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

message aloud.
    “Doom guessed our goal. Betrayed us!” Jasmine cried.
    Lief forced his stiff lips to move. “It may not be too late. Perhaps the pirates did not find the gem. Perhaps the Beast in the Maze killed them.”
    “I fear that is too much to hope for.” Barda had picked up another object from the sand. It was a small box made of pearl shell. Its hinges had been broken as if rough, greedy hands had torn them apart.
    “They have the gem,” Barda said. “They have the gem, and they have the Belt. We are too late. It is over.”
    “No! We must give chase! We must find them!” Lief crumpled the paper in his hand.
    “Do not deceive yourself,” said Barda heavily. “With such riches in their hands, the pirates would have no need to return to the river. By now they will be far out to sea, putting as much distance between Doom and themselves as possible, and looking for strangers with whom to trade. They are out of our reach.”
    He put a gentle hand on Lief’s shoulder. “It is a bitter blow, but we must face it,” he said. “Our quest is over. We must return to Del.” He kicked at the tumbled sand. “Think of this, Lief. Now your parents can be freed. You can go to the palace and show yourself — pretend that you just ran away, as your father said.”
    Our quest is over. Face it. Slowly, Lief nodded. Drearily, he thought of Dain, now beyond help.
    Jasmine had been very silent. Lief glanced at her. She was standing on the other side of the cave, utterly still. Kree sat like a carved statue on her arm. Jasmine’s face was in shadow, but in her hand something gleamed. Lief went cold.
    Jasmine had drawn her dagger. But why? And why was she standing so still? As though she was afraid to move. Afraid to startle …
    He began to turn. And at once, like a snake striking, someone who had crept up behind him lunged forward. Barda flung up his arms with a bellow of agony as a great sword plunged home, spearing him through the chest.
    Lief heard his own cry echoing around the cave. His ears ringing, his heart wrung, he spun around, dagger in hand, ready to leap at the attacker.
    And then his jaw dropped. For standing there, panting and haggard, pulling his bloodstained sword from the falling body, was another Barda.

W ildly, Lief swung to look at the figure now collapsed on the ground. His stomach heaved as he saw the face dissolving, the body collapsing into a writhing mass. The long, crooked hands of the pink-haired lady’s dancing partner pushed out of the whiteness, to be quickly followed by the head of a white water bird and many other eyes and mouths that Lief did not recognize.
    “Ol!” he hissed.
    “Of course!” Barda’s voice rumbled behind him. “How could you have been deceived?”
    Hearing that gloriously familiar, irritable growl, Lief dropped the dagger with a cry of joy and flung his arms around Barda’s shoulders.
    “Steady,” said the big man uncomfortably. But he did not pull away.
    “When I saw you at the cave entrance, I could not believe it!” Jasmine had bounced over to Barda and was embracing him in her turn. “How did this happen?”
    Barda shrugged. “The Ol thought I was dead. But I am not killed so easily. I crawled ashore and took much time to regain strength enough to follow your tracks.”
    He shook his head. “One set of tracks puzzled me. But when I reached here, I understood.” He grimaced with distaste at the remains of the Ol, now just a bubbling pool on the cave floor.
    “I should have known!” said Lief. “You — I mean, it — spoke of how we had escaped from pirates and an Ol! Yet you had gone over the side, Barda, before the Ol that was the pink-haired woman revealed itself. How could you have known about it?”
    “And no wonder it was so quiet and gentle!” Jasmine exclaimed. “It could copy your appearance and voice, and learn about us from what we said. But it did not know how to behave. It had not had time to learn what you were really