think when you are fighting something like a wolf-man and you are dead.”
“I’ll take your word for it.” She continued to look at him as if interested in learning some secrets he knew. Kormak wanted to tell her that there were no secrets, only hard work and luck and ruthless determination. He was not sure what good it would have done though so he kept quiet.
It was cold in the mountains but still warmer than Kormak would have expected for the time of year. Aquilea was a lot further coldward though so that might account for it. They said heat leeched away over the snowy edge of the world, the closer you got to it. It was certainly true it became warmer the further south you got.
The trees still had some of their leaves here and a riot of coloured flowers was still in bloom on thorny bushes. Their scents fought for attention in his nostrils. High overhead an eagle soared on the wind. Kormak was very aware of its presence and of the massive bulk of the mountains looming over him. He felt like an insect crawling over their sides and that got him to thinking.
“You are frowning. Straining to think, are you?” Petra said. He looked at her and smiled. They had developed the odd companionship of the road, the intimacy of strangers who would most likely never see each other again after the next few days. He had felt this way many times before. He could be open in such circumstances in a way he could not be with the closest brethren of his order.
“I was thinking about whether any of this is worth it.”
“You picked a bad time to have doubts.”
“I’ve always had them. Our lives are so short. We will pass in an eyeblink of the gods. The mountains will still be here. They’ve seen a hundred generations come and go. They’ll see a hundred more.”
She looked a little confused. “I have sometimes thought something similar myself.”
“Razhak has been here for millennia. The Old Ones have been here even longer. I have set myself to hunt things as old as mountains and I do so to stop them preying on people who will die anyway, in heartbeats as those demons measure time.”
“Why do it then? No one is forcing you to. You could just turn your horse around and ride away.”
“You’re not asking me anything I haven’t asked myself.”
“You ever give yourself any answers?”
“I swore an oath. I keep it.”
“That’s no answer at all.”
“It is for me.”
“It’s not the whole truth though, is it?” It was a surprisingly sharp observation for one so young.
“The truth is that I love doing this. I love the hunt. I love the excitement of the battle. It’s when I feel most alive.”
“You could soon get very dead.”
“And that’s the point. Sometimes I think that is an unworthy reason to do what I do but it keeps me at the task.”
“Maybe for you. I plan on living as long as I can and dying peacefully in my sleep surrounded by my grandchildren.”
“I am surprised you have thought that far ahead.”
“I’ve had some occasion to brood on these things recently. Tell me, do you hate him? Razhak, I mean? Or any of the Old Ones.”
“I don’t know Razhak. I know what he has done and what he will do if he is not stopped and that is enough for me.”
“What about the Old Ones?”
“One in particular but it’s an old hate and I try not to let it bother me.”
“Why you hate the one you do?” Kormak considered his answer, wondering whether he should give one, and then decided that under the circumstances it did not matter at all.
“Because I am afraid of him and because he killed my family when I was a boy. He killed everyone I knew.”
“I can understand why you feel that way then. You see that all the time up here. With the feuds. One killing leads to another. The moondogs kill us. We kill them. I was kind of hoping you would say there is no one you hate or fear.”
“The two things go together along with a lot of other ugly emotions.”
“You do sound like a priest sometimes, you know.”
“I know.”
“How are you going to kill Massimo?”
“However I can.”
“That does not sound like a plan.”
“How can I have a plan when I have no idea what I will encounter? I will sneak into the tower one way or another. I will find Massimo and