"01 - The Road to Underfall" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jefferies Mike)

'What form?' urged the young voice.

'Shush!' hissed the voice of wisdom, feeling a slight change
in the flow of air, 'Nightbeasts are near.

'It was the sleeping form of the first Granite King. The
terrible storms had eaten away at the granite cliff and as King
Mantern reached out to touch the surface of the rock it
crumbled away and the first Granite King arose. Mantern
offered up the handle of his hammer fearing a greater magic
than the nightmare of Krulshards and the winds of night that
screamed about his ears, but the Granite King refused the
hammer and, drawing his sword, split night in half, and a little
light shone in that dreadful place. Just enough light for Mantern
to see the ruin he had caused to the gardens of Elundium,
for the storms had broken the branches of the trees and
smashed down the beautiful stone buildings, and night had
robbed all the colours from the flowers and they had shut their
petal cases against the darkness. Mantern threw himself down
at the feet of the Granite King but strong hands lifted him up
and a gentle voice soothed him in the twilight.

"'I am Holgranos, the first Granite King. I shall win back
what you have lost. I shall win back the light."

'With that he swept his sword against the granite cliff and it
shattered into a thousand crystals of light, each one brighter
than the sun. Krulshards fled back into his black hole beneath

the mountain.'

'But the darkness? Who brought back the darkness?' asked
the young voice.

'Crystals are not suns. Nor is their magic powerful enough to
keep out the night. Mantern saw the ruin he had caused and
fled back to the Granite City, where he spent the last remaining
days of sunlight fortifying the granite towers against the night
he knew must come and always his eyes were drawn towards
the horizon that hid the raw black mountain that had grown up out
of the marble valleys.

'Holgranos, the first Granite King, climbed to the top of
Mantern's Mountain, the darkest and most feared place in all
Elundium, and, lifting huge slabs of black marble, he blocked
up the mouth of night, trapping Krulshards in the darkness.
But each time the seal was almost complete the Master of
nightbeasts broke out, hurling rocks and stones at the Granite
King. It was a time of giants, when the two mightiest forces in