Mike Jefferies - Loremaster 1 - The road to Underfall

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The Road to

Underfall

MIKE JEFFERIES was born in Kent but spent

his early years in Australia. He attended the

Goldsmiths School of Arts and then taught art in

schools and in prisons. A keen rider, he was

selected in 1980 to ride for Britain in the Belgian

Three Day Event. He now lives in Norfolk where

he works, among other things, as an illustrator,

with his wife and family.

The Road to Underfall is the first volume of the

trilogy Eoremasters of Elundium, of which the

second and third books are Palace of Kings and

Shadowlight. His next book, Shadows in the

Watchgate, is to be published in Fontana in

autumn 1991.

Also by Jefferies

Loremaster of Elundium:

2. Palace of Kings

3. Shadowlight

The Heirs to Gnarlsmyre:

1. Glitterspike Hall

2. Hall of Whispers

MIKE JEFFERIES

The Road to

Und~erfa1~1t

Fontana

An Imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers

A FONTANAORIGINAL

First issued in 1986 by Fontana,

an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers,

77/85 Fulham Palace Road,

Hammersmith, London W6 8JB.

98765

The Author asserts the moral right to be

identified as the author of this work

A CIP catalogue record for this book

is available from the British Library

Printed and bound in Great Britain by

HarperCollms Book Manufacturing, Glasgow

To Grandfather - who laughed at the

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shadows and put fear aside. 'Child,' he once

said, 'Kings have no simple tasks, for all our

threads hang from their fingertips and as

the Master Puppeteer they move us all to

chase our fate.'

CONDITIONS OF SALE

This book is sold subject to the condition

that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise,

be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated

without the publisher's prior consent m any form of

binding or cover other than that in which it is

published and without a similar condition

induding this condition being imposed

on the subsequent purchaser

The Bondbreaking

'I will teach you,' whispered a voice in the darkness. 'I will tell you

what it is forbidden to know; of how the Granite Kings arose out

of the great darkness.'

'Lord, there is a curse on stories about time before the

darkness came,' answered a shy nervous voice. 'It is forbidden to

meddle in magic.'

Laughter crackled, almost seeming to split the blackness in

two.

'Listen, child, and I shall tell you of a time before night was ever

thought of and how it came to a world of perpetual light, in a time

when the sun endlessly circled Elundium.'

The voice paused, and in its place a tiny speck of light began to

glow.

'It was the age of the Mason Kings, the architects of all that is

beautiful across the length and breadth of Elundium. City after

city, each one more intricate and delicate; each one mirroring the

beauty of a perfect world, rose up, glittering in the soft changeless

light, until . . .'

'Until?' pressed the younger voice, eager to hear the story, yet

terrified that the Nightbeasts might be listening in the darkness.

'Until King Mantern took up his mason's chisel. He was driven

by strange dreams to fear the sunlight, and all he built shadowed

what the other kings had built. On the outside in hard bleak lines

he used only dark stone, rough hewn and quarry raw, while within

there was black marble, traced in silver; it lined every room. He

built the Granite City, sheer and windowless, a dark place of inner

courtyards and secrets, and in its midst, rising in brittle points,

stood the Towers of Granite.

'He sought tirelessly for the purest black marble, and his quest

led him deeper and deeper into the marble valleys until,

amongst the blackest shadows, he found a pure seam of the

richest marble ever known. It was etched in veins of silver.'

The point of light had grown stronger as the story unfolded

and it reflected fine feathery veins around it. ~

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'Mantern raised his hammer and swung a mighty blow at his

chisel and that hammer blow broke through the surface of ~:

Elundium, and from that tiny hole night burst out.'

The young voice gasped in the darkness.

'Night roared and screamed around King Mantern, tearing

the hole into a great split. Earthquakes shook the marble valleys

and black storms tore at its surface. Mantern tried to stop the

earth splitting but the more he held on to each side the more

violent the earthquakes became until a great mountain had

formed beneath the struggling King and he stood in total

darkness beside a black entrance. Wise men say it was the first

moment that the world turned, but among the Masters of Magic

it is known that this was the moment of Krulshards' birth.'

The voice paused and the point of light grew smaller and

smaller until it became lost in the blackness.

'Without the sun, King Mantern was blind. He reached out

shaking hands against the raging storms but all around him the

winds began to laugh, cruel shrieking sounds of torment, and

his hand touched the Master of Night.'

'Krulshards!' gasped the young listener, huddling against

the floor.

'The one whose eyes are the black holes of despair and

whose breath will overshadow the moon or blot out the stars.

He had arisen to destroy Elundium.'

'Did he make all the darkness?' asked the younger voice.

Again the laughter rekindled the point of light.

