Free The Wyrmling Horde by David Farland Page A

once, a world so pure and beautiful that your imaginations cannot do it justice. The Great Wyrm tried to seize control of it, and in the battle that ensued, the One True World splintered into millions and millions of lesser worlds.
    â€œYour world is but a shadow of that perfect world, as many of you now know. And these shadows were wrought by Despair.
    â€œBut the One World, the netherworld, still remains. It is diminished from what it once was, but it exists. I can open a door into it, if you desire to enter.”
    â€œAnd who will lead us,” Drewish Madoc demanded, “you?”
    â€œI have no desire to lead these people,” Daylan said.
    â€œDamn you, I think you do!” Drewish growled.
    â€œPlease,” the emir said. “Let us not quarrel—I beg you. Let us not choose a leader until after I bring my friend home.”
    The Madocs could not easily mount an argument against that, not without seeming churlish. But their expressions showed that they wanted to.
    Talon studied Connor Madoc, and inwardly she fumed.Her father had warned her of the danger posed by that man. Dozens of times he had tried to lure her father to his side with petty bribes and flattery.
    Daylan said, “I must warn you that even the One True World holds its risks. Still, it is much like your world, and you will not have to abide there long. There may be dangers ahead, but compared to the certain destruction that awaits us if we stay here, the risks are worth taking.
    â€œI intend to open a door into that world, and over the next few days you can march at your leisure. In time, I will open another door to this world, and we can enter somewhere far away from here, beyond the knowledge of the wyrmling hordes.”
    For an instant, the crowd was stone silent. But they could not remain silent for long. Daylan Hammer was offering hope where only minutes before there had been none, and now Talon whooped in triumph. All of the rest of the people joined into the shout.
    â€œLet us see this world first!” Connor Madoc clamored to be heard above the crowd.
    Daylan Hammer shrugged in acquiescence, then begged use of a staff from the Wizard Sisel; the wizard complied.
    Daylan touched the ground with the tip of the staff, and then swung it into a high arc, as if tracing the path of a rainbow.
    When he brought the staff back to the ground, he stood for a moment, muttering an incantation. He raised his staff again and began drawing a rune in the air with its tip.
    The air around the company suddenly seemed to
harden
: that was the only way that Talon could describe it. She could still breathe, but there was a heft to the air, as if it had grown heavy and torpid, like a pudding as it thickens.
    The smell of a storm filled the field, and lightning sizzled and popped at the point of Daylan’s staff.
    Suddenly, it was as if an invisible wall fell away.
    One instant, Talon was peering at Daylan and the others, and behind them she could see the white fields of summer,thick with dying thistles and black-eyed Susans. The next moment, it was as if a curtain had opened, revealing something Talon had never imagined.
    There was a door in the air, shaped like a rainbow, high and arching, large enough so that several people could march through it abreast.
    Beyond the door was a land different from her own. There was a vast glade with grass an emerald green. It was dawn there, or perhaps it only looked like dawn because of the huge trees that blocked the sunlight. A numinous opalescent haze filled the water-heavy air.
    Not a mile ahead, at the edge of a small lake, a stand of pine trees rose up impossibly high, as if trees were mountains in that world.
    Rich flowers filled the meadow. There were pink posies on the ground, each blossom the size of a child’s fist, and bright yellow buttercups, and bluebells that grew so tall that one could look up into the hollow within their flowers.
    Bees droned lazily as they trundled about in