'But you can't do anything. There is no point to this pursuit.'
Druss took a deep breath. 'They have Rowena,' he said. 'And Shadak has a plan.'
'Ah, a plan,' she said derisively, her full-lipped mouth twisting in a sneer. 'Two men with a plan. Then I suppose I am safe?'
'You are alive - and free,' Druss told her. 'If you want to ride to Padia, then do so.'
Her expression softened and she reached out, laying her hand on Druss's forearm. 'I know you are brave, Druss; I saw you kill those raiders and you were magnificent. I don't want to see you die in some meaningless battle. Rowena wouldn't want it either. There are many of them, and they're all killers.'
'So am I,' he said. 'And there are fewer than there were.'
'Well, what happens to me when they cut you down?' she snapped. 'What chance will I have?'
He looked at her for a moment, his eyes cold. 'None,' he told her.
Tailia's eyes widened. 'You never liked me, did you?' she whispered. 'You never liked any of us.'
'I have no time for this nonsense,' he said, touching heels to the gelding and moving ahead. He did not look back, and was not surprised when he heard the sound of her horse galloping off towards the north.
A few minutes later Shadak rode up from the south. 'Where is she?' asked the hunter, letting go of the reins of the two horses he was leading and allowing them to wander close by, cropping the long grass.
'Riding for Padia,' answered Druss. The hunter said nothing for a moment, but he gazed towards the north where Tailia could be seen as a tiny figure in the distance. 'You'll not talk her out of it,' Druss said.
'Did you send her away?'
'No. She thinks we are both dead men, and she doesn't want to risk being taken by the slavers.'
'That's a hard point to argue with,' agreed Shadak. Then he shrugged. 'Ah well, she chose her own road. Let us hope it was a wise one.'
'What of the raiders?' asked Druss, all thoughts of Tailia gone from his mind.
'They rode through the night, and are heading due south. I think they will make camp by the Tigren, some thirty miles from here. There is a narrow valley opening on to a bowl-shaped canyon. It's been used by slavers for years - and horse thieves, cattle stealers and renegades. It is easily defendable.'
'How long until we reach them?'
'Some time after midnight. We'll move on for two more hours, then we'll rest and eat before switching horses.'
'I don't need a rest.'
'The horses do,' said Shadak, 'and so do I. Be patient. It will be a long night, and fraught with peril. And I have to tell you that our chances are not good. Tailia was right to be concerned for her safety; we will need more luck than any two men have a right to ask for.'
'Why are you doing this?' asked Druss. 'The women are nothing to you.' Shadak did not reply and they rode in silence until the sun was almost at noon. The hunter spotted a small grove of trees to the east and turned his horse; the two men dismounted in the shade of several spreading elms beside a rock pool.
'How many did you kill back there?' he asked Druss as they sat in the shade.
'Six,' answered the axeman, taking a strip of dried beef from the pouch at his side and tearing off a chunk.
'You ever kill men before?'
'No.'
'Six is . . . impressive. What did you use?' Druss chewed for a moment, then swallowed. 'Felling-axe and a hatchet. Oh. . . and one of their daggers,' he said at last. 'And my hands.'
'And you have had no training in combat?'
'No.'
Shadak shook his head. Talk me through the fights - everything you can remember.' Druss did so, Shadak listened in silence, and when the axeman had finished his tale the hunter smiled. 'You are a rare young man. You positioned yourself well, in front of the fallen tree. That was a good move - the first of many, it seems. But the most impressive is the last. How did you know the swordsman would jump to your left?'
'He saw I had an axe and that I was right-handed. In normal circumstances the axe would have been raised over my left shoulder and pulled down towards the right. Therefore he moved to his right - my left.'
'That is cool thinking for a man in combat. I think there is a great deal of your grandfather in you.'
'Don't say that!' growled Druss. 'He was insane.'
'He was also a brilliant fighting man. Yes, he was evil. But that does not lessen his courage and his skills.'
'I am my own man,' said Druss. 'What I have is mine.'
