Deltora Quest #4: The Shifting Sands by Emily Rodda Read Free Book Online

hide a wound made by Jasmine’s dagger in the hallway last night? Lief’s fist clenched as he raised his own hand. All his doubts and fears had disappeared. Now he was onlyangry, and determined to show that he could not be defeated so easily.

    Soon afterwards, pairs of names were read out, and the contests began. The rules were simple. All the pairs fought at one time. Each pair fought until one could no longer stand.
    The loser was taken away. The winner, after only a few minutes’ rest, was paired with another winner to fight again, for endurance was considered as important as strength, agility, speed, and cunning.
    Lief, Barda, and Jasmine soon learned that the idea of a fair contest played no part in the Rithmere Games. Competitors fought with savage fury, biting and clawing, butting with their heads and tearing at their rivals’ hair and eyes, as well as punching and kicking. Nothing was forbidden except the use of weapons.
    The crowd roared, waving their flags, urging their favorites on, hissing and booing those who did not fight well. Sellers of sweetmeats, hot food, and Queen Bee Cider did a fine trade as they wandered up and down the aisles between the seats, shouting their wares.
    As more and more defeated competitors left the arena, disappointed and nursing their injuries, the space between the struggling pairs grew greater. Each fight was harder than the last, but Lief, Barda, and Jasmine managed to survive every round.
    Unlike most of their rivals they were used to fighting for their lives. They had all learned much since theyfirst met in the Forests of Silence. But even their early training helped them now.
    Not for nothing had Lief spent his childhood on the dangerous streets of Del. As Barda had told Mother Brightly, he could dodge and run with the best, and use his wits to foil enemies far bigger than himself. He was young, but because of his work with his father in the blacksmith’s forge his body was strong, his muscles used to working hard.
    From boyhood Barda had trained as a palace guard — and the guards were the most powerful fighters in Deltora, only defeated at last by the sorcery of the Shadow Lord. For many years Barda had wrestled and fought his fellows as part of that training. And even during his time disguised as a beggar outside the forge gates he had kept his strength, following Lief through the city and protecting him from harm.
    And Jasmine? Small and slight as she was, no one in that company had faced what she had faced, or lived the life that she had lived. Shrewd Mother Brightly had seen the strength in those slim arms, and the determination in the green eyes. But Jasmine’s opponents continually mistook her smallness for weakness, and paid the price.

    The sun was low in the sky when the eight finalists, the ones who would fight their last battles on the morrow, were announced.
    Barda, Lief, and Jasmine were among them. So were Joanna and Orwen. The other three were a short, heavily muscled man called Glock, a woman, Neridah, whose speed had amazed the crowd, and the scar-faced stranger whose name the companions now learned for the first time — Doom.
    “A fitting name for such a dark character,” muttered Barda, as Doom stepped forward, unsmiling, and held up his arms to the cheering crowd. “I do not relish the idea of fighting him.”
    Neither did Lief. But he had thought of something that worried him even more. “I did not expect that we would all be finalists,” he whispered. “What if we have to fight each other?”
    Jasmine stared at him. “Why, we will decide who is to win, then just pretend to fight,” she said. “As, in any case, we must do for all our other bouts tomorrow. We must let our opponents win, and so avoid injury. We are already sure of 100 gold coins each, because we are finalists. That is all the money we need, and more.”
    Barda moved restlessly. Plainly, the idea of cheating to lose offended him as much as the idea of cheating to win. “It