'There were, before that hammer blow, two worlds in

perfect parallel. One above the ground, at peace with nature, in

harmony with the sunlight. While in the darkness beneath the

surface in the other world unnatural things had grown, nightmare

images that hated the light. The Mason Kings had

stripped the surface of Elundium in their search for the purest

stone, weakening and drawing the two worlds together, and in

their ignorance they had awaken Krulshards, the Master of the

Darkness.'

'Which world have I come from?' asked the listener in

confusion.

'Patience!' hissed the other voice. 'Listen. The storms of

night gradually receded, leaving King Mantern face to face

with the one he had touched and he cried out, clutching at his

withering hand. Before him stood a mirror image of himself,

the black inner self of his nightmares that had driven him to

make that hammer blow. Krulshards. Before him stood a

figure more powerful than any being that had ever walked in

Elundium. Shadowy and terrible to look upon. Wrapped in a

black malice which covered corrupted rotten flesh that hated

the sunlight.

'He sneered at the King, gripping him with bone black

fingers, laughing in his face. "I have summoned you, Sun King,

to set me free and now I shall take everything and cover

Elundium with darkness."

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'King Mantern struggled helplessly as Krulshards lifted him

high above his head and cast him down the mountainside.

Night winds screamed and tormented him and savage storms

lashed at his body as he fell, but eventually battered and

bruised he reached the lower slopes and came to rest on the

edge of a steep slope of living granite. It sparkled and glowed in

the dark and as the King slid across its surface, searching for a

way down, he saw within the rock face a sleeping form.'

'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

Elundium stood face to face before the gates of night. Each

time they fought upon the boulder strewn ledge before that

dark hole, Krulshards shadowed the sun, hiding his one

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weakness from the Granite King; bringing with the darkness

bitter winters that changed the marble valleys into a bleak

desolate place that the ordinary people of Elundium dared not

go near, and in time the marble valleys lost their true name and

became known as World's End and a place to dread.'

'Weakness?' asked the younger voice, 'There is nothing but

fear and terror here in the darkness.'

Pure laughter blazed in the darkness showing a glimpse of

the older voice, splashes of colour dazzled the listener.

'Strong magic! Beware! Krulshards will destroy anything

that knows of his weakness, for he has the strength of ten

Granite Kings, yet children could render him helpless and

ready for the killing stroke.'

'How so?' gasped the other voice, searching the darkness for

the beautiful colours.

'Know me now, and I shall tell you, for I am Nevian, the

Master of Magic, the Lord of the Daylight and the Keeper of

the Sun.'

The light blazed again, and there in the darkness stood a

figure wrapped in a rainbow cloak of many colours.

'Tread on his shadow, if you can get close enough, for that is

his weakness. Here in the darkness he is shadowless and

terrible, but in the daylight if you can step upon that nightmare

shape he is yours to destroy, for he cannot turn to fight or

escape into the City of Night. It took my greatest magic to make

that part of him real, and jump as high as he likes or run faster

than the wind he cannot get away from it. Holgranos saw the

secret of the shadow but it was too late, he had fought for many

winters on Mantern's Mountain and his bones had grown

brittle from the cold. He had grown old and too weak to chase

the Master of Nightbeasts and by then Krulshards was not

alone or so vulnerable, for he had spawned the Nightbeasts

deep inside the City of night and formed them into a shadow

circle that protected him, and who could tell which was the

master's shadow amongst so many hideous shapes?'

'Are the nightbeasts afraid of the daylight?' asked the young

Voice.

Nevian laughed, casting back the rainbow cloak. 'Nightbeasts

are afraid of the daylight, they are weak and blinded by

the light yet their fear of Krulshards will drive them out to form

a shadow circle wherever he commands it. They wear the skins

of those they kill, fashioned into hideous armour and that

protects them a little in the light. Holgranos could no longer

find the strength to climb the mountain and in despair he sent

for King Mantern and asked as payment for the light that the

last Mason King should build him a shelter at the foot of the

mountain, somewhere strong and fortified where he could rest

from the battles with Krulshards. Somewhere the Master of

Night could not enter.'

'Did he build such a place?' asked the young voice.

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file:///F|/rah/Mike%20Jefferies/Mike%20Jefferies%20-%20Loremasters%20of%20Elundium%201%20-%20The%20Road%20to%20Underfall.txtTheRoadtoUnderfallMIKEJEFFERIESwasborninKentbutspenthisearlyyearsinAustralia.HeattendedtheGoldsmithsSchoolofArtsandthentaughtartinschoolsandinprisons.Akeenrider,hewasselectedi...

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Mike Jefferies - Loremaster 1 - The road to Underfall

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