten within the hour. Noradzeer.”

“Noradzeer,” echoed the people reverently.

Before Barda could say anything else, gongs began to sound, and two great doors at one end of the room opened to reveal a dining hall beyond. Eight tall figures, dressed in red as Reece was, stood at the opening, four on each side. The eight other Ra-Kacharz, thought Lief.

Long, leather whips hung from the Ra-Kacharz’ wrists. They watched sternly as the black-clad people began shuffling past them.

Lief’s head ached. He had never felt less hungry in his life. He wanted more than anything to be out of this place, but it was clear that he, Barda, and Jasmine were not to be allowed to leave until they had eaten.

Unwillingly, they walked through to the dining hall. It was as clean and scrubbed as the other room had been, and so brightly lit that every corner was visible. It was filled with bare tables, arranged in long rows. The tables were very high, with tall, slender metal legs. A plain cup and plate stood at every place, but there were no tools for eating, and no chairs. The people of Noradz, it seemed, ate with their fingers, standing up.

At the far end of the hall, a set of steps led to a raised platform. There another table stood alone. Lief guessed that this was where the Ra-Kacharz would eat, their high position giving them a good view of all that went on below.

Reece showed Lief, Barda, and Jasmine to their table, which was set a little apart from the others. Then he went to join the other Ra-Kacharz, who, as Lief had expected, were all standing at the table on the platform, facing the crowd.

When he had taken his place in the center, Reece lifted his gloved hands and surveyed the room. “Noradzeer!” he called. He swept his hands from shoulders to hips.

“Noradzeer!” echoed the people.

With one movement, all the Ra-Kacharz pulled away the cloth that swathed their mouths and noses. Immediately, gongs sounded once more, and more people in black began entering the hall, carrying huge, covered serving platters.

“I cannot think of a more uncomfortable way to eat!” Jasmine whispered. She was the smallest person in the room, and the tabletop barely reached her chin.

A serving girl came to their table and put down her burden, her hands trembling. Her light blue eyes were scared. Serving the strangers was plainly frightening for her.

“Are there no children in Noradz?” Lief asked her. “The tables are so high.”

“Children eat only in the training room,” the servant said in a low voice. “Children must learn the holy ways before they can grow to take their places in the hall. Noradzeer.”

She removed the cover from the serving platter and Lief, Jasmine, and Barda gasped. The platter was divided into three parts. The largest held an array of tiny sausages and other meats, threaded on wooden sticks with many vegetables of every shape and color. The second was piled with golden, savory pastries and soft, white rolls. The third and smallest was filled with preserved fruits, little pink-iced cakes covered with sugar flowers, and strange-looking round, brown sweets.

Barda picked up one of the sweets and stared at it, as if amazed. “Can this be — chocolate?” he exclaimed. He popped the sweet into his mouth and closed his eyes. “It is!” he murmured blissfully. “Why, I have not tasted chocolate since I was a Palace guard! Over sixteen years!”

Lief had never seen such luxurious food in his life, and suddenly, despite everything, he felt ravenous. He picked up one of the sticks and began chewing at the meat and vegetables. The food was so delicious! Like nothing he had ever tasted before.

“This is so good!” he murmured to the serving girl, with his mouth full. She gazed at him, pleased but a little confused. Plainly, she was used to the food of Noradz, and did not know any other way of eating.

Nervously she stretched out her hand to take the heavy cover from the table. As she lifted it over the serving platter, her fingers trembled and the cover’s edge caught one of the bread rolls, and knocked it from its place. The bread rolled onto the table and, before she or Lief could catch it, bounced onto the floor.

The girl screamed — a high, piercing scream of terror. At the same moment there was a cry of rage from the high table. Everyone in the room froze.

“Food is spilled!” roared the Ra-Kacharz as one. “Pick it up! Seize the offender! Seize Tira!”

Several people from the table nearest the guests spun around. One of them darted to the fallen bread and picked it up, holding it high. The others seized the serving girl. She screamed again as they began to drag her towards the high table.

Reece moved towards the steps, uncoiling his whip. “Tira spilled food upon the ground,” he droned. “Spilt food is evil. Noradzeer. The evil must be driven out by one hundred strokes of the whip. Noradzeer.”

“Noradzeer!” echoed the black-clad people around the tables. They watched as Tira, sobbing in fear, was cast down at Reece’s feet. He raised the whip …

“No!” Lief darted out from his table. “Do not punish her! It was me! I did it!”

“You?” thundered Reece, lowering the whip.

“Yes!” called Lief. “I caused the food to fall. I am sorry.” He knew that it was foolhardy to take the blame. But whatever the strange customs of these people, he could not bear for the girl to be punished for a simple accident.

The other Ra-Kacharz were muttering together. The one nearest Reece moved to his side and said something to him. There was a moment’s stillness, broken only by the sobbing of the fallen girl. Then Reece faced Lief once more.

“You are a stranger, and unclean,” he said. “You do not know our ways. The Nine have decided that you are to be spared punishment.”

His voice was harsh. Clearly, he did not approve of this decision, but had been outvoted by the rest.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Lief sidled back to his table as Tira scrambled from the ground and ran, stumbling, from the room.

Barda and Jasmine greeted him with raised eyebrows. “That was a near thing,” Barda muttered.

“It was a risk worth taking,” Lief answered lightly, though his heart was still thudding at his near escape. “It was a fair chance that they would not punish a stranger as they would punish one of their own — at least on the first occasion.”