‘Excuse me, sir,’ he said. ‘I am sorry about Dorian. He’s hot-tempered. Always has been.’
‘Not any more,’ said Druss.
“There will be no blood feud,’ said the man.
‘Good. A man with wife and daughters has no place losing his temper. The man was a fool. Are you a friend of the family?’
‘Yes. My name is Hagir. Our farms are close. We are . . . were . . . neighbours.’
“Then, Hagir, when you get home I hope you will see that his wife is cared for.’
‘I am not going home. I’m going back to the Dros.’
‘What changed your mind?’
‘With respect, you did, sir. I think I know who you are.’
‘Make your own decisions, don’t place them on my shoulders. I want good soldiers at Dros Delnoch, but also I want men who will stand.’
‘I didn’t leave because I was frightened. I was just fed up with the crazy rules. But if men like you are prepared to be there, I will stick it out.’
‘Good. Join me for a drink later. Now I am going to have a hot bath.’
Druss pushed his way past the men in the doorway and went inside.
‘Are you really going back, Hagir?’ asked one of the men.
‘Yes. Yes, I am.’
‘But why?’ urged another. ‘Nothing has changed. Except that we shall all be on report and probably flogged.’
‘It’s him – he’s going there. The Captain of the Axe.’
‘Druss! That was Druss?’
‘Yes, I am sure of it.’
‘How sickening!’ said the other.
‘What do you mean, Somin?’ asked Hagir.
‘Dorian – Druss was Dorian’s hero. Don’t you remember him talking about him? Druss this and Druss that. It is one reason he joined up – to be like Druss, and maybe even to meet him.’
‘Well, he met him,’ said Hagir sombrely.
Druss, dark-haired Pinar, tall Hagir and blunt-featured Somin sat at a corner table in the long room of the inn. Around them a crowd gathered, drawn by the legend of the grizzled old man.
‘Just over nine thousand, you say. How many archers?’
Dun Pinar waved a hand. ‘No more than six hundred, Druss. The rest are remnants of cavalry lancers, infantrymen, pikers and engineers. The bulk of the complement is made up of volunteer fanners from the Sentran Plain. They’re plucky enough.’
‘If I remember aright,’ said Druss, ‘the first wall is four hundred paces long and twenty wide. You will need a thousand archers on it. And I don’t just mean a thousand bows. We need men who can pick a target from a hundred paces.’
‘We just haven’t got them,’ said Pinar. ‘On the credit side, we do have almost a thousand Legion Riders.’
‘Some good news at least. Who leads them?’
‘Gan Hogun.’
‘The same Hogun who routed the Sathuli at Corteswain?’
‘Yes,’ said Pinar, pride in his voice. ‘A skilled soldier, strong on discipline and yet worshipped by his men. He’s not very popular with Gan Orrin.’
‘He wouldn’t be,’ said Druss. ‘But that’s a matter we shall settle at Delnoch. What of supplies?’
‘There we have a few problems. There is enough food for a year, and we discovered three more wells, one as far back as the keep. We have close to six hundred thousand arrows, a multitude of javelins and several hundred spare mail-shirts.
‘But the biggest problem is the town itself. It has spread from Wall Three down to Wall Six, hundreds of buildings from wall to wall. There is no killing ground, Druss. Once over Wall Six, the enemy has cover all the way to the keep.’
‘We will tackle that, too, when I arrive. Are there still outlaws in Skultik?’
‘Of course. When have there not been?’ answered Pinar.
‘How many?’
‘Impossible to say. Five or six hundred, perhaps.’
‘Do they have a known leader?’
‘Again, hard to say,’ said Pinar. ‘According to rumour, there is a young nobleman who heads the largest band. But you know how these rumours grow. Every outlaw leader is an ex-nobleman or a prince. What are you thinking?’
‘I’m thinking they are archers,’ said Druss.
‘But you cannot enter Skultik now, Druss. Anything could happen. They could kill you.’