'Bear-fighter,' said Waylander. 'Retired - just like you.'

Senta, his nose swollen, his nostrils stained with blood, moved out into the sunlight, just as Angel knelt to pet the dog.

'You know, Angel,' said the swordsman, 'the resemblance is striking. If your own mother were to appear in our midst she wouldn't know which of you to call in for dinner.'

'The nose is an improvement - and it's bleeding again,' replied Angel, turning away and reaching out to the hound. Its fangs showed and a low snarl sounded. Angel drew back and stood.

Senta sniffed and spat blood to the dust, then walked past the two men and retrieved the sabre that was still lying in the dust. With the weapon in his hand he strolled back to Waylander. 'Mercy is a rare beast,' he said. 'You think it was wise to let me live?'

'If it proves a mistake I'll kill you,' Waylander told him.

'You are an unusual man. How did you know I wouldn't gut you as soon as you closed in on me?'

Waylander shrugged. 'I didn't.'

The swordsman nodded. 'I think I will travel with you,' he said. 'I heard you tell Angel you were heading north. I've always wanted to return to Gothir. I had some fine times there.'

'I may not want your company,' said Waylander.

'I can see that might be so. But there was something else you told Angel that interested me greatly.'

'I'm listening.'

'You're looking for a husband for Miriel.'

'You know where I might find one?'

'Very droll. I am a rich man, and not - despite your efforts - unhandsome. And my father continues to berate me for not supplying him with a grandson. I'll take her off your hands.'

'Shemak's b.a.l.l.s, but you've got nerve!' stormed Angel.

'I like a man with nerve,' said Waylander. 'I'll think on it.'

'You're not serious!' exclaimed Angel. 'A few minutes ago this man was trying to kill you for money. He's an a.s.sa.s.sin.'

'Which of course puts me lower on the social scale than an arena-killer,' observed Senta.

'Madness!' muttered Angel, stalking back into the cabin.

Senta sheathed his sabre. 'Why are we heading north?' he asked.

'There's someone I must find in Gulgothir.'

Miriel carried a bowl of heated water and a clean cloth to where Senta sat. She had not heard his conversation with her father, but she saw he now had his sabre once more. The blond warrior looked up through swollen eyes. He smiled. 'Merciful care for the fallen hero?'

'You are not a hero,' she told him, dipping the cloth in the water and gently sponging away the blood staining Senta's face. Reaching up he took hold of her wrist.

'He stamped on my head, but he did not throw the useless carca.s.s out into the forest.'

'Be grateful for that,' she said, pulling her hand free.

'Interesting man. He read me well. He knew I wouldn't kill him before he'd drawn a weapon.'

'What will you do now?' she asked.

He grinned, then winced as pain flared through his broken nose. 'I shall enter a monastery and devote my life to good works.'

'It was a serious question.'

'And you are a serious woman, beauty. Too serious. Do you laugh much? Do you dance? Do you make a.s.signations with young men?'

'What I do is none of your affair! And stop calling me beauty. I don't like it.'

'Yes, you do. But it makes you uncomfortable.'

'Do you still plan to kill my father?'

'No.'

'Am I expected to believe that?'

'You are free to believe or disbelieve, beauty. How old are you?'

'I will be eighteen next summer.'

'Are you a virgin?'

'You'll never know!' she told him. Taking up the bowl, she walked back to the kitchen where Belash was still eating. Most of the ham had gone, and half of the cheese. 'Is this your first meal in a month?' she snapped.

The Nadir looked up, his dark eyes expressionless. 'Fetch me water,' he ordered.

'Fetch it yourself, bowel-brain!' His face darkened and he rose from his seat. Miriel's dagger swept up. 'One wrong move, you Nadir dog-eater, and the breakfast you've just eaten will be all over the floor.' Belash grinned and walked to the water jug, filling a clay goblet. 'What is so amusing?' she demanded.

'You kol-isha,' answered Belash, drawing his own knife and cutting the last slice of ham from the bone. He shook his head and chuckled.

'What about us?' persisted Miriel.

'Where are your babies?' countered Belash. 'Where is your man? Why are you garbed for war?

Knives and swords - such foolishness.'

'You think a woman cannot use these weapons?'

'Of course they can. You should see my Shia - knife, sword, handaxe. But it is not natural. War is for men, for honour and glory.'

'And death,' she pointed out.

'Of course death. That is why women must be protected. Many babies must be born to replace the dead warriors.'

'It might be better just to stop the wars.'

'Pah! It is always useless to talk to women. They have no understanding.'

Miriel took a deep breath, but refrained from further argument. Leaving the Nadir to his endless breakfast she walked to her room and began to pack.

8

Hewla eased her frame up from the wicker chair and winced as pain flared in her arthritic hip.

The fire was dying down and she slowly bent to lift a log on to the glowing coals. There was a time when her fires needed no fuel, when she had not been forced to walk the forest gathering twigs and sticks.

