'Perhaps I do.'
'No, you are just trying to frighten me. Would you like to know why the Nadir believe there are demons here?' She nodded. 'Because this area is — or once was — volcanic. It would have spewed fire, poisoned ash and red-hot lava. Travellers close by would have heard great rumblings below the earth.' He swung round and pointed to the twin towers rearing towards the brightening sky. 'Those are just cones of hollow, cooled lava.'
'You don't believe in demons?' she asked him.
'Aye,' he said sombrely, 'I do. There are beasts which can be summoned from the Pit — but they are like puppy-dogs when compared with the demons every man carries in his heart.'
'Your heart has demons in it?' she whispered, eyes widening.
'Such a literal people,' he said, shaking his head and rising. Swiftly he climbed down to where Druss was waiting with Nuang and several Nadir. He noted wryly how the Nadir stood close to the axeman, hanging on his words and grinning as he spoke. Only hours before they had been lusting to kill him. Now he was a hero to them. A friend.
'What ho, old horse!' Sieben called and Druss swung towards him.
'What do you think, poet? Have we seen the last of them?'
'I believe so. But we had better find another way out of these hills. I wouldn't want to be caught by them on open ground.'
Druss nodded. Blood was staining his jerkin and beard, but he had cleaned his axe blades.
The dawn sun glinted above the distant mountains and Druss strode to the mouth of the cleft. The Lancers had pulled back in the darkness, and were nowhere in sight.
For another hour the Nadir waited nervously in the rocks, then several of them crept down to the smoking ruins of their camp, gathering what possessions had not been lost to the fires.
Nuang approached Druss and Sieben. 'Niobe tells me you believe the rocks are safe,' he said, and Sieben explained once more about volcanic activity. Nuang did not look impressed, his dark flat face expressionless and his eyes wary.
Druss laughed. 'Given a choice between demons we haven't seen and Lancers we have, I know what I'd choose.'
Nuang grunted, then cleared his throat and spat, 'Does your axe kill demons?'
Druss gave a cold smile and hefted Snaga, holding the blades close to Nuang's face. 'What it can cut it can kill.'
Nuang gave a broad smile. 'I think we will walk the Hills of the Damned,' he said.
'Never a dull moment with you, Druss,' muttered Sieben. As Druss clapped him on the shoulder, he glanced down at the blood-smeared hand. 'Oh, thank you. Just what a blue silk shirt needs, a spot of drying blood!'
'I'm hungry,' Druss announced, swinging away with a grin. Taking a handkerchief from the pocket of his leggings Sieben dabbed at the offending mark, then followed the axeman back into the rocks. Niobe brought him food, cold meat and goat's cheese, and sat beside him as he ate.
'Is there any water?' he asked.
'Not yet. The gajin destroyed all but one of our barrels. Today will be dry and hot. That is a pretty shirt,' she added, reaching out and stroking the silk, her fingers lingering over the mother-of-pearl buttons at the neck.
'I had it made in Drenan,' he told her.
'Everything is so soft,' she murmured, stroking her hand down over his woollen leggings, and resting her palm on his thigh. 'So soft.'
'Raise your hand any higher and it won't stay soft,' he warned her. Glancing up at him she raised one eyebrow, then slid her hand along the inside of his thigh. 'Ah,' she said, 'how true.'
'Time to be moving, poet!' called Druss.
'Your timing is impeccable,' replied Sieben.
For two hours the convoy moved into the black hills. There was no vegetation here, and walls of dark, volcanic rock reared above them. Silently the group pushed on, the Nadir casting fearful glances around them. Even the children remained quiet. No-one rode, for the footing was treacherous. Towards midday the ground gave way under a pony which fell, its left front leg snapping. It thrashed around until a young Nadir warrior leapt upon it, slicing open its throat; blood gushed to the rocks. The women moved forward, dragging the pony clear of the hole and butchering it. 'Fresh meat tonight,' Niobe told Sieben.
The heat was intense now, so strong that Sieben had ceased to sweat and felt his brain was shrivelling to the size of a walnut. By dusk the exhausted party had reached the centre of the hills, and they made camp beneath one of the twin towers. For more than an hour Sieben had been lusting after a drink of water from the one remaining barrel, and he queued with the warriors for a single cup. The taste was beyond nectar.
Later, just before sunset, he wandered away from the camp and climbed the jagged rocks towards the west-facing summit. The climb was not difficult, but it was tiring. Even so Sieben had a need to get away from the others, to find solitude. At the peak he sat down and stared out over the land. White clouds dotted the sky, peaceful and serene, and the setting sun was falling behind them, bathing the distant mountains in golden light. The breeze here was deliciously cool, the view extraordinary. The far mountains lost their colour as the sun sank lower, becoming black silhouettes like storm clouds gathering at the horizon, the sky above them turning mauve, then grey-silver and finally pale gold. The clouds also changed colour, moving from pristine white to coral red in a sea of royal blue. Sieben leaned back against a rock and soaked in the sight. At last the sky dark-ened and the moon appeared, bright and pure. Sieben signed.
Niobe clambered up to sit alongside him. 'I wanted to be alone,' he said. 'We are alone," she pointed out. 'How stupid of me. Of course we are.' Turning from her he gazed down into the cone of the tower. A shaft of moonlight broke through the clouds and illuminated the cone.
Niobe's hand touched his shoulder. 'Look at the ledge down there,' she said.
'I am in no mood for sex, my pretty. Not at this moment.'
'No, look! At the far end of the ledge.' His gaze followed her pointing finger. Some twenty feet below and to the right there was — or what appeared to be — an entrance carved into the rock.
'It is a trick of the light,' he said, peering down into the cone.
'And there,' she said, 'steps!' It was true. At the far end of the ledge a series of steps had been cut into the wall of the cone.
'Go and fetch Druss,' he commanded.
'That is where the demons live,' she whispered, as she walked away.
'Tell him to bring a rope, torches and a tinder-box.'
Niobe stopped and looked back. 'You are going down there? For why?'
'Because I am a naturally curious man, my darling. I want to know why anyone would carve an opening on the inside of a volcano.'
The moonlight was brighter now, as the clouds dispersed, and Sieben edged around the crater, moving closer to the ancient steps. Immediately above the first of them there were rope grooves in the soft rock. The steps themselves had either been hacked with great speed, or had weathered badly — perhaps both, he thought. Leaning over the rim he pushed his fingers against the first step. The rock crumbled away at his touch. Under no circumstances would these steps any longer support the weight of a man.
Druss, Nuang and several Nadir warriors climbed up towards him. Niobe was not with them. Th old Nadir chieftain leaned over the rim and stared at the rectangular entrance below. He said nothing. Druss squatted down beside Sieben. 'The girl says you want to go down there. Is that wise, poet?'
'Perhaps not, old horse. But I don't want to spend the rest of my life wondering about it.'
Druss peered down into the cone. 'That's a long way to fall.'
Sieben gazed down into the black depths. The moonlight, though bright, did not reach the bottom of the cone. 'Lower me down to the ledge,' he said, hanging on to the last of his courage. There was no way now that he could withdraw. 'But don't release your hold when I reach the ledge. The rock crumbles like salt crystals and the ledge may not support me.' Tying a rope around his waist, and waiting until Druss looped it over his huge shoulders, he swung out over the rim. Slowly Druss let out the rope until Sieben's feet touched the ledge, which was solid and strong.