David Gemmell - Dark Moon

glass shimmered, then was gone. The old Duke made to speak, but something swelled in his windpipe. He scrabbled at his throat and his body writhed; his hand lashed out, striking the wall with a dull thump. His legs thrashed below the sheets, a low gurgling choke came from him. Sirano watched him die, then reached down and opened the old man's mouth.

The head of the snake was just visible. Wrenching open the Duke's jaws, Sirano pressed his fingers down into the throat, drawing out the serpent. It flapped and writhed around his wrist. Moving to the window, he flung the creature out into the garden.

After the official seven days of mourning, Sirano took the Blessing and donned the mantle of the Duke of Romark. The ceremony over, he took his advisors to the ramparts of the high west wall and pointed at the mountains of the Eldarin.

'There is great danger there, my friends,' he said. They are sorcerers and shape-shifters. What are they planning, do you think?'

Eight years later the twenty-six-year-old Sirano sat listening as his captains made their reports. The forces of the Duke of Corduin had been repulsed, with heavy losses on both sides, on the western border. The renegade corsair, Belliese, had savaged a Romarkian supply fleet in the southern seas, and captured two war galleons. Elsewhere there was only one victory that could be described as anything but pyrrhic. Karis and her lancers had smashed a mercenary force heading to relieve a small fortress town eighty miles north of Loretheli. Two hundred and forty enemy soldiers were killed for the loss of fifteen dead and thirty-one wounded. The town had surrendered to Karis a day later, its treasury of 12,000 gold coins now swelling the Romark coffers. As the officers discussed tactics, Romark found his mind wandering, his gaze focusing on Karis. Tall and slim, her long dark hair held in place by a silver circlet, she radiated a martial beauty that Sirano found intoxicating. She was not classically beautiful, for her nose was long, and her face somewhat angular. Yet there was something about this warrior woman that stirred his blood as no other could.

Dismissing the captains, Sirano gestured for Karis to remain. Rising from the table, he moved to a beautifully crafted cabinet at the window wall of the large study, removing a cut-glass decanter. Half filling two crystal globe glasses he passed one to Karis.

'My congratulations, Karis. Your raid was an exemplary lesson in tactics.'

Karis gave a short bow, her large dark eyes holding to his own. 'This is what you wished to discuss?' she asked him.

'I have nothing to discuss,' he said, 'but I enjoy your company. Sit for a while.' Karis stretched out on a couch, leaving no room for the Duke to join her. But she lay back with one foot on the floor, the other leg straight, and Sirano did not try to stop his gaze from dwelling on her open legs and the cut of her blue silk leggings. Resisting the urge to run his hand along her thigh, he drew up a chair close to her and sat, sipping his brandy. Karis smiled at him, her expression cat-like.

'I hear you have a new mistress,' said Karis. 'Is she sweet?'

'Indeed she is,' he told her. 'She even tells me she loves me.'

'And does she?'

'Who can say? I am rich, and I am powerful. Many women would find that attractive in itself.'

'So modest, Saro,' she chided him. 'You are also handsome and witty. I don't doubt that you provide your partners with great physical joy.'

'How kind,' he said. 'Are you still cavorting with that mercenary lieutenant . . . Giriak?'

She nodded, then sat up and drained her brandy. 'He is young and strong.'

'And has he fallen in love with you?'

She shrugged. 'He uses the words wonderfully, with exquisite timing. I think that might be the same thing, don't you?'

'It certainly is for me,' he conceded. 'But then I am not entirely sure I know what love is. Neither do you, dear heart. . . unless of course we are talking of your first love, battle.'

Her eyes narrowed. 'You misread me, Sirano.'

He chuckled with genuine humour. 'I do not believe that I do. There are many in all the Duchies who wish for this war to be ended, but you are not among them. War is life to you. The day peace comes -

and come it will one day when I win - you will know panic.'

'I think not. Panic is alien to me. However, this conversation is entirely hypothetical. The forces are too even for there to be a decisive end to the conflict. Added to which there are the mercenary armies; they follow only gold. When you Dukes seek to end the battles, what do you think will become of them? Will they lay down their arms and return to the land? No, Saro. You and your noble friends and enemies have loosed the wolves. You will not round them up easily.'

He shrugged. 'These are problems for another day.' His gaze returned to her silk-clad limbs. 'You really are very attractive,' he said. 'One day we should get to know one another a little better.'

'One day,' she agreed. For a moment neither of them spoke, then Karis rose and refilled her brandy glass.

'Have you unlocked the secrets of the Pearl?' she asked him.

'I think we are close,' he said. 'I believe it to be a power source of some kind.'

'You said the same thing two months ago,' she reminded him.

'Patience is one of my virtues,' he replied. 'So far we have tried probe spells of increasing power. Nothing pierces the Pearl. Yet even as we speak my sorcerers are preparing themselves for the ritual of Aveas. I think we will have answers today. It is one of the reasons I asked you to wait with me.'

Karis sipped her brandy, then returned to the couch. This time she did not stretch herself out, but sat on the edge of the seat. 'I am not a magicker, Saro, but do the spells of Aveas not require a death?'

'I am afraid that they do. But needs must when demons threaten, as they say.'

'And what will it achieve, this murder?' she asked him.

'That is hard to say. I tend to think that when wizards talk of human sacrifice they are at their wits' end. But I have studied enough to know that great magic can be conjured from terror. And there is nothing more terrifying than to be chained to an altar, with a knife raised above your heart.'

Before she could answer, there came a knock at the study door. 'Enter!' he called.

A tall, thin man wearing long robes of blue velvet entered and bowed. He was bald, the skin of his face stretched tight around a large skull. 'It would be good,' Sirano told him, 'if you have brought me welcome news.'

'Something of interest has occurred, lord,' answered the man, his voice low and deep. 'It is something I think you should witness for yourself.'

'We will join you presently,' said Sirano, waving his hand and dismissing the wizard. After he had left, Karis rose to leave. 'Wait!' Sirano ordered.

'I do not wish to see it,' she said. 'Human sacrifice does not interest me.'

'Nor me,' he agreed. 'Come with me anyway.'

'Do you order it, lord?' she asked him, her tone faintly mocking.

'Indeed I do, Captain,' he said, moving alongside her and laying his hand on her shoulder. Leaning towards her he tenderly kissed her cheek. 'I adore the perfume of your hair,' he whispered.

Together they walked the long corridor, descending the circular stairs to the lower levels. Torches shone on the bare stone walls and a sleek, fat rat ran across their path as they moved towards two double doors.

Sirano paused. That rat was altogether too well-fed for my liking,' he said. 'Remind me to send for the quartermaster when we are finished here.'

'Perhaps the rat is a pet,' she said, with a grin.

'Perhaps. More likely the vermin have found a way into the grain store, which I ordered sealed tight.'

Sirano pushed open the double doors and they entered a large circular room, ablaze with the light of twenty lanterns. Three sorcerers in robes of velvet stood around a flat table to which a naked young girl was strapped by her arms and legs. Just beyond the altar, set on an upturned eagle's claw of bronze, rested the Eldarin Pearl. Karis had never seen the jewel, and was stunned by its beauty. It seemed to pulse with living colour, and she could feel warmth emanating from it.