Then looping the quiver over his shoulder, he made his way carefully back to the trail. Swiftly he strung the bow and notched an arrow to the string. The doeskin quiver held twenty shafts that Shadak had crafted himself: the flights of goose feather, stained red and yellow, the heads of pointed iron, not barbed, and easily withdrawn from the bodies of the slain. The bow was of Vagrian horn, a hunting weapon capable of launching a two-foot-long arrow across a killing space of sixty paces. He thought for a moment, then sheathed the blades and reached for the bow and quiver strapped to the saddle pommel. Strapping it to his waist, he drew the two short swords they were of the finest Vagrian steel and double edged. He stroked the beast's long neck and lifted his swordbelt from the back of the saddle.

Shadak faded back through the undergrowth to where his horse was tethered. Insects had crisscrossed the hoofmarks, but the edges of the prints were still firm. The sun was high in a cloudless summer sky, and the spoor was more than three hours old. Dressed as he was in a shirt of fringed buckskin, and brown leather leggings and boots, the tall man was virtually invisible, kneeling in the shadows of the trees. Screened by the undergrowth, he knelt by the trail, dark eyes scanning the boulders ahead of him and the trees beyond. Along the way, he would battle savage monsters and descend into terrifying lands of black magic and demons. His journey would carry him from the highest thrones of power to the deepest dungeons of depravity. Rowena was among the missing.Īrmed with only his powerful double-bladed ax, Snaga, Druss went after Rowena. Then came the day when Druss returned to their village and found everyone dead-massacred by slavers who had stolen the women to sell for gold.

Though the blood of merciless butchers coursed through his veins, he had found a fragile peace through his love for beautiful, mystical Rowena.

A Crash Course in the History of Black Science Fiction.200 Significant SF Books by Women, 1984-2001.

Druss the legend series