DAVID EDDINGS
The Diamond Throne
The Elenium
BOOK ONE
Copyright
HarperVoyager
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers
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London SE1 9GF
www.harpercollins.co.uk
Previously published in paperback by Grafton 1990
and by HarperCollins Science Fiction & Fantasy 1993, 1995, 2005.
First published in Great Britain by Grafton 1989
Copyright © David Eddings 1989
Cover Layout Design © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2015
David Eddings asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
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Source ISBN: 9780007578979
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2015 ISBN: 9780007368020
Version: 2016-09-22
Map
Dedication
For Eleanor and for Ralph,
For courage and for faith.
Trust me.
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Map
Dedication
Prologue
Part One: Cimmura
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Part Two: Chyrellos
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Part Three: Dabour
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Keep Reading
About the Author
Also by David Eddings
About the Publisher
Prologue
Ghwerig and the Bhelliom From the Legends of the Troll-Gods
At the dawn of time, long before the ancestors of Styricum slouched, fur-clad and club-wielding, out of the mountains and forests of Zemoch onto the plains of central Eosia, there dwelt in a deep cavern lying beneath the perpetual snows of northern Thalesia a dwarfed and misshapen Troll named Ghwerig. Now, Ghwerig was an outcast by reason of his ugliness and his over-whelming greed, and he laboured alone in the depths of the earth, seeking gold and precious gems that he might add to the treasure-hoard which he jealously guarded. Finally there came a day when he broke into a deep gallery far beneath the frozen surface of the earth and beheld by the light of his flickering torch a deep blue gemstone, larger than his fist, embedded in the wall. Trembling with excitement in all his gnarled and twisted limbs, he squatted on the floor of that passage and gazed with longing at the huge jewel, knowing that its value exceeded that of the entire hoard which he had laboured for centuries to acquire. Then he began with great care to cut away the surrounding stone, chip by chip, so that he might lift the precious gem from the spot where it had rested since the world began. And as more and more it emerged from the rock, he perceived that it had a peculiar shape, and an idea came to him. Could he but remove it intact, he might by careful carving and polishing enhance that shape and thus increase the value of the gem a thousand-fold.