He chuckled at the thought, bringing a smile to Astarra’s lips. Shiver waded up to the bank to where Maelwich was standing watching over them, murmuring the final blessings of the cleansing rite in the Aethyn tongue.
He’d wondered just what had become of the thief they had set out from Frostgate with. Had he really made it out of the warren beneath Thelgrim with the Hydra Shard? Had that truly been his goal all along? Shiver wondered whether he would ever know for sure. He doubted it.
“What about you, elf?” Mavarin called out from the river, seemingly reluctant to leave it. “Where will your wanderings take you next?”
“Wherever the gods will it,” he replied, as Astarra came to join him. She’d slotted the Viridis Seed into her staff, slowly reknitting its shattered bone. In the rushing waters of the river a spark had returned to her eyes, though her soul seemed a little sharper and a little harder to Shiver than it had been before they’d entered the cavern beneath Thelgrim together. She was a long way from the prickly runewitch who’d almost called arcane fury down on him in Frostgate.
“Will you seek out more memories?” she asked him, water pattering on the rocks beneath.
“I will,” Shiver affirmed. “But I will be in no rush.”
“I believe I’ll come with you,” Astarra said to his surprise, casting her hair back over her shoulder. “If my time in the Dunwarrs has taught me one thing, it’s that I have more places to see and people to meet. The runes can wait, for a time. That’s if you’ll have me for company?”
“Yes,” Shiver said with a slow smile. “I believe it will be good to have some company, for a little while longer.”
•••
Daylight. A part of Raythen had almost missed it. Strange for a Dunwarr, but then again, he was no ordinary Dunwarr. He was reminded of that as he stepped out onto the narrow, rocky ledge above the valley, leaving the cloying darkness of the mountains behind.
The valley lay beneath him, packed with people, Thelgrim’s great gates glittering in the dawn light. The day was rising steadily, banishing the shadows, slowly driving them out of even the valley’s squalid depths.
There were thousands down there, he estimated, a sprawling, miserable encampment that had quadrupled since he had first set eyes on it. The refugees had spilled out from the valley itself and now occupied the foothills beyond, the dispossessed of Terrinoth, washed up at the edge of the world and abandoned there.
Someone else’s problem, at least for now. Raythen began to walk along the craggy pathway. He’d discarded most of his stolen armor in the tunnels behind him, though he’d kept the warrior’s belt. The pouch strapped to it had been a perfect fit for the Hydra Shard, weighing heavily on his thigh as he picked his way along the mountainside. He could feel its energies, dormant for now, awaiting the touch of one who knew how to unlock its power. Raythen didn’t know how to do that, but he was sure of one thing – those with the required arcane knowledge also tended to have an awful lot of silver.
Play the odds right, and nine times out of ten, you’d come out on top.
As he walked, he heard the sound of a horn ringing out through the valley. He paused, wondering if he’d been discovered. If so, he’d underestimated them. But no, he realized. He recognized the notes being sounded from above the great gates. They weren’t for him.
He began to walk again, away from the mountains. As he went, he smiled.
It seemed as though someone had gotten through to his father after all.
•••
The horn note woke Sarra. She began to cry.
Tiabette held her close. There was nothing more she could do. They had no food, no money, no possessions. For the past two days she had been forced to scavenge scraps from under a sutler’s wagon to feed her daughter, remains even the stray hounds that seemed to have congregated around the camp wouldn’t touch.
It had started out with hope, with cautious optimism, with a deep, powerful determination, but it had all ended here, beneath the cold, uncaring mountains, starving and shivering. She regretted leaving her home, regretted every moment of the long trek across Terrinoth. It had all been for nothing. She would die here, with her daughter in her arms, unremembered and uncared for.
A voice began to shout somewhere down the valley. Others joined it, a ripple of excitement. Tiabette could hardly bring herself to look up. When she did though, her heart nearly stopped.
Something was stirring, out beyond the wagons and the tents and the lean-tos, beyond the cooking fires and the laundry lines and the huddled masses. Movement. Motion.
Some force animated Tiabette, some spirit, long ago cowed but never quite killed off. She found her feet. She kept her daughter in her arms, despite how they shook. Sarra stirred against her shoulder, tearful and bleary-eyed, as her mother began to walk.
“Stay close,” she murmured to her, her heart beating all the quicker. “Not much further now.”
Ahead, the gates of Thelgrim were opening.
Acknowledgments
A huge thank you to the whole team at Aconyte, without whom this book couldn’t have been written. Especial praise goes to Lottie, my ever-patient editor. Thanks also to the Fantasy Flight Games team, especially Katrina, who helped make sure Gates of Thelgrim was worthy of their wonderful setting.
About the Author
ROBBIE MacNIVEN is a Highlands-native History graduate from the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of several novels and many short stories for the New York Times-bestselling Warhammer 40,000 Age of Sigmar universe, and the narrative for HiRez Studio’s Smite Blitz RPG. Outside of writing his hobbies include historical re-enacting and making eight-hour round trips every second weekend to watch Rangers FC.
robbiemacniven.wordpress.com
twitter.com/robbiemacniven
Table of Contents
Cover
Descent Legends of the Dark
The Gates of Thelgrim
Copyright
Terrinoth Map
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Descent Legends of the Dark
World Expanding Fiction
The Gates of Thelgrim Page 30
