Isle of the Dead by Emily Rodda

Author:Emily Rodda [Rodda, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
ISBN: 9781921989698
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Published: 2011-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

Hours passed before the dragon spoke again. Lief remained by its side, his hand upon its brow.

Slowly, as the amethyst worked its magic, the dull grey of the dragon’s scales changed to mauve, then to purple. Slowly the spines beside its jaws stiffened, and its snarling jaws relaxed. Every now and then it struggled, as if trying to free itself. But still only its head and part of its neck were visible above the sand.

At last its eyes opened. Lief saw that they were no longer dull, but gleaming like pale violets.

‘You are better,’ he said.

The dragon snorted faintly. ‘I am better than I was,’ it said. ‘But that is not saying a great deal. Now I know what it is to be as weak as prey. It is not enjoyable.’

‘No, it is not,’ Lief agreed.

He hesitated, then decided to take a risk.

‘What happened to you?’ he asked abruptly. ‘How did you come to be so near death when we found you?’

‘HOW?’ thundered the dragon, lifting its head. Lief and Barda shrank back. The dragon coughed, and lowered its head to the sand again.

‘I felt you in my land,’ it said. ‘I felt the amethyst call me, from far away. It was just as Dragonfriend had said it would be. My oath to him swam into my dreams, and I awoke in my hiding place beneath the sand.’

The scales on his head and neck seemed to quiver.

‘But the dune had grown since first I buried myself within it,’ it went on. ‘The sand was heavy and I was weak with hunger. I began to struggle upward—then, suddenly, you were gone and I was left stranded, without the strength to free myself.’

Its eyes burned reproachfully.

‘Just after we crossed your border, we were swept out to sea, through no fault of our own,’ Lief said.

‘It was the Shadow Lord’s doing,’ Barda put in fiercely, as the dragon gave a low growl. ‘We nearly died ourselves, as a result of it, dragon. And it is as well you know it!’

The dragon barely glanced at him. ‘Dragonfriend said that I would wake at your coming,’ it said to Lief. ‘He did not say I might die in the attempt.’

‘Dragonfriend—Doran—believed, I think, that if the Belt of Deltora was worn constantly by Adin’s heir once more, this would mean that the Shadow Lord had been destroyed,’ Lief said reluctantly. ‘But, sadly, this is not so. Deltora is free, and the seven Ak-Baba no longer patrol our skies. But the Shadow Lord is still powerful. Even in exile, he tries to destroy us.’

‘Ah!’ The dragon nodded its great head. ‘Yes. And—I seem to remember that I thought this would be so. I seem to remember telling Dragonfriend that the Enemy would never give in.’

Its mouth twitched. ‘But, of course, Dragonfriend would not listen. Dragonfriend was fiery and impatient. He was intent upon his plan, and did not want to hear objections.’

‘He wanted to save you,’ Lief said quietly, then recoiled as the beast’s eyes flashed.

‘Do not think you have to make excuses for Dragonfriend to me, young king!’ the dragon hissed.

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