Morgarath, 

Will paused after reading the first word and his face blanched slightly. Everyone else in the room shivered. Will then swallowed and continued to read.

Lord of the Mountains of Rain and Night, former Baron of Gorlan in the Kingdom of Araluen, looked out over his bleak, rainswept domain and, for perhaps the thousandth time, cursed.

Alyss laid her own hand on Will's when she heard his breath start to speed up. Will glanced across the table and saw everyone else looking paler at the mention of Morgarath.

This was all that was left to him now - a jumble of rugged granite cliffs, tumbled boulders, and icy mountains. Of sheer gorges and steep narrow passes. Of gravel and rock, with never a tree or a sign of green to break the monotony.

Even though it had been fifteen years since he had been driven back into the forbidding realm that had become his prison, he could still remember the pleasant green glades and thickly forested hills of his former fief. The streams filled with fish and the fields rich with crops and game. Gorlan had been a beautiful, living place. The Mountains of Rain and Night were dead and desolate.

'That's your fault,' Halt pointed out angrily.

Crowley nodded in agreement. 'Yeah. If he hadn't been so annoying, then he would still be living there.

A platoon of Wargals-

Will shivered and he saw Horace and Evanlyn do the same.

'Those things are horrible!' Evanlyn said.

Will and Horace nodded in agreement.

-was drilling in the castle yard below him. Morgarath watched them for a few seconds, listening to the guttural, rhythmic chant that accompanied all their movements. They were stocky, misshapen beings, with features that were halfway human, but with a long, brutish muzzle and fangs like a bear or a large dog.

George wrinkled his nose. 'That sounds rather unpleasant,' he said.

This earned some laughter around the tense room.

'They're more than unpleasant,' Horace said with a shiver.

'Does horrifyingly disgusting  sound any better?' George asked.

More laughter came from around the room.

Avoiding all contact with humans, the Wargals had lived and bred in these remote mountains since ancient times. No one in living memory had ever set eyes upon one, but rumors and legends had persisted of a savage tribe of semi-intelligent beasts in the mountains. Morgarath, planning a revolt against the kingdom of Araluen, had left Gorlan Fief to seek them out. If such creatures existed, they would give him an edge in the war that was to come.

'They did that, alright,' Rodney said.

It took him months, but he eventually found them. Aside from their wordless chant, Wargals had no spoken language, relying on a primitive form of thought awareness for communication. But their minds were simple and their intellects basic. 

'That's an understatement,' Will said. 'As soon as they were out of Morgarath's command, they just wandered around aimlessly.'

Evanlyn nodded. 'Yeah. It was really confusing, actually.'

As a result, they had been totally susceptible to domination by a superior intelligence and willpower.

'I don't think superior is the right word there,' Halt said. 

They all laughed at this, though no one was as loud as Crowley.

Morgarath bent them to his will and they became the perfect army for him - ugly beyond nightmares, utterly pitiless, and bound totally to his mental orders.

Now, looking at them, he remembered the brightly dressed knights in glittering armor-

'Again, that's all your fault,' Halt commented. 

who used to compete in the tourneys at Castle Gorlan, their silk-gowned ladies cheering them on and applauding their skills.

Mentally comparing them to these black-furred, misshapen creatures, he cursed again. The Wargals, attuned to his thoughts, sensed his disturbance and stirred uncomfortably, pausing in what they were doing. Angrily, he directed them back to their drill and the chanting resumed. 

'Someone has anger issues. . .' Gilan muttered.

Everyone besides from Halt and the couriers laughed at this.

Morgarath moved away from the unglazed window, closer to the fire that seemed utterly incapable of dispelling the damp and chill from this gloomy castle. Fifteen years, he thought to himself again. Fifteen years since he had rebelled against the newly crowned King Duncan, a youth in his twenties. He had planned it all carefully as the old king's sickness progressed, banking on the indecision and confusion that would follow his death to split the other barons and give Morgarath his opportunity to seize the throne.

