The Gateway (Harbinger of Doom Volume 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

and squads of crossbowmen stalked the battlements.
    At the main gates, the men mounted fine horses
and headed out. The guards bowed to Claradon as he passed. Several
riders approached at a canter just as the group cleared the gates.
Their leader pulled up alongside Gabriel and Ob.
    “ What news?” said Ob.
    “ No sign of the patrol, Castellan.
We rode as far as five leagues into the wood. There were no
animals, no birds, not even the sounds of insects. All life has
fled the wood. I’ve never seen its like.”
    “ Any sign of an enemy force?” said
Gabriel.
    “ Or any strange beasties?” said
Ob.
    “ None,” said the scout.

    The expedition soon passed through the Outer
Dor and headed off the road, toward the Vermion Forest. Gabriel
sent outriders to cover their flanks while Ob rode some ways ahead
to scout. Gabriel rode at the vanguard of the main group, followed
by his picked men. Behind them was Theta, Dolan, Par Tanch, and
Claradon, the rest of the squadron closely followed.
    As they rode through the ominous woodland,
Lord Theta and Dolan conversed quietly. Dolan now looked little
like a simple retainer; his aspect more akin to a veteran soldier
or mercenary - donned as he was in a battered cuirass of brown and
black-hued leather and equipped with a small arsenal of weaponry.
He girded the well-oiled longsword sheathed at his side in the
manner of a professional soldier, and the longbow engraved with
strange pictograms that he wore over his shoulder was clearly oft
used in battle. The hafts of several daggers protruded from sheaths
at his boots and his shoulder.
    “ Lord Angle, after we’ve seen this
business through, do you think perhaps we’ll be able to go back
home?”
    Theta shrugged.
    “ I know we must be here for some
reason, something big, more than just some strange goings on in
some woods. We’re not halfway ‘round the world from home for just
that.”
    “ What do you expect we’ll find in
these woods, Lord Angle?”
    Expressionless and even-toned, Theta replied,
“Some world-eating monster or demon lord or ancient wyrm, no doubt.
It matters not, for I will put it down whatever it be.”
    “ I thought we took care of all of
them fellas already?”
    Theta ignored him.
    “ Guess there’s some more lurking
about. I hate them lurkers.”

    VII
    THE CIRCLE OF DESOLATION

    After two hours of travel through the
darkened, foreboding forest the expedition came upon the dread
circle of desolation. It was a bizarre and fearful sight. Not a
single living thing existed across its stark and barren expanse.
There was no foliage, animal life, or insect life whatsoever. The
circle consisted of nothing more than a desolate, flat area of
hardened soil that stretched out in a circular pattern several
hundred yards in diameter. The edge curved out a perfectly smooth
arc and was depressed several inches below the surrounding ground,
such that one would have to step down to walk upon the circle’s
barren interior.
    No enemies were about and the knights could
discern no obvious signs of Lord Eotrus’s patrol. Gabriel directed
Ob to take two thirds of the squadron and scour the woodland beyond
the unnatural circle. They were to search for signs of the patrol
or of whatever enemy force had waylaid them. “But do not set foot
within the circle until I give you leave,” said Gabriel.
    Meanwhile, the others examined the perimeter
of the circle itself, none daring to venture beyond the rim after
Gabriel’s warning.
    “ We must determine whether it’s
safe step within,” said Gabriel.
    “ Perhaps I can assist with that,”
said Par Tanch. “I think that the Arcane Order would approve the
use of the sorcerous arts in this circumstance. So with your
permission Sir Gabriel, I shall call upon my humble powers to
divine if fell sorcery is at work here.”
    “ Of course Par Tanch, have at
it.”
    Par Tanch began his divination by chanting in
a strange guttural tongue. He soon coupled his rather oppressive
intonations