The Wordsmiths and the Warguild (48 page)

       
He explained all as they
went along.

       
It would probably be
night by the time they had traversed the roundabout roads leading back to Keep.
Their first move then would be to go to see Raznak the Golsh, of the Suet clan,
who would be sure to provide them with weapons, a meal, a bed for the night,
and, if necessary, with reinforcements.

Chapter 46

       
The story of how Togura
Poulaan encompassed the death of his half-brother Cromarty would not be a
pretty tale. It was a singularly sanguinary event. Suffice it to say that the
pigs got his kidneys, his thighs went for dogmeat and the rats managed to make
off with his eyes.

       
Shortly afterwards,
there was another death when Togura retrieved Day Suet and the Zenjingu fighter
from the index. Guest Gulkan met the Zenjingu fighter, blade against blade,
killed him, then hacked off his head.

       
"All's well that
ends well," said Togura, "with some considerable degree of
satisfaction. "Hello, Day, my love."

       
"Who are you?"
she said blankly.

       
"Togura! Your true
love, minx! Your questing hero!"

       
Day Suet, when finally
persuaded that the bearded, limping, scar-faced young stranger was Togura
Poulaan, fell into his arms, and they made passionate love to each other forthwith.
That is, they kissed and they cuddled: copulation would have to be delayed
until a more opportune moment.

       
For the moment, Togura
had a practical problem to deal with: how to stop the odex, which was still
spitting out junk, rubbish, dead dogs, rats, rotten potatoes and assorted
articles of disgrace. He did not want to smash the triple-harp. He was sure
there had to be a way of stopping it without destroying it. But how?

       
He talked to it, shook
it, tried to conjure his own independent music from it - all to no avail.
Finally, in desperation, he threw it into the odex. His experiment paid
immediate dividends. The odex spat out the index and the index was silent.

       
Togura had learnt how to
start it, and how to stop it. Finer control might come with time: he would see.
For the moment, he had other things to attend to.

       
"Kiss me,"
said Day Suet.

       
And he did.

       
Three days later, they
were married. After riotous festivities which lasted from dawn to sunset, they
retired to a house in Keep which had been lent to them by Raznak the Golsh.
There Togura and his true love Day stripped each other naked; there they
engaged in marital combat.

       
Shortly, Togura,
outraged, was thinking:

       
- Is that all?

       
"You were wonderful,"
said Day, nuzzling against him.

       
She spoke with such
ardour and conviction that he almost let him believe her. As she fondled his
body with her hot little hands, soothing his ego with her voice, he heard an
ominous sound of rupture and breakage at street level.

       
Who could it be?

       
Bluewater Draven? Guest
Gulkan? No, surely not - both those worthies had left the day before,
determined to get back to the Greater Teeth (Draven, it seemed, was going to try
and blame his disappearance on Togura.)

       
"Tog!" said
Day. "Something's happening!"

       
"A small
subsidance, dear," said Togura, his voice soothing. "Nothing to worry
about."

       
At that moment, the door
downstairs burst open, and a huge slobbering voice roared out:

       
"Bring me my man!
Slerma has come for her hero!"

       
Day squealed in alarm.

       
As Slerma began to bulk
up the stairs - forcing the walls apart as she climbed - Togura slammed himself
into his clothes, bundled Day into something warm, then led the way out of the
window and onto the roof.

       
"Life,"
muttered Togura, "goes on."

Afterword.

Assuming you've read the book, you will know that this book, THE
WORDSMITHS AND THE WARGUILD, is about the adventures of Togura Poulaan, these
adventures including (amongst other things) encounters with wizards, dragons,
pirates and magical devices.

This book is the second book in a ten-volume series (all ten volumes
of which were published in the United Kingdom as the CHRONICLES OF AN AGE OF
DARKNESS), but is designed to function as a stand-alone novel, complete with a
beginning, a middle and an end.

If you want to read about the futher adventures of Togura Poulaan then
you're out of luck, because this book is the only book in which Togura Poulaan
is a major character. He does not appear at all in the first book of the
series, THE WIZARDS AND THE WARRIORS (published in North America as WIZARD
WAR), a book which deals with the struggle for the control of a weapon of mass
destruction known as the death stone.

The way the series works is that the major characters of one book
usually only reappear (if they reappear at all) as minor characters in a
subsequent book. (Or, similarly, minor characters met or mentioned in one book
may reappear as major characters in a subsequent book.)

Various of the characters encountered in THE WORDSMITHS AND THE
WARGUILD appear in other books in the series.

The warrior Elkor Alish features in the first book, THE WIZARDS AND
THE WARRIORS.

The wizard Hostaja Torsen Sken-Pitilkin, the wizard of Drum, reappears
more than once, and features prominently in the tenth and final novel of the
series, THE WITCHLORD AND THE WEAPONMASTER.