Part 12 (1/2)
So no one stirred from the palisade while the buccaneers ca silk and polished steel, with scarfs bound about their heads and gold hoops in their ears They camped on the beach, a hundred and seventy-odd of them, and Valenso noticed that Zarono posted lookouts on both points They did not nated by Valenso, shouting frohtered
Fires were kindled on the strand, and a wattled cask of ale was brought ashore and broached
Other kegs were filled ater fro that rose a short distance south of the fort, and le toward the woods, crossbows in their hands Seeing this, Valenso was h the cao into the forest Take another steer fro into the woods they may fall foul of the Picts
”Whole tribes of the painted devils live back in the forest We beat off an attack shortly after we landed, and since then six of my men have been murdered in the forest, at one tis by a thread Don't risk stirring the woods, as if he expected to see hordes of savage figures lurking there Then he bowed and said: ”I thank you for the warning, my lord” And he shouted for his ely with his courtly accents when addressing the Count
If Zarono could have penetrated the leafy mask he would have been ure that lurked there, watching the strangers with inscrutable black eyes a hideously painted warrior, naked but for a doe-skin breech-clout, with a toucan feather drooping over his left ear
As evening drew on a thin skirey crawled up from the sea-rim and overcast the sky The sun sank in aof cri crawled out of the sea and lapped at the feet of the forest, curling about the stockade in smoky wisps
The fires on the beach shone dull cri of the buccaneers seeht old sail-canvas fro the strand, where beef was still roasting, and the ale granted thely
The great gate was shut and barred Soldiers stolidly traes of the palisade, pike on shoulder, beads of lanced uneasily at the fires on the beach, stared with greater fixity toward the forest, now a vague dark line in the crawling fog The coleaht streamed from the s of the manor There was silence except for the tread of the sentries, the drip of water fro of the buccaneers
Soreat hall where Valenso sat at ith his unsolicited guest
”Your lad to feel the sand under their feet again,” answered Zarono ”It has been a wearisoallantly to the unresponsive girl who sat on his host's right, and drank cereed the walls, soldiers with pikes and helmets, servants in satin coats
Valenso's household in this wild land was a shadowy reflection of the court he had kept in Kordava
Theit, was a ht and day for -walled exterior was devoid of ornamentation, but within it was as nearly a copy of Korzetta Castle as was possible The logs that composed the walls of the hall were hidden with heavy silk tapestries, worked in gold
shi+p beams, stained and polished, for The floor was covered with rich carpets The broad stair that led up from the hall was likewise carpeted, and its alleon's rail
A fire in the wide stone fireplace dispelled the dareat silver candelabruany board lit the hall, throwing long shadows on the stair Count Valenso sat at the head of that table, presiding over a couest, Galbro, and the captain of the guard The smallness of the company euests ht have sat at ease
”You followed Strom?” asked Valenso ”You drove hihed Zarono, ”but he was not fleeing from me Strom is not thefor so I too desire”
”What could tempt a pirate or a buccaneer to this naked land?” oblet
”What could teht burned an instant in his eyes
”The rottenness of a royal court ht sicken a man of honor,