'I do not doubt it. But you have great strength, good timing and a warrior's mind. These are gifts that pass from father to son, and on through the line. But know this, laddie, there are responsibilities that you must accept.'
'Like what?'
'Burdens that separate the hero from the rogue.'
'I don't know what you mean.'
'It comes back to the question you asked me, about the women. The true warrior lives by a code. He has to. For each man there are different perspectives, but at the core they are the same: Never violate a woman, nor harm a child. Do not lie, cheat or steal. These things are for lesser men. Protect the weak against the evil strong. And never allow thoughts of gain to lead you into the pursuit of evil.'
'This is your code?' asked Druss.
'It is. And there is more, but I shall not bore you with it.'
'I am not bored. Why do you need such a code to live by?'
Shadak laughed. 'You will understand, Druss, as the years go by.'
'I want to understand now,' said the younger man.
'Of course you do. That is the curse of the young, they want it all now. No. Rest a while. Even your prodigious strength will fail after a time. Sleep a little. And wake refreshed. It will be a long -and bloody - night.'
*
The moon was high, and a quarter full in a cloudless sky. Silver light bathed the mountains, rippling on the river below, making it seem of molten metal. Three camp-fires burned and Druss could just make out the movement of men in the flickering light. The women were huddled between two wagons; there was no fire near them, but guards patrolled close by. To the north of the wagons, around thirty paces from the women, was a large tent. It gleamed yellow-gold, like a great lantern, shimmering shadows being cast on the inside walls; there was obviously a brazier within, and several lamps.
Shadak moved silently alongside the axeman, beckoning him back. Druss edged from the slope, returning to the glade where the horses were tethered.
'How many did you count?' asked Shadak, keeping his voice low.
'Thirty-four, not including those inside the tent.'
There are two men there, Harib Ka and Collan. But I make it thirty-six outside. They have placed two men by the river-bank to prevent any of the women trying to swim to safety.'
'When do we go in?' asked Druss.
'You are very anxious to fight, laddie. But I need you to have a cool head down there. No baresark warfare.'
'Do not concern yourself about me, hunter. I merely want my wife back.'
Shadak nodded. 'I understand that, but now I want you to consider something. What if she has been raped?'
Druss's eyes gleamed, his fingers tightening on the axe haft. 'Why do you ask this now?'
'It is certain that some of the women will have been violated. It is the way of men such as these to take their pleasures where they want them. How cool do you feel now?'
Druss swallowed back his rising anger. 'Cool enough. I am not a baresark, Shadak. I know this. And I will follow your plan to the last detail, live or die, win or lose.'
'Good. We will move two hours before dawn. Most of them will be deeply asleep by then. Do you believe in the gods?'
'I never saw one - so no.'
.Shadak grinned. 'Neither do I. It puts praying for divine help out of the question, I suppose.'
Druss was silent for a moment. 'Tell me now,' he said at last, 'why you need a code to live by.'
Shadak's face was ghostly in the moonlight, the expression sudde
nly stern and forbidding. Then he relaxed and turned to gaze down at the camp of the raiders. 'Those men down there have only one code. It is simple: Do what you will is the whole of the law. Do you understand?'
'No,' admitted Druss.
'It means that whatever their strength can obtain is rightfully theirs. If another man holds something they desire they kill the other man. This is right in their minds; this is the law the world offers - the law of the wolf. But you and I are no different from them, Druss. We have the same desires, the same perceived needs. If we are attracted to a woman, why should we not have her, regardless of her opinions? If another man has wealth, why should we not take it, if we are stronger, deadlier than he? It is an easy trap to fall into. Collan was once an officer in the Drenai lancers. He comes from a good family; he took the Oath as we all did, and when he said the words he probably believed them. But in Drenan he met a woman he wanted desperately, and she wanted him. But she was married. Collan murdered her husband. That was his first step on the road to Perdition; after that the other steps were easy. Short of money, he became a mercenary - fighting for gold in any cause, right or wrong, good or evil. He began to see only what was good for Collan. Villages were there merely for him to raid. Harib Ka is a Ventrian nobleman, distantly related to the Royal House. His story is similar. Both lacked the Iron Code. I am not a good man, Druss, but the Code holds me to the Way of the Warrior.'
