Part 5 (1/2)
”A forest devil This is the fourth, by Crom!”
”What do you ar Sag?”
Balthus shook his head uneasily
”He dwells in Gela, the nearest village across the river Threeof pack-ed their drivers, soed to this man ” Conan casually indicated the corpse with his foot ”Tiberias, a s and old Zogar stopped to guzzle before he got across the river A woodsman named Soractus trailed him, and led Valannus and a couple of soldiers to where he lay dead drunk in a thicket At the i into a cell, which is the worst insult you can give a Pict He uard and escape, and sent back word that he meant to kill Tiberias and the four men who captured him in a way that would make Aquilonians shudder for centuries to come
”Well, Soractus and the soldiers are dead Soractus was killed on the river, the soldiers in the very shadow of the fort And now Tiberias is dead No Pict killed any of them Each victim except Tiberias, as you see lacked his head which no doubt is now orna's particular God”
”How do you know they weren't killed by the Picts?” demanded Balthus
Conan pointed to the corpse of the merchant
”You think that was done with a knife or a sword? Look closer and you'll see that only a talon could have ash like that The flesh is ripped, not cut”
”Perhaps a panther ” began Balthus, without conviction
53
Conan shook his head impatiently
”A man from the Tauran wouldn't mistake the mark of a panther's claws No It's a forest devil sue Tiberias was a fool to start for Velitrium alone, and this close to dusk But each one of the victims seemed to be smitten with ns are plain enough Tiberias ca the trail on his mule, maybe with a bundle of choice otter pelts behind his saddle to sell in Velitriu on him from behind that bush See where the branches are crushed down
”Tiberias gave one screa his otter skins in hell The mule ran away into the woods Listen! Even now you can hear hi about under the trees The deht as we came up”
”As you came up,” amended Balthus ”It must not be a very terrible creature if it flees from one armed man But how do you knoas not a Pict with so? Did you see it?”
”Tiberias was an ar demons to aid him, he can tell them which men to kill and which to let alone No, I didn't see it I only saw the bushes shake as it left the trail But if you want further proof, look here!”
The slayer had stepped into the pool of blood in which the dead e of the path there was a footprint, made in blood on the hard loam
”Did a man make that?” demanded Conan
Balthus felt his scalp prickle Neither man nor any beast that he had ever seen could have left that strange, monstrous three-toed print, that was curiously combined of the bird and the reptile, yet a true type of neither He spread his fingers above the print, careful not to touch it, and grunted explosively He could not span the mark
”What is it?” he whispered ”I never saw a beast that left a spoor like that”
”Nor any other sane rimly ”It's a swamp demon hell, they're thick as bats in the swa like da frohts”
”What shall we do?” asked the Aquilonian, peering uneasily into the deep blue shadows The 54
frozen fear on the dead countenance haunted hirinning fro the leaves to chill his blood with terror
”No use to try to follow a deirdle ”I tried tracking him after he killed Soractus I lost his trail within a dozen steps He s and floay, or sunk down through the earth to hell I don't know I' after the mule, either It'll either wander back to the fort, or to some settler's cabin”
As he spoke Conan was busy at the edge of the trail with his axe With a few strokes he cut a pair of saplings nine or ten feet long, and denuded theth fro the bushes near-by, andone end fast to one of the poles, a couple of feet fro and interlaced it back and forth In a fewlitter
”The derowled ”We'll carry the body into the fort It isn't more than three miles I never liked the fat bastard, but we can't have Pictish devilsso cursed free hite h swarthy, but the border men never spoke of them as such
Balthus took the rear end of the litter, onto which Conan unceremoniously dumped the unfortunate merchant, and they moved on down the trail as swiftly as possible Conan rim burden than he had made when unencumbered He had made a loop with thehis share of the load with one hand, while the other gripped his naked broadsword, and his restless gaze roved the sinister walls about the blue e The forest deepened in the twilight, becas
They had covered more than a inning to ache a little, when a cry rang shudderingly fro into purple
Conan started convulsively, and Balthus aler man ”Great Mitra, a wo in the woods,” snarled Conan, setting down his end of the litter
”Looking for a cow, probably, and stay here!”
55
He dived like a hunting wolf into the leafy wall Balthus' hair bristled
”Stay here alone with this corpse and a devil hiding in the woods?” he yelped ”I' action to words, he plunged after the Cilanced back at hih he did not s of his co as the Ci like a phantolade and halted crouching, lips snarling, sword lifted
”What are we stopping for?” panted Balthus, dashi+ng the sweat out of his eyes and gripping his short sword
”That screalade, or near by,” answered Conan ”I don't mistake the location of sounds, even in the woods But where ”
Abruptly the sound rang out again behind them; in the direction of the trail they had just quitted It rose piercingly and pitifully, the cry of a woed to a yell of ht have burst from the lips of a fiend of lower hell
”What in Mitra's naloo oath Conan wheeled and dashed back the way he had come, and the Aquilonian stumbled bewilderedly after him He blundered into the Cimmerian as the latter stopped dead, and rebounded froh fro froh his teeth The Ci over his shoulder, Balthus felt his hair stand up stiffly
Soed the trail solide like a serpent But it was not a serpent Its outlines were indistinct, but it was taller than a ht, like a faint blue fla about it Itwith reason and purpose through the blackening woods
Conan snarled a savage curse and hurled his axe with ferocious will But the thing glided on without altering its course Indeed it was only a few instants' fleeting gli of one and the forest crouched in breathless stillness