Sister Of The South by Emily Rodda

Author:Emily Rodda [Rodda, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3, mobi
ISBN: 9781921989704
Publisher: Scholastic Australia
Published: 2004-11-30T16:00:00+00:00

11 - The Dare

Lief turned away from the parchment and looked down at Josef’s peaceful face. So this is what you were trying to tell me, Josef, he thought. The evil is here, in the palace’s dead heart, the centre of centuries of grief and pain.

Gently he gathered the old man’s body in his arms and lifted it from the platform.

‘Lief, what are you doing?’ Manus cried, very shocked. ‘The platform is vile, yes! But I did not mean—’

But cradling Josef’s frail body, Lief was already walking to the chapel door.

‘Drumm was chief advisor in the time of Doran the Dragonlover, when the Four Sisters were put in place,’ he called back over his shoulder. ‘He caused the platform to be built. The Sister of the South is here, I know it.’

‘But this is not the centre of the palace, Lief!’ Manus exclaimed, trotting anxiously after him. ‘It could not be further to the side!’

He gestured behind him at the far wall of the chapel. ‘That is the palace’s east wall. The Place of Punishment once stood just outside. The Great Hall is above—’

‘I know, Manus,’ Lief said quietly. ‘But still this is the place.’

He carried Josef’s body up the steps and placed it gently on the floor of the entrance hall.

‘But—but you cannot leave him here!’ Manus cried in horror.

‘Better here than where he was,’ Lief said. He turned to go back into the chapel.

‘Lief, wait a little,’ said Manus nervously, plucking at his sleeve. ‘You are pale as a ghost! Your hands are trembling. You—you are not well.’

‘I fear I am not,’ Lief murmured. ‘I do not know how much time I have left. And that is why I must hurry.’

His shadowed eyes focused at last on the Ralad man’s worried face, and he blinked, as if waking from a dream.

‘I am sorry, Manus,’ he said softly. ‘There is no easy way to tell you what I must. I have made a fearful mistake, and all of us will pay for it. There is no poison. The Toran Plague is real.’

Manus took a sharp, hissing breath and clasped his hands over his heart. Lief braced himself for the cries of shock, fear and blame that he knew must come. But the Ralad man bent his head, and when he looked up again, his black eyes were clear and calm.

‘What must I do to help?’ he asked simply.

For a moment Lief could not speak. Then he put his hand on Manus’s arm—so small and thin, and yet so full of strength.

‘What is below the chapel?’ he asked.

‘Why—nothing,’ Manus said. ‘The outside wall runs down beneath the earth, to meet the palace foundations. The inner wall beside us here continues down to form the first wall of the dungeons below the entrance hall. By the plan, there is only empty space in between—a cavern too small and low to be used for anything.’

‘The Enemy found a use for it, it seems,’ Lief said grimly. ‘Now, listen carefully, Manus. Everyone, except those too ill to walk, must leave the palace at once.

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