Waylander II: In The Realm of the Wolf

Epilogue

Karnak returned to Dros Delnoch, gathered the forces there and led them against the Ventrians, smashing their army in two decisive battles at Erekban and Lentrum.

In the two years that followed Karnak took to brooding about the fear of assassination, becoming convinced that Waylander would one day seek him out and slay him. Against the advice of Asten he once more contacted the Guild, increasing the price on the assassin's head.

A veritable army of searchers was despatched, but no news of Waylander surfaced in Drenan.

Until one day three of the best hunters returned, bearing a rotting head, wrapped in canvas, and a small ebony and steel, double-bladed crossbow. Stripped of flesh, the skull and the crossbow were exhibited in the Museum at Drenan, under the inscription, cast in bronze: Waylander the Slayer, the man who killed the King.

One winter's day, three years later, and five after the siege of Kar-Barzac, the crossbow was stolen. In the same week, as Karnak marched at the head of the annual Victory Parade, a young woman with long dark hair stepped from the crowd. In her right hand was the stolen bow.

People in the crowd saw her speak to the Drenai leader just before she killed him, two bolts plunging into his chest. A rider, leading a second horse, galloped on to the Avenue of Kings, and the woman vaulted to the saddle just as Karnak's guards were rushing to apprehend her.

The two assassins made their escape, and many were the theories surrounding the murder: they were hired by the son of the Ventrian King, the battle monarch whose body was thrown in a mass grave after the defeat at Erekban. Or she was one of Karnak's mistresses, furious after he discarded her for a younger, prettier girl. Some in the crowd swore they recognised the male rider as Angel, a former gladiator. None knew the woman.

Karnak was given a state funeral. Two thousand soldiers marched behind the wagon bearing his body. Crowds lined the Avenue of Kings, and many were the tears shed for the man described on his tombstone as 'this greatest of Drenai heroes'.

The skull of Waylander was sold eight years later. It was bought at auction by the Gothir merchant Matze Chai, acting on behalf of one of his clients, a mysterious noble who lived in a palace in the Gothir city of Namib. When asked why a foreigner should pay such a vast amount for the skull of a Drenai assassin, Matze Chai smiled and spread his elegant hands.

'But you must know?' insisted the curator of the museum.

'I assure you that I do not.'

'But the price … It is colossal!'

'My client is a very rich man. He has invested with me for many years.'

'Was he a friend to this Waylander?'

'I gather they were close,' admitted Matze Chai.

'But what will he do with the skull? Display it?'

'I doubt it. He told me he intends to bury it.'

'Why?' asked the man, astonished. 'Forty thousand Raq just to bury it?'

'He is a man who likes to choose his own endings,' said Matze Chai.