War of the Black Tower: Book One of an Epic Fantasy Trilogy by Jack Conner

Author:Jack Conner [Conner, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Epic Fantasy Adventure Books
Published: 2014-07-22T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Baleron dried his tears. He wanted nothing more than to sink to the ground and lose himself in grief, but he didn’t have time. He needed to leave now, before he had to contend with every available vampire and glarumril in Oksil. He piled some loose rocks atop Salthrick’s corpse to form a rough mound, said a prayer to Sifril, the goddess who was said to rule Paradise, for her to grant Salthrick happiness, and led Lunir outside.

The mountain wind blew cold on Baleron’s face. The vast panorama of the Aragst was laid out before him, the countless pinnacles of rock rearing toward the storm-swept sky. Snow capped some of them, shining and pale. He was free. After three years, he was free.

Shakily, he climbed astride Lunir. The aged glarum cawed once in protest but at Baleron’s heels he took to the skies, leaving his mate, Salthrick’s steed, behind to fend for itself. Likely the glarumri would find it. Baleron hoped he’d piled enough rocks over Salthrick that the bird would not be able to eat him.

Baleron rode hard through the night. He headed due north, his mind churning restlessly.

This is all arranged, my escape. All part of Gilgaroth’s plan. I was supposed to think I did it on my own, but why? So that I wouldn’t realize I was fulfilling Gilgaroth’s designs, so that I’d go about escaping in my own fashion and do what it is He wants, whatever that is.

The Lord of the South would expect him to go straight home, straight to Glorifel, capital of Havensrike. Baleron therefore determined to first make a detour through the elvish kingdom of Larenthi. It was closer, and if anyone could rid him of his Doom, it was the First Men. Rolenya had said as much three years ago. Once they’d removed it, he would no longer be ul Ravast, if that’s really what he was.The elves could also help him free Rolenya. They’d spent thousands of years warring against Ungier and knew his ways like no others. Larenthi had once been a land of gardens and forests, a paradise on earth. But constant war with Oksilith had ravaged its southern third and turned it bleak and barren. Borchstogs and Worms had burned the forests and polluted the rivers. The might of Ungier had threatened to overwhelm Larenthi entirely until King Felias had begun building the Wall of Towers.

The Wall consisted of a row of great towers, each ten miles or more from the next one, a chain stretching from the eastern border to the western, each manned by a powerful elvish sorcerer. No horde of the Shadow could pass through the Wall of Towers unmolested. Simple and elegant and awesome, this line of defense had single-handedly halted the dark armies of Oksilith and preserved the garden-forests of the northern two-thirds of the great elvish kingdom. Not long ago Larenthi had been the mightiest of the kingdoms of the Crescent, but war had diminished its stature and power. The Larenthin hated Ungier bitterly because of this.

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.