‘Then they’ll try to kill us. But that is a problem for another time. Relax, poet, you wanted adventure. Now you’ll have it.’
Druss strolled back to the shade and sat down beside the fearsome axe. The Nadir affected to ignore him, but Sieben could see them cast furtive glances in his direction. Finally the leader – a middle-aged, stocky warrior with a thin, wispy beard – came and sat opposite him.
‘You are far from home,’ he said, speaking haltingly in the Southern tongue.
‘Yet I am at ease,’ replied Druss.
‘The dove is rarely at ease in the home of the hawk.’
‘I am not a dove, laddie. And you are no hawk,’
The man rose. ‘I think we will meet again, Round-eye.’ He strolled back to his companions, vaulted to the saddle and led the riders on towards the east.
Sieben sat down beside Druss. ‘Oh, well done, old horse. Always best to appease an enemy who outnumbers you three to one.’
‘There was no point. He knows what he must do. As do I. You wait here with the horses; get them saddled and ready.’
‘Where are you going?’
‘East a little way. I want to see what sort of trap they will set.’
‘Is this wise, Druss? There are six of them.’
Druss grinned. ‘You think it would make it fairer if I left my axe behind?’ With that he gathered up Snaga and set off up and over the rocks. Sieben watched him go, then settled down to wait. Darkness came swiftly in the mountains and he wished he had thought to gather dead-wood back along the trail. A fire would be a welcome friend in this desolate place. The moon was bright, however, and Sieben wrapped himself in his blanket and sat deep in the shadows of the rock wall. Never again, he thought. From now on I’ll welcome boredom with open arms and a mighty hug!
What was it Druss had said about Klay? He reminds me of a man I never knew? Suddenly it came clear to Sieben. Druss was speaking of Michanek, the man who had loved and wed Rowena back in Ventria. * Like Druss Michanek was a mighty warrior, and a champion among the rebels opposed to Prince Gorben. And Rowena, robbed of her memory, had grown to love him, had even attempted suicide when she learned of his death. Druss had been there as Michanek faced the elite of Gorben’s Immortals. Alone he had killed many, until at last even Michanek’s prodigious strength failed him, sapped from his body in the gushing of blood from a score of wounds. As he died, he asked Druss to look after Rowena.
* First Chronicles of Druss the Legend
Once, when visiting Druss and his lady at their farm in the mountains, Sieben had walked with Rowena across the high meadows. He had asked her then about Michanek and she smiled fondly. ‘He was like Druss in many ways, but he was also gentle and kind. I did love him, Sieben, and I know Druss finds that hard to bear. But they took my memory from me. I did not know who I was, and remembered nothing of Druss. All I knew was that this huge man loved me and cared for me. And it still saddens me to know that Druss had a part in his death.’
‘He didn’t know Michanek,’ said Sieben. ‘All he had dreamed of through those long years was finding you and bringing you home.’
‘I know.’
‘Given the choice between the two men, who would you have chosen?’ asked Sieben suddenly.
‘That is a question I never ask myself,’ she told him. ‘I merely know that I was fortunate to be loved by, and to love, both of them.’
Sieben had wanted to ask more, but she touched a finger to his lips. ‘Enough, poet! Let us go back to the house.’
A cold wind blew around the rock pool now and Sieben wrapped his cloak more tightly about him. There was no sound, save for the wind whistling through the rocks, and Sieben felt terribly alone. Time passed with a mind-numbing lack of speed and the poet dozed several times, always waking with a start, terrified that hidden Nadir assassins were creeping up on him.