These were Alahir’s ancestors.
‘Why did he steal the Armour?’ asked Alahir.
He did not steal it. He saved it.
‘Who are you?’
One who cares, Alahir. One whose voice can echo across Time’s vast valleys.
‘You are a ghost?’
In a manner of speaking. I am alive as I speak to you, but in your time I am long dead. I cannot speak for long, Alahir, so question me not. You know what you see here, and you know what it means. This is the Armour of Bronze, crafted for Egel, worn by Regnak, as he stood beside Druss the Legend. You stand before your own destiny. For this armour is yours, Alahir, by blood and by right. You are the Earl of Bronze, and it falls to you to help save your people.
‘I have less than fifty riders. The armies of Agrias are a hundred times larger. And even were I to forswear my allegiance and defeat him there would still be the Eternal.’
There is a man coming to you. He carries the Swords of Night and Day. Ride with him, Alahir.
‘And this will save my people?’
I cannot say for certain. There is much I do not know. I will try to speak again, but for now I must leave you. My strength is waning. Draw the sword, Alahir. Don the Armour.
‘Wait!’ he shouted. The word echoed, and then there was silence.
Draw the sword, the voice had said. Not an easy task when it was encased in crystal. Alahir reached out towards the hilt. His hand slid through the crystal as if it were mist.
He shivered.
Then drew the golden sword from the crystal. It was lighter than it looked, and yet perfectly balanced, the golden blade glittering in the shaft of sunlight. Alahir sighed — and returned it to its scabbard.
Askari found a deep cave in which the travellers could shelter from the wind, and the four of them hunkered down in its mouth and risked a fire. Skilgannon had been withdrawn since the death of Gamal, and had spoken little. Harad and Charis seemed oblivious of everything, except each other. They would walk hand in hand, and, at night, wander off to be alone. Askari too had left the brooding Skilgannon, and gone scouting. Her thoughts were troubled as she found the cave. So much had happened in these last few days. Her entire world had been torn asunder. Her settlement was ruined and deserted, her friends fled or slain. Landis Kan was dead. And yet the handsome swordsman filled her mind. She found herself watching him, noting with satisfaction the easy grace of his movements, the calm, assured style of his speech. It was difficult to look into those sapphire eyes without reddening. It was as if he could read her thoughts, and they were not thoughts considered seemly.
Desire was not a stranger to Askari. She had desired Stavut, and before him a tall young woodsman who used to travel to the settlement for supplies. Her feelings for Skilgannon, however, were vastly different. A glance from him would set her heart beating faster. She sensed in him a similar desire, and yet, for some reason, he fought it. Askari could not understand such reticence.
As they settled down by the fire she saw him staring out over the mountains, his face expressionless, his eyes distant.
‘What are you thinking?’ she asked. For a moment she thought he had not heard her. Then he sighed.
‘I was thinking of a temple that no longer exists,’ he said.
‘Why?’
‘It holds the key to everything.’
‘You are a strange man.’
‘Yes,’ he admitted, ‘strange indeed. You spoke of Reborns earlier. You said I should beware Decado, because he is soulless.’
‘I remember. You gave an odd answer.’
‘Not so odd, Askari. I am Skilgannon. Once I was called the Damned. I led armies, destroyed cities.
Cities that are now dust, and forgotten by history.’
‘I don’t understand,’ she said. ‘How could that be?’
He gave a rueful smile. ‘Because I am a Reborn. I died a thousand years ago. Landis Kan brought me back. . from Hell,’ he added.
She looked at him closely, hoping he was lying for some reason. She saw in his face that he was not.
‘Why are you telling me this?’ she asked.
‘I was brought back for a purpose — one that even Landis did not fully understand. One that I certainly do not yet understand. I need to find that temple. The answers are there.’
‘You did not answer my question.’
‘It is not easy to answer.’ He glanced back to where Harad and Charis were sitting together in the rear of the cave, holding hands and leaning close. ‘Harad is also a Reborn.’
‘No!’
‘I am afraid so. You think he has no soul?’
‘Landis Kan brought him back?’ she asked.
‘Landis Kan could not bring back the man he was. He tried. He went to Harad when he was a child and asked about his dreams, hoping, I think, to gain some insight to who he might have been in that previous life.’
Askari looked into those sapphire eyes, and this time did not redden. ‘He asked me about my dreams also,’ she pointed out.
He nodded. ‘Then do you need your question answered?’
A cold knot appeared in the pit of her stomach. The ramifications of his words were too ghastly to contemplate. Anger flared.
‘You are suggesting that I am a soulless Reborn?’
‘I said nothing about souls. And I am suggesting nothing. I know you are a Reborn. That is why they are hunting you. That is why Decado called you Jianna.’
‘I don’t believe it! I know who I am. I am Askari.’
‘Yes, you are,’ he said softly. Then, as best he could, he told her of the process Landis Kan had described to him, the placing of shards of bone in an arcane machine, and the impregnation of a willing surrogate. ‘You were born, as any child is. You were nursed and raised. But the essence of your physical being comes from Jianna the Eternal. Everything about you is identical to her. It is why she has become the Eternal. Young women are bred from her essence and born. As the years pass the Eternal casts off each ageing body, and takes. . steals. . a new form.’
‘She casts out their souls from their bodies?’
‘Yes.’
‘Where do they go?’
‘To the horror of the Void, and, perhaps, through it. I do not know.’
‘And this is her plan for me?’
‘I don’t think so. I think Landis Kan wanted you for himself. It is my belief that he loved the Eternal, and that she discarded him. You were his future. That is why he wanted to take you to distant lands.’
Askari looked at him closely. Anger was still strong in her, but she could no longer deny the obvious.
He had called her Jianna when first they met. Decado had also been convinced of her identity. Inner turmoil raged and she felt the need to strike out. ‘So,’ she said, at last, ‘when Landis Kan created you, he did it the same way?’
‘I would imagine so.’
‘Your body would have been born and then grown to manhood. Then the soul was cast out and you were brought back to. . how did you put it. . steal the body?’ She saw the shock register. The sapphire eyes closed and a look of pain crossed his features.
‘How stupid of me,’ he said. ‘It did not cross my mind. I have been too self-absorbed. Of course. A young man was bred to be slaughtered so that I could return.’ She saw his pain and felt a stab of guilt that she had caused it, and her anger passed.