David Gemmell - Legend

"Tall, slender. I think his hair was white, though he was young."

"It is Serbitar," said Hogun. "The vision is a true one."

"You know him?" asked Druss.

"Of him only. He is the son of Earl Drada of Dros Segril. It is said that the boy was fey and had a demon; he could read men's thoughts. He is an albino, and as you know the Vagrians consider this an ill omen. He was sent to the Temple of The Thirty, south of Drenan, when he was about thirteen. It is also said that his father tried to smother him when he was a babe, but that the child sensed him coming and hid outside his bedroom window. These, of course, are but stories."

"Well, his talents have grown, it seems," said Druss, "But I don't give a damn. He'll be useful here — especially if he can read Ulric's mind."

For ten days work progressed. Fire gullies ten yards wide were dug four feet deep across the open ground between Walls One and Two, and again between Walls Three and Four. These were filled with brushwood and small timber, while vats were placed along each gully ready to pour oils to the dry wood.

Bowman's archers hammered white stakes in the open ground at various points between walls, and also out on the plain before the fortress. Each line of stakes represented sixty paces, and his men practised for several hours each day, black clouds of shafts slicing the air above each row as the commands were shouted.

Target dummies were set up on the plain, only to be splintered by scores of arrows, even at 120 paces. The skills of the Skultik archers were formidable.

Hogun rehearsed withdrawals, timing the men by drumbeats as they dashed from the battlements, across the plank bridges of the fire gullies to scale the ropes to the next wall. Each day they became more swift.

Minor points began to occupy more time as the overall fitness and readiness of the troops increased.

"When do we add the oil?" Hogun asked Druss, as the men took an afternoon break.

"Between Walls One and Two, it will have to be filled on the day of the first attack. Until the first day we will have no real idea of how well the men will stand up to the assault."

"There remains the problem," added Orrin, "of who lights the gullies and when. For example, if the wall is breached we could have Nadir tribesmen racing side by side with our own men. No easy decision to throw in a lighted torch."

"And if we give men the duty," said Hogun, "what happens if they are killed on the wall?"

"We will have to have a torch duty," said Druss. "And the decision will be relayed by a bugler from Wall Two. An officer of cool nerve will be needed to judge the issue. When the bugle sounds the gully goes up — no matter who is left behind."

Matters such as these occupied Druss more and more, until his head swam with plans, ideas, stratagems and ploys. Several times during such discussions the old man's temper flared and his huge fists hammered the table, or else he strode around the room like a caged bear.

"I'm a soldier — not a damned planner," he would announce, and the meeting would be adjourned for an hour.

Combustibles were carted in from outlying villages, a seemingly endless number of despatches arrived from Drenan and Abalayn's panicked government, and a multitude of small problems — concerning delayed mail, new recruits, personal worries and squabbles between groups — threatened to overwhelm the three men.

One officer complained that the latrine area of Wall One was in danger of causing a health hazard, since it was not of regulation depth and lacked an adequate cess pit.

Druss set a working party to enlarge the area.

Abalayn himself demanded a complete strategic appraisal of all Dros Delnoch's defences, which Druss refused since the information could be leaked to Nadir sympathisers. This in turn brought a swift rebuke from Drenan and a firm request for an apology. Orrin penned this, claiming it would keep the politicians off their backs.

Then Woundweaver sent a requisition for the Legion's mounts, claiming that since the order was to hold to the last man, the horses would be of little use at Delnoch. He allowed that twenty should be retained for dispatch purposes. This so enraged Hogun that he was unapproachable for days.

Added to this, the burghers had begun to complain about the rowdy behaviour of the troops in civilian areas. All in all Druss was beginning to feel at the end of his tether, and had begun to voice openly his desire that the Nadir would arrive and the devil with the consequences!

Three days later his wish was partly answered.

A Nadir troop, under a flag of truce, galloped in from the north. Word spread like wildfire, and by the time it reached Druss in the main hall of the Keep an air of panic was abroad in the town.

The Nadir dismounted in the shadow of the great gates and waited. They did not speak. From their pack-saddles they took dried meat and water sacks and sat together, eating and waiting.

By the time Druss arrived with Orrin and Hogun they had completed their meal. Druss bellowed down from the battlements.

"What is your message?"

"Open the gates!" called back the Nadir officer, a short barrel-chested man, bow-legged and powerful.

"Are you the Deathwalker?" called the man.

"Yes."

"You are old and fat. It pleases me."

"Good! Remember that when next we meet, for I have marked you, Loudmouth, and my axe knows the name of your spirit. Now, what is your message?"

"The Lord Ulric, Prince of the North, bids me to tell you that he will be riding to Drenan to discuss an alliance with Abalayn, Lord of the Drenai. He wishes it known that he expects the gates of Dros Delnoch to be open to him; that being so, he guarantees there will be no harm to any man, woman, or child, soldier or otherwise within the city. It is the Lord Ulric's wish that the Drenai and the Nadir become as one nation. He offers the gift of friendship."

"Tell the Lord Ulric," said Druss, "that he is welcome to ride to Drenan at any time. We will even allow an escort of 100 warriors, as befits a prince of the north."

"The Lord Ulric allows no conditions," said the officer.

"These are my conditions — they shall not change," said Druss.

"Then I have a second message. Should the walls be contested and the gates closed, the Lord Ulric wishes it known that every second defender taken alive will be slain, that all the women will be sold into slavery and that one in three of all citizens will lose his right hand."

"Before that can happen, laddie, the Lord Ulric has to take the Dros. Now you give him this message from Druss the Deathwalker: In the north the mountains may tremble as he breaks wind, but this is Drenai land, and as far as I am concerned he is a pot-bellied savage who couldn't pick his own nose without a Drenai map.

"Do you think you can remember that, laddie. Or shall I carve it on your arse in large letters?"

"Inspiring as your words were, Druss," said Orrin, "I must tell you that my stomach turned over as you spoke them. Ulric will be furious."

"Would that he were," said Druss bitterly, as the Nadir troop galloped back to the north. "If that were the case, he would truly be just a pot-bellied savage. No! He will laugh… loud and long."

"Why should he?" asked Hogun."

"Because he has no choice. He has been insulted and should lose face. When he laughs, the men will laugh with him."

"It was a pretty offer he made," said Orrin, as the three men made the long walk back to the Keep. "Word will spread. Talks with Abalayn… One empire of Drenai and Nadir… Clever!"

"Clever and true," said Hogun. "We know from his record that he means it. If we surrender, he will march through and harm no one. Threats of death can be taken and resisted — offers of life are horses of a different colour. I wonder how long it will be before the burghers demand another audience."