David Gemmell - The Swords of Night and Day

‘You were right,’ he said, as she reached the tent flap. Jianna glanced back. ‘He was my idiot brother.

I came close to killing him myself a couple of times.’

The battle with the priest’s force had been short, bloody and decisive. Unfortunately the man had escaped with a handful of riders. But most of his three hundred mercenaries lay dead on the desert floor.

Abadai and his warriors had rushed round the battlefield, butchering wounded survivors and stripping them of rings, trinkets, clothes and boots.

That night, as she had promised, she spent with the bandit leader. His lovemaking was fierce and urgent, lacking finesse and subtlety. Yet it was sublime when compared to the fumbling adoration of Landis Kan.

And so had begun the journey that would culminate in empire. Fearing the renegade would return with a larger force the temple priests had authorized Jianna to gather an army. With this she had marched to Gassima and sacked the city. Once more the priest escaped, heading south. Jianna pursued him. The priest sought refuge with a bandit warlord in the Sathuli mountains. Jianna gathered more fighters, and crushed his army also. As her fame grew her force swelled. She had become a power in the land. By the time the priest was caught and killed he had become incidental to the greater purpose. The day of the Eternal had dawned.

The wine jug was empty. Jianna called out to her guards, ordering them to bring her another. Agrippon himself brought it. ‘Well,’ she said, ‘where is Agrias?’

‘He had strangled himself with the cord of his robe, Highness.’

‘The idiot. He always had a poor sense of timing,’ she said. ‘Send for Unwallis.’

Alone once more, she allowed the memories of the years to slide before her mind’s eye. As the army grew larger it became increasingly necessary to widen the scope of its activities. More and more towns and cities came under her sway. Until, at last, even the fading empire of the Drenai fell before her, their ambassadors bending the knee, pledging allegiance. She had transferred the seat of her power to Diranan, taking Landis Kan and Agrias, and many of the priests, and their artefacts of power, with her.

There had been many insurrections, a score of small wars. Yet always her empire swelled. As she grew older, and even the power of the restorative potions began to lose its magic, Landis Kan had suggested repeating the process by which they had brought her back: raising duplicates of herself.

Was that when I became evil, she wondered? Anger flared. You are seeing yourself through Skilgannon’s eyes, she chided herself.

Or perhaps through the eyes of the last abbot, she realized. She had returned to the temple with Landis, seeking more artefacts. Landis wanted to study in the great library. The abbot had come down, she thought, to greet them. Instead he stood in the great doorway and refused them leave to enter. Jianna had been shocked.

‘You have corrupted this temple,’ he said. ‘You have made a mockery of everything we have worked for over the centuries. You have built an empire of evil, and seduced once good men like Landis to follow in your footsteps. You will not enter here, Jianna.’

Before she could answer he had stepped back inside, and the doors swung shut. Furious, Jianna had ridden, with her fifty Eternals, to the closest garrison. Gathering several hundred men she had returned -

only to find the temple gone. Two riders rode over the rim of the crater that remained. They died horribly, the metal of their armour twisting around them, tearing into their flesh.

The arrival of Unwallis brought her thoughts back to the present. The statesman was dishevelled, his eyes heavy with sleep. ‘Is there a problem, Highness?’ he asked.

‘I felt in need of the company of a friend,’ she said. ‘Be at ease, I do not intend to seduce you. Just sit with me.’

‘What has happened?’ he asked.

‘I saw Skilgannon. And now I must kill him.’ She laughed then. ‘It is curious, Unwallis, but a part of me wants to be at his side, fighting the good fight against the evil Eternal. How foolish is that?’

‘A part of you is doing just that,’ he said.

‘An interesting riddle. Perhaps you would explain.’

‘I might be wrong, Highness, but did you not send the Legend Riders to him?’

She looked at him closely, then shook her head and smiled. ‘I always forget how clever you are, my dear. But this is your crowning moment. How could you possibly know that? Did Memnon tell you?’

‘No, Highness. I knew that you and Kilvanen had found the Armour of Bronze. It seemed rather too coincidental that a wandering Drenai rider should discover the site.’

‘And what conclusions do you draw?’ she asked him.

‘The wars with Agrias here, and Pendashal in the east, are of your own making. You crave excitement, and, in reality, there is no-one who can truly defeat you. Once I realized that, then I knew the discovery of the Armour was not happenstance.’

‘Ah, Unwallis, if you had only been a soldier, or developed some strategic skills.’

‘I am happy I did not, Highness, for perhaps then I would have been buried alive like poor Agrias. As it is I fear my candour will cost me my life.’

‘Then why risk it?’

‘Sometimes,’ he said, ‘the truth just has to be spoken, no matter what the consequences. Landis Kan was a friend of mine. He knew of your manipulations. He also knew you were hoping he would join Agrias. The two of them might have really tested you.’

‘His plans were rather more dangerous to me,’ she said.

‘I think he surprised you with those. Even so, you have sought to give Skilgannon a greater chance than he would have had.’

‘He deserves it,’ she said, refilling her goblet. ‘I never had a braver or more dedicated friend. Olek risked his life many times for me. Without him I would never have escaped the city. My father’s murderers would have caught me and killed me, as they did my mother. Skilgannon lost his friends and his youth to my cause. Through the darkest times — when we thought we were finished — he stayed loyal.

He won battles no other general could have. Outnumbered, sometimes outmanoeuvred, occasionally even — in those early days — outclassed, he won. He was unstoppable. His men revered him. They fought with utter belief in his ultimate victory. It was a sight to behold.’

‘And this is the man you have given an army to? Do you want to be defeated, Highness?’

‘Sometimes,’ she said, her voice slurring. ‘Come to my bed, Unwallis. I don’t want sex. I just want to fall asleep next to a friend.’

‘Then you are not going to have me killed?’

‘Ask me in the morning,’ she told him.

Skilgannon headed his chestnut gelding up the steep, rocky slope, pausing below the crest and dismounting. Leaving the gelding’s reins trailing he eased his way to the top and gazed out over the rugged, arid lands which stretched from the mountains to the sea. Unlike the deserts across the ocean there was no heat to speak of here. It was a desert simply because the ground lacked topsoil, consisting almost entirely of rock. Harsh winds blew across the plateau, and what plants could grow in this inhospitable place were thin and spiky. The few trees were dry, the wood snapping and crumbling under the faintest of pressures.

Skilgannon’s throat was dry, his hair grey with rock dust. His eyes felt gritty. Seeing the land below was empty of movement he waved the others forward. Decado and Alahir rode their horses up.

‘No sign of them yet,’ said Skilgannon.

‘Why would she warn you?’ asked Decado.

‘I cannot answer that.’

‘I still think she might have been lying,’ said Alahir. Skilgannon glanced at him. The events of the morning lay heavy on the Drenai leader. After days of easy travelling they had disembarked on the banks of the Rostrias and headed north for the temple site. The riders had been glad to be free of the boats, as indeed had the Jiamads. The two-day march to the temple mountains had been without incident. Stavut and his pack had caught and killed eight bighorn sheep, and everyone had tasted fresh meat.