The Shadowlands Read Online Free Page B

through his tousled hair in despair. ‘Three of them,’ he muttered under his breath. ‘Three young hot-heads. By the heavens, were not two bad enough?’

    Gradually the emerald light failed and within an hour the fleet was paddling through a grim realm of grey. They were far beyond the scope of Doran’s map now. Beyond Deltora’s border.
    When they looked up, all they saw was swirling darkness. They knew that far above them towered the treacherous peaks that clustered behind Dread Mountain—iron-hard rock filled with dank, secret caves where hideous beasts like the giant toad Gellick thrived.
    The boat was moving more slowly, and the rugged faces of the leech-gatherers had become strained and watchful.
    Ahead loomed an ink-black shadow. The cavern beneath the Shadowlands.
    ‘When are they going to leave us?’ Jasmine murmured.
    ‘We must go to the edge of the Shadow,’ one of the leech-gatherers said unexpectedly, without turning around. ‘So the Piper says. And there we stop, praise be to Keras, and send you up, to the evil place above.’
    ‘Send us up?’ Lief blinked, confused. He had imagined that the Kerons were going to show them a secret way to the surface. But this sounded like…
    ‘The magic of seven may not be needed for the task,’ said the leech-gatherer, ‘but we thought it best to be on the safe side. Who knows how deep the rock is, up above. For all your strange ideas, we would not want you caught mid-ways, would we now?’
    His companion chuckled grimly.
    Lief felt Jasmine shudder, and knew that she had been gripped, as he had, by a nightmarish vision of being trapped in the midst of solid rock.
    ‘Do not fear,’ said Emlis. ‘Our ancestors sent Doran to the surface without harm many times.’
    ‘That was long ago,’ muttered Barda, who was looking rather sick. ‘And I presume Doran was not sent into the Shadowlands.’
    ‘Oh, no!’ Emlis agreed. ‘Doran always left the caverns in a place to the west of Keras. He said that in the land above, just at that spot, there was a great waterway, and boats to help him make the journey home.’
    ‘The River Tor!’ Lief exclaimed. ‘So that was how Doran did it so secretly. He would reappear in the brush below Dread Mountain. Then he would walk down to the river and wait for a boat. There would not have been so many pirates then.’
    ‘Or Ols,’ said Jasmine. Kree squawked nervously on her shoulder, but she did not turn to him. Her eyes were fixed on the mass of darkness looming before them.
    The Shadowlands. Soon, very soon, she would be able to begin the search for Faith, her lost sister. And Lief and Barda would be beside her.
    Jasmine had not forgiven Lief for trying to keep knowledge of Faith hidden from her. But after all they had been through together since entering the caverns, her anger had lost its bitter edge. Now she felt sure that Lief had kept Faith a secret only out of a desperate wish to keep her, Jasmine, from harm.
    He was wrong to deceive me, Jasmine thought. But he did it for reasons he thought were good.
    Her eyes stared, unfocused, at the growing Shadow ahead. Waiting for Lief in Del was his bride-to-be—that well-read, noble Toran girl who would make a fitting queen, and one day bear a child to wear the Belt of Deltora after Lief. But Jasmine was here with Lief now. And she was his friend—his true friend.
    And that is enough, Jasmine told herself. That is how it must be. For what do I know of palaces and politeness and fine clothes? Nothing at all, and nor do I want to. Lief knows that.
    Filli whimpered softly beneath her collar, and she raised a hand to comfort him, unconsciously drawing her own comfort from his warmth.
    ‘The first time Doran came to the caverns, he did not reach Keras,’ Emlis was chattering meanwhile to Barda. ‘Some Plumes found him drowning in the topaz sea. They saved him, but sent him straight back to the surface! That is how stupid Plumes are!’
    He broke off and glanced guiltily at