"Ed Greenwood - Band of Four 03 - A Dragon's Ascension" - читать интересную книгу автора (Greenwood Ed)

Gasping Fools Fill his Fane

Crowns tumble before his fangs

Men mutter of him, and cower

True Crawling viper, after all

Yer stand against him not in vain

Keep sword sharp to be his bane

Stray not to peaks snow-cloaked deep

Ruins Forgot, nor echoing grot

Hunt no wyrms, gold aseeking

For the Foe of the Serpent

Is the Dragon.

from The Way of Valor

by the Bard Haelithe of Ranshree Penned in the days of King
Gaur (too long ago)

From the Chronicles of Aglirta: A
History
Now in the Time of Many Wizards, when all Darsar sought
the Dwaerindim and realms rose and fell with each passing
season, there arose in Aglirta four heroes, who were destined to
give the Kingless Land a king once moreтАФthough to many it
seemed not the salvation and peace for all Asmarand that had
been foretold.

This Band of Four arose in desperation, in the time after
Baron Blackgult sought to gain an edge in his long feud with the
rival house of Silvertree, and made war upon the rich Isles of
Ieirembor, seeking to make their tall timber and trade-metals
his own, but was vanquished, and hurled back with great loss of
armsmen and armaragors, Blackgult himself being thought lost
in the fray.

Then did the cruel Faerod Silvertree, the fell magic of his
Dark Three wizards his main weapon, seize the barony of
Blackgult, and he made war on the other baronies nigh his own
holdings, and flourished. So great was the rise of his power that
it seemed that he would soon be King in Aglirta, whose king had
slept for years beyond the memories of living men.