Return to Del
Jennifer Rowe
 The main characters of the book are Barda, Lief and Jasmine, who have retrieved all seven of the magic gems from their perilous Guardians and lairs. They now have the topaz, ruby, emerald, lapis-lazuli, diamond, opal and amethyst gems. The Belt is whole and made, but the hardest part of the journey is yet to come—they need to find the heir of Adin, the true heir to Deltora's throne. There is, however, another problem. Lief's father tells him that they would find the heir with the Belt, for it will show the way, but the Belt shows them the way but shows no sign of recognition of the heir. The party knows there is a problem and they have to do something about it. They also know that they need to recruit a member of each of the seven tribes as well. The seven tribe members are Lief of Del for the topaz, Manus of the Ralad people for the ruby, Steven (and Nevets) of the Plains people for the opal, Fardeep of the Mere for the lapis lazuli, Gla-Thon of the Dread Gnomes for the emerald, Zeean of Tora for the amethyst, and Glock of the Jalis for the diamond. In addition to this, they now need to awaken the Belt's hidden powers and find the heir to the throne of Deltora. However, along the way, their friend Steven and his brother Nevets tell the three to go across a field of hidden grippers, which are plants composed of deep holes with venomous teeth inside to avoid the Grey Guards positioned in the road searching all the caravans passing by. Lief and Jasmine escaped relatively unharmed, but Barda suffers severe damage. They are forced into a small cabin when they find the remains of a man, woman, and small child bearing a note from King Endon with the royal seal at the bottom. When the gang finally reaches the Resistance stronghold, Barda wakes up long enough to tell the three that the letter was false and planted there by the Shadow Lord because when Endon escaped with Sharn, he did not have the royal seal with him as it had always been held with Prandine. Barda's condition worsens, until he has almost died when all seven tribes are reunited. Lief realizes that Dain is the heir as the Belt is showing that the heir is somewhere in the room. To help prove this, Lief realized that Dain's name is an anagram of 'Adin'. Dain is then kidnapped by Ichabod just when Lief was supposed to hand over the Belt, and the Belt falls on Barda who then starts to make a recovery. Everyone heads to Del to rescue Dain and falls into an elaborated trap where the puppet master is revealed at last - no other than Dain himself. Dain is a Grade 3 Ol and he has been fooling them all along. Lief manages to kill him with the Belt and then Lief, Jasmine, Barda, and Doom escape to Lief's old home, where the second secret is revealed - Doom is actually Jasmine's father. Everyone is then arrested by Grey Guards except for Lief who then, with Kree, goes to the punishment place in the palace to try and save them. When he is there, he suddenly remembers a passage from a book that his father showed him: "Only the Belt of Deltora, complete as it was first fashioned by Adin and worn by Adin's true heir, has the power to defeat the Enemy." He rearranges the gems in the socketed Belt so that their initials spell Deltora (the order would be Diamond, Emerald, Lapis Lazuli, Topaz, Opal, Ruby, and finally Amethyst), and the Belt's powers flare to life, saving the country. Lief realizes then that he is the heir and the very last secret is shown, that Endon and Jarred switched places because no one could suspect that a king and queen of Deltora could work as a simple blacksmith and wife. Endon, Lief's father, dies a peaceful death now that Deltora has been rid of the Shadow Lord at last.