LEGEND by David A. Gemmell

Serbitar raised his helm visor and leaned over the battlements, ignoring the few arrows that flashed up and by him.

‘The ladder men have reached the walls,’ he said, softly.

Druss turned to Rek. ‘The last time I stood beside an Earl of Dros Delnoch in battle, we carved a legend,’ he said.

‘The odd thing about sagas,’ offered Rek, ‘is that they very rarely mention dry mouths and full bladders.’

A grappling hook whistled over the wall.

‘Any last words of advice?’ asked Rek, dragging his sword free from its scabbard.

Druss grinned, drawing Snaga. ‘Live!’ he said.

More grappling irons rattled over the walls, jerk­ing taut instantly and biting into the stone as hun­dreds of hands applied pressure below. Frantically the defenders lashed razor-edged blades at the vine ropes until Druss bellowed at the men to stop.

‘Wait until they’re climbing!’ he shouted. ‘Don’t kill ropes – kill men!’

Serbitar, a student of war since he was thirteen, watched the progress of the siege towers with detached fascination. The obvious idea was to get as many men on the walls as possible by using ropes and ladders then to pull in the towers. The carnage below among the men pulling the tower ropes was horrific as Bowman and his archers peppered them with shafts. But more always rushed in to fill the places of the dead and dying.

On the walls, despite the frenzied slashing of ropes, the sheer numbers of hooks and throwers had enabled the first Nadir warriors to gain the battlements.

Hogun, with five thousand men on Musif, Wall Two, was sorely tempted to forget his orders and race to the aid of Wall One. But he was a profes­sional soldier, reared on obedience, and he stood his ground.

*

Tsubodai waited at the bottom of the rope as the tribesmen slowly climbed above him. A body hurtled by him to splinter on the jagged rocks and blood splashed his lacquered leather breastplate. He grinned, recognising the twisted features of Nestzan, the race runner.

‘He had it coming to him,’ he said to the man beside him. ‘Now, if he’d been able to run as fast as he fell, I wouldn’t have lost so much money!’

Above them the climbing men had stopped now, as the Drenai defenders forced the attackers back towards the ramparts. Tsubodai looked up at the man ahead of him.

‘How long are you going to hang there, Nakrash?’ he called. The man twisted his body and looked down.

‘It’s these Green Steppe dung-eaters,’ he shouted. ‘They couldn’t gain a foothold on a cow pat.’

Tsubodai laughed happily, stepping away from the rope to see how the other climbers were moving. All along the wall it was the same: the climbing had stopped, the sounds of battle echoing down from above. As bodies crashed to the rocks around him, he dived back into the lee of the wall.

‘We’ll be down here all day,’ he said. ‘The Khan should have sent the Wolfshead in first. These Greens were useless at Gulgothir, and they’re even worse here.’

His companion grinned and shrugged. ‘Line’s moving again,’ he said.

Tsubodai grasped the knotted rope and pulled himself up beneath Nakrash. He had a good feeling about today – maybe he could win the horses Ulric had promised to the warrior who would cut down the old greybeard everyone was talking about.

‘Deathwalker.’ A pot-bellied old man without a shield.

‘Tsubodai,’ called Nakrash. ‘You don’t die today, hey? Not while you still owe me on that foot race.’

‘Did you see Nestzan fall?’ Tsubodai shouted back. ‘Like an arrow. You should have seen him swinging his arms. As if he wanted to push the ground away from him.’

‘I’ll be watching you. Don’t die, do you hear me?’

‘You watch yourself. I’ll pay you with Deathwalker’s horses.’

As the men climbed higher more tribesmen filled the rope beneath him. Tsubodai glanced down.

‘Hey you!’ he called. ‘Not a lice-ridden Green are you?’

‘From the smell you must be Wolfshead,’ replied the climber, grinning.

Nakrash scaled the battlements, dragging his sword clear and then turning to pull Tsubodai alongside him. The attackers had forced a wedge through the Drenai line, and still neither Tsubodai nor Nakrash could join the action.