David Gemmell - Dark Moon

The streets were deserted and a bitter wind was blowing down from the north. Karis pulled her hood over her long dark hair, and turned down a side alley towards the Barracks tavern. Golden lantern light glowed from the windows and a rush of welcome heat enveloped her as she pushed open the door. There were two log fires burning, one at each end of the long room within, and the tavern was packed with soldiers. Karis scanned the room, spotting the red-bearded giant Forin sitting in a corner with a young whore perched upon his knee.

Karis eased her way through the crowd and removed her jerkin, draping it over the back of the chair opposite the giant. 'We need to talk,' she said.

'Will it take long?' he asked. 'I have plans for the evening.' He grinned up at the young whore, who forced a laugh and stared at Karis with open hostility.

'I want you to tell me everything you can remember of your father's stories concerning the Daroth.

Everything!'

'Can this not wait until the morning?'

'No, it cannot,' said Karis. The young whore, sensing her payment receding, leaned forward, her face showing her anger. But before the girl could speak Karis drew her dagger and slammed it point first into the table. 'One wrong word from you and I shall cut your tongue out,' she said, her voice icy. The whore's painted mouth dropped open, fear replacing her anger. 'Now go away and find another client,' said Karis.

'There are plenty to choose from.'

The girl slid from Form's lap and moved away into the crowd. Forin drained his tankard. 'You have lost me a night's pleasure,' he said.

'And saved you a dose of the pox, in all probability.'

Forin was about to reply when she saw him glance over her shoulder, his green eyes narrowing.

Instantly alert to danger, Karis pushed back her chair and spun round. The young whore was approaching with two men. 'That's her! Pulled a knife on me, she did!'

'That was a mistake, bitch,' said the first of the two, a broad-shouldered young man with pockmarked features.

'Not as bad as the mistake you are about to make,' Karis told him, noting that the second man held a short iron club.

'Is that right?' he countered, lunging forward, his fist flashing towards Karis's face. She side-stepped suddenly and, thrown off-balance, the man stumbled forward - to be met with a head butt that smashed his nose to pulp. He dropped like a stone. The second man grabbed Karis by the arm, hauling her towards him, but she spun and rammed her elbow into his chin. He staggered to his right, dropping the club. Karis took a step back, then leapt high, her booted foot cannoning against his face to catapult him back into the crowd. He fell heavily and did not rise.

Forin moved alongside Karis. 'Perhaps we should continue our conversation somewhere private?' he offered.

'Why not?' she told him. Forin took a candle from the table and led her through to the rear of the tavern and up a flight of rickety steps. There was a narrow corridor leading to three doors. Forin opened the first and stepped aside for Karis to enter. The room was small, gloomy and cold. There were no chairs, only a roughly crafted double bed with a thin mattress. Using the flickering candle, Forin lit a lantern which hung on a hook above the bed, then

moved to the small hearth where a fire had been laid; this he also lit. 'It will be warm soon enough,' he said.

She squatted down beside him, watching the firelight reflected in his green eyes. He was not a handsome man, she thought, but he had a quality that transcended good looks. Is it his strength, his size? she wondered. In the firelight he looked somehow larger, more impressive. Primal, perhaps?

'What are you thinking?' he asked her.

'I was wondering what you looked like naked.' she said.

'Wonder for a little longer,' he told her, with a broad smile. 'The room's not warm enough yet.'

'Then tell me of the Daroth, for I need to find a weakness.'

Forin sat back. 'There are none that I recall. You already know they do not like the cold, nor high places where the air is thin. They will not cross water if they can avoid it. But these things will not help us in Corduin. We are in low-lying land, the weather is clement in the spring, and there is no moat.'

'Even so, I believe there is something else.'

'Wishful thinking, perhaps?'

'I do not believe so. It is something I have seen, and yet not recognized. Something that is perhaps too obvious.'

'I am afraid you have lost me there.'

'Tell me a simple story of how they live.'

'You saw the city. They cluster together in domed dwellings. They cannot sit as we do, for their spines are thicker and less supple. They procreate without touching, the female laying an egg which the male fertilizes. There is no obvious difference between male and female. Both are equally strong, and - as we have observed - equally ugly. There are no children as such; the young emerge from their pods and grow within days to full-size adults, sharing the memories of whichever parent has died - if that is the term - beside the pod. They eat flesh, and require great amounts of salt.' He paused. 'Is this helping you?'

'I don't know,' she admitted. The heat in the small room was growing, and Forin peeled off his shirt; his upper body bore many scars. As he rose and stripped off his leggings, Karis pushed the thoughts of the Daroth from her mind.

His love-making was exactly what she needed - crude and powerful, animalistic and passionate - and Karis felt her body echoing his need. His arms slid under her shoulders, pulling her hard against him; his body smelt of wood-smoke and sweat. It was not unpleasant, as she had feared. As her body tensed and moved in rhythm with the man upon her, her mind relaxed, as if she was floating free of the carnal. In this curiously detached state her body drew strength from the massive figure above her, while the problems that haunted her faded from her consciousness. She was free. Nothing else existed. The world had shrunk to a grimy, firelit room above a noisy tavern. There were no problems to solve, no logistics to calculate, no plans to study. And she did not even need to consider the pleasure of the man, for he, she knew, was oblivious to her as an individual. It was the only true freedom Karis ever knew.

Her legs locked about his hips, her nails raking his back, Karis found herself rising towards orgasm, which, when it came, sent her body into an almost painful series of spasms. Her head sank back onto the pillow and she closed her eyes, enjoying the small aftershocks that rippled through her system. Forin rolled from her and lay back with a sigh. For a long moment neither of them spoke, then Forin rose from the bed and moved to the fire. Karis watched him dress. 'I'll get us both a drink,' he said, and left the room.

After he had gone Karis also dressed. The room was warm now, the fire blazing. She moved to the small window and tried to open it, but the hinges were rusted and it would not budge.

Not waiting for him to return, Karis made her way down the stairs and out into the night.

Vint was still asleep when she returned, but she had no wish to climb in beside him.

Stretching out on a couch, she dreamt of a green-eyed giant with a forked red beard.

Tarantio rose with the dawn and moved through the silent house, as always enjoying the solitude, these brief moments without Dace. The kitchen was bitterly cold, the remains of yesterday's milk frozen in the jug. With a saw-edged knife he cut two thick slices of bread from a loaf, and carried them through to the living room. He had banked up the fire the night before, and the coals were still glowing. Tarantio toasted the bread and covered it with thick, creamy butter.

I ought to be making plans, he thought. Corduin will not resist the Daroth. But where to go? The islands?