Darkwalker on Moonshae by Douglas Niles

Author:Douglas Niles
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Fantasy, Juvenile Fiction, Fantasy & Magic, General, Science Fiction, American, Fantastic fiction, Fiction
ISBN: 9780880384513
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Published: 1987-06-15T04:00:00+00:00

XII

AVALON

GRAY DAWN SPREAD across the sea. Kazgoroth, through the eyes of Thelgaar Ironhand, surveyed the fleet as it crawled toward the protected beach of a sheltered cove. Fully a third of the longships had gone down during the battle with the leviathan. Half of those remaining had suffered enough damage to make every additional mile fraught with peril.

Precious time would be lost as the crews repaired the damaged vessels, but the only other choice was to leave behind much of his strength.

This Kazgoroth would not do. Forcefully, the Beast restrained a more violent display of its emotions. For the dead northmen, thousands of whom now floated in the Sea of Moonshae, the creature had no regard.

They, like all humans, were tools who either served the Beast’s purpose, or attempted to thwart it. The former were used, the latter destroyed, with equal dispassion.

The death of the leviathan provided a great boost to the Beast. The limitations of the body of Thelgaar made a prison as this new power begged for release.

Kazgoroth stalked the deck of the longship, fighting for control.

Finally the fleet reached the beaches, and sailors dragged each vessel onto the sand, beyond the reach of the highest tide.

The figure of the king strode angrily about the beach. “Begin the repairs at once!” He watched the sailors leap to the damage, eager to avoid Thelgaar’s wrath.

“Remove the rams,” he added. “They have served their purpose.”

As soon as the work began, Kazgoroth stalked into the forest surrounding the beach. Inland, it found a stagnant swamp, surrounded by flat marshes. Here it removed the clothes of Thelgaar, and allowed its skin to assume a more comfortable form.

The Beast lay upon the ground and stretched, reveling in its freedom. Scales began to form and soon coated the body that grew longer, and more serpentine. Kazgoroth stretched its jaw, and felt an almost sensual pleasure in the forked tongue stroking hundreds of sharp teeth. It reached forward with massive claws, snapping tree trunks for the simple joy of destruction.

The Beast slipped into the water of the swamp, slithering along a trough six feet deep. Still, the crested plates of its scaly back broke the surface.

Finally, the channel flowed into a lake, and here the Beast dove. Its whiplike tail thrust from side to side, and its powerful hind legs kicked tirelessly.

Kazgoroth found a boat and attacked in a frenzy, killing and eating three fishermen. The feast did not serve to calm its unease, and, in fact, drove it to even greater restlessness. Finally, the Beast forced itself to lie still, lying in the cool mud of the lake bottom, restoring its energy.

Its agile mind swirled with plans and ambitions, and the Beast knew that it could not maintain its identity as the Iron King unless it brought these chaotic impulses under control. The northmen were a very important part of those ambitions and so it could not risk driving them away in panic. And this was sure to happen, should Kazgoroth’s base urges transform it into its true form before the eyes of the northmen.

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