The Maze of the Beast (book)

The Maze of the Beast is the sixth book in the first series of Deltora Quest.

Book Description
"The evil Shadow Lord has become aware that Lief, Barda and Jasmine are searching for the seven lost gems of the magic Belt of Deltora. He knows that if the gems can be restored to the Belt its power will threaten his tyranny.

Five gems have already been found. The next stone lies hidden in the underwater lair of the hideous and ferocious Glus. Already exhausted, pursued by the servants of the Shadow Lord, the three companions will need all their strength and courage to face the Maze of the Beast."

This book is 129 pages long.

Plot
After retrieving the Emerald from Dread Mountain,  Lief, Barda, and Jasmine travel along the River Tor to the Maze of the Beast, where they plan to retrieve the Amethyst.

During their travel, they encounter a pair of young girls drowning in a stream. Touched by their plight, Lief, Barda and Jasmine resolve to rescue them. They save the children, who call themselves Ida and Marie, but as Lief tries to comfort the hysterical Ida he is shocked to see her be shot in the heart by an arrow. Outraged by this, Lief turns on the girl's attacker.

The young man shouts that the girls are Ols; at that very same moment, Jasmine screams, and Lief turns to see Barda choking in Marie's grip as the girl laughs. The girl's body has transformed into a "tall, wavering white shadow with a black mark at its centre" and "an enormous peaked head". Lief and Jasmine are horrified and do not know what to do, but Dain tells them to kill the creature by stabbing it in the heart, which is located on the right of the Ol's chest. Lief does so, and the Ol collapses and dies.

After having a closer look at their rescuer, Jasmine recognises him as Dain, the boy who had served Queen Bee Cider to herself, Doom, Glock and Neridah during the Rithmere Games. Dain advises that they try to warm Barda, because Ol attacks chill to the bone.

They reveal themselves to be Ols, creatures created by the Shadow Lord that can transform themselves to become another living creature apparently. These creatures overrun the west side of Deltora to keep the gems hidden. Just before Barda is about to die, a young man, who Jasmine later recognises as Dain, attacks the two Ols and saves the trio. In the process, Dain injures his arm and several ribs. This causes Lief to sympathise for the boy, and take him to the Resistance, a group of people who rebel against the Shadow Lord.

Arriving at the entrance to the Resistance's hideout, Dain faints from the pressure and forces the three to guess the password before they are marked as Ols and killed. Lief finds a note and realises that the password is the first letter of every word on the note. They enter the Resistance and Doom, a man they have encountered before, tests them by putting them in a prison for three days. The test is supposed to find out if they are Ols because Ols can only hold their shape for three days. As three days pass, Doom does not let them out and keeps them imprisoned.

Dain frees them from the cave in exchange for them to take him to Tora. When Lief, Barda, and Jasmine reveal that they were not going to Tora, they split apart to make them less recognizable. Lief, Dain, and Barda take a boat that takes them down the river to the Maze of the Beast. They realise that Jasmine is also on the boat. The boat is raided by pirates, and Dain is taken prisoner.

After reaching the Maze, Barda was revealed to be an Ol, not the real Barda. Unfortunately, the trio are captured by pirates and are dumped into the Maze. After finding the location of the gem, Barda and Jasmine separate from Lief to lead the Beast away and Lief stays to carve the gem out of a column. They find the body of another pirate who got dumped in with them, which is being eaten by the glus. regroup when Lief was done, and escape the cave through a blowhole. The blowhole blows just after they escape, which takes the life of two pirates. The three then start their journey to the Valley of the Lost, and the seventh gem of the Belt of Deltora.

Characters

 * Lief
 * Barda
 * Jasmine
 * Filli
 * Kree
 * Maria and Ida, a pair of Grade One Ols
 * Dain
 * Thalgus, a member of the Resistance
 * Petronne, a member of the Resistance
 * Jinks, once an acrobat at Del Palace
 * Glock
 * Doom, leader of the Resistance
 * Nak, Finn and Milne, Gren, Rabin, pirates that roam Tora's waters
 * Steven B and Nevets B, travelling pedlar brothers
 * Chett, a Polypan
 * The captain of the River Queen
 * Lockie the Stripe, a muscian aboard the River Queen
 * The Glus, the guardian of the Amethyst