striding forward. The ground lurched beneath him.
“Is it an earthquake?” he heard Sieben ask Druss.
Gorben stood still and gazed down. The earth was writhing. The camp-fire suddenly flared, sending bright sparks into the night sky. The heat was intense and Gorben moved back from it, staring into the flames. Logs exploded out from the blaze and a huge shape appeared within the fire, a beast with outspread arms. The flames died and Gorben found himself staring at a colossal bear, more than twelve feet tall.
Several soldiers carrying spears ran at the creature, plunging their weapons into the great belly. The first of the spears snapped on impact. The beast roared, a deafening sound like captured thunder. One of the mighty arms swept down, steel talons ripping through the first soldier, cutting him in half at the waist.
Surging from the fading fire, the beast leapt towards Gorben.
As the creature of fire appeared Sieben, who was sitting alongside Bodasen, found all sensation of time and reality slipping away from him. His eyes fastened on the beast, and an image flew from the halls of his memory, linking what he could see in terrifying life to a still, small moment three years ago in the main Library at Drenan. Researching for an epic poem, he had been scanning the ancient leather-bound books in the archives. The pages were dry and yellow, and much of the ink and paint had faded from them, but on one page the colours were still vibrant, fierce hues - glowing gold, savage crimsons, sun-bright yellows. The figure painted there was colossal, and flames sprouted like blooms from its eyes. Sieben could still picture the carefully painted letters above the painting…
The Kalith of Numar
Beneath the heading were the words: The Chaos Beast, the Stalker, the Hound of the Invincible, whose skin no blade of man shall pierce. Where he walks, death follows.
As Sieben recalled the night of the monster in later days, he would wonder anew at the lack of fear he experienced. He watched men die horribly, saw a beast from the depths of Hell tear human limbs asunder, disembowelling warriors, ripping their lives from them. He heard the ghastly howling and smelt the stench of death on the night breeze. Yet there was no fear.
A dark legend had come to life and he, the saga-master, was on hand to witness it.
Gorben was standing stock-still, rooted to the spot. A soldier Sieben recognised as Oliquar threw himself at the beast, slashing at it with a sabre; but the blade clanged against the creature’s side, and the sound that followed was like the dim tolling of a distant bell. A taloned paw swept down, and Oliquar’s face and head disappeared in a bloody spray of shattered bone. Several archers shot arrows, but these either shattered on impact or ricocheted away. The creature advanced on Gorben.
Sieben saw the Emperor flinch, then hurl himself to his right, rolling to his feet smoothly. The enormous beast turned ponderously, the glowing coals of its eyes seeking out Gorben.
Loyal soldiers, showing incredible bravery, threw themselves into the path of the beast, stabbing at it ineffectually. Each time the talons slashed down, and blood sprayed across the camp-site. Within a few heartbeats there were at least twenty dead or maimed soldiers. The Chaos Beast’s talons ripped into a soldier’s chest, lifting him from his feet and hurling him across the dying fire. Sieben heard the man’s ribs snap, and saw his entrails spill out like a tattered banner as the corpse sailed through the air.
Druss, axe in his hand, strode out towards the creature. Soldiers were falling back before it, but still they formed a wall between the beast and the Emperor. Looking tiny and insubstantial against the colossal frame of the Kalith, Druss stepped into its path. The moon was bright in the night sky, shining from his shoulder-guards and glinting on Snaga’s terrible blades.
The Chaos Beast paused and seemed to stare down at the tiny man before it. Sieben’s mouth was dry, and he could feel the hammering of his own heart.
And the Kalith spoke, voice deep and rumbling, words slurred by its foot-long tongue.
“Step aside, brother,” it said. “I have not come for you.”
The axe began to glow as red as blood. Druss stood his ground, with Snaga held in both hands.
“Step aside,” repeated the Kalith, “or I must kill you!”
“In your dreams,” said Druss.
The creature lunged forward, one great paw sweeping in towards the axeman. Druss dropped to one knee and swung the blood-red axe, the blade striking the beast’s wrist and cleaving through. As the taloned paw fell to the ground beside the axeman, the Kalith reeled back. No blood issued from the wound, but an oily smoke pumped out into the air, billowing and growing. Fire blazed from the creature’s mouth and it lunged again at the mortal before it. But instead of jumping back Druss leapt in to meet it, swinging Snaga high over his head and bringing the weapon down in a lethal arc that clove into the Kalith’s chest, smashing the sternum and ripping a wound from throat to groin.
Flames exploded from the beast, engulfing the axeman. Druss staggered - and the Kalith fell back, and as the huge form struck the ground even Sieben, some thirty feet away, felt the tremor of the earth. A breeze blew up, the smoke disappearing.
And there was no sign of the Kalith…
Sieben ran to where Druss stood. The axeman’s eyebrows and beard were singed, but he bore no marks of burns. “By the gods, Druss,” Sieben shouted, slapping his friend’s back. “Now that’ll make a song to bring us both fame and riches!”
“It killed Oliquar,” said Druss, shrugging off Sieben’s embrace and letting fall the axe.
Gorben moved alongside him. “That was nobly done, my friend. I’ll not forget - I owe you my life.” Bending his body, he lifted the axe. It was now black and silver once more. “This is an enchanted weapon,” whispered the Emperor. “I will give you twenty thousand in gold for it.”
“It is not for selling, my Lord,” said Druss.
“Ah, Druss, and I thought you liked me.”
“I do, laddie. That’s why I’ll not sell it to you.”
