Deltora Quest #2: The Lake of Tears (4 page)

N
ij and Doj led the three companions into a large, bright kitchen with a stone floor. Polished pots and pans hung from hooks above the big fuel stove and a large table stood in the center of the room. It reminded Lief of the kitchen in the forge, and he would have been happy to stay there — especially as, like Barda and Jasmine, he was wet and muddy.

But Nij and Doj seemed shocked at the idea of their guests sitting in the kitchen, and bustled them into a cosy sitting room beyond. Here an open fire burned, and there were comfortable-looking easy chairs and a woven carpet on the floor.

With many nods and smiles, Nij gave Jasmine, Lief, and Barda rugs to wrap themselves in, and made them sit by the fire. Then she and Doj rushed away again, making signs to say they would return.

Soon Lief could hear clattering and murmuring in the kitchen. He guessed that the two old people were heating water for baths and perhaps preparing a meal.
“Retaw liob,”
Nij was saying busily. And Doj was laughing as he worked.
“Noos taem hserf! Noos taem hserf!”
he was chanting in a singsong voice.

Lief’s heart warmed. Whatever these people had, they would give to help the strangers in trouble.

“They are very kind,” he said lazily. He felt relaxed for the first time in days. The fire was cheery, and the rug around his shoulders was comforting. The room, too, made him feel at home. There was a jug of yellow daisies on the mantelpiece — daisies exactly like the ones that grew wild by the forge gate. Over the fireplace hung a framed piece of embroidery, no doubt made by Nij’s own hands.

“Yes, they are very good,” murmured Barda. “It is for people such as these that we wish to save Deltora.”

Jasmine sniffed. Lief glanced at her and wondered at the restless look on her face. Then he realized that, of course, she had never been inside a house like this, never
met ordinary people like Nij and Doj before. She had spent her life in the Forests, among trees, under the sky. No wonder she felt uncomfortable here, instead of at peace as he and Barda did.

Filli was hunched on Jasmine’s shoulder with his paws over his eyes. He was not happy, either, though Nij and Doj had made him welcome, smiling and trying to stroke him.

“Lief,” Jasmine whispered, as she saw him looking at her. “Is the Belt safe? Is the topaz still in place?”

Lief realized with a small shock that he had forgotten all about the Belt until this moment. He felt for it, and was relieved to find that it was still securely fixed around his waist.

He lifted up his filthy shirt to look at it. Its steel links were clogged with mud and slime. The topaz was thickly coated, its golden lights hidden. With his fingers he began to clean the gem of the worst of the murky grime. It seemed wrong that it should be so fouled.

His work stopped abruptly as Doj hurried in from the kitchen, carrying a tray. Lief cursed his own carelessness. The rug which was wrapped around him hid the Belt from the doorway, but this was just a fortunate chance. Nij and Doj were kind and good, but it was vital that the quest for the Belt of Deltora was revealed to as few people as possible. He should have taken more care.

He sat perfectly still, his head bent and his hands clasped over the topaz, while Doj set down the tray, which was loaded with drinks and a plate of small cakes.

“Here, scum!”
said Doj.
“Enjoy your last meal on earth.”

Lief’s scalp prickled with shock. Was he hearing things? Was he dreaming? He stole a look at Barda and saw that he was smiling pleasantly. Jasmine, too, seemed undisturbed.

He felt a nudge on his arm and looked up. Doj was smiling at him, handing him a cup of what looked like sweetplum juice. But with a thrill of horror Lief saw that the old man’s face was horribly changed. The skin was mottled and covered in lumps and sores. The eyes were yellow, flat, and cold, like snake’s eyes, over a nose that was just two flaring black holes. The grinning mouth was greedy and cruel, with crooked metal spikes for teeth and a fat blue tongue that crept out and licked at swollen lips.

Lief shrieked aloud and cowered back.

“Lief, what is the matter?” cried Jasmine, alarmed.

“What are you thinking of?” growled Barda at the same moment, glancing in an embarrassed way at the horrible monster who was still holding out the cup.

The blood was pounding in Lief’s head. He could hardly breathe, but his mind was racing. Plainly, his friends were not seeing what he was seeing. To them,
Doj was still the kindly old man that Lief had once believed him to be.

But that vision had been a lie — an illusion, created by some evil magic. Lief knew that now. He also knew that at all costs the hideous being must not find out that for him, at least, the spell had been broken.

He clutched at the topaz beneath his shirt and forced himself to smile and nod. “I — was dozing,” he stammered. “I — woke with a shock. I am sorry.” He mimed sleeping and waking suddenly, and pretended to laugh at himself.

Doj laughed, too. And it was horrible to see his bared, shining teeth, and his dripping mouth gaping wide.

He handed the cup to Lief and walked back towards the kitchen.
“Reverof peels nac uoy noos,”
he said, at the door. Again he licked his lips. And again Lief heard the words for what they really were:
“Soon you can sleep forever.”

The words were not a strange language, but ordinary words turned backwards! His head whirling, phrases and comments coming back to him, Lief saw that every sentence Doj and Nij had said had been turned backwards.

