David Gemmell - The King Beyond the Gate

Ceska had wasted no time.

The Joinings were already on the march and there was no way Tenaka Khan could bring a Nadir force to intercept them.

According to Balan the army would be camped by the Skoda valleys in four days.

All Tenaka could do was avenge them, for no force on earth was going to hold the werebeasts of Ceska.

Ananais rode into the city, holding himself straight in the saddle though weariness sat upon him like a boulder. He had spent a day and two nights with his lieutenants and their section leaders, informing them of Ceska's lightning march. Many leaders would have disguised the threat, fearing desertions and loss of morale, but Ananais had never subscribed to that theory. Men waiting to die had every right to know what lay in store.

But now he was tired.

The city was quiet, for dawn was only two hours old, but even so children gathered to play in the street, halting their game to watch Darkmask ride by. His horse almost lost its footing on the shiny cobbles and Ananais pulled up its head and patted its neck.

'Almost as tired as me — eh, boy?'

An old man, thickset and balding, stepped from a garden to the right. His face was flushed and angry.

'You!' he shouted, pointing at the rider. Ananais halted his mount and the man came forward, some twenty children bunching behind him.

'You want to talk to me, friend?'

'I am no friend to you, butcher! I just wanted you to see these children.'

'Well, I have seen them. They are a fine bunch.'

'Fine, are they? Their parents were fine, but now they're rotting in the Demon's Smile. And for what? So that you can play with a shiny sword!'

'Have you finished?'

'Not by a damn sight! What is going to happen to these children when the Joinings arrive? I was a soldier once and I know you can't hold those hell-beasts — they will come into this city and destroy every living thing. What will happen to these children then?'

Ananais touched his heels to his mount and the horse moved away.

'That's right!' yelled the man. 'Ride away from the problem. But remember their faces — you hear me?'

Ananais rode on through the winding streets until he reached the Council building. A young man came forward to take his horse and Ananais mounted the marble steps.

Rayvan sat alone in the hall staring — as she often did — at the faded mural. She had lost weight in the last few days. Once more she was wearing the chain-mail shirt and broad belt, her dark hair swept back and tied at her neck.

She smiled as she saw Ananais and gestured him to a chair beside her. 'Welcome, Darkmask,' she said. 'If you have bad news, hold on to it for a little while. I have enough of my own.'

'What happened?' asked Ananais.

She waved her hand and closed her eyes, unable to speak. Then she took a deep breath, exhaling slowly. 'Is the sun shining?' she asked.

'It is, lady.'

'Good! I like to see the sun on the mountains, it carries a promise of life. Have you eaten?'

'No.'

'Then let us go to the kitchen and find something. We will eat in the tower garden.'

They sat in the shade of a thick flowering shrub. Rayvan had picked up a black loaf and some cheese, but neither of them ate. The silence itself was comforting.

'I hear you were lucky to escape with your life,' said Rayvan at last. 'How is your side?'

'I heal fast, lady. The wound was not deep and the stitches will hold.'

'My son, Lucas — he died last night, we had to remove his leg… gangrene.'

'I'm so sorry,' said Ananais lamely.

'He was very brave. Now there is only Lake and Ravenna. Soon there will be no one. How did we come to this, Darkmask, tell me?'

'I don't know. We let a crazy man come to power.'

'Did we truly? It seems to me that a man has only as much power as we allow him. Can Ceska move mountains? Can he put out the stars? Can he tell rain to fall? He is only a man and if everyone disobeyed him he would fall. But they don't, do they? It is said that he has an army of forty thousand men. MEN. Drenai men! Ready to march on other Drenai men. At least in the Nadir Wars we were sure of our enemy. Now there is no enemy. Only failed friends.'

'What can I say?' asked Ananais. 'I have no answers. You should have asked Tenaka. I am just a warrior. I remember a tutor who told me that all of the world's hunters had eyes that faced front: lions, hawks, wolves, men. And all the world's prey had eyes on either side to give them a greater chance of spotting the hunter. He said Man was no different from the tiger. We are nature's killers and we have great appetites for it. Even the heroes we remember show our love of war. Druss, the greatest killing machine of all time — it is his image you stare upon in the council chamber.'

'True enough,' said Rayvan. 'But there is a difference between Druss and Ceska. The legend fought always for others to be free.'

'Don't fool yourself, Rayvan. Druss fought because he loved to fight — it was what he did well. Study his history. He went east and battled for the tyrant Gorben; his army razed cities, villages, nations. Druss was part of it, and he would have offered no excuses. Neither should you.'

'Are you saying there never were true heroes?'

'I wouldn't know a hero if he bit my buttocks! Listen Rayvan, the beast is in all of us. We do our best in life, but often we are mean, or petty, or needlessly cruel. We don't mean to be, but that's the way we are. Most of the heroes we remember — we remember because they won. To win you must be ruthless. Single-minded. Druss was like that, which was why he had no friends — just admirers.'

'Can we win, Ananais?'

'No. But what we can do is to make Ceska suffer so greatly that someone else might win. We shall not live to see Tenaka return. Ceska is already on the march; but we must tie him down, give him losses — crack the aura of invincibility he has built around his Joinings.'

'But even the Dragon could not stand against the beasts.'

'The dragon was betrayed, caught on open ground. And many of them were old men. Fifteen years is a long time. They were not the real Dragon. We are the real Dragon — and by the Gods, we'll make them suffer!'

'Lake has devised some weapons he wants you to see.'

'Where is he?'

'In the old stables at the southern quarter. But take some rest first — you look exhausted.'

'I will.' He pushed himself to his feet, staggered slightly and then laughed. 'I'm getting old, Rayvan.' He moved away several paces, then returned and placed his huge right hand on her shoulder. 'I am not good at sharing, lady. But I'm sorry about Lucas. He was a good man — a credit to you.'

'Go and get some rest. The days are growing shorter and you will need your strength. I'm relying on you — we are all relying on you.'

After he had gone she wandered to the wall and gazed out over the mountains.

Death felt very close.

And she didn't care.

Tenaka Khan was sick with fury. His hands were tied tightly with rawhide thongs and his body was lashed to the trunk of a slender elm. Before him five men sat around a camp-fire searching through his saddlebags. His small cache of gold had been discovered and now lay next to the leader — a one-eyed rogue, thickset and surly. Tenaka blinked away the thin stream of blood that trickled into his right eye and closed his mind to the pain of his bruises.

He had been too preoccupied as he rode into the forest and a stone from a sling had hammered into his temple, toppling him from his horse semi-conscious. Even then, as the outlaws rushed him he had drawn his sword and killed one before they bore him down, hitting him with clubs and sticks. The last words he heard before darkness fell were, 'He killed my brother. Don't kill him — I want him alive.'