The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend (52 page)

Certak parried one thrust, but a spear punched through his breastplate, ripping his lungs. Blood welled in his throat and he fell. A tall Ventrian leaped to the boulder. Sieben hurled his blade. It took the man through the right eye.

A spear flashed through the air, lancing Sieben’s chest. Strangely, far from causing him pain, it released the agony from his cramped heart. He toppled from the rock, to be swallowed by the black and silver horde.

Druss saw him fall—and went berserk.

Breaking from the shield ring, he launched his giant frame into the massed ranks of the warriors before him, cutting them aside like wheat before a scythe. Delnar closed the ring behind him, disemboweling a Ventrian lancer and locking shields with Diagoras.

Surrounded now by Immortals, Druss hammered his way forward. A spear took him high in the back. He swung round, braining the lancer. A sword bounced from his helm, gashing his cheek. A second spear pierced his side, and a clubbing blow from the flat of a sword thundered into his temple. Grabbing one assailant, he hauled him forward, butting him viciously. The man
sagged in his grip. More enemies closed in around the axeman. Using the unconscious Ventrian as a shield, Druss dropped to the ground. Swords and spears slashed at him.

Then came the sound of bugles.

Druss struggled to rise, but a booted foot lashed into his temple and he fell into darkness.

He awoke and cried out. His face was swathed in bandages, his body racked with pain. He tried to sit, but a hand pushed gently on his shoulder.

“Rest, axeman. You’ve lost a lot of blood.”

“Delnar?”

“Yes. We won, Druss. The army arrived just in time. Now rest.”

The last moments of the battle surged back into Druss’s mind. “Sieben!”

“He is alive. Barely.”

“Take me to him.”

“Don’t be a fool. By rights you should be dead. Your body was pierced a score of times. If you move, the stitches will open and you’ll bleed to death.”

“Take me to him, damn you!”

Delnar cursed and helped the axeman to his feet. Calling an orderly, who took the weight on the left side, he half carried the wounded giant to the back of the tent and the still, sleeping form of Sieben the Saga-master.

Lowering Druss into a seat by the bedside, Delnar and the orderly withdrew. Druss leaned forward, gazing at the bandages around Sieben’s chest, and the slowly spreading red stain at the center.

“Poet!” he called softly.

Sieben opened his eyes.

“Can nothing kill you, axeman?” he whispered.

“It doesn’t look like it.”

“We won,” said Sieben. “And I want you to note that I didn’t hide.”

“I didn’t expect you to.”

“I’m awfully tired, Druss old horse.”

“Don’t die. Please don’t die,” said the axeman, tears causing him to blink furiously.

“There are some things even you cannot have, old horse. My heart is almost useless. I don’t know why I’ve lived this long. But
you were right. They have been good years. I wouldn’t change anything. Not even this. Look after Niobe and the children. And make sure some saga-master does me justice. You’ll do that?”

“Of course I will.”

“I wish I could be around to add to this saga. What a fitting climax.”

“Yes. Fitting. Listen, poet. I’m not good with words. But I want to tell you … I want you to know you’ve been like a brother to me. The best friend I ever had. The very best. Poet? Sieben?”

Sieben’s eyes stared unseeing at the tent ceiling. His face was peaceful and looked almost young again. The lines seemed to vanish before Druss’s eyes. The axeman began to shake. Delnar approached and closed Sieben’s eyes, covering his face with a sheet. Then he helped Druss back to his bed.

“Gorben is dead, Druss. His own men slew him as they ran. Our fleet has the Ventrians bottled up in the bay. At the moment one of their generals is meeting with Abalayn to discuss surrender. We did it. We held the pass. Diagoras wants to see you. He made it through the battle. Can you believe it, even fat Orases is still with us! Now, I’d have laid ten to one odds he wouldn’t survive.”

“Give me a drink, will you,” whispered Druss.

Delnar came back to his side, bearing a goblet of cool water. Druss sipped it slowly. Diagoras entered the tent, carrying Snaga. The axe had been cleaned of blood and polished to shine like silver.

Druss gazed at it, but did not reach out. The dark-eyed young warrior smiled.

“You did it,” he said. “I have never seen the like. I would not have believed it possible.”

“All things are possible,” said Druss. “Never forget that, laddie.”

Tears welled in the axeman’s eyes, and he turned his head away from them. After a moment he heard them back away. Only then did he allow tears to fall.

Available now …

Waylander the Slayer
stalks an ancient evil in the next book of

The Drenai Saga

Hero in the Shadows

by
David Gemmell

Published by Del Rey Books.
Available in bookstores everywhere
.

THE WORLDS OF DAVID GEMMELL

Author David Gemmell is hailed as Britain’s king of heroic fantasy, and through sixteen of his most famous battle-charged adventures, Del Rey brings the action to American shores
.

THE DRENAI SAGA:
Experience the Drenai cycle that was launched with the international bestseller LEGEND. Meet the heroes of the Drenai people …

LEGEND: Druss was a legend even in old age, and he would be called to fight once more, to defend the mighty fortress Dros Delnoch, the last possible stronghold against the Nadir hordes
.

THE KING BEYOND THE GATE: Tenaka Khan was an outsider, a half-breed, despised by both the Drenai and the Nadir, but he would be one man against the armies of Chaos
.

QUEST FOR LOST HEROES: Among the travelers—the boy Kiall, the legendary heroes Chareos the Blademaster and Beltzer the Axman, and the bowmen Finn and Maggrig—lurked a secret that could free the world of Nadir, once and for all
.

WAYLANDER: He was charged with protecting the innocents and journeying into the shadow-haunted lands of the Nadir to find the legendary Armor of Bronze. But Waylander was an assassin, a slayer, the killer of the king
.

And don’t miss these Drenai adventures:
IN THE REALM OF THE WOLF
THE FIRST CHRONICLES OF DRUSS THE LEGEND
THE LEGEND OF DEATHWALKER