Deltora Quest #5: Dread Mountain Read Online Free

said.
    Barda shook his head. “You must not.”
    “I must!” Lief insisted angrily. “How can I go on, knowing what I know?”
    “You know nothing but that the forge is empty,” Barda said evenly. “Jarred and Anna could be in the dungeons of the palace in Del. They could be in the Shadowlands. They could be in hiding. Or, as you said before, they could be dead. Wherever they are, you cannot help them. Your duty is here.”
    “Do not speak to me of duty!” Lief shouted. “They are my parents!”
    “They are my friends,” Barda said, still in that same expressionless voice. “My dear and only friends, Lief, since before you were born. I know what they would say to you if they could. They would tell you that our quest is their quest too. They would beg you not to abandon it.”
    Lief’s anger died, leaving dull sadness in its place. He searched Barda’s face and saw the pain behind the grim mask.
    “You are right,” he mumbled. “I am sorry.”
    Barda put a hand on his shoulder. “One thing is clear,” he said. “Time has become of the first importance. We must reach Dread Mountain with all speed.”
    “I cannot see that we can move any faster than we have been doing,” Jasmine put in.
    “On foot we cannot,” Barda agreed. “But I have a plan.” His face was shadowed with grief, but still he managed a small smile. “Why should the Kin dream ofhome, instead of seeing it with their own eyes? Why should we walk, when we can fly?”

    Barda talked to the Kin for a very long time. He argued well. But it was not until sunset that three of them finally agreed to carry the companions to Dread Mountain.
    The three who agreed were Merin, Ailsa, and Bruna. They were among the largest in the group, and all were female, for only the female Kin had pouches in which to carry passengers.
    All three agreed for different reasons: Merin because she was so homesick, Ailsa because she was adventurous, and Bruna because she felt that the Kin owed Lief a debt for trying to save Prin.
    “She is very dear to us all,” Bruna explained. “The only young one to be born to us since we moved here from our Mountain.”
    “This is because we need the Mountain air and the Boolong trees to thrive,” Merin cried. “Here, we just exist. On our Mountain, we can grow and breed. We should have gone back long ago.”
    “Gone back to die? What foolishness you talk, Merin!” snapped the old one, who had been greatly angered by the three’s agreement to go. “If you, Ailsa, and Bruna go back in flesh and blood to Dread Mountain, you will surely be killed. Then there will be three less Kin, and we will have three more deaths to mourn.”
    “What is the use of staying here to die slowly?” snapped Ailsa, lifting her great wings. “With no babiesto carry on our line, we have no future. The Kin are finished. I would rather die quickly, in a good cause, than linger here.”
    “We have our dreams,” Prin’s mother said quietly.
    “I am sick of dreaming!” Ailsa exclaimed.
    “And I cannot dream at all!” squeaked Prin. She ran over to Ailsa and clasped her paws. “Take me with you to the Mountain, Ailsa,” she begged. “Then I too will have seen it. Then I can go with you when you dream.”
    Ailsa shook her head. “You cannot come, Little One. You are too precious. But think of this: you can dream of us. Then you will see where we are, and what we are doing. Will that not be just as good as travelling yourself?”
    Plainly, Prin did not think so, for she began to wail and cry, paying no attention to her mother’s orders and pleadings. At last her mother hurried her away, but even when they were out of sight, the sound of their arguing voices floated back through the trees. The other Kin looked distressed.
    The old one frowned. “You see what you have done?” he mumbled to Barda, Lief, and Jasmine. “We were peaceful and happy here, before you came. Now there is anger between us and Little One is unhappy.”
    “It is not