The Golden Knight

The Golden Knight is the third episode of Deltora Quest.

Synopsis
Lief and Barda must defeat Gorl, the guardian of the mysterious lilies of life, to get the first gem.

Plot
Before Lief and Barda stands a formidable figure wearing golden armour. Lief notices a gem fastened on the hilt of the guardian's sword - the topaz.

The guardian introduces himself as Gorl. Gorl lifts his hand and uses some kind of magic to pull Lief closer to him. Lief regains his stance, taking a swing at Gorl, but he misses. Barda makes an attempt also, but this proves useless. Lief runs behind Gorl into an enclosed area - where trees strangled with ivy vines make up the floor, ceiling and walls. Suddenly Gorl walks up behind Lief, proclaiming him as a thief. Lief is knocked over, landing next to some glowing flowers. Lief, confused, asks Gorl what the flowers are. Gorl, thinking Lief is in his domain to steal them, disgruntledly explains that the flowers are called the Lilies of Life. Lief tells Gorl that he is wrong - that they did not come to steal the flowers. Barda also appears, backing up Lief's response. Gorl, still not convinced, suddenly attacks Barda. While they are fighting, Barda asks what the Lilies of Life are. He explains that when you drink the Lilies' nectar, you gain eternal life. Gorl says that he will drink the nectar, and unite the seven tribes of Deltora. Barda tells Gorl that Adin had already done this long ago, but Gorl does not know who Adin is, thereby proving that Gorl has been protecting the Lilies for a very long time. Barda then looks up at the ceiling and sees corpses wearing the same armour that Gorl is wearing.

Meanwhile, Jasmine tells Filli and Kree that she cannot do nothing. She decides to go help Lief and Barda. Lief explains exactly what Adin did to unite Deltora, and the creation of the Belt of Deltora. Gorl, still not convinced, continues to attack Lief. Barda distracts him just in time, by calling Gorl a coward. Barda explains that the corpses on the ceiling are wearing the same armour as Gorl, meaning that they were probably at one point his companions. Barda asks why they had died. Gorl, now completely distracted, explains that he was traveling with his brothers. He had to kill them in order to gain eternal life - as you need to drink a whole vial of nectar for the effects to work, and there was not enough to share. Lief takes this opportunity to attack Gorl. He does no damage. Barda also tries, piercing his sword through the armour. Unexpectedly, Gorl gains even more power. He grabs Barda by the throat and tosses him to the ground - badly injuring him.

Jasmine then reveals herself from the vine ceiling. She yells at Lief to move out of the way, and then cuts some of the vines and manages to get a large tree branch to fall directly on Gorl, completely crushing him. Lief finds Gorl's sword just next to the log. He dislodges the topaz, but is quickly distracted by Barda, who is almost dead. Jasmine jumps down, and points towards the Lilies of Life. Lief quickly gathers some of the nectar using his hands and feeds it to Barda. Barda regains consciousness. Gorl suddenly comes crashing out from beneath the tree branch in a last ditch attempt to reach the Lilies of Life but he fails, and his armour separates into small pieces. Lief reaches the conclusion that Gorl's body had already decayed away and the only thing left was his spirit.

Jasmine explains that she asked the trees to have a large branch fall on Gorl. In return, she promised to remove the vines from the other trees.

Jasmine quickly remembers to collect the remaining nectar from the plant. She manages to collect half a vial of the nectar.

Lief hands Jasmine the topaz, explaining that it opens the door to the spirit world. After touching the gem, Jasmine finds herself in another realm. Jasmine transforms into her child-self as she has a conversation with her mother. Her mother instructs her to leave the forest and go with Lief and Barda to free Deltora from the Shadow Lord.

The newly formed trio decide that their next stop is the Lake of Tears - the home of the evil sorceress Thaegan.

Characters

 * Lief
 * Barda
 * Jasmine
 * Kree
 * Filli
 * Sharn (Anna)

Villains

 * Shadow Lord
 * Gorl
 * Soldeen
 * Wennbar
 * Thaegan (mentioned)

Trivia

 * Lief obtains the Topaz in this episode.
 * The Japanese title translates to "The Golden Knight Gorl".