The Winter Warriors: Nogusta, Kebra and Bison

Winter Warriors centres on three old soldiers sent home when King Skanda trims his army after the conquest of Ventria: the swordsman Nogusta, the archer Kebra and the wrestler Bison. When demonic powers move against the pregnant queen Axiana and the heir she is carrying, the three, a young officer, a Ventrian swordsman and a handful of street orphans are the people closest to hand. The novel needs none of the other Drenai books, and it is set near the far end of the Drenai timeline.

Nogusta

Nogusta is the swordsman among the three old soldiers at the heart of Winter Warriors, alongside the archer Kebra and the wrestler Bison. He is a black man in the Drenai army, an outsider long used to prejudice, and fiercely loyal to the few people who know him well, above all his two friends and his old general, Banelion, the White Wolf. He wears a family talisman that sometimes shows him glimpses of the future. When King Skanda forcibly retires his older veterans, the three friends find themselves outside the army just as demonic powers move against the pregnant queen Axiana and the heir she is carrying. Nogusta's visions warn him that protecting her will cost more than he wants to pay, and he agrees to do it anyway. He is the most reserved of the three, and his past, revealed in fragments, is a hard one. He is also a master tracker, from a family that bred horses for the Drenai army.

In Winter Warriors.

Kebra

Kebra is the archer among the three veterans of Winter Warriors. He is fifty-six and still reckoned one of the finest bowmen alive even as his eyesight fails, and he is the quiet, careful member of the trio, far more measured than Bison. He cannot bear to be touched, something the novel connects with his father, and he thinks a good deal less of himself than his friends do. When King Skanda forcibly retires the older soldiers, Kebra has little to go home to, and the three friends decide to try prospecting for gold in the hills instead of marching away with the rest. That plan does not survive the demons loose in the city of Usa. Once they are committed to protecting the queen and her unborn child, Kebra fights with speed and accuracy under pressure, and the orphans who attach themselves to the group slowly get past his defences. Of the three, his is the quietest arc.

In Winter Warriors.

Bison

Bison is the muscle of the three old soldiers in Winter Warriors. At sixty-six he is bald on top, with thick hair on his neck and shoulders that explains the nickname, a drooping white moustache and several missing teeth, and he still competes in the army's wrestling tournaments. His old general reckons him as strong as an ox and not much cleverer, and Bison does little to disprove it: he is crude and impulsive, and nobody's idea of a deep thinker. Being forcibly retired hits him harder than either of his friends, because the army is the only life he understands. Gemmell makes him much more than comic relief, though. His loyalty to Nogusta and Kebra is total, and once the three are protecting the pregnant queen, her midwife Ulmenetha and a handful of orphans, his rough kindness gives the book a good deal of its warmth. He is also the character through whom the novel asks what an old soldier is for once the army has finished with him.

In Winter Warriors.

Banelion

Banelion is the veteran general known as the White Wolf, sent home with the older soldiers, and the three friends have served under him for most of their adult lives. He has nothing to do with Gemmell's later novel White Wolf.

In Winter Warriors.

Axiana

Axiana is the daughter of the Ventrian emperor whom King Skanda defeated, and now Skanda's queen, expecting his heir. A prophecy says the demons will come back after the deaths of three kings, and her unborn son is to be the third.

In Winter Warriors.

Ulmenetha

Ulmenetha is the queen's midwife and a priestess of the Source, and she is the first to sense the danger.

In Winter Warriors.

Dagorian

Dagorian is a young officer who happens to be close by when the queen needs defending.

In Winter Warriors.

Antikas Karios

Antikas Karios is a Ventrian swordsman who ends up among the queen's defenders.

In Winter Warriors.

Appears in

1. 1Winter Warriors (1997)Three old soldiers, sent home by their king, are all that stands between a pregnant queen and the demon riders hunting her unborn son.