Dennis McKiernan - The Brega path

King Durek stepped to the towering Loom and set his axe down, leaning it against the massif, and placed his hands upon the surface of the blank stone, muttering strange words under his breath. And springing forth from where his hands pressed, there spread outward upon the stone a silvery weft that shone brightly in the lantern glow and by the moonlight and starlight. And as the tracery grew, it took form. And suddenly there was the Door! At last they could see its outline shining on the smooth stone, and they could see within the glittering web three runes set thereupon, wrought of theen, the Wizard metal: a glowing circle in the center of the Door; and under the circle and off to the right, the Wizard Grevan's rune G, and to the left, Gatemaster Valki's glyph V.

Durek caught up his weapon by the helve and steppeiiback from the high portal; all that remained was for him to say the Wizard-word for "move," and the Door, if able, would open. The Dwarf turned to Cotton, Rand, and Felor. "Stand ready," he warned, "for we know not whom we meet,"

Cotton gripped his sword and felt the great pressure of the moment rising inside him. The tension was nearly.unbearable, and he felt as if he needed to shout, but instead he thought. Let Mister Perry be at the Door and not no Ruck.

Durek turned back to the Door and gripped his axe; he placed his free hand within the glittering rune circle; then hjs voice rang out strongly as he spoke the Wizard word of opening: "Gaard!"

Forty hours before Durek spoke the words of opening at the Dusk-Door, the horse column of the Harlingar quickly moved out of the Ragad Valley. The warriors rode two abreast with spears bristling to the sky; favors fluttered from the hafts, while in the lead the War-banner of Valon snapped and cracked in the breeze. The dark helms of the Vanadurin threw back no glints, yet gauds of horsehair and wings and horns flared from the steel. Swiftly they passed, yet not at full gallop, for they had far to go and must needs save their mounts. And the earth trembled at their passage.

Brytta rode in the fore with Arl at his side, and all cantered at the steady ground-devouring pace of a Valanreach long-ride. And no rider spoke as their grim eyes swept the bleak high wold for sign of movement but saw none. The column rode thus as the Sun clambered up through the winter sky, and miles fell away beneath the hooves. Slowly the land changed as they went, the rolling western wold yielding to rugged hills, which in turn gave way to a rough, broken region of shattered rock and deep defiles, of high stone walls and jagged slopes, and of flint-hard paths twisting through a splintered land, as if the world's crust had been thrust asunder by the towering mountains bursting forth from the fettering rock below.

Brytta's force rode with relentless determination to succeed in this desperate mission to intercept the two bands of spying Wrg ere they could reach the hidden High Gate in Quadran Pass, for the Spawn were carrying to Gnar word of the Dwarf Army at the western Door. And but a bare four hours of daylight remained; and then the Sun would set and the Foul Folk would again take up their dash for the Gate. And the riders had yet some leagues to go to reach their goal: the road to the Gap.

The land now consisted of huge upjuttings of red granite, striated in places with hued bands of layered stone. It would have taken great skill for the Harlingar to track the Rutcha through this tangle of rock, yet early on Arl had unerringly led die column to find Eddra's wake: Eddra, who had trailed the Spawn throughout the previous night, leaving clear Valanreach signs indicating the Wrg path for the pursuers to follow. And the Vanadurin had now followed that track for hours.

'Mid the red crags and rudden bluffs wended the riders, strung out in their long column of twos, their gait slowed to a mere picking walk through the tumble of shattered stone. As Nightwind stepped through the broken rock, Brytta, seeking some tactical advantage over the foe, reflected back upon the tale Arl had told him during other slow passages such as this, a tale not stripped bare as would be a scout's terse report but, rather, one told in full:

"Three days agone, after the Legion marched away from the fork in the road toward mat… mat dead vale, back there"-Arl gestured toward the Ragad Valley-"Eddra, Wylf, and I took the other fork and rode like the wind to me small watch-mountain, Redguard, where we set vigil o'er the pass. We huddled atop that cold stone peak for what seemed an endless time, wood for the balefire ready but unlit, awaiting the coming of a Wrg army. And we burned no cainpfire at night, for that would signal our presence to enemy eyes.

"And cold we were, so cold… A bitter, rimed grip was upon the land; and the very stone cracked under heel-frost-riven, broken by that dread clime's grasp. Even Wylf's luck at finding comfort failed, and we lurked there among the icy rock in the long, bitter nights; and the cruel wind cut like sharp knives as we huddled shivering, urging on the mom so that we could men light a small campblaze for its feeble warmth. At times we even japed that should a Rutchen army come, we then could kindle the balefire and warm by its flames; yet it did not happen. For two nights nothing happened.

"But, on the third night-last night-thirty or so Rutcha

bearing torches came marching down from Quadran Col just after sunset."

"Hold!" interrupted Brytta. "Whence came they? How far up were they? Did you see them come from the High Gate?"

"I have thought long upon that," answered Arl, his brow furrowing, "and this is the way of it: the first we saw of their torches, they were nearly at the snow line, high up on the roadway o'er the Gap."

Brytta grunted, then motioned for the young rider to continue his tale, and so Arl did: "Though we had hoped for some action to fire our blood, when the Spawn came all thoughts of discomfort, all longing for warmth fled in our dismay, for we knew that here could spell the doom of the quest. There were only thirty or so of them, but still it could mean discovery of the Host. Yet down the flanks of Stormhelm they tramped, and turned south. And while they marched, we considered our course.

"Because there were so few, we did not light the balefire, for that signal was meant to warn the Legion of the coming of a full Wrg army, not just a mere squad. Too, a beacon would only serve to warn the Spawn that something was stirring on this side of the mountains. Yet it seemed likely that their spying eyes had seen our Army bear south along the Old Rell Way, and this force had come to see what was afoot.

"They marched for two hours, or a bit more, going perhaps six or eight miles, down from the snow line and passing below us on the east flank of Redguard. Yet suddenly they stopped, seeming to mill about in fear or confusion, and we wondered at the cause. Then we, too, saw what had affrighted the Foul Folk, and we ourselves were taken aback, for it was indeed a bodeful sight: that great cusp of a stone wall at the head of the Valley of the Door…" Arl turned and swept his hand back toward the hemidome of the Great Loom, which, through the granite crags behind, could be seen towering up the side of Grimspire, "that wall was flaring and blooming red and orange and yellow in the night, like the very forge of Hel, and great dark shadows were guttering and twisting and writhing up the mountain flank and into the blackness, as if some vast fire was ablaze in Ragad Vale."

"Indeed, 'twas a great conflagration," verified Brytta, turning Nightwind through the jumble of rock, "set ablaze atop the dam last night to thwart the evil Warder as the Dwarves strove to break the stone and loose the lake. But that is a tale to be told later, after yours is finished. Speak on."