Diagoras and walked out onto the road.
Diagoras joined him there.
‘I thank you for your silence back there,’ said Skilgannon.
‘It is a good plan.’ He gazed down over the sickening drop to the valley floor below, then stepped back. ‘But you know what General Egel once said of plans?’
‘They survive only until the battle starts,’ replied Skilgannon.
Diagoras smiled. ‘You are a student of Drenai history?’
‘A student of war,’ corrected Skilgannon. ‘Yes, there is much that could go wrong, and even if it goes right we are likely to take losses.’
Diagoras laughed suddenly. Skilgannon eyed him curiously. ‘What is amusing you?’
‘Isn’t it obvious? A mad woman, a simpleton and an unskilled boy make up almost half of our fighting force. And here we are talking of what
Skilgannon was about to answer, but then he too laughed.
Druss wandered out to join them. ‘What are you two discussing out here?’ he asked.
‘The stupidity that comes with war,’ said Diagoras.
‘Diagoras believes our force is not as good as it might be,’ offered Skilgannon.
‘That’s true,’ said Druss, ‘but then you can only fight with what you have. I’ve seen Garianne and the twins in action. They’ll not let us down.
And the boy has courage. Can’t ask for more than that.’
This is all true,’ said Diagoras, with a grin. ‘So we’re not worried about them. It’s you. Let’s be honest, Druss, you are a little too old and fat to be of much use to young and powerful warriors like us.’
Druss stepped in and Diagoras was hauled from his feet. Even as he began to struggle he was hoisted above the axeman’s head. Druss grabbed his ankle then swung him upside down. Diagoras found himself hanging head first over a six hundred foot drop. Twisting his head he looked up.
Druss was standing, arms outstretched, holding him by his ankles. ‘Now, now, Druss,’ he said, ‘no need to get angry.’
‘Oh, I’m not angry, laddie,’ said Druss amiably. ‘We old folk have difficulty hearing sometimes, and with you speaking out of your arse I couldn’t catch what you were saying. Now, with your arse where your mouth was, it should be much easier. Speak on.’
‘I was telling Skilgannon what a privilege it was to be travelling with a man of your renown.’
Druss stepped back and lowered Diagoras to the rock. The Drenai breathed a sigh of relief, then stood. ‘I fear you don’t have much of a sense of humour, old horse,’ he said.
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ offered Druss. ‘I laughed so much I nearly dropped you.’
Diagoras was about to say more when he looked into the axeman’s face.
In the moonlight there was a sheen of sweat upon his brow, and he was breathing heavily. ‘Are you all right, my friend?’ he asked.
‘Just tired,’ said Druss. ‘You are heavier than you look.’ With that he turned away from the two warriors and walked back to where the others waited. Diagoras saw him kneading his left forearm, and frowned.
‘What is worrying you?’ asked Skilgannon.
‘Druss does not seem himself. At Skein his complexion was ruddy. These last few days he has looked ten years older. His skin is grey.’
‘He is an old man,’ said Skilgannon. ‘He may be strong, but he is still a half a century old. Travelling these hills and fighting werebeasts would sap anyone’s strength.’
‘You are probably right. No man can fight time. When do we need to get into position?’
‘An hour. No more than that.’
Druss had stretched himself out on the ledge and appeared to be sleeping. Diagoras and Skilgannon walked further along the road. Here and there were fissures in the rock wall, some shallow, others deep. At one point the road narrowed, then widened. To the left was the sheer red rock face, to the right an awesome drop. Diagoras scanned the area and shivered.
‘I have always been nervous about heights,’ he said.
‘I don’t much like them myself,’ said Skilgannon. ‘But in this situation the terrain is to our advantage. And we need all the advantages we can get.’
‘The Nadir are said to be superb horsemen.’
‘They will need to be,’ observed Skilgannon grimly.
For some time they discussed the plan, and then, as warriors will, they spoke of gentler days. Diagoras talked of an aunt who ran a brothel. ‘She was wonderful,’ he said. ‘I liked nothing better as a child than to sneak off into the city and spend a day with her. My family never spoke of her -
except my father. He went into the most terrible rage when he discovered I’d been seeing her. I don’t know what annoyed him the most, the fact that she was a whore, or that she was richer than all the rest of the family.’
‘Why did she become a whore?’ asked Skilgannon. ‘My guess is that you are from a high-born family.’
‘I really don’t know. There was some scandal when she was young. She was sent to Drenan in disgrace, and then ran away. It was before I was born. It was some years later that she appeared. She had wealth then, and she bought a huge house on the outskirts of the city. It was beautiful. She hired architects and gardeners and turned it into a palace. The gardens were a sight to behold. Pools and fountains, and rooms there created from bushes and trees. And she had the most gorgeous girls.’ Diagoras sighed.
‘They came from everywhere — Ventria, Mashrapur, Panthia. There were even two Chiatze girls, dark-eyed and with skin the colour of ivory. I tell you that place was like paradise. Sometimes I still dream of it.’
‘Does your aunt still own it?’
‘No. She died of a fever a few years back. Just after Skein. Even in death there was a scandal. My aunt’s closest friend was a woman named Magatha. She was Ventrian, and, like my aunt, had been a whore. She killed herself on the same day my aunt died. Sweet Heaven, that caused a ripple in polite society.’
‘So, the whorehouse is closed now?’
‘Oh, no. She left it to me, along with all her wealth. I promoted one of the women there, and she manages it for me.’
‘This must please your father.’
Diagoras laughed. ‘It pleases almost every other man in the community.
It is — and I say this with great pride — the best whorehouse in the south.’
Dawn was not far off. ‘It is time,’ said Skilgannon.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
FOR RABALYN THE NIGHT WAS SPENT IN A STATE OF PANIC. HE
SAT quietly as the others discussed the fight that would come tomorrow.
His hands were trembling, and he clasped them together tightly, so that Druss would not see he was frightened. The attack by the beasts on the camp had been sudden, and he had reacted well. Druss had praised him for his courage. But now, sitting waiting to be attacked, he found his stomach churning. He saw Diagoras and Skilgannon joking together by the ledge, and then watched as Druss picked up the struggling Drenai officer and dangled him over the edge. These men had no fear.
Rabalyn had no understanding of military tactics, and he had listened to Skilgannon outline the plan of attack and it seemed so perilous. Yet no-one else had pointed this out, and he felt, perhaps, that his own lack of knowledge was preventing him from seeing just what a fine plan it was. So he said nothing.
The Nadir would ride up the mountain road, past where Diagoras and the brothers were hiding in a shallow fissure. Then Skilgannon and Druss would attack them from the front. He and Garianne would shoot arrows at the riders from the shelter of a stand of boulders above the road. Once Skilgannon and Druss were engaged Diagoras and the twins would rush in from behind. Apparently these five fighters would then overpower twenty or so savage
