Trek to Kraggen-Cor by 1932- Dennis L. McKiernan Read Free Book Online Page A

hatred beat upon them, and great waves of dread engulfed them, but the creature could not come at them. And onward they fled.
    Perry read of them coming to the drawbridge over the Great Deep, and the bridge was lowered and unguarded. There, too, was oil and pitch, and they made ready to burn the wooden span and prevent pursuit. But ere they could fire it, the Gargon came upon them once more, and at last paralyzed them with its dire gaze.
    And as the creature came to kill them, it made a fatal mistake, for it

    considered Tuck to be beneath its contempt, and the Warrow proved to be the key to the slaying of the Dread—for slay it they did.
    Perry read of the fiery destruction of the bridge, and its collapse into the Deep, and the escape of the four out through the Dawn-Gate and onto the Pitch, coming at last to safe haven under the eaves of Darda Galion.
    The candles were low and guttering when Perry finished reading. The room was silent as each reflected upon that which had just been recounted. Cotton got up to fetch some fresh candles to light, but at that moment Holly popped back in through the door. "Dinner is served," she announced, and led them all off to the dining room.
    CHAPTER 4 THE BREGA PATH
    Dinner was superb; Holly had outdone herself. Mounds of steaming mushrooms were heaped upon large platters; and she had prepared her special recipe for rabbit stew: thick and creamy and filled with delicious morsels of tender coney and chunks of potatoes, parsnips, and other vegetables, all perfectly seasoned with her own blend of tangy spices and aromatic herbs. Dark ale in deep mugs sparkled in the warm, yellow lamplight, and the talk turned to things other than Rucks and such.
    "It must be a long way from Dael to Pellar to Woody Hollow," remarked Perry, popping another mushroom into his mouth. "Surely you didn't walk all the way."
    "No," laughed Lord Kian. "That indeed would be a longsome stroll. Let me see, I deem we covered more than three thousand miles just going from Mineholt North to Pellar and back. Of course most of that journey was by boat on the Rissanin and Argon rivers. Then from the Mineholt to your Boskydells is nearly another thousand miles: we travelled the Landover Road to the Grimwall Mountains, where we crossed over Crestan Pass to come down near Arden, and then we followed the east-west Crossland Road to come to the Seven Dells."
    "Goodness," breathed Perry, eyes aglitter. "Why, you've travelled four

    thousand miles in the past few months alone, and I've barely exceeded a hundred in my entire life—when I travelled from the Cliffs to here—and I am three years past my 'coming of age.' The wonderful sights you must have seen . . ."His voice trailed off in breathless speculation.
    "Horses!" burst out Cotton, banging his mug of ale down on the table, some foam sloshing out. "I'll bet you rode horses to the Bosky!"
    "Ride horses?" snorted Anval. "A Chak ride a horse? Hmphh! A pony, mayhap, but not a full-grown horse. We have better sense than to climb aboard one of those great lumbering beasts. Aye, Cotton, we did use horses on the roads to the Boskydells—but we drove them, we didn't ride them. We travelled sensibly—by waggon."
    "Well, if you rode in a waggon, where is it now?" asked Cotton, chagrined for not remembering the idle tavern talk that occasionally turned to the subject of Dwarves, and the hearsay that Dwarves, though brave at most things, for some reason seemed to fear being borne on the back of a horse. "You didn't arrive at Woody Hollow Hall ridin' in no waggon."
    "You are right, Waeran," rumbled Anval, amused by Cotton's embarrassment, "we trod the final miles on foot. The waggon is in Budgens with a rock-broken wheel being mended by one of your Waeran wheelwrights. It will be ready ere our return journey to the Landover Road Ford."
    "The Landover Road Ford?" asked Perry, vaguely remembering that the ford was somewhere on the River Argon beyond the Grimwall Mountains.
    "Aye, Waeran,"