'I can understand,' said Druss, 'that a man will seek to protect what is his, and not steal or kill for gain. But it does not explain why you risk your life tonight for women you do not know.'
'Never back away from an enemy, Druss. Either fight or surrender. It is not enough to say I will not be evil. It must be fought wherever it is found. I am hunting Collan, not just for killing my son but for being what he is. But if necessary I will put off that hunt tonight in order for the girls to be freed; they are more important.'
'Perhaps,' Druss said, unconvinced. 'For me, all I want is Rowena and a home in the mountains. I care nothing about fighting evil.'
'I hope you learn to care,' said Shadak.
*
Harib Ka could not sleep. The ground was hard beneath the tent floor and despite the heat from the brazier he felt cold through to his bones. The girl's face haunted him. He sat up and reached for the wine-jug. You are drinking too much, he told himself. Stretching, he poured a full goblet of red wine, draining it in two swallows. Then he pushed back his blankets and rose. His head ached. He sat down on a canvas stool and refilled his goblet.
What have you become? whispered a voice in his mind. He rubbed at his eyes, his thoughts returning to the academy and his days with Bodasen and the young Prince.
'We will change the world,' said the Prince. 'We will feed the poor and ensure employment for all. And we will drive the raiders from Ventria, and establish a kingdom of peace and prosperity.'
Harib Ka gave a dry laugh and sipped his wine. Heady days, a time of youth and optimism with its talk of knights and brave deeds, great victories and the triumph of the Light over the Dark.
'There is no Light and Dark,' he said aloud. 'There is only Power.'
He thought then of the first girl - what was her name, Mari? Yes. Compliant, obedient to his desires, warm, soft. She had cried out with pleasure at his touch. No. She had pretended to enjoy his coarse love-making. 'I'll do anything for you - but don't hurt me.'
Don't hurt me.
The chill winds of autumn rippled the tent walls. Within two hours of enjoying Mari he had felt in need of a second woman, and had chosen the hazel-eyed witch. That was a mistake. She had entered his tent, rubbing at her chafed wrists, her eyes large and sorrowful.
'You intend to rape me?' she had asked him quietly.
He had smiled. 'Not necessarily. That is your choice. What is your name?'
'Rowena,' she told him. 'And how can it be my choice?'
'You can give yourself to me, or you can fight me. Either way the result will be the same. So why not enjoy the love-making?'
'Why do you speak of love?'
'What?'
'There is no love in this. You have murdered those I have loved. And now you seek to pleasure yourself at the expense of what dignity I have left.'
He strode towards her, gripping her upper arms. 'You are not here to debate with me, whore! You are here to do as you are told.'
'Why do you call me a whore? Does it make your actions more simple for you? Oh, Harib Ka, how would Rajica view your actions?'
He reeled back as if struck. 'What do you know of Rajica?'
'Only that you loved her - and that she died in your arms.'
'You are a witch!'
'And you are a lost man, Harib Ka. Everything you once held dear has been sold - your pride, your honour, your love of life.'
'I will not be judged by you,' he said, but he made no move to silence her.
'I do not judge you,' she told him. 'I pity you. And I tell you this: unless you release me and the other women, you will die.'
'You are a seer also?' he said, trying to mock. 'Are the Drenai cavalry close, witch? Is there an army waiting to fall upon me and my men? No. Do not seek to threaten me, girl. Whatever else I may have lost I am still a warrior and, with the possible exception of Collan, the finest swordsman you will ever see. I do not fear death. No. Sometimes I long for it.' He felt his passion ebbing away. 'So tell me, witch, what is this peril I face?'
'His name is Druss. He is my husband.'
'We killed all the men in the village.'