In a daze of horror he watched Doj leave the room. He heard him begin clattering round in the kitchen with Nij, raising his voice in the same sing-song chant:
“Noos taem hserf, noos taem hserf!”

“Fresh meat soon, fresh meat soon!”

Lief’s whole body shuddered as if blasted by an icy wind. He swung round to Jasmine and Barda, and as he did he saw the living room as it really was.

It was a grim, dark cell. The walls were stone, dripping with greasy water. The soft carpet was made of the skins of small animals, roughly sewn together. But the embroidery over the mantelpiece was still complete. For the first time he stared at it with clear eyes:

“Lief, what is the matter?”

He tore his eyes away from the terrible words and looked at Jasmine. She was watching him in puzzlement, a cup halfway to her lips.

“Do — do not drink that!” Lief managed to say.

Jasmine frowned. “I am thirsty!” she protested, and lifted the cup.

Desperately, Lief struck it from her hand and it fell to the floor. Jasmine sprang up with a cry of anger.

“Be still!” he hissed. “You do not understand. There is danger here. The drink — who knows what is in it!”

“Are you mad, Lief?” yawned Barda. “It is delicious!” He was leaning back on the stinking animal skins. His eyes were partly closed.

Lief shook his arm frantically, realizing with a sinking heart that the big man had already drunk half of his drink. “Barda, get up!” he begged. “They are trying to drug us! Already you feel the drug’s effects.”

“Nonsense,” drawled Barda. “Never have I seen such kindly people as Nij and Doj. Are they husband and wife, do you think, or brother and sister?”

Nij. Doj
… Suddenly the names turned themselves around in Lief’s head and he saw them, too, for what they really were.

“They are brother and sister,” he said grimly. “Their names are not Nij and Doj, but Jin and Jod. They are two of the sorceress Thaegan’s children. They were named in that rhyme the guardian of the bridge repeated to me. They are monsters! When we are asleep they will kill us — and then eat us!”

“That is a poor joke, Lief,” Jasmine frowned.

And Barda just blinked in concern. He looked around the room, and Lief knew that all he was seeing was homely comfort. Barda’s own eyes were telling him that fear had turned his companion’s wits.

“Noos taem hserf, noos taem hserf!”
chanted the monster Jod in the kitchen. And his sister joined in, her voice raised over the sound of a sharpening knife.
“Wets ylevol! Wets ylevol!”

Barda smiled sleepily. “Hear how they sing at their
work?” he said, leaning over and patting Lief’s arm. “How could you think they were anything other than what they seem? Rest, now. You will be feeling better soon.”

Lief shook his head desperately. What was he going to do?

L
ief knew that he had to break the spell that was blinding Barda and Jasmine.

But how was he to do it? He did not understand how he himself had come to understand the truth. It had happened so suddenly. He had been cleaning the topaz when Doj came in and —

The topaz!

Some half-remembered sentences from his father’s little blue book,
The Belt of Deltora
, drifted into his head.

He closed his eyes, concentrating hard, till he saw the page of the book in his mind.

†
The topaz is a powerful gem, and its strength increases as the moon grows full. The topaz protects its wearer from the terrors of the night. It has the power to open doors into the spirit world. It strengthens and clears the mind …

It strengthens and clears the mind!

Lief grasped the topaz tightly as his thoughts raced. He remembered that his hand had been on the topaz when he managed to meet the last test set by the guardian of the bridge. He had been cleaning the topaz when he realized Doj was not what he seemed.

The golden gem was the key!

Without bothering to explain, he grabbed Barda’s hand, and Jasmine’s, and pulled them forward until they touched the topaz.

Their gasps of astonishment and annoyance changed almost instantly to smothered shrieks of horror. Their eyes bulged as they looked around the room — saw, at last, what Lief was seeing, and heard the words floating from the kitchen.

“Fresh meat soon! Fresh meat soon!”

“Lovely stew! Lovely stew!”

“I did not like them, or their house,” hissed Jasmine. “And Filli felt the same. But I thought it was because we had grown up in the Forests, and did not know how people in the world behaved.”

“I —” Barda swallowed, and brushed his hand over his forehead. “How could I have been so blind?”

“We were all blinded by magic,” Lief whispered. “But the topaz has strengthened and cleared our minds so that we can resist the spell.”

Barda shook his head. “I thought it was strange that the Grey Guards did not search for us after they lost sight of us on the trail,” he muttered. “Now I understand
it. They must have guessed where we were hiding. They knew we would at last wander to the quicksand and be caught by Jin and Jod. No wonder they laughed as they went away.”

“Jin and Jod are clumsy and slow,” said Lief. “If they were not, they would not need magic or a sleeping drug to catch their victims. We have a chance …”

“If we can find a way out.” Jasmine darted away and began searching the walls of the cell, running her fingers over the dripping stones.

Barda staggered to his feet and tried to follow, but stumbled and caught Lief’s arm to steady himself. The big man was swaying and very pale.

“It is their accursed drink,” he mumbled. “I did not take enough to put me to sleep, but it has weakened me, I fear.”

They heard Jasmine hissing their names. She was beckoning from the other side of the room. As quickly as they could, Barda and Lief hurried over to her.

