Trek to Kraggen-Cor Read Online Free PDF

they still in Drimmen-deeve?"
    Lord Kian spoke; there was anger in his voice, and his countenance darkened. "They raid the countryside and wreak havoc with river traffic along the Great Argon."
    Alarmed by the Man's seething rage, both Perry and Cotton drew back in apprehension.
    Seeing the effect of his ire upon the two Waerlinga, Lord Kian struggled to master his emotion. The young Man stood and walked to the open burrow-window and stared out into the gloaming, taking a moment to quell his wrath and to collect his thoughts. Through the portal could be heard the awakening hum of twilight insects. Cotton quietly got up and lighted several tapers; their flickering glow pressed back the early evening shadows.

    "Let me tell it as it happened," said Lord Kian quietly, turning from the window to face his host:
    "Though I am of North Riamon," he began, "I spent some years as a Realmsman serving the High King. I won the repute of knowing the Lands as few others do. Durek heard of this, and he knew of my friendship with the King; and Durek's emissaries sought me out and bade me to meet with him in the Dwarf halls of Mineholt North. At that meeting he told me of his plans to reclaim Drimmen-deeve and to re-enter it with his kindred and make it mighty as of old. He asked that I serve as guide and advisor to Anval and Borin and to take them to Pellar so that they might make Durek's plans known to High King Darion. We were not then aware that Spawn infested the Deeves, though we had heard rumors of some dark danger along that distant edge of Riamon.
    "At the court, King Darion told us of the foul Yrm. The King explained that after the fall of Gron, Modru's minions either were destroyed, or were scattered, or they surrendered. Many discovered that they had been deceived by the Evil One, and they swore fealty to the then High King, Galen, and to his line, and were forgiven and allowed to return to their homelands. Others fled or fought to the death. The Men of Hyree, the Rovers of Kistan, some fought and died, some cast down their weapons, some ran, some slew themselves in madness. But of the Spawn—Ghol, Lokh, Rukh, Troll, Vulg, Hel-steed—those all fought to the death, or died by the Ban, or fled into darkness; none surrendered, for they had been too long in bondage to the Evil One to yield.
    "King Darion believes that many Rukha and Lokha and mayhap some Trolls escaped to Drimmen-deeve to join those already there. They hid in the blackness for all these many years, too sorely defeated to make themselves known, too crushed by the fall of Gron to array themselves in battle.
    "In the Deeves, hatred and envy gnawed at their vitals, and the worm of vengeance ate at their minds. But they were leaderless, divided into many squabbling, petty factions.
    "Two years ago, belike through treachery and murder and guile, a cruel tyrant seized the whip hand. He is Gnar, one of the Lokha, we think.
    "It is he who is responsible for the renewed conflict with the Free Folk. He lusts for total power, the dominion of his will o'er all things. And to achieve that vile end, he masters his minions through fear and terror, binding them to his ruthless rule.
    "Before Gnar arose, the Yrm made but limited forays from Drimmen-deeve, and then only at night, driven by their dread of the Sun and the doom of the Covenant to return to the Deeves ere daybreak. They did not range far enough to reach any homesteads, settlements, roads, or trade routes—barely coming to the foot of the mountains, reaching not beyond the eastern edge of the Pitch. But now their fear of Gnar's cruelty is such that at his command they issue forth from that mountain fastness to raid many days' journey

    from Drimmen-deeve, besetting Valon—the Land south of Larkenwald the Eldwood—and ranging as far as the Great Argon River.
    "The Yrm lie up in black holes, caves, splits in the rock, and cracks in the hillsides when the Sun is in the sky; thus, the Ban strikes them not. But at nightfall