"03 - The Qualinesti - Paul B Thompson & Tonya R Cater" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dragonlance - Elven Nations (3))

Many were warriors, resplendent in burnished armor and flowing capes, who had battled

in the long years of the Kinslayer Wars, elf against man, man against dwarf, and elf

against elf. So protracted had been the time of bloodshed that sons and daughters of

warriors had grown up to bear arms alongside their parents.

This was an army of peace, gathered in the Kharolis Mountains. They had come

from the kingdom of Thorbardin and the realm of Qualinesti to seal a bargain and to erect

a fortress. Pax Tharkas, it was to be called; the name had already been agreed upon. In

the elven tongue, it meant "Citadel of Peace."

From the southern end of the pass came the delegation of dwarves, led by their new

king, Glenforth Sparkstriker. It was he who had led the doughty dwarven armies against

the humans of Ergoth, checking their advance in the high mountain passes around

Thorbardin. The Battle of Raven's Hook had cost Prince Glenforth an eye, but it had also

put an end to the Emperor of Ergoth's plan to subjugate the dwarves. Now, with his eye

patch of beaten gold and his magnificent coal-black beard rippling across his mailed

chest, King Glenforth led his people in an even greater endeavor.

Behind the king came the most powerful thanes, those of Glenforth's own Clan

Hylar. Richly dressed in crimson velvet and glittering with all the jewels they could

possibly wear, the Hylar each bore a ceremonial hammer on his shoulder. Close behind


the Hylar came the Daewar, for this great occasion wearing midnight blue tunics, yellow

sashes, and great wide-brimmed hats of brown leather. The Daewar carried gilded rock

chisels, as long as each dwarf was tall.

The thanes of the other clans, the Klar and the Neidar, less richly dressed but still

proud, followed in the wake of their more powerful cousins. The Klar carried ceremonial

trowels, and the Neidar picks.

Where the valley floor began to slope upward, King Glenforth raised a hand. The