The Doom of Dragonback (Masters of Stone and Steel Book 1) by Gav Thorpe

Author:Gav Thorpe [Thorpe, Gav]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2014-08-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fourteen

‘These were hard times for the king and his people. Although they had the south road, they were overshadowed by the trade of the Drakkanfolk and they were forced to rely more and more on what they had to hand. They tended their herds, grew their cereal and made their beer, and they searched for the lode that would secure their future.

They were safe – the goblins feared the axes and bows of the Drakkanfolk – but they were poor. ‘Krekrik’ they called Grimbalki, the king of the goats, and his people became known as the Zakiskrat. It was a bad time and many of them lost faith with the king, but were too angry with the Drakkanfolk to join them, so they returned back to Karak Eight Peaks.

This was called the Great Eastening and nearly a third of the clans of the mountains abandoned the Dragonbacks, and those that were left behind began to sorely wonder if they could survive.’

It was a punishing climb away from the road, forging through thickets of spiny bushes, and in places Skraffi and the others were forced to use their hands as much as their feet, pulling themselves up blunt escarpments and squeezing through gaps where aeons of geological movement had split shoulders of rock and thrown shelves of stone. No stranger to physical activity, even Skraffi could feel the strain of their hasty passage, his back aching between his shoulders, calves threatening cramp every few paces. For some of the others it was too much and he spent just as much time hauling and cajoling the beardlings as he did moving himself.

Those that had thought themselves capable of the journey when they had been back at Undak Grimgazan were now suffering badly. Some were hobbling, almost carried by their peers or leaning heavily on staves or quickly-fashioned crutches. A few could not manage even that and were hoisted onto the shoulders of their comrades or dragged between them over the smoother ground.

Skraffi took heart as he saw his grand-daughter helping one of the older womenfolk. Haldora slung her shield on her back and took a child out of its mother’s arms so that she could use both hands to clamber over the rocks and push aside the branches of snaring shrubs. He caught her glance at one point and gave her a nod of approval. She ignored him, evidently still annoyed by his earlier remonstration with her.

That was fine. He could bear her youthful resentment as long as she stayed alive.

A cry from ahead had him hurrying forward, but as he turned around a bend in the goat track they had been trying to follow he saw that the shouts were of joy not fear. The first trees of the lower groves could be seen a few hundred paces ahead. Looking back he saw the wyvern was still some distance behind, perhaps slowed by a shift in the wind as the valley turned further westwards. They would make the safety of the trees after all.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.