The Shadowlands Read Online Free PDF Page A

Jasmine, but she was still staring fixedly ahead.
    ‘The Plumes thought Doran would forget what had happened,’ Emlis said. ‘But a song they sang as they paddled their boat stayed in his head and made him remember. So he returned. And
this
time he—’
    His eager voice broke off in a squeak.
    Darkness had fallen like a curtain. The water surrounding them was black as night. They could see nothing. They could only hear the sound of the water lapping and the small craft that surrounded their long boat bumping together gently.
    ‘It is time.’ Tirral’s trembling voice floated in the darkness. ‘Now is the last chance for you to change your minds. Will you return with us to Keras, and safety? Lief… Barda… Jasmine…
Emlis
?’
    There was a long pause.
    ‘Very well.’ Tirral’s voice was rigidly controlled now. ‘I have one piece of advice for you, and I urge you to attend to it, for I feel its worth in every bone of my body. Shadows have sunk deep into the soil of Pirra now.Whatever the Plumes and Aurons may think, Pirra is lost forever. It can never be reclaimed.’
    ‘We know this,’ Lief said. ‘And neither the Plumes nor the Aurons expect—’
    ‘I have not finished,’ Tirral snapped, speaking over him. ‘Listen! The Shadow Lord’s power is far greater now than when the Pipe kept him from Pirran soil. Played well or ill, the Pipe will stay his hand only for a time, and only if he is taken by surprise. Keep its magic for when it is most needed.’
    ‘We will,’ Lief, Barda and Jasmine murmured together.
    ‘There is nothing to do, then, but to wish you well,’ said Tirral from the darkness. ‘Put your arms about one another. Close your eyes. Think of nothing.’
    Feeling as though he was in a dream, Lief moved into the centre of the boat. He knelt down on the hard, wet boards, spread his arms wide and gripped his companions tightly. He bent his head, forced his mind to go blank.
    ‘Good fortune, cousins.’ The rough voice of one of the leech-gatherers rumbled low in the silence. Then…
    Cold, freezing cold. Rushing darkness. Sick dizziness, unbearable…
    There was a sudden, terrifying stillness. A bleak, bitter smell. A rapid, thumping sound, very close, mingled with the moaning wail of wind. And Lief opened his stinging eyes, took his first, gasping breath, in the Shadowlands.

5 – In the Shadowlands
    L ief lay very still, slowly realising that the thumping sound he was hearing was the pounding of his own heart. He was sprawled face down on hard earth. Wind was sweeping over him, a draught that seemed neither hot nor cold, carrying with it the bitter smell he had noticed before.
    Cautiously he raised his head, blinking in the sullen light. Jasmine was crouching beside him, Kree on her shoulder. Barda was crawling to his feet not far away. Emlis, swathed in his cloak, was still on the ground, curled in a small ball.
    With a chill Lief realised that they were in the open, on a windswept plain pocked with gaping craters. Barren white clay, as parched and cracked as a dry river bed, stretched in front of them as far as the eye could see. Thick grey clouds boiled low overhead, hiding the sun.
    The land was dead. Dead as bleached, white bones.
    Lief’s eyes burned as words from
The Tale of thePirran Pipe
sprang unbidden into his mind.
    Long, long ago, beyond the Mountains, there was a green Land called Pirra, where the breezes breathed magic…
    Pirra, once a land of beauty, sunshine and flowers. The ancient home of the Kerons, the Plumes and the Aurons. Now… this wasteland.
    And this is what Deltora might have been. Still might be. If you were wrong, Lief. If you were wrong…
    Lief shook his head, trying to shut out the voice in his mind, the tormenting voice of his own conscience. But it would not stop.
    You should have let Jasmine go. You should have remained in Del. That was your duty. Your duty…
    Jasmine was pulling at his arm. ‘Lief! We must take cover, quickly,’ she hissed.