Read Deltora Quest #6: The Maze of the Beast for Free Online

threatened, whatever destruction he caused.
    “You do know something of Tora, then!” Dain was exclaiming, his face brightening.
    “Not as it is now,” Lief said slowly. “I know only the ancient stories. No news has reached Del from the west since before I was born.”
    “And perhaps long before that,” Barda put in. He met Dain’s anxious eyes. “I think, perhaps, that it is not only the dangers of Tora that cause Doom to forbid it to his people. It is also Tora’s loyalty to the crown. Doom wants no part of that. He despises the memory of the royal family. Is that not so?”
    Dain’s shoulders slumped. “It is so,” he admitted. “And Doom wants no part of Tora’s magic, either. He says we depended on magic to save us in the past, and that it failed us. He says that we must learn to stand on our own feet, and fight the Shadow Lord with cunning, strength, and weapons. But I —”
    “You know that is not enough,” Lief broke in. “And it is you who are right, Dain. The Enemy’s power was gained by sorcery. Ordinary strength, however determined, may undo some of his evil work, but can never defeat him for good.”
    Jasmine had been listening, looking from one speaker to another. Now she spoke.
    “Ordinary strength may not defeat the Shadow Lord. But ordinary sense tells us how we must proceed from here. Plainly, we are about to travel into territorythe Enemy is watching closely. There will be many eyes watching for the group they have been told about — a man, a boy — and a wild girl with a black bird.”
    She said the last words with a bitter smile.
    Lief tried to interrupt, but she held up her hand to stop him. “We must separate, if we are not to be noticed,” she said. “And since Kree and I are the ones who make our group obvious, we are the ones who must take another path.”
    She pulled on her pack. Kree flew to perch on her arm. Filli chattered fearfully.
    “Jasmine, no!” Lief exclaimed.
    “Do not leave us!” cried Dain at the same moment.
    Jasmine turned to Barda. “I am right, am I not?” she demanded. “Tell them!”
    The big man hesitated, but his grieved face showed that he knew her reasoning was sound.
    She nodded briskly. “Then that is settled. All being well, we will meet on the coast, at the river’s end.”
    With that, she lifted a hand in farewell and moved quickly off into the darkness. With a cry Lief started after her. But she did not answer his call, and he could not catch her. In moments she was just a flickering shadow among the trees. Then she was gone.

B arda, Lief, and Dain were following the river, creeping through the trees that ran along its banks.
    Many days had passed since Jasmine had left them, and though Lief watched constantly for signs of her, so far he had seen nothing. It was strange and dull to be travelling without her, without Filli’s soft chatter in the background and Kree squawking above their heads. Dain, though always dependable in time of trouble, could not take her place.
    Lief was alarmed, too, to realize how much he and Barda had grown to depend on Jasmine’s sharp eyes and hearing to warn them of approaching danger. For there was danger in plenty. Twice the companions had been forced to fight for their lives when bandits took them by surprise, leaping down on them from the trees. Four times they had hidden just in time as pirate boats sailedby — large, battered wooden craft patched with all manner of odd bits and pieces, some of them with sails made of scraps of cloth roughly sewn together.
    The ruffians who hoisted the sails, lay sleeping on the rough boards, or plied the long oars, were as ill-assorted as the materials that made their craft. They were of every size, color, and shape, but all had a savage, hungry look. Their clothes were ragged and filthy and their hair wild, but the knives, swords, and axes that hung from their belts gleamed sharp and bright in the sun.
    A lone figure swayed at the top of every mast, strapped in