#sylvar’s roddacember prompts

[theoakleafpancake]

12 . Iconic

Barda and Jasmine are right, Bede, thought Lief in disgust. Your famous new song is very poor, and I wish I could tell you so. Bess boasted that your rhyming was perfect. But you have not even bothered to try. Every line ends with a completely different sound. ‘Kirsten’, ‘is’, ‘evil’, ‘I’, ‘am’, ‘her’…

His scalp prickled. He looked back at Bede.

Bede’s eyes were open. He was staring straight ahead, at the paper lying abandoned on the floor beside the tray. He was singing the final lines of his song, his voice lilting, despairing.

‘But her heart is my prisoner,

To me she can refuse no help,

For she adores me…’

[theoakleafpancake]

13. Judgement

“A king must judge, and must be judged.”

The King was dead, Lief’s friends said. And a good thing, too, Lief thought savagely, as again he hurried for home. The king deserved to die for the suffering he had brought to his people.

- The Forests of Silence

“You are a trickster and deceiver!” he cried, slipping his hands under his shirt, feeling the Belt’s fastenings. “No wonder you are doomed to guard this bridge until truth and lies are one!”

- The Lake of Tears

“Perhaps we do,” said Lief bitterly. “But at least our crime is only foolishness. You, however, are a liar. You pretend to be on the side of those who would resist the Shadow Lord, and all the time you help to feed his servants. You deal with Grey Guards as friends.”

- City of the Rats

“Beg?” Lief exclaimed, horrified.

Barda glanced at him, a grim smile tweaking the corner of his mouth. “There are times when pride must be put aside in a good cause,” he said.

- The Shifting Sands

“Do not speak to me of duty!” Lief shouted. “They are my parents!”

“They are my friends,” Barda said, still in that same expressionless voice. “My dear and only friends, Lief, since before you were born. I know what they would say to you if they could. They would tell you that our quest is their quest too. They would beg you not to abandon it.”

- Dread Mountain

Lief stared at the scrawlings with hatred. Nak, Finn, and Milne, he thought, I will remember your names. You are not Ols or Grey Guards, Shadow Lord’s servants, bred for evil. You are free to choose how you act. And you have chosen to prey upon your own people. You have chosen to steal, destroy, and murder. I hope that, one day, I meet you. Then I will make you pay.

- The Maze of the Beast

Even long afterwards, Lief did not know why he said what he did then. It was the impulse of the moment. Perhaps he felt the urge to give Doom some information, as a sign of trust. Or perhaps it was simply that he was tired of lies.

“We are going to the Valley of the Lost,” he said clearly.

- The Valley of the Lost

“You did,” Lief said. “You should not have entered Tora. That was your vanity — and it was nearly your death, was it not?”

- Return to Del

Or perhaps he did. Lief had changed. The old Lief, the Lief Jasmine knew, was brave, and eager for action. She was not sure that she liked the new Lief — the secretive, prudent, kingly one — at all.

- Cavern of Fear

Lief shuddered as a vision of Auris’s terrible death rose before his eyes. He glanced at the Piper with dislike, then looked away, repelled by his coldness.

And yet, he thought…for all his seemingly uncaring words, the Piper had entered the dome. Had put his own life at risk.

- Isle of Illusion

Duty? Lief’s fists clenched.

What had his life been over the past months, but a rigid devotion to duty? Had he not worked til his eyes were burning, hidden himself away from everything and everyone he loved? Had he not kept secrets, suffered being criticised, misunderstood — even hated — because the safety of his kingdom was his first responsibility, and enemies were everywhere?

- The Shadowlands

He knew that it was no use trying to give the people false comfort. They had eyes and ears. They knew only too well that times were hard. They would see through any pretence in a moment.

- Dragon’s Nest

She, at least, thinks Bess is wrong to trust us, he thought. She thinks we are lying. And she is right, of course. We will have to be very careful.

- Shadowgate

“Yes,” Lief said. “I am Lief, son of Endon and Sharn, heir of Adin.” It was hard to speak. The power of the Sister of the West was beating home down. But his heart was aching with pity and rage equally as he gazed into those suffering eyes, and he made himself go on. “And you are Doran the Dragonlover, beloved by the tribes of the underworld, saviour of the dragons of Deltora. The one whose map led me here.”

- Isle of the Dead

“The Torans did break their oath of loyalty, and Lief did forgive them—”

“‘In the innocence and generosity of his youth,’” Lief quoted bitterly. “The writer might as well have said ‘his ignorance and foolishness,’ for that is what is meant.”

