Free Deltora Quest #6: The Maze of the Beast by Emily Rodda Page A

sand. Wind rushed around his ears. The shore ahead was bare, the headland threatening.
    He, Barda, and Jasmine had been so careful, for so long. They had borne separation, they had crept and hidden. But here, where the Shadow Lord’s servants must surely be watching and waiting, they had no choice but to show themselves.
    There was nowhere to hide. And they no longer had the Belt to warn them of approaching peril.
    Lief glanced at Barda and felt the same pang of dismay that he had felt many times over the past two days. The big man was walking with bowed head, as though he had forgotten that danger might at any time swoop at them from the skies or rise from beneath the sand. He was meekly following Jasmine, who was striding ahead, her eyes darting everywhere.
    The unexpected finding of the pirates’ map, which had given Lief and Jasmine a new burst of energy, seemed to have made Barda thoughtful and withdrawn. Except to urge haste, he had said little as they moved on down the river. While his companions talked of their hopes and fears, he simply listened.
    Plainly, he had something on his mind. Something he would not share. When Lief took risks, he did not complain. When Jasmine stopped to pick up bits and pieces washed up on the riverbank, he said nothing.He was so patient and gentle, in fact, that Lief became uncomfortable, and longed to hear the old, irritable Barda growling once more.
    Jasmine glanced behind her, and Lief saw her forehead crease in a frown as she noticed Barda’s downcast head. Lief ran to catch up with her.
    “Could he be ill?” she whispered. “Or has he simply lost heart?”
    Lief shook his head. “Things have been desperate before, and always he has been a tower of strength. This is different. Perhaps — perhaps he senses the coming of some great disaster.”
    This time it was his turn to look sideways at his companion. And, as he had feared she might, Jasmine snorted and tossed her head. “Barda does not have magic powers! He cannot see into the future! And even if he could, what greater disaster could there be than what has happened already?”
    She looked ahead again, her face grim. They had nearly reached the rocks. Calling Kree to her, she hunched her shoulders against the cold, waiting for Barda to catch up.
    The wind-torn cliff frowned above them. The rocks rose to cruel peaks, then fell away into gaps pitted with dark holes. Waves crashed against them, spattering the companions with spray as they began cautiously to make the slippery crossing. Still there was no sign of the pirates, or of any other enemy.
    How strange, thought Lief uneasily. Why …?
    Then he saw the cave. It gaped in the cliff face just beyond where he was standing — a dark, secret mouth, above the reach of the waves and hidden from both sides by jagged rocks.
    He beckoned to Barda and Jasmine, and silently they all crept to the cave entrance. A cold, dank draught of air sighed into their faces. It was like the breath of the sea — breath tinged with salt and death.
    Filli whimpered from his hiding place under Jasmine’s jacket. She put up a hand to calm him and moved into the dimness.
    Lief and Barda quickly followed. Lief blinked, waiting for his eyes to adjust to the dim light. But even before they had done so, he knew that the cave was empty of life. It would be impossible for any place where a living creature breathed to be so utterly still.
    Yet his skin still prickled as though danger was threatening. Suddenly he heard Jasmine draw a sharp breath, and Barda give a low groan. He snatched the dagger from his waistband …
    And then he saw what his companions had seen before him.
    A gaping hole yawned in the ground — a hole that led to a ghastly darkness. You could see, by the sand piled around it, that it had been dug very recently. There were heavy boot prints everywhere.
    A paper lay half-buried in the sand. Lief picked it up. It was another copy of the pirates’ map.

    His voice shaking, Lief read the