Into the Valley of Death by Frank Cavallo

Author:Frank Cavallo
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Black Library
Published: 2013-05-23T16:00:00+00:00

8.

Moonlight touched the Barren Hills with an eerie, ghostly glow. The pale shining of Mannslieb reflected off every surface, glinting from steep slopes and at odd, oblique angles. A haze of cold shimmers and ever-shifting shadows filled the air. Deep and sombre quiet reigned across the barrens by night, a stillness that sent a shiver through Felix. No howling or shrieking he’d heard in all his travels bothered him quite so much as the spooky, flawless still of that deathly silence.

They’d made haste after the banshee’s arrival, having no time to lose with their presence now known across the barrens. After a short while trekking through yet another stretch of badlands, a larger formation grew up out of the foggy distance. A single rocky hill rose high over the bleak sea of stone, its rise dominating the terrain for miles around. The path of a winding trail had been cut into its face, snaking up along the front slope. Upon its crest there stood a lonely, half-crumbled stone triptych. The ancient, free-standing granite blocks sparkled in the weird moonlight, like a beacon across the misty barrens.

Again, Draeder halted the party. He studied his map, compared it to what he saw and puzzled for a moment.

‘That is the hill,’ he said. ‘There we will find the entrance to the Valley of Skethris. We must be on guard now.’

As if in answer to his announcement, the ground rumbled underfoot. An eerie call sounded in the distance, a guttural roar that echoed through the cold mist.

‘There can be no doubt. It knows we’re here,’ the wizard said.

They rode ahead with swords drawn, Draeder still at the lead but now with Strang and Torsten never more than a pace behind him.

As they proceeded, the dead silence began to give way. At first the still was broken only in isolated bursts, a screech in the distance or a muffled howl somewhere in the shadows. But it soon became more, and Felix began to wish for the uncomfortable quiet he’d so dreaded only hours earlier.

When they reached the crest of the hill and dismounted, they found the great dolmen standing alone. It appeared to be large doorway of rock, leading down into the earth. Composed of three great standing stones, two were anchored into the ground while a thinner, flat capstone lay atop them, tilted at a slight angle.

‘I’ve never seen such a thing,’ Felix whispered.

‘The ancient tribes who once ruled these lands laid their kings and chieftains to rest beneath monuments such as this. They were believed to mark portals to the land of the dead,’ Draeder replied.

Although he realized he should have been inured to such a notion already, the suggestion sent a fright through Felix.

‘What must we do?’ Erhard asked.

‘Just as it was for the ancients, the dolmen is the entrance for us as well. Beneath that stone triptych is the portal into the necromancer’s realm,’ Draeder said.

‘We can just enter it?’ Felix asked.

Draeder shook his head.

‘I’m afraid it is not nearly that simple.

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