David Gemmell - The King Beyond the Gate

'I would say a dozen, no more,' said Tenaka at last.

Subodai shrugged. 'Could be a lot less,' he said.

Tenaka remounted, casting about for a likely ambush site. He led them up into the hills to a low outcropping of rock which jutted over the trail like an outstretched fist. Here the trail curved to the left. Tenaka stood up in the saddle and leapt to the rock. Startled, Subodai slid forward and took up the reins.

'Ride forward to that dark hill, then slowly circle until you come back here,' Tenaka told him.

'What are you going to do?' asked Renya.

'I'm going to get a pony for my bondsman,' said Tenaka, grinning.

'Come woman!' snapped Subodai and cantered off in the lead. Renya and Tenaka exchanged glances.

'I don't think I shall enjoy being the docile woman of the Steppes,' she whispered.

'I said as much,' he reminded her with a smile.

She nodded and heeled her horse after Subodai.

Tenaka lay flat on the rock, watching the horsemen approach; they were some eight minutes behind Subodai. At close range Tenaka studied the riders; there were nine of them, wearing the goatskin-hide jerkins of the Steppes rider and rounded leather helms fringed with fur. Their faces were flat and sallow, their eyes black as night and coldly cruel. Each carried a lance, and swords and knives were strapped to their belts. Tenaka watched them come, waiting for the back marker.

They thundered up the narrow trail, slowing as they came to the curve by the rock. As they passed Tenaka slid out, drawing up his legs under him; then, as the last rider cantered below him, he dropped like a stone to hammer his booted feet into the man's face. He catapulted from the saddle. Tenaka hit the ground, rolled, came upright and lunged for the pony's rein. The beast stood still, nostrils quivering with shock. Tenaka patted him gently and then led him to the fallen warrior. The man was dead and Tenaka stripped off his jerkin, pulling it over his own. Then he took the man's helm and lance and, vaulting to the saddle, set off after the others.

The trail wound on, veering left and right, and the riders became less bunched. Tenaka cantered close to the man in front, just before another bend.

'Hola!' he called. 'Wait!' The man drew back on the reins as his comrades moved out of sight.

'What is it?' enquired the rider. Tenaka drew up alongside him, pointing up in the air. As the man glanced up, so Tenaka's fist thudded into his neck and without a sound he fell from the saddle. Up ahead came the sound of triumphant yells. Tenaka cursed and heeled his mount into a gallop, rounding the bend to see Subodai and Renya facing the seven riders, swords in hand.

Tenaka hit their line like a thunderbolt, his lance punching a rider from the saddle. Then his sword was out and a second man fell screaming.

Subodai bellowed a war-cry and kicked his mount forward; blocking a wild cut, he swept down his sword, cleaving his opponent's collar-bone. The man grunted, but he was game and attacked once more. Subodai ducked as the tribesman's sword slashed through the air, then gutted the man expertly.

Two of the riders now charged at Renya, determined to gain some spoils. However, they were met by a feral snarl as she leapt from the saddle at the first, bearing man and pony to the ground. Her dagger sliced his throat so fast that he felt no pain and could not understand his growing weakness. Renya came up quickly, letting forth the blood-curdling shriek that had terrified the outlaws back in Drenai. The ponies reared in terror and her nearest opponent dropped his lance and grabbed the reins with both hands. Renya leapt, hammering a fist to his temple; he flew from the saddle, struggling to rise, then slumped to the ground unconscious.

The remaining two tribesmen disengaged and raced from the battleground as Subodai cantered to Tenaka.

'Your woman. .' he whispered, tapping his temple. 'She is crazy as a moon-dog!'

'I like them crazy,' said Tenaka.

'You move well, Bladedancer! You are more Nadir than Drenai, I think.'

'There are those who would not see that as a compliment.'

'Fools! I have no time for fools. How many of these horses do I keep?' asked the Nadir, scanning the six ponies.

'All of them,' said Tenaka.

'Why so generous?'

'It stops me having to kill you,' Tenaka told him. The words moved through Subodai like ice knives but he forced a grin and returned the cool stare of Tenaka's violet eyes. In them Subodai saw knowledge, and it frightened him. Tenaka knew of his plan to rob and kill him — as sure as goats grew horns, he knew.

Subodai shrugged. 'I would have waited until after my bond was completed,' he said.

'I know that. Come, let us ride.'

Subodai shuddered; the man was not human. He gazed at the ponies — still, human or not, he was growing rich in Tenaka's presence.

For four days they moved north, skirting villages and communities, but on the fifth day their food ran out and they rode into a village of tents nestling by a mountain river. The community was a small one, no more than forty men. Originally they had been of the Doublehair tribe far to the north-east, but a split had developed and now they were Notas — 'No Tribe,' and fair game for all. They greeted the travellers with care, not knowing if they were part of a larger group. Tenaka could see their minds working — the Nadir law of hospitality meant that no harm could come to visitors while they stayed in your camp. But once out on the Steppes. .

'Are you far from your people?' asked the Notas leader, a burly warrior with a scarred face.

'I am never far from my people,' Tenaka answered him, accepting a bowl of raisins and some dried fruit.

'Your man is a Spear,' said the leader.

'We were pursued by Pack-rats,' answered Tenaka. 'We slew them and took their ponies. It is a sad thing for Nadir to kill Nadir.'

'But it is the way of the world,' commented the leader.

'Not in Ulric's day.'

'Ulric is long dead.'

'Some say he will rise again,' observed Tenaka.

'Men will always say that about kings of greatness. Ulric is forgotten meat and dusty bones.'

'Who leads the Wolves?' asked Tenaka.

'Are you Wolfshead then?'

'I am what I am. Who leads the Wolves?'

'You are Bladedancer.'

'Indeed I am.'

'Why have you come back to the Steppes?'

'Why does the salmon swim upstream?'

'To die,' said the leader, smiling for the first time.

'All things die,' observed Tenaka. 'Once the desert in which we sit was an ocean. Even the ocean died when the world fell. Who leads the Wolves?'

'Saddleskull is the Khan. So he says. But Knifespeaks has an army of eight thousand. The tribe has split.'

'So, now it is not only Nadir who kills Nadir, but Wolf who rends Wolf?'

'The way of the world,' said the leader once more.

'Which is the nearest?'

'Saddleskull. Two days north-east.'

'I will rest here with you tonight. Tomorrow I will go to him.'

'He will kill you, Bladedancer!'

'I am a hard man to kill. Tell that to your young men.'

'I hear you.' The leader rose to leave the tent but stopped at the flap. 'Have you come home to rule?'

'I have come home.'

'I am tired of being Notas,' said the man.

'My journey is perilous,' Tenaka told him. 'As you say, Saddleskull would desire my death. You have few men.'

'In the coming war we will be destroyed by one or other faction,' said the man. 'But you — you have the look of eagles about you. I will follow you, if you desire it.'

A sense of calm settled over Tenaka. An inner peace seemed to pulse from the very earth at his feet, from the distant blue mountains, to whisper in the long grass of the Steppes. He closed his eyes and opened his ears to the music of silence. Every nerve in his body seemed on edge as the land cried out to him.