'That's a bit dramatic isn't it, Morgy?' Gilan said in a tone that a Mother would use to scold their child.

Laughter erupted from all around the room yet again.

Secretly, he had trained his army of Wargals, massing them up here in the mountains, ready for the moment to strike. Then, in the days of confusion and grief following the king's death, when the barons traveled to Castle Araluen for the funeral rites, leaving their armies leaderless, he had attacked, overrunning the southeastern quarter of the kingdom in a matter of days, routing the confused, leaderless forces that tried to oppose him.

Duncan, young and inexperienced- 

Cassandra frowned at the book's description of her father.

-could never have stood against him. The kingdom was his for the taking. The throne was his for the taking. 

'Idiot,' Halt said angrily. 

Pauline kicked him under the table and Halt winced slightly.

Will smiled as he continued to read.

Then Lord Northolt, the old king's supreme commander, had rallied some of the younger barons into a loyal confederation, giving strength to Duncan's resolve and stiffening the wavering courage of the others. The armies had met at Hackham Heath,

Arald, Crowley, Rodney, Pauline and Duncan all glanced at Halt, who was looking down at his hands that were in his lap, when Will read this.

close to the Slipsunder River, and the battle swayed in the balance for five hours, with attack and counterattack and massive loss of life. The Slipsunder was a shallow river, but its treacherous reaches of quicksand and soft mud and formed an impassable barrier, protecting Morgarath's right flank.

But then one of the grey-cloaked meddler known as Rangers- 

Will and Gilan couldn't help but smile at the description of Halt.

led a force of heavy cavalry across a secret ford ten kilometres upstream. The armoured horsemen appeared the crucial moment of the battle and fell upon the rear of Morgarath's army.

'Let us praise the grey-cloaked meddler!' Gilan yelled cheerfully, earning a glare from Halt that made him look like like he wanted to shrink. Everyone else just laughed.

The Wargals, trained in the tumbled rocks of the mountains, had one weakness. They feared horses,

'Didn't that fear come from the battle?" Will asked, pausing his reading and looking up at Halt. 

Halt frowned and shrugged. 'I guess it could have been either. History isn't very clear about it.' 

and could never stand against such a surprise cavalry attack. They broke retreating to the narrow confines of Three Step Pass, and back to the Mountains of Rain and Night. Morgarath, his rebellion defeated, went with them. 

'Well he wasn't going to stick around with Halt still alive,' Crowely said.

Halt looked slightly proud.

And here he had been exiled these fifteen years. Waiting, plotting, hating the men who had done this to him. 

'It was your fault!' Halt said angrily earning another kick from Pauline who gestured to Will. Halt turned to see Will waiting expectantly for him to shut up before starting to read again.

Halt quickly shut up.

Now, he thought, it was time for his revenge. His spies told him the kingdom had grown slack and complacent and his presence here was all but forgotten. The name Morgarath was a name of legend nowadays, a name mothers used to hush fractious children, threatening that if they did not behave, the black lord Morgarath would come for them.

'Someone needs an ego check,' Gilan said, earning laughter from everyone but Pauline and Halt.

The time was ripe. Once again, he would lead his Wargals into an attack. 

'Didn't you learn from last time?' Crowley asked the book.

The book didn't respond.

But this time, he would have allies. And this time, he would sow the ground with uncertainty and confusion beforehand. This time, none of those who conspired against him previously would be left alive to aid King Duncan.

Pauline grabbed one of Halt's hands and held it tightly. A ghost of a smile appeared on his face.

For the Wargals were not the only ancient, terrifying creatures he had found in these sombre mountains. He had two other allies, even more fearsome - the dreadful beasts known as the Kalkara.

Will, Arald and Rodney all took in a breath at the mention of the extinct creatures. WIll then turned to see Halt holding his scarred leg.

The time was ripe to unleash them.  

A shudder ran around the room as Will closed the book.