Book 6, Thegainvald

EXCERPTS FROM THE THEGAINVALDE, BOOK 6 OF 65

Now is it come that a peace has been made with the Snow Prince! The exultant shout was heard and harried across ship-prows, first from those vessels returning from the Morning’s Star, then to the luggage and retainer boats, and finally to the very campfires upon the Yorgim shore! The Snow Prince has retreated, and Ysgrammor Ebon-Haft has once again lashed Wuthraad to his mast. Already a great stonework has begun, and the kiln-fires burn nightly. 

The devils have retreated to their mountain-fortress in the south, which they call Falmantis and we have named Monahven, to recoup their dead and recover their wounded. Even now, our axes and slings dare not approach such a tower, for it is the consolidation of their magics.

So the Arch Father has willed our own chisels and hammers to raise a keep, and a bailey, and a wall about it which shall stand as a mountain to the Sons of Mora. It is to be named Venhalm, for the wind of our breath shall blow always upon the face of our enemy.

The prison-boats are an ill prize. They ride the grey-tide by morning and night unto our harbor. Kyne’s honor demands a battle-trophy, and this was done rightly at the Morning’s Star. Priests of Mara and of Kyne, and the dead-fox-priests whose names are in Sovengarde, made sacrifice of the ship Ynglattyr. At the young prince’s bidding, a paean to the dead was sung, and the corpses piled among the timbers and cedar-futtocks. Even the honorable enemy were given proper burial according their custom and rank. All this was done well. Yet Stuhn’s hunger is principal among many of our fathers, and such have made slave-tribute of their own conquered. Now prison-boats line our piers. 

This is an ill policy, and we shall suffer for it.