All rights go to John Flanagan
Will, Halt and Gilan were riding to Castle Araluen due to sudden notice from the king, they didn't know much besides it was about some books. Halt wasn't pleased by the idea but Will and Gilan seemed somewhat interested.
As they arrived they were surprised by so many familiar faces, there was Alyss, Baron Arald, Horace, Cassandra (or Evenlyn as some people call her), Crowley, Pauline, Jenny, Rodney and unsurprisingly; King Duncan was also there.
"Ah, now that everyone's here I suppose I should tell you what this is about." Duncan exclaimed.
"We know it's about some books but what are they about?" Alyss asked.
"I'm not really sure but I received some books last night, apparently they reveal stuff about the past, mainly to do with Will." Duncan explained.
Will frowned "Why me?"
"Probably because your reputation is as bad as Halt's these days" Crowley snorted
Unable to think of a comeback, Will nodded and conceded the point.
"Well then, who's reading first?" Cassandra asked, eager to start reading.
For a few seconds no one said anything but naturally Pauline offered to do it, frowning as she opened to the prologue.
Morgarath, the Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked out over his bleak, rainswept domain and, for perhaps the thousandth time, cursed. Cassandra and Will all shivered as they remembered their encounters with him in Celtica. Halt just growled at the mention of his name as he had a deep hatred for him.
This was all that was left to him now - a jumble of rugged granite cliffs, tumbled boulders and icy mountains. Of sheer gorges and steep narrow passes. Of gravel and rock, with never a tree or a sign of green to break the monotony."Drama, drama" Gilan drawled, trying to lighten the atmosphere, earning chuckles from most people in the room, as Alyss and Pauline smiled, ever the diplomats.
Even though it had been fifteen years since he had been driven back into this forbidding realm that had become his prison, he could still remember the pleasant green glades and thickly forested hills of his former fief. The streams filled with fish and the fields rich with crops and game. Gorlan had been a beautiful, living place. The Mountains of Rain and Night were dead and desolate."Is that such a bad thing?" questioned Halt.
A platoon of Wargals was drilling in the castle yard below him. Morgarath watched them for a few seconds, listening to the guttural, rhythmic chant that accompanied all their movements. They were stocky, misshapen beings, with features that were halfway human, but with a long, brutish muzzle and fangs like a bear or a large dog."Horrible creatures." Horace murmured. "Agreed" everyone in the room chorused.
Avoiding all contact with humans, the Wargals had lived and bred in these remote mountains since ancient times. No one in living memory had ever set eyes upon one, but rumors and legends had persisted of a savage tribe of semi-intelligent beasts in the mountains. Morgarath, planning a revolt against the Kingdom of Araluen, had left Gorlan Fief to seek them out. If such creatures existed, they would give him an edge in the war that was to come.
It took him months, but he eventually found them. Aside from their wordless chant, Wargals had no spoken language, relying on a primitive form of thought awareness for communication. But their minds were simple and their intellects basic. As a result, they had been totally susceptible to domination by a superior intelligence and willpower. Morgarath bent them to his will and they became the perfect army for him-ugly beyond nightmares, utterly pitiless and bound totally to his mental orders."He's quite sure of himself isn't he?" Rodney said disgraced. That's no way to run an army, the knights and Duncan thought.
Now, looking at them, he remembered the brightly dressed knights in glittering armor who used to compete in tourneys at Castle Gorlan, their silk-gowned ladies cheering them on and applauding their skills. Mentally comparing them to these black-furred, misshapen creatures, he cursed again."He's been doing that a lot hasn't he?" Gilan sneered
The Wargals, attuned to his thoughts, sensed his disturbance and stirred uncomfortably, pausing in what they were doing. Angrily, he directed them back to their drill and the chanting resumed.
Morgarath moved away from the unglazed window, closer to the fire that seemed utterly incapable of dispelling the damp and chill from this gloomy castle. Fifteen years, he thought to himself again. Fifteen years since he had rebelled against the newly crowned King Duncan, a youth in his twenties. He had planned it all carefully as the old king's sickness progressed, banking on the indecision and confusion that would follow his death to split the other barons and give Morgarath his opportunity to seize the throne.
"Good thing that didn't work out in the end" Alyss said, shaking her head in disgust at Morgarath. "Scary to think what would happen if it did" Will agreed, frowning as he tries to think what would of happened.
Secretly, he had trained his army of Wargals, massing them up here in the mountains, ready for the moment to strike. Then, in the days of confusion and grief following the king's death, when the barons traveled to Castle Araluen for the funeral rites, leaving their armies leaderless, he had attacked, overrunning the southeastern quarter of the kingdom in a matter of days, routing the confused, leaderless forces that tried to oppose him.
Duncan, young and inexperienced, could never have stood against him. The kingdom was his for the taking. The throne was his for the asking."This is why you should never be overconfident, because it always results in failure" Halt explained. "How many times have we heard that I wonder?" Will grinned at Halt, who in turn just glared back at him.
Then Lord Northolt, the old king's supreme army commander, had rallied some of the younger barons into a loyal confederation, giving strength to Duncan's resolve and stiffening the wavering courage of the others. The armies had met at Hackham Heath, close by the Slipsunder River, and the battle swayed in the balance for five hours, with attack and counterattack and massive loss of life. The Slipsunder was a shallow river, but its treacherous reaches of quicksand and soft mud had formed an impassable barrier, protecting Morgarath's right flank.
But then one of those gray-cloaked meddlers known as Rangers led a force of heavy cavalry across a secret ford ten kilometers upstream.
Halt looked too smug at himself about this. Crowley thought, "It wasn't just your idea you know, Halt. And besides your reputation is bad enough" He added with a grin. Halt sneered at him, "I didn't see you helping back then" Crowley decided to shut up at this causing the others to laugh. The armored horsemen appeared at the crucial moment of the battle and fell upon the rear of Morgarath's army.
The Wargals, trained in the tumbled rocks of the mountains, had one weakness. They feared horses and could never stand against such a surprise cavalry attack. They broke, retreating to the narrow confines of Three Step Pass, and back to the Mountains of Rain and Night. Morgarath, his rebellion defeated, went with them.
And here he had been exiled these fifteen years. Waiting, plotting, hating the men who had done this to him.
"Why didn't we just kill him?" Halt wondered "It would of saved a lot of trouble". "Because we're all not as cold as you, Halt" Pauline said giving a look that told him not to take it further, Crowley didn't recognise this and agreed with Halt "He's right". "Well almost all of us" Pauline corrected her last statement, passing on the look to him, he took the point now.
Now, he thought, it was time for his revenge. His spies told him the kingdom had grown slack and complacent and his presence here was all but forgotten. The name Morgarath was a name of legend nowadays, a name mothers used to hush fractious children, threatening that if they did not behave, the black lord Morgarath would come for them.
The time was ripe. Once again, he would lead his Wargals into an attack. But this time he would have allies. And this time he would sow the ground with uncertainty and confusion beforehand. This time none of those who conspired against him previously would be left alive to aid King Duncan.
For the Wargals were not the only ancient, terrifying creatures he had found in these somber mountains. He had two other allies, even more fearsome-the dreadful beasts known as the Kalkara."They sound scary" Jenny said shivering at the thought of them. Will was about to agree but then saw Gilan comfort her and thought better of it.
The time was ripe to unleash them.
"Chapter's done" Pauline announced. "Who's next to read?"
I've seen a few of these and really liked them so I've tried to do one myself let me know what you think (I'm normally bad at openings).