Drenai Series 07 - The Legend of Deathwalker Read Online Free PDF Page A

'If they believed the sacrifice would appease the Gods, then they would have been inspired to fight harder. But a good speech could have done that.'
    'Supposing the Gods did demand that sacrifice, and therefore did help win the battle?'
    'Then it would have been better lost.'
    'Aha!' exclaimed Sieben triumphantly, 'but if it had been lost a far greater number of innocents would have been slain: women raped and murdered, babes slain in their cribs. How do you answer that?'
    'I don't feel the need to. Most people can smell the difference between perfume and cow-dung; there's no need for a debate on it,'
    'Come on, old horse, you're not stretching yourself. The answer is a simple one - the principles of good and evil are not based on mathematics. They are founded on the desire of individuals to do - or not to do - what is right and just, both in conscience and law.'
    'Words, words, words! They mean nothing!' snapped Druss. 'The desire of individuals is what causes most evils. And as for conscience and law, what happens if a man has no conscience, and the law promotes ritual sacrifice? Does that make it good? Now stop trying to draw me in to another of your meaningless debates.'
    'We poets live for such meaningless debates,' said Sieben, battling to hold back his anger. 'We tend to like to stretch our intelligence, to develop our minds. It helps to make us more aware of the needs of our fellows. You are in a sour mood today, Druss. I would have thought you would have been delirious at the thought of another fight to come, another man to bash your fists against. The Championship, no less. The cheers of the crowd, the adoration of your fellow-countrymen. Ah, the blood and the bruises and the endless parades and banquets in your honour!'
    Druss swore and his face darkened. 'You know I despise all that.'
    Sieben shook his head. 'Part of you might, Druss. The best part loathes the public clamour, yet how is it your every action always leads to more? You were invited here as a guest - an inspirational mascot, if you like. And what do you do? You break the jaw of the Drenai Champion - then take his place.'
    'It was not my intention to cripple the man. Had I known his chin was made of porcelain, I would have struck him in the belly.'
    'I am sure you would like to believe that, old horse. Just as I am sure I do not. Answer me this, how do you feel as the crowd roars your name?'
    'I have had enough of this, poet. What do you want from me?'
    Sieben took a deep, calming breath. 'Words are all we have to describe how we feel, what we need from one another. Without them how would we teach the young, or express our hopes for future generations to read ? You view the world so simplistically, Druss, as if everything was either ice or fire. That in itself matters not a jot. But like all men with closed minds and small dreams you seek to mock what you can never comprehend. Civilizations are built with words, Druss. They are destroyed by axes. What does that tell you, axeman ?'
    'Nothing I did not already know. Now, are we even yet?'
    Sieben's anger fell away and he smiled. 'I like you, Druss, I always have. But you have the most uncanny power to irritate me.'
    Druss nodded, his face solemn. 'I am not a thinker,' he said, 'but nor am I stupid. I am a man like so many others. I could have been a farmer, or a carpenter, even a labourer. Never a teacher, though, nor a cleric. Intellectual men make me nervous. Like that Majon.' He shook his head. 'I have met a great number of ambassadors and they all seem identical: easy, insincere smiles and gimlet eyes that don't miss a thing. What do they believe in? Do they have a sense of honour? Of patriotism? Or do they laugh at us common men, as they line their purses with our gold? I don't know much, poet, but I do know that men like Majon - aye, and you - can make all I believe in seem as insubstantial as summer snow. And make me look foolish into the bargain. Oh, I can understand how good and evil can come