Deltora Quest #5: Dread Mountain Read Online Free PDF Page A

costs.
    Fallow was examining the despairing face closely. Was he deceived or not?
    “It is said that a boy of about your son’s age is one of the three criminals who are roving the land, trying to overturn the Master’s plans,” he said slowly. “With him are a girl and a grown man. A black bird flies with them.”
    “Why are you telling me this?” The man on the floor moved restlessly. He seemed to be merely impatient. But Lief, who knew him so well, could see that he had been listening intently. No doubt he was wondering furiously about this mention of a girl and a black bird. He knew nothing of Jasmine and Kree, or what had happened in the Forests of Silence.
    “This boy,” Fallow went on, “could be your son. You are crippled, and may have sent him on some useless quest in your place. The man — could be Endon.”
    Lief’s father laughed. The laugh sounded completely natural. As of course it would, Lief thought. It was absurd to think of Barda being mistaken for the delicate, cautious King Endon.
    Fallow’s thin lips set in a hard line. He lowered the flame of the torch till it flickered dangerously in front of the laughing man’s eyes.
    “Take good care, Jarred,” he snarled. “Do not try my patience too far. Your life is in my hands. And not only yours.”
    The laughing stopped. Lief ground his teeth as he saw his father once again bow his head.
    Fallow walked to the door. “I will be back,” he said in a low voice. “Think over what I have said. The next time I come to see you, I will come expecting answers. If you have done what we suspect, mere pain will not make you tell the truth. But perhaps the pain of one you love will be more persuasive.”
    He lifted a fist and thumped on the door. It opened and he went through, banging it behind him. The key turned in the lock.
    “Father!” Lief cried to the figure slumped against the wall. “Father, do not despair. We have four of the gems. And now we are going to Dread Mountain to find the fifth. We are moving as fast as we can!”
    But his father sat motionless, staring unseeing into the darkness. “They are alive,” he whispered. “Alive, and succeeding!”
    His eyes glowed. Chains rattled as he clenched his fists. “Oh, Lief, Barda — good fortune! I am fighting my fight here, as best I can. You must fight yours. My hopes and prayers go with you!”

L ief woke to the sound of voices. It was nearly dawn. Jasmine and Barda were already stirring, taking up their weapons, buckling the canisters of blisters to their belts. Ailsa, Merin, and Bruna were moving back from the spring. Lief lay still, remembering his dream. Though he must have slept for many hours after it was over, every detail was clear in his mind.
    A terrible weight seemed to be pressing him down. It was the weight of his father’s danger and pain, of fear for his mother. Then he remembered his father’s glowing eyes, and those final words.
    I am fighting my fight here, as best I can. You must fight yours …
    Lief sat up, determinedly shaking off the misery.
    “Jarred and Anna always knew that it might come to this.” Barda was standing beside him. His face was grim and drawn.
    “You saw Father?” Lief exclaimed, jumping to his feet. “You too?”
    They picked up their sleeping blankets, shouldered their packs, and began walking together to the spring, talking in low voices. Jasmine followed, listening.
    “I dreamed as soon as I fell asleep,” Barda said. “I knew you must be planning to do the same, Lief, but I wanted to see for myself how Jarred was faring. I learned little, but I saw him. He was sitting against the wall of a dungeon — in chains.” His fists clenched at the memory. “I could do nothing. If only I could have told him —”
    “He knows!” Lief exclaimed. “He knows we are succeeding. It has given him hope.”
    “He could hear you?”
    “No. He found out another way.”
    They had reached the spring. As they breakfasted hastily on dried fruit and