Fire Sea: The Death Gate Cycle, Volume 3 [Paperback]

Abarrach, the Realm of stone. Here, on a barren  world of underground caverns built around a core of  molten lava, the lesser races -- humans, elves,  and dwarves -- seem to have all died off. Here, too,  what may well be the last remnants of the once  powerful Sartan still struggle to survive. For Haplo  and Alfred -- enemies by heritage, traveling  companions by necessity -- Abarrach may reveal more than  either dares to discover about the history of  Sartan... and the future of all their descendants.CHAPTER 1
 
 
KAIRN TELEST, ABARRACH
 
 
 
“FATHER, WE HAVE NO CHOICE. YESTERDAY, ANOTHER child died. The day before, his grandmother. The cold grows more bitter, every day. Yet,” his son pauses, “I’m not certain it is the cold, so much, as the darkness, Father. The cold is killing their bodies, but it is the darkness that is killing their spirit. Baltazar is right. We must leave now, while we still have strength enough to make the journey.”
 
Standing outside in the dark hallway, I listen, observe, and wait for the king’s reply.
 
But the old man does not immediately respond. He sits on a throne of gold, decorated with diamonds large as a man’s fist, raised up on a dais overlooking a huge hall made of polished marble. He can see very little of the hall. Most of it is lost in shadow. A gas lamp, sputtering and hissing on the floor at his feet, gives off only a dim and feeble light.
 
Shivering, the old king hunches his shoulders deeper into the fur robes he has piled over and around him. He slides himself nearer the front edge of the throne, nearer the gas lamp, although he knows he will extract no warmth from the flickering flame. I believe it is the comfort of the light he seeks. His son is right. The darkness is killing us.
 
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