Deltora Quest #5: Dread Mountain Read Online Free Page B

father.
    Lief’s heart thudded. Prandine? King Endon’s chief advisor, the secret servant of the Shadow Lord? But surely he was dead? Surely —
    The man smiled. “Not Prandine, blacksmith,” he jeered. “The one called Prandine fell to his death from the tower of this very palace over sixteen years ago, on the day the Master claimed his kingdom. Prandine was careless — or unlucky. Perhaps you know something about that?”
    “I know nothing.”
    “We shall see. But where one dies, there is always another to take his place. The Master likes this face and form. He chose to repeat it in me. My name is Fallow.”
    “Where is my wife?”
    Lief caught his breath. The thin man sneered.
    “Would it please you to know? Perhaps I will tell you — if you answer my questions.”
    “What questions? Why have we been brought here? We have done nothing wrong.”
    Fallow turned to the door, where the guards stood watching. “Leave us!” he ordered. “I will question the prisoner alone.”
    The guards nodded, and withdrew.
    As soon as the door was firmly closed, the thin man took something from the folds of his robe. A small pale blue book.
    It was The Belt of Deltora , the book Jarred had found hidden in the palace library. The book Lief himself had so often studied as he grew up, and which had taught him so much about the power of the Belt and its gems.
    Lief squirmed to see it in this man’s hands. He longed to snatch it away from Fallow, save his father from this cruel taunting. But he was powerless. All he could do was stand and watch.
    “This book was found in your house, Jarred,” Fallow was saying. “How did it come there?”
    “I do not remember.”
    “Perhaps I can help you. It is known to us. It came from the palace library.”
    “As a young man I lived in the palace. I may have taken it away with me when I left. It was many years ago. I do not know.”
    Fallow tapped the book with bony fingers. The cruel smile never left his face.
    “The Master thinks you have deceived us, Jarred,” he said. “He thinks you kept in contact with your foolish young friend, King Endon, and at the last helped him, his idiot bride, and their unborn brat to escape.”
    Lief’s father shook his head. “Endon was fool enough to believe me a traitor,” he said in a low, even voice. “Endon would never have turned to me for help, nor would I have given it to him.”
    “So we thought. But now we are not so sure. Strange things have been occurring in the kingdom, blacksmith. Things my Master does not like.”
    Lief saw a sudden flash of hope in his father’s downturned eyes. He glanced quickly at Fallow. Had he seen it too?
    He had. His own eyes were gleaming coldly as he went on.
    “Certain allies, valued by the Master, have been viciously killed. Certain — goods — also valued by the Master have been stolen,” Fallow went on. “We suspect that King Endon is still alive. We suspect that he is making some last, useless effort to reclaim his kingdom. What do you know about that?”
    “Nothing. Like everyone else in Del, I believe that Endon is dead. That is what we were told.”
    “Indeed.” Fallow paused. Then he leaned forward so that his face and the lighted torch were very close to the man on the floor. “Where is your son, Jarred?” he spat.
    Lief’s mouth went dry. He watched as his father looked up. His heart ached as he saw the deep lines of exhaustion, pain, and grief on the well-loved face that was so like his own.
    “Lief left our house months ago. The blacksmith’s trade bored him. He preferred running wild with his friends in the city. We do not know where he is. Why do you ask about him? He broke his mother’s heart, and mine.”
    Lief’s own heart swelled at his father’s courage. The voice was high and complaining — the voice of an injured parent, no more. His father, always so truthful, was lying as though he had been born to it, determined to protect his son, and his cause, at all