'Curse you, Zhu Chao,' she whispered. But the words only made her the more angry, for once such a curse would have been accompanied by the beating of demon wings and the harsh raucous cries of the Vanshii as they flew to their victim.

How could you have been so stupid? she asked herself.

I was lonely.

Yes, but now you are still lonely, and the grimoires are gone.

She shivered and added another thick stick to the fire, which hungrily devoured it. It was small consolation that the Books of Spellfire would be virtually useless to Zhu Chao. For the spells contained in them had given Hewla life, long after her skin should have turned to dust, had held at bay the mortal pain of her inflamed joints. The six books of Moray Sen. Priceless. She remembered the day she had shown them to him, opening the secret compartment behind the firestone. She had believed in him then, the young Chiatze. Loved him. She shuddered. Old fool.

He had taken the grimoires she had schemed for, killed for, sold her soul for.

Now the Void beckoned.

Waylander will kill him, she thought with grim relish.

The room was becoming warmer and Hewla was at last feeling some comfort from the heat. But then an icy blast of freezing air touched her back. The old woman turned. The far wall was shimmering and a cold, cold wind was blowing through it, scattering scrolls and papers. A clay goblet on the table trembled and fell, rolling to the floor, shattering. The wind grew stronger.

Hewla's shawl flew back, falling across the fire, and the old woman stumbled against the power of the demon wind.

A dark shape appeared by the wall, silhouetted against icy flames.

Hewla's hand came up and a bright light blazed from her fingers, surrounding the demon. The wind died down, but she felt the creature's elemental power pushing back against the light. A taloned hand clawed through. Flames burst around it and it withdrew.

A flickering figure appeared to her left, and she saw Zhu Chao's image forming.

'I have brought an old friend to see you, Hewla,' he said.

'Rot in h.e.l.l,' she hissed.

He laughed at her. 'I see you retain some vestiges of power. Tell me, hag, how long do you think you can hold him from you?'

'What do you want from me?'

'I cannot master the first of the Five Spells. Something is missing from the grimoires. Tell me and you shall live.'

Once again the taloned hand tore through the light. Flames seared it, but not as powerfully as before. Fear swelled in Hewla's heart and, had she believed Zhu Chao's promise, she might have told him. But she did not.

'What is missing is something you will never find - courage!' she said. 'You will grow older, your powers fading. And when you die your soul will be carried screaming to the Void.'

'You foolish old crone,' he whispered. 'All the books speak of the Mountains of the Moon. The answers lie there. I shall find them.'

Talons ripped at the light, and it parted like a torn curtain. The dark shape loomed in the room.

As swiftly as she could, Hewla drew the small curved dagger from the sheath at her waist.

'I will wait for you in the Void,' she promised.

Holding the dagger blade beneath her left breast she plunged it home.

Senta sat quietly on the wall of the well, watching Waylander and Miriel some distance away.

The man had his hand on the girl's shoulder. Her head was bowed. Senta did not need to guess at the subject of their conversation. He had heard Waylander telling Angel of the death of Miriel's sister.

Senta looked away. His broken nose was sending shafts of pain behind his eyes and he felt sick.

In his four years in the arena he had not felt pain like this. Minor cuts, and once a twisted ankle, were all the swordsman had suffered. But then those fights had been governed by rules. With a man like Waylander there were no rules. Only survival.

Despite his pain Senta felt relieved. He had no doubt that he would have killed the older man in a duel, though if he had, there would still have been Angel to face. And it would have saddened him to slay the old gladiator. But, more than that, it would have wrecked any chance with Miriel.

Miriel...

His first sight of her had shocked him, and he still didn't know why. The n.o.blewoman, Gilaray, had a more beautiful face. Nexiar was infinitely more shapely. Suri's golden hair and flashing eyes were far more provocative. Yet there was something about this mountain girl that had fired his senses. But what?

And why marriage? He could hardly believe he'd made the offer. How would she take to life in the city? He focused on her once more, picturing her in a gown of silver satin, pearls laced through her dark hair. And chuckled.

'What is amusing you?' asked Angel, strolling to where he sat.

'I was thinking of Miriel at the Lord Protector's Ball, in a flowing dress and with her knives strapped to her forearms.'

'She's too good for the likes of you, Senta. Far too good.'

'That's a matter of opinion. Would you sooner see her standing behind a plough, old before her time, her b.r.e.a.s.t.s flat, like two hanged men?'

'No,' admitted Angel, 'but I'd like to see her with a man who loved her. She's not like Nexiar, or any of the others. She's like a colt - fast, sleek, unbroken.'

Senta nodded. 'I think you are right.' He glanced up at the gladiator. 'How very perceptive of you, my friend. You do surprise me.'

'I surprise myself sometimes. Like asking Waylander not to kill you. I'm regretting it already.'