‘I will be here,’ said Rek ‘And next time your reception will be even warmer. Tell me, why did your men retire when we were beaten?’
‘Do you believe in fate?’ asked Ulric.
‘I do.’
‘Then let us call it a trick of fate. Or perhaps it was a cosmic jest, a joke played by the gods. I care not. You are a brave man. Your men are brave men. And you have won. I can live with that, Earl of Bronze – a poor man would I be if I could not. But for now, farewell! I shall see you again in the Spring.’
Ulric waved, turned his pony’s head and galloped off into the north.
‘Do you know,’ said Bowman, ‘although it may sound grotesque, I think I like the man.’
‘Today I could like anybody,’ said Rek, smiling. ‘The sky is clear, the wind is fresh and life tastes very fine. What will you do now?’
‘I think I will become a monk and devote my entire life to prayer and good works.’
‘No,’ said Rek. ‘I mean, what will you do today?’
‘Ah! Today I’ll get drunk and go whoring,’ said Bowman.
Throughout the long day Rek periodically visited the sleeping Virae. Her colour was good, her breathing deep and even. Late in the evening, as he sat alone in the small hall before a dying fire, she came to him, dressed in a light green woollen tunic. He stood and took her into his arms, kissed her, then sat down in the leather chair and pulled her to his lap.
‘The Nadir have really gone?’ she asked.
‘They have indeed.’
‘Rek, did I truly die? It seems like a dream now. Hazy. I seem to remember Serbitar bringing me back, and my body lay in a glass block beneath the Keep.’
‘It was not a dream,’ said Rek. ‘Do you remember coming to me as I fought a giant worm and a huge spider?’
‘Vaguely. But it’s fading even as I remember it.’
‘Don’t worry about it. I will tell you everything during the next fifty years or so.’
‘Only fifty years?’ she said. ‘So you will desert me when I’m old and grey?’
The sound of laughter echoed through the Keep.
Epilogue
Ulric never returned to Dros Delnoch. He defeated Jahingir in a pitched battle at Gulgothir Plain and then took his army to invade Ventria. During the campaign he collapsed and died. The tribes fled back to the north, and without his influence Nadir unity was broken. Civil war came once more to the north, and the people of the rich southlands breathed again.
Rek was welcomed as a hero in Drenan, but soon tired of the city life and returned with Virae to Delnoch. Their family grew over the years, with three sons and two daughters. The sons were Hogun, Orrin and Horeb. The daughters were Susay and Besa. Grandfather Horeb brought his family fiom Drenan to Delnoch, taking over the inn of the traitor Musar.
Orrin returned to Drenan and resigned from the army. His uncle Abalayn retired from public life and Magnus Woundweaver was elected to lead the Council. He chose Orrin as his deputy.
Bowman remained at Delnoch for a year, then travelled to Ventria to fight the Nadir once more. He did not return.