She had found a door. It had been made to look like part of the wall. Only a narrow crack showed its outline. Filled with frantic hope, they pushed their fingers into the crack and tugged.

The door swung open without noise. They looked beyond it, and their hopes died.

The door did not lead to a way out, but to a storeroom piled to the roof with a tangled mass of possessions. There were clothes of every size and type, musty and
stained with damp. There were rusted pieces of armor, helmets, and shields. There were swords and daggers, dull with neglect and cluttered together in a towering pile. There were two chests overflowing with jewels, and two more heaped with gold and silver coins.

The three companions stared in horror, realizing that these were the possessions of all the travelers trapped and killed by Jin and Jod in the past. No weapon had been strong enough, no fighter clever enough, to defeat them.

“The broken sign has lured many into the quicksand,” breathed Jasmine.

Lief nodded grimly. “It is a neat trap. The monsters hear the bell ring, and run down to pull out whoever has fallen in. Their victims are grateful, and also see only what Jin and Jod want them to see. So they do not fight them, but come tamely up to the house …”

“To be drugged, killed, and eaten,” said Barda, gritting his teeth. “As nearly happened to us.”

“And as still might,” Jasmine reminded him, “if we do not find a way out of here!”

And at that moment, they heard the faint clanging of the bell. Someone else had read the broken sign. Someone else was about to be caught in the quicksand trap.

For a single moment they stood, frozen. Then Lief’s mind began to work again. “Back to the fireplace!” he hissed. “Lie down! Pretend to be —”

He did not have to finish. His companions understood and were already hurrying back to their places, emptying the drugged juice from their cups and throwing themselves down on the floor.

“Doj, team erom!”
they heard Jin screech from the kitchen.
“Kooh eht teg!”

“Tsaef a!”
gibbered her brother excitedly.
“Tey peelsa srehto eht era?”
There was the clatter of a lid being thrown back on a pot and the sound of running footsteps.

Like Jasmine and Barda, Lief was pretending to be unconscious when Jin came in to check on them. He did not stir when he felt her foot nudge him. But as she grunted with satisfaction and moved away he opened his eyes to slits and looked at her through his eyelashes.

She had turned and was lumbering quickly towards the door. He could only see a humped mass of sickly green-white flesh covered in black bristles, and the back of a bald head from which sprouted three stubby horns. He could not see her face, but of that he was very glad.

“Efink eht rof ydaer era yeht!”
she bellowed as she left the cell, slamming the door after her. Shuddering, Lief heard her footsteps in the kitchen and the sound of another slamming door. Then there was silence. She and her brother had both left the house.

“So we are ready for the knife, are we? And now they have caught another poor wretch in their trap!”
muttered Barda, clambering unsteadily to his feet and hurrying to the door with the others.

“It must be the Ralad man,” hissed Jasmine. She ran into the kitchen, with the others close behind.

Now that the spell had been broken, they saw the kitchen with new eyes. It was dark, stinking, and filthy. The stone floor was caked with ancient grime. Old bones lay scattered everywhere. In the darkest corner there was a small bed of moldy straw. By the look of the frayed rope attached to a ring on the wall above it, some sort of pet had slept there until quite recently, when it had chewed its way to freedom.

The companions only glanced at all these things. Their attention was fixed on the great pot of water bubbling under its lid on the stove, the huge pile of roughly sliced onions, and the two long, sharpened knives lying ready on the greasy table.

Lief stared, his stomach churning. Then he jumped as his ears, sharpened by fear, picked up a small, stealthy sound from deep within the house. Someone — or something — was moving.

His companions had heard it, too. “Out!” hissed Barda. “Make haste!”

They crept into the open, gasping with relief as finally they were able to breathe in fresh, clean air. They looked around cautiously.

The sweet little cottage they thought they had seen was in fact a grim, hulking square of white stones with
no windows. The flower gardens were nothing but beds of onions and thistles. Rough grass stretched on all sides, leading always to the bright green band that marked the quicksand.

In the distance, they could see Jin and Jod. Shouting angrily at one another, they were digging their long pole into a patch of quicksand where something had fallen in, disturbing the green slime before sinking out of sight.

A wave of sadness swept over Lief.

“They were not in time to save him. He has gone under,” said Barda, his face showing his pain.

“Very well, then,” snapped Jasmine. “We have nothing to stay for. So why are we standing here, when at any moment they could turn and see us?”

Lief glanced at her. She returned his gaze defiantly, her lips pressed tightly together and her chin raised. Then she turned and began walking quickly around the house, out of sight.

Lief helped Barda to follow her.

The back of the house was just the same as the front, with a single door and no windows. On all sides, bare grass stretched away, ending in the same band of bright green. Beyond, there was forest. But the quicksand circled the whole of Jin and Jod’s domain like a moat.

“There must be a way across!” muttered Lief. “I cannot believe that they never leave this place.”

Jasmine was scanning the green band with narrowed eyes. Suddenly, she pointed to a slightly mottled-looking section almost opposite the house. The place was marked by a huge rock on the bank. “There!” she exclaimed, and began running.