'No. He was in the woods, felling timbers for the palisade.'
'I sent six men there.'
'But they have not returned,' Rowena pointed out.
'You are saying he killed them all?'
'He did,' she told him softly, 'and now he is coming for you.'
'You make him sound like a warrior of legend,' said Harib uneasily. 'I could send men back to kill him.'
'I hope you do not.'
'You fear for his life?'
'No, I would mourn for theirs.' She sighed.
'Tell me of him. Is he a swordsman? A soldier?'
'No, he is the son of a carpenter. But once I dreamt I saw him on a mountainside. He was black-bearded and his axe was smeared with blood. And before him were hundreds of souls. They stood mourning their lives. More flowed from his axe, and they wailed. Men of many nations, billowing like smoke until broken by the breeze. All slain by Druss. Mighty Druss. The Captain of the Axe. The Deathwalker.'
'And this is your husband?'
'No, not yet. This is the man he will become if you do not free me. This is the man you created when you slew his father and took me prisoner. You will not stop him, Harib Ka.'
He sent her away then, and ordered the guards to let her remain unmolested.
Collan had come to him and had laughed at his misery. 'By Missael, Harib, she is just a village wench and now a slave. She is property. Our property. And her gift makes her worth ten times the price we will receive for any of the others. She is attractive and young - I'd say around a thousand gold pieces' worth. There is that Ventrian merchant, Kabuchek; he's always looking for seers and fortune-tellers. I'll wager he'd pay a thousand.'
Harib sighed. 'Aye, you are right, my friend. Take her. We'll need coin upon our arrival. But don't touch her, Collan,' he warned the handsome swordsman. 'She really does have the Gift, and she will see into your soul.'
'There is nothing to see,' answered Collah, with a harsh, forced smile.
*
Druss edged his way along the river-bank, keeping close to the undergrowth and pausing to listen. There were no sounds save the rustling of autumn leaves in the branches above, no movement apart from the occasional swooping flight of bat or owl. His mouth was dry, but he felt no fear.
Across the narrow river he saw a white jutting boulder, cracked down the centre. According to Shadak, the first of the sentries was positioned almost opposite. Moving carefully Druss crept back into the woods, then angled towa
rds the river-bank, timing his approach by the wind which stirred the leaves above him, the rustling in the trees masking the sound of his movements.
The sentry was sitting on a rock no more than ten feet to Druss's right, and he had stretched out his right leg. Taking Snaga in his left hand, Druss wiped his sweating palm on his trews, his eyes scanning the undergrowth for the second sentry. He could see no one.
Druss waited, his back against a broad tree. From a little distance to the left came a harsh, gurgling sound. The sentry heard it too, and rose.
'Bushin! What are you doing there, you fool?'
Druss stepped out behind the man. 'He is dying,' he said.
The man spun, hand snaking down for the sword at his hip. Snaga flashed up and across, the silver blade entering the neck just below the ear and shearing through sinew and bone. The head toppled to the right, the body to the left.
Shadak stepped from the undergrowth. 'Well done,' he whispered. 'Now, when I send the women down to you, get them to wade across by the boulder, then head north up into the canyon to the cave.'
'We've been over this many times,' Druss pointed out.
Ignoring the comment, Shadak laid a hand on the younger man's shoulder. 'Now, whatever happens, do not come back into the camp. Stay with the women. There is only one path up to the cave, but several leading from it to the north. Get the women moving on the north-west route. You hold the path.'
Shadak faded back into the undergrowth and Druss settled down to wait.
*
Shadak moved carefully to the edge of the camp. Most of the women were asleep, and a guard was sitting by them; his head was resting against a wagon wheel, and Shadak guessed he was dozing. Unbuckling his sword-belt, he moved forward on his belly, drawing himself on his elbows until he reached the wagon. Slipping his hunting-knife from the sheath at his hip, Shadak came up behind the man - his left hand reached through the wheel, fingers closing on the sentry's throat. The knife rammed home into the man's back; his leg jerked once, then he was still.