Chapter 5

A million thoughts were going through the Shadow Lord's mind.

He looked at the four remaining people through his magic orb. The weapons expert dying was completely unexpected. Losing him was a big factor. The good thing about the situation was the boy had come. Realizing he could capture that boy was amazing. If only that boy hadn't fell directly into Lief, Barda, and Jasmine's campsite.

John was a minor thing. The new boy Mark was big. He had been sure he would have been able to control him until now. The Orchard Keeper killing all of them would not have been a bad thing. He just wanted to be able to control Mark. To learn about the other realm. Mark would be his connector to the other realm. With Mark he would go and take that world for his own. Then he would come back and take over Deltora. But everything might not go to plan. The new factor was the fact that he could use a sword. It wasn't hard to trick an Orchard Keeper. They were just stupid beasts. But to single-handedly make it run. If he hadn't had to convince those others he could have killed it as easily as that John had.

John.

He had wanted to put him in the Shadow Arena. He could probably kill most monsters. He could study him. Now he was dead. Dead. He looked at the corpse of John. Mabye what he needed was another variable. A complete and total game changer.

Outside the various sounds of the Shadowlands rang out.