The Broken World Read Online Free PDF Page A

Captain Pelod and Teryll waiting outside.
    ‘We’ve docked, and the men are unloading the horses. Teryll and I’ll see to the camp arrangements, but Usel wondered if you’d like a tour of the island. Seems it’s got quite a history.’
    Up on deck, Dafydd was surprised to see that the ship was moored alongside the jetty; he had expected it to anchor in the bay. But as he walked down the gangplank and stood on firm ground for the first time in far too many weeks, he could see that the stonework of the jetty, ancient though it was, still held firm. The crystal-clear water showed a pale sandy bottom many spans below the ship, shoals of fish darting about in the newly cast shadow.
    Usel was already waiting for them at the landward end of the jetty. He had about him the air of an excited schoolboy, Dafydd thought. The man bristled with energy and was impatient to get going.
    ‘There’s something you really must see.’ Usel didn’t wait for them to reply but headed off along the beach towards the nearest of the derelict buildings. Iolwen strode off after him, speaking in Saesneg and just as full of excitement at being ashore. Dafydd shrugged at Pelod and Teryll, then jumped down on to the sand to follow.
    It was a curious sensation to walk on ground that didn’t move and pitch under his feet. Away from the open sea and its cooling breeze, the air was hot, the sunlight reflecting off the fine sand. Up from the beach the land levelled off into a wide plain before the sudden steep rise of the
mountain. A fringe of trees marked the boundary between beach and plain, and beyond them lay a tangle of long grass and shrubs. Large lumps in the vegetation were the remains of yet more buildings, making up what must once have been a sizeable town.
    ‘Who lived here, Usel?’ Iolwen asked as they walked along a pathway through the brush which was obviously still well used.
    ‘This is Merrambel, the most northerly outpost of the people of Eirawen.’
    ‘What happened to them? Why did they abandon the place? Surely this must be a paradise to live in?’
    ‘So you’d think. But Mount Merram’s not as peaceful as it looks. The histories say it erupted violently over three thousand years ago. Many of the people perished, and those who survived were scattered throughout Gwlad. Most of them returned to Eirawen, but a few were blown north to the Twin Kingdoms. Some say that they were the first people to reach there and were the ancestors of Balwen’s tribe.’
    ‘Isn’t that a bit far-fetched?’ Dafydd asked.
    ‘Not really, no. The cities of Eirawen are ancient compared to Candlehall and Abervenn. The people might be superstitious and backward now, but there was a time when they were as sophisticated as us, if not more so.’ Usel led them down a steep slope into a river valley between the rows of broken buildings and the looming presence of the volcano. The vegetation on either side thickened, but the path was still clear, laid with flat stones butted perfectly together and formed into a series of long shallow steps. The shadows lengthened as they neared the
bottom, though the sun still hovering on the western horizon shone up the valley past them. Usel was almost running now, so eager was he to get to whatever lay around the corner, and as Dafydd stepped past some overhanging fronds of vegetation, he understood some of the man’s excitement.
    The path down which they had walked opened into a wide clearing at the base of the valley. Immediately uphill the bulk of the mountain climbed away in a cliff. Vegetation covered it like the straggly hair of a drowned maid, but a great patch in the middle, perhaps a hundred paces wide and twice as high, had been cleared back to bare stone. And then it had been carved into the image of an immense dragon.
    ‘Behold Earith the Wise. This is the god of the ancient peoples of Eirawen.’ Usel’s voice was full of fervour, almost devotion. But it wasn’t this, nor the truly immense carving that