Chapter 6

It was like endlessly falling, like a nightmare which would never end. At
first Giyorn was shocked. One instant he was with his friends on the
desolate marsh, the next instant he was falling through a dark infinity.

He was stood on a hill beneath the spire. The sky on the horizon hung a
misty red. Above the clouds were dark; heavy; yet there was enough light to
give them shape. Monsterous giants; storm flecked with red and white.

Sharp pinnacles needled the sky. They were the Shadow Mountains - distant
yet daunting. Somewhere in that swirl of rock stood Greyfar. Not only was
it a part of his world, but it was a part of this world also, Evilon - the
darkworld.

Nearer at hand lay the Lake of Tears, shed by a million people over ten
thousand years. Behind lay the Forest of Fear, where devils walk and demons
stalk the dark reaches of our minds.

Giyorn left the hill to walk through the Gardens of Sorrow where a thousand
hopes had perished; where the trees bowed their heads and the flowers
withered and died. Beyond lay the Sea of Despair. Each wave a dream of man,
crashing on the shore to shatter into a billion droplets and vanish into
the sand.

That is how it was in those grieved lands. Giyorn did not know why he was
here or how he would return to his own world. Perhaps if he shut his eyes.

The darkness lifted. All around him lay the cold wet marshlands. It was
daylight and he stood alone.

He gazed around, not really conprehending what he was seeing, but as time
passed his senses returned. His friends were gone; the shade was gone; only
he remained. He returned to where they had left their horses, but naught
did he find.

It was a cold sun which shone down on the marshland; for all Giyorn knew
his friends could be dead, at best they had left him. He had no horse and
no food; all that remained to him was the axe and a will of iron. He stared
for a moment at the western horizon, then he began to walk.
