Author's Note: This is my first Deltora Quest fic so go easy on me. I do believe it is well written but not that well written. Well, it's the best I could do in the situations in this chapter. This fic is as canon as can be so everything is at is after Sister of the South finished. By the way, this story will probably, well I'm sure that it will be a 6 series fic.I hope you all like this and if you do and even if you don't leave me a review telling me what you like or don't like about the story. No flames please.
Summary: Many years have past since the Shadow Lords last defeat. The Shadow Lord has one last plan. One plan that will the bring the end of him... Or the end of Deltora... forever.
Disclaimer: I am not Emily Rodda. I do not profit from this story. This story is in no way associated with Scholastic publishing. I do not own any of the characters or Deltora, I merely own the plot of this story.
Catherine Attard.
Chapter One - Mysterious Deaths
Lief awoke, his face smeared with sweat. Jasmine slept peacefully beside him. He had once more had the dream he had been having for weeks on end, even though the Belt of Deltora still clung heavily to his waist. He no longer spent much time with his children, Anna, Endon and Jarred and saw his beloved wife only when he entered his sleeping quarters which was mostly after his wife had already entered a deep sleep. The only person who saw him was regularly was Marilen, his cousin who was the palace librarian and the Library was where Lief spent most of his time...
Lief knew that his dreams meant something but he did not know what... but the dread, the evil, the pain within them had to mean something. Lief removed the blanket from his dampened shirt, kissed Jasmine's forehead and left the room without waking her. Lief hurried to the Library on the third floor, he had moved the Library back to its proper home as a favor to Josef, the previous Librarian, even if he was dead. After entering the Library, Lief closed the Library door and locked it behind him. He wished not to be disturbed by visitors today.
He hurried over to Marilen and requested for a book on the meaning of dreams. She climbed off the ladder she was on and moved it along with her to the other side of the Library, climbed it once more and began pulling books at random off the shelves and stopped once she put her hands on a blue leather-bound book that was lettered with the words, Dreams: An Understanding of Life, shivered and handed it to Lief.
It was quite obvious that Marilen had read this book or she would not have a reason to shiver as she laid hands on it. Lief went over to an oak table, took a seat and flipped to the table of contents:
1- Dreams - An Introduction............................................1
2- Dreams - An Understanding........................................12
3- Dreams - A subconscious shadow of our lives.................26
4- Dreams - Prophetic messages within dreams..................42
5- Dreams - An A-Z dictionary of dreams.......................... 60
Lief skipped through the book until he reached page sixty, as he skimmed through the book he saw little passages here and there:
...prophetic dreams are much like seeing the future, many carrying fragments of opals are more likely to have prophetic dreams...
...our dreams are foreshadowed by our subconscious mind, by what we see everyday...
As Lief came upon page sixty of Dreams: An Understanding of Life, he skipped to the page with a large 'D' upon it and searched for the word 'despair'. As soon as Lief came upon the word, his eyes widened and he froze.
despair: if despair is seen in one's dream, it most likely means that one shall start to feel seperated from close friends and family.
This was not Lief had expected to see. No, this could not be. The dream was correct, yes. He had no longer spend time with his family and friends but he expected to read of his land being destroyed by evil - by the Shadow Lord who still lurked in the Shadow Lands regaining his strength. Lief started to bang his head on the table and slowly began to slip away from reality... His eyes slowly shut and remained close as he dreamed...
Lief was surrounded by a thick dead-grey mist that filled his lungs, making it hard to breathe. It coated his body and entered his soul... mind... body... The four stones that he had seen when he entered the land where the four sisters land surrounded him. The stones he saw when he entered Dragon's nest, Shadowgate, The Isle of the Dead and when he reached the Sister of the South in the Palace. The stones filled Lief with despair, they made him fall to his knees and cry and shout the name of the Dragons of Deltora... Veritas. Hopian. Forta. Fortuna. Fidelis. Honora. Joyeu. The names filled him with despair and hate.
The Dragons of Deltora were now surrounding Lief, just like on Dragon's Night. They stared at him, even little Forta who was growing faster than anything Lief had seen. However, their stares filled Lief with hate and at that moment, he hated them, he hated the Dragons of Deltora.
The mighty Fidelis, Dragon of the Topaz roared. Lief's ears wanted to shut down, to not hear the ear splitting roar. The dragon enclosed Lief with it's golden flames and when it's mouth closed Lief was lying on the floor. Black and solid. A creature of the shadows.
Lief began to stir as Marilen poked and prodded him. She was gazing at him like he was some sort of outsider… Like he was an alien.
"Lief, Barda and Jasmine are waiting at the entrance of the Library," she breathed, "They wish to speak to you."
"Regarding?" Lief questioned and was surprised at his suspicion of his wife and best friend. As Marilen was about to reply to Lief he silenced her. "Send them in."
Why had Lief become so cautious… Everything was over. The Shadow Lord was not invading Deltora. Deltora was not suffering from famine. Deltora was safe… Safe…
No Lief. Deltora is not safe… Deltora shall fall into my hands… Remember… Plans within plans…
Lief gasped with shock, horror and surprise. The Shadow Lord spoke to him… The Shadow Lord knew what he was thinking… How? How could this be?!
"Lief, are you alright?" asked Jasmine as she kneeled by his side. Lief's eyes were searching, looking for something that would allow the Shadow Lord to communicate with him but he could find nothing of the sort. Lief turned to tell Jasmine that he was fine but the words did not leave his mouth, instead he was upon her, pressing his hands onto her throat, choking her. Jasmine's face turned red, purple. Lief sensed evil and it was radiating from Jasmine. It was flowing into him like the songs of the Sisters of East, North, West and South had… but this… it was much worse… It did not only fill Lief with despair but it made him want to kill her and suddenly he realized, he was killing Jasmine. However, he liked it.
"Lief!" she gasped, "Stop it!"
Barda ran toward Lief and put his hands on Lief's and pried them away from Jasmine's throat, closed his hand into a fist and punched Lief.
Lief was starting to lose consciousness. His mind went blank and his face seared with pain. Slowly and painfully his eyes gave way to the pain…
As Lief woke his body screamed with pain and his mind wanted to shut down again but it did not. Barda and Jasmine were staring at him. Jasmine slowly inched towards Lief's face and gently kissed him.
Slowly, the realization of what he had done started to come back to me and he began muttering how sorry he was. Lief removed the belt from his waist and just as he was about to put it on Jasmine's chest -
"Lief, before you do anything, there's something you need to know," Barda said and without looking at Lief continued, "people within Deltora are dying. We don't know why and we don't know how…"
As Barda finished his sentence, Lief's body roared with pain. His arms and legs twitched and hit the floor as they turned a pale white. His eyes shut as he screamed at the top of his lungs. His face was drained of blood as it too turned a pale white and once again his body gave way to the pain.
Lief slept and dreamt once more of the Dragons of Deltora.
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