and daring, and naught but much older, bigger lads could outdo me. I
balked at nothing, be it a game or a battle; it was, and forever shall
be, my chief delight to best all others.

'Twas from my mother that I gained my huge frame and sound heart. In
truth, I am very like her, now that I think upon it. She, too, was
indomitable in battle, and famed for her liking for strife. No doubt
'twas her stalwart figure that caught my father's fancy.

Aye, my mother was a very likely woman, but she boasted no brains. "I
need no cunning," I remember she said; and he who was so unlucky in
battle as to fall into her hands could vouch for the truth of it--as
long as he lived, which would not be long. She was a grand woman, slow
to anger and a match for many a good pair of men. Often, as a lad, have
I carried the marks of her punishment for the most of a year.

And thus it seems that I owe my head to my father. He was a marvelously
clever man, dexterous with hand and brain alike. Moreover, he was no
weakling; perchance I should credit him with some of my agility, for he
was famed as a gymnast, though not a powerful one. 'Twas he who taught
me how to disable my enemy with a mere clutch of the neck at a certain
spot.

But Strok, the armorer, was feared most because of his brain, and his
knack of using his mind to the undoing of others. And he taught me all
that he knew; taught me all that he had learned in a lifetime of
fighting for the emperor, of mending the complicated machines in the
armory, of contact with the chemists who wrought the secret alloy, and
the chiefs who led the army.