That night they reached the Dwarf city of Munden, though to Rhia's disappointment they would not be passing through the city proper, and would instead skirt around it. But she found some comfort in that they were treated to a hot meal and baths at an open field dotted with tents.

They rose early the next morning, and Rhia sensed that the soldiers seemed well-rested and eager to resume their journey. Many of the men sang songs which were light-hearted and often funny. Despite the light rain that fell, the air was warm, the sky bright and unopressive.

Once south of Munden they picked up the pace, following the road that ran beside the East Grey all the way south to the sea. Rhia found the countryside rather beautiful and rustic. On their left the mountains rose very high and snow-capped, and the land about them was rolling hills of arable land divided by hundreds of copse-lined streams and fieldstone walls into a patchwork of crop-fields and orchards of dwarf fruit and nut trees, of which the dwarves seemed especially fond.

It was five days later that they reached the narrow gap where the East Grey churned violently in its constricted course through the southron range of mountains, and fell in white torrents down its steep descent to the sea.

The entire east side of the gap was cliff, the west an impenetrable high fortress that joined with the southward-facing wall of sheer rock that plunged hundreds of feet down to the sea. Anyone attempting the gap had a long, treacherous, exposed climb, which ended in a drawbridge that when closed, offered nothing but steep cliffs and battlements.




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