Deltora Quest #7: The Valley of the Lost Read Online Free Page B

hopeless, were fixed on the stone.
    Words were carved on the marble. The jagged crack ran through them like a wound:

L ief stared at the dead and broken rock, his heart sinking as at last he remembered the words from The Belt of Deltora that described the powers of the emerald.
     
    † The emerald, symbol of honor, dulls in the presence of evil, and when a vow is broken.
     
    He needed no further proof of what had happened. “Tora broke its vow,” he murmured. “But why? Why?”
    With a groan of frustration and disappointment, Barda moved away. But Lief and Jasmine could not follow him. Not yet.
    Lief put his hand upon Dain’s shoulder. “Get up, Dain,” he said quietly. “There is nothing for you here. Nothing for any of us. Tora is empty. Everything is preserved by enchantment, but it is empty of life. It has beenso, I think, for a very long time. That is why the lake silted up, and the city was cut off from the river.”
    But Dain shook his head miserably. “It cannot be,” he whispered. “I have waited so long.” His face was drawn and deeply shadowed. His whole body trembled.
    Jasmine knelt beside him. “Dain, why did you have to come to Tora? Tell us the truth!”
    Dain’s voice was very low. “I thought my parents were here. Mother told me, always, that if ever we were separated, they would meet me in Tora. She said she had family here, and they would shelter us.”
    His fists clenched. “I told Doom this, a year ago, when he found me left for dead by the bandits who attacked our farm. He said to tell no one, because when my parents arrived in Tora they would be in danger if it became known that their son was with the Resistance.”
    “How could it become known?” Lief demanded.
    “Doom fears there is a spy in our camp. At least — that is what he told me.” Dain looked up at the ruined stone, his eyes bitter. “But he also told me that Tora was filled with spies, and overrun by Grey Guards and Ols. He was lying. All the time he delayed me, making false promises, he knew that the city was deserted, and that my hopes for it were false.”
    He took a deep, shuddering breath. “I will never go back to the stronghold. Never.”
    He bowed his head and did not raise it again. Lief looked at him. Dimly he realized that at one time he might have been irritated because Dain blamed Doomfor all his troubles. For, after all, Dain had not been Doom’s prisoner. He could at anytime have left the Resistance and travelled to Tora alone.
    But Lief did not feel irritated now. Only filled with a calm regret. Briefly he wondered about that.
    “Look here!”
    Barda’s voice sounded strange. Lief looked up and saw that his friend had climbed the steps of the great hall. Behind him, graceful white columns reached for the sky, but he was looking down, at the open, carved box in his hands.
    “Go,” said Jasmine in a low voice. “I will stay here.”
    Lief rose, crossed the square, and climbed the steps. Barda held out the box for him to see. Inside were countless small rolls of parchment. Lief picked one out, and unrolled it.

    Lief scrambled through the box, picking up other rolls and looking at them. They were all the same, except for the signatures. Some were signed by Queen Lilia, others by King Alton, Endon’s father. Still others bore the name of Endon himself.
    “These are like the messages Father showed me,” said Lief dully. “The messages the people of Del received when they sent requests and complaints to the king.”
    Barda nodded. “It seems that the Torans also sent requests and complaints, and received the same replies. I imagine that like the people of Del they felt they had been abandoned. So when the last message came …”
    He handed Lief two crumpled scraps of paper. “These were in the box also,” he said heavily. “On top of all the rest.”
    The scraps were the two halves of a note. Lief fitted the halves together and read the hastily scribbled message.

    Lief stared at the note.