It was a warm summer's day day in the newly freed kingdom of Deltora.

Bees lazily hovered between vibrant wildflowers in full bloom and the grass gently swayed in the breeze. Lief, king of Deltora, lay in one particularly pleasant meadow on the outskirts of Del where city met country. Deltora was still in the tender stages of recovery from it's long invasion.

Despite the many remnants that still remained of the Shadowlord's evil reign, the people's eyes were filled with hope for a bright future and love for their cherished king.

Lief was determined to never let his people down. He spent many long hours reading reports, signing documents, establishing diplomatic ties with the neighboring lands. It was necessary but mentally taxing work for a young king unused to sitting still for long periods. Often Lief would collapse face first into bed and fall asleep almost immediately from mental exhaustion despite doing so little physical work his limbs fizzed with pent up energy.

Still, he should not complain, Lief thought. He never forgot he had much to be grateful for. It had taken a great deal of luck combined with his and his friend's skill to complete the belt, free the prisoners and driving back the Shadowlord to the Shadowlands.

He owned much to the many people who had the courage and strength to rally alongside him and he knew he, Barda and Jasmine would have met their deaths before their quest had even truly began if it weren't for the people who had given so much to help them along the way.

Now Deltora was at peace. The land was fertile, the people were free and the belt shone strong with the faith of all the citizens of this beautiful land. All in all, it was as happy an ending to his journey as Lief could possibly dreamed of.

But Lief could not be content.

For the former land of Pirra remained the Shadowlands and the Shadowlord sat only a matter of a few footsteps across Deltora's northern border, scheming and waiting with the patience and cunning of one who has waiting a millennia for Deltora to be his. The Shadowlord has many plans, plans within plans, as Lief had been only recently reminded.

Despite having being driven out of Deltora and being dealt a bitter blow, there was no doubt the Shadowlord was already devising even more twisted and intricate plans just as he had after his defeat at the hands of Adin so long ago.

Lief recalled that it was in the time of queen Adina, Adin's granddaughter, that the wearer of the belt had wavered in their duty. A scant two generations it had takien for the influence of the Shadowlord to manifest, as subtle and as insidious as a tasteless poison.

Lief knew he would certainly he would wear the belt always and know it was the trust of his people that was the source of his power. The lesson had been driven deeply into his heart and soul time and time again when, far too often, he had seen the suffering of his people from a king who had failed them.

No doubt Lief's future child would be just as careful. If his and Jasmine's future child and his heir even thought about thinking about neglecting his or her duties, they would have their mother's wrath to deal with, Lief thought wryly.

No, even if he himself failed too impress the importance of the belt and the people's faith, Jasmine would certainly keep them in line. Jasmine, who's fury - and daggers - was feared across the land by those who neglected their duties and all of evil heart. Lief hoped that they could also ensure their grandchildren never broke faith, but how about after that? He, Jasmine and Barda would be long dead from old age by the time his and Jasmine's great-grandchildren's reign came by. That is, if nothing else got to them first.

By that time Deltora will have lived through many years of peace. There would be few old crones left who would still remember the Shadowlord's tyrannical reign. Would the ruler of that age relax their guard? If not them, how about the next king or queen, or the next? Can he trust that in hundreds of years time, the ruler will still heed the lessons of what would by then be ancient history from a dusty book?

Lief hopes that Deltora will experience only peace and prosperity, but he has learnt from Tora's downfall that long years of peace will make the people too comfortable and unprepared for another invasion. Did so many people really go through so much just for a temporary respite?

With these unpleasant thoughts buzzing through his head in a way that reminded Lief far too much of the buzzing of the shifting sand's hive, Lief sighed.

He sat up from the grassy patch where he had left a Lief-shaped dent. There was no rest to be had. He would return to the palace and hope the walk would clear his head like rest obviously could not.

notes

so I recently re-read Deltora Quest for the first time in almost a decade. I never noticed that the end of the series is actually very sad! History repeated itself with Lief (compared with Adin) and there is absolutely nothing to stop it from happening again. In fact Emily Rodda even semi-hints it does happen again because the ending is just like the ending of Adin's story and we know they only had peace for a couple of centuries. I admit to being a sucker for a tooth decayingly sweet ending so this is my attempt to make the ending a little happier.