Chapter 156

On either side of the mountain road stood abandoned stone works and the crumbling remains of old castles—traces left by Vale houses that had long since vanished into the river of history. Further on the peaks fell suddenly away. Green meadows, a blue sky and sharp summits that pierced the clouds appeared at once. The valley stretched before them until it was lost in the misty east.

The Vale was a peaceful, quiet land, sheltered on every side by mountains, its heart filled with rich black soil, broad and gentle rivers, and hundreds of lakes that shone like mirrors in the sun. In the Age of Heroes countless armies had died trying to conquer it and failed. Domeric knew that he himself could not take it by force either.

For that reason he had not ridden at once to the Bloody Gate. Instead he drove more than five hundred mountain-clan prisoners before him into the Mountains of the Moon.