The Damned 02 - The Swords Of Night and Day Read Online Free PDF

replied Gamal, with feeling.

Chapter Two
    Skilgannon stood naked on the wide balcony. His breathing deepened. Drawing in a long breath he began to work through a series of stretching exercises. His body was more supple now, the young muscles lengthening easily. Balancing on his left foot, he bent his knee and stretched out his right leg behind him. Raising his arms, he placed his palms together and slowly - his breathing controlled and synchronized to the movement - arched his spine backwards, until the curve of his body formed the shape of a perfect crescent moon. Then the muscles of his right thigh began to ache and tremble, and he felt a slight pain flare under his left shoulder blade.
    Once he could have accomplished these exercises with ease. Fragments of memory, jagged and transient, came to him. Slowly he straightened and stood, leaning on the balcony, allowing the images to form.
    In his mind he saw a tall building, lit by moonlight. There was a high parapet above sharp rocks far below. He saw himself standing on the parapet, then leaping and spinning to land in perfect balance. One wrong step, one tiny misjudgement, and he would have plunged to his death.
    The image faded. Skilgannon continued to exercise, not pushing his body too hard, seeking instead to stretch the muscles rather than work them at this stage. Even so it was tiring and after an hour he stopped.
    Donning a shirt of cream-coloured linen and dark leather trousers, he pulled on a pair of soft leather ankle boots and walked out of the room, making his way towards the library Landis Kan had shown him on his first day. He saw several male servants, in tunics of blue cloth. They moved past him with downcast eyes. It did not bother him. He had no wish to speak to anyone.
    In the library he continued his search through the oldest of the records. Stories of his own life had not proved as helpful to his memory as he had hoped. Apparently he had fought dragons at some point, and had owned a winged horse which flew above the mountains. He had also been given a cloak which made him invisible to his enemies. Incredibly, he was also supposed to have been born in six different lands, to four different fathers, and three separate mothers. He had been golden-haired, black-haired, bearded and beardless. He had been tall, and short, immensely muscled, and yet slim and lithe.
    The agreements were few. He had owned two fighting swords that sat in a single scabbard. They were called the Swords of Night and Day. He had died in a battle to save a nation. He had been a general, whose wife had died. He had also loved a goddess, mysterious and enigmatic. All agreed on this, though none could agree on her name. In some tales she was the goddess of death, in others the goddess of love, or wisdom, or war.
    Today he chose stories not of his own legends, but of the ancient lands. He was searching for details that would offer him links to a past he could not summon. He carried a bundle of ancient scrolls to a window seat and slowly began to read them.
    The first of them brought no fresh insights. It told of a war among races he had no memory of, but the second, far older, talked of a people called the Drenai. Skilgannon felt his heartbeat quicken. A name came to him.
    Druss.
    He saw a powerful figure, in clothes of black and silver. Holding to the memory, he closed his eyes.
    Scenes flowed up from his subconscious. Druss the Axeman, storming the stairs at the citadel, seeking . .
    . seeking . . . the child Elanin. Another face appeared, the features disfigured. Another name surfaced.
    Boranius. Ironmask. Skilgannon saw himself fighting this man, blades flashing and blocking, lunging and parrying. The image began to shimmer. Skilgannon struggled to retain it, but it flowed away from him like a dream upon wakening.
    He returned to his room and found a cloak of dark brown wool, edged with black leather. Swirling it round his shoulders he walked out of the palace. For the first time since