Read The Chronicles of Corum for Free Online Page B

Glandyth's low, harsh voice contained something like a note of affection as he addressed the boy. "Help him stand, Rodlik."
    Rodlik sprang up and took Corum's elbow, steadying him. The boy's touch was cold and nervous.
    All the Mabden warriors looked expectantly at Glandyth. Casually, he took off his heavy helmet and shook out his hair, which was curled and heavy with grease.
    Corum, too, watched Glandyth. He studied the man's red face, decided that the gray eyes showed little real intelligence, but much malice and pride.
    "Why   have   you   destroyed   all   the   Vadhagh?"   said Corum quietly. His mouth moved painfully. "Why, Earl of Krae?"
    Glandyth looked at him as if in surprise, and he was slow to reply. "You should know. We hate your sorcery. We loathe your superior airs. We desire your lands and those goods of yours which are of use to us. So we kill you." He grinned. "Besides, we have not destroyed all the Vadhagh. Not yet. One left."
    "Aye," promised Corum. "And one that will avenge his people if he is given the opportunity."
    "No." Glandyth put his hands on his hips. "He will not be."
    "You say you hate our sorcery. But we have no sorcery. Just a little knowledge, a little second sight . . ."
    "Ha! We have seen your castles and the evil contraptions they contain. We saw that one, back there—the one we took a couple of nights ago. Full of sorcery!"
    Corum wetted his lips. "Yet even if we did have such sorcery, that would be no reason for destroying us. We have offered you no harm. We have let you come to our land without resisting you. I think you hate us because you hate something in yourselves. You are—unfinished—creatures."
    "I know. You call us half-beasts. I care not what you think: now, Vadhagh. Not now that your race is gone." Glandyth spat on the ground and waved his hand at the youth. "Let him go." The youth sprang back.
    Corum swayed, but did not fall. He continued to stare in contempt at Glandyth-a-Krae.
    "You and your race are insane, Earl. You are like a canker. You are a sickness suffered by this world."
    Earl Glandyth spat again. This time he spat straight into Corum's face. "I told you—I know what the Vadhagh think of us. I know what the Nhadragh thought before we made them our hunting dogs. It's your pride that has destroyed you, Vadhagh. The Nhadragh learned to do away with pride and so some of them were spared. They accepted us as their masters. But you Vadhagh could not. When we came to your castles, you ignored us. When we demanded tribute, you said nothing. When we told you that you served us now, you pretended you did not understand us. So we set out to punish you. And you would not resist. We tortured you and, in your pride, you would not give us an oath that you would be our slaves, as the Nhadragh did. We lost patience, Vadhagh. We decided that you were not fit to live in the same land as the great King Lyr-a-Brode, for you would not admit to being his subjects. That is why we set out to slay you all. You have earned this doom."
    Corum looked at the ground. So it was complacency that had brought down the Vadhagh race.
    He lifted his head again and stared back at Glandyth.
    "I hope, however," said Corum, "that I will be able to show you that the last of the Vadhagh can behave in a different way."
    Glandyth shrugged and turned to address his men.
    "He hardly knows what he will show us soon, will he, Lads?"
    The Mabden laughed.
    "Prepare the board!" Earl Glandyth ordered. "I think we shall begin."
    Corum saw them bring up a wide plank of wood. It was thick and pitted and stained. Near its four corners were fixed lengths of chain. Corum began to guess at the board's function.
    Two Mabden grasped his arms and pushed him toward the board. Another brought a chisel and an iron hammer. Corum was pushed with his back against the board, which now rested on the trunk of a tree. Using the chisel, a Mabden struck the chains from him, then his arms and legs were seized and he was