
He is an honourable man and becomes concerned when she falls ill. Meanwhile, Rowena has married Michanek, the leading general of the Naashanites. Sieben learns from a priest that Snaga is harbouring an evil spirit, but fails to persuade Druss to abandon the weapon. Gorben is impressed with Druss and promotes him to serve in his elite bodyguard- "The Immortals". The soldiers arrive in Ventria and succeed in rescuing Gorben from a siege. En route, they are attacked by pirates and during this fight Sieben sees a demon materialise to defend Druss and comes to the conclusion that Druss is possessed. When Druss recovers, he and Sieben (who is fleeing a jealous lover's husband) join a group of mercenaries recruited by the Ventrian soldier Bodasen, who is going to support the emperor Gorben in a war in Ventria against the neighbouring Naashanites and rebels. However, they fail to stop the ship from setting sail without them.

Druss is badly wounded but survives, and Shadak reappears to kill Collan. Druss attempts to break onto the ship to rescue her, but is ambushed by Collan's men on the dock. Together they find out that Rowena will be transported to the distant land of Ventria. Druss travels to Mashrapur and meets Shadak's friend Sieben. Shadak succeeds in interrogating Harib Ka before Druss kills him, and learns that Rowena (who Harib Ka has realised has mystic powers) has been taken to the port of Mashrapur. Druss meets the hunter Shadak, who is hunting the slavers to avenge the death of his son, and they join forces to pursue them. With his dying breath, Druss' father tells him to fetch the family battle-axe (Snaga), which was stolen by his grandfather Bardan.


While he is away from the village chopping wood, a party of slavers, led by Harib Ka and the master swordsman Collan, comes to the village and kills or enslaves everyone they find. The story begins in Druss's village in the Drenai Empire. The novel details the early life and events of the character Druss, and is followed by The Legend of Deathwalker, which deals with later events in his life between this book and the events in Legend. The novel is a prequel to the popular title Legend. The First Chronicles of Druss the Legend is a fantasy novel by British author David Gemmell, first published in 1993.