- Sister of the South

[theoakleafpancake]

17. Name

“Then he was a fool and a weakling!” Crian snapped back. “As no doubt his son is also! Endon will be as useless to us as his father.”

~~~

“And is this all you ask of us, King Lief?” cried a man from the back of the crowd. “Our thoughts? Why, we would give you our lives!”

Endon’s name was cursed throughout the kingdom. Little did the people know that his son’s name would be spoken with respect.

[theoakleafpancake]

15. Loyalty

Lief stared, holding his breath. The people of Del stared back, their faces intent. Many knew him well — his friends, their parents, those who had visited the forge while he worked with his father. Others knew him only by sight — as a nuisance, a wild boy running with his friends through the city. Some did not know him at all.

But they knew he was one of them. They saw what was in his hands. And none of them was going to give him away.

[theoakleafpancake]

07. Earnest

“What am I but a wild girl, quick-tempered and troublesome, more at home in a forest than a walled garden?” She tossed her head. “Besides, I cannot stay here. This city is hideous to me. And the palace—a prison!”

“Prison walls can fall,” Lief said softly. “Gardens can become forests. Del can be beautiful once more. And as for what you can offer, Jasmine…”

[theoakleafpancake]

05. Daring

“How much?” he asked Tom abruptly.

“One silver coin to you, good sir,” said Tom.

Lief’s eyes widened. Tom had told them that the price of the rope was three silver coins. He opened his mouth to protest, then felt Barda’s warning hand on his wrist. He glanced up and saw that his companion’s eyes were fixed on the counter, near to where the stranger’s hands were resting. There was a mark there. The stranger had drawn it in the dust.

[theoakleafpancake]

09. Guard

“I also lived in the palace, when your father and King Endon were young, Lief,” he said, in quite a different voice. “I was the grown son of their nursemaid, Min, but they did not know me, or I them. While they were at their lessons I was already in training as a palace guard.”

[theoakleafpancake]

03. Blossom

He stared, revolted, at the flowers around him, seeing them properly for the first time. He saw the scarlet petals fringed with black, the cluster of trembling stamens in the centre, heavy with pollen.

Blood Lilies. Blood Lilies… and Fleshbanes.

[theoakleafpancake]

06. Epitome

“You are the king, Endon,” she said quietly. “Your duty to Deltora is far greater than your duty to obey the Rule. Let us go together to the tower.”

She IS the epitome of perfect. That’s it.

[theoakleafpancake]

20. Punishment

Behind the Guards were ragged people, pressed closely together. The peoples’ shoulders were bowed, their eyes haunted and despairing. Most bore the Shadow Lord’s brand on brow or cheek.

[theoakleafpancake]

04. Choice

“If you agree to go on the quest, my son, you must put the Belt on and never let it out of your sight until it is complete,” he heard his mother say. “Are you willing? Think carefully before you answer.”

But Lief had already made his decision. He looked up at his waiting parents, his eyes sparkling.

“I am willing,” he said firmly.

It’s a little sad with characters like him. Yeah, it was his choice to find the gems and save Deltora, but at the same time, his “destiny” had already been planned out for him. He has Adin’s blood. The Belt and the gems have a connection with him. He was brought up with all the makings of a King—reading, writing, math, and the history of Deltora being ingrained into his head. It was stated that out of all his friends, Lief was the only one to learn those things. At the end of the day, his choice had already been made for him a long time ago.

[theoakleafpancake]

02. Ambition

Fair as the day is my Kirsten

Sweet as a flower she is

Her goodness banishes evil

She is too perfect for one such as I

A poor plain man I am

Far, far beneath her

But her heart is my prisoner

To me she can refuse no help

For she adores me

[theoakleafpancake]

08. First

Before them was an opening in the wall of vines. And standing in the middle of the opening was a hulking, terrifying figure.

It was a knight. A knight in golden battle armor. His breastplate glimmered in the dimness. His helmet was crowned with golden horns. He stood, motionless, on guard, a great sword in his hand. Lief drew a sharp breath when he saw what was set into the sword’s hilt.

A huge, yellow stone. The topaz.

“WHO GOES THERE?”

[theoakleafpancake]

11. Illusion

The child turned and looked, unsmiling. Her lips opened. Then came the voice—a low, deadly whisper that chilled the blood.

“There is no escape, Jasmine.”

Jasmine stared, frozen. The voice whispered on.

“From the moment you looked into the crystal, from the moment you let me into your mind, you were doomed. I knew you would come to me. I had only to wait. But do not think I cared about you. You were only bait. I knew that wherever you went, he would follow.”

Then the girl laughed, horribly. And laughing she shimmered, faded and disappeared in a drift of red smoke, like the phantom she was.

[theoakleafpancake]

01. Awe

It wasn't so much the glittering crown upon his head, or the shimmering cloak thrown about his shoulders. It wasn't the finely-crafted sword by his side, or even the simple gold ring around his right pinkie. Certainly the Belt played some part in it, because who wouldn't look upon such an artifact with respect? The gems radiated such power, such promise, and as of yet, that promise hadn't been broken.

But it was so much more than that, from the understanding light in his eyes, from the way he held himself beside the people and not above them. For he understood them more than any king, just as much as Adin himself. He knew their hardships, and their tears. He knew their hearts as well as his own. He, after all, had been the one to save them from ruin and despair. He would never leave them alone, for he was the embodiment of all the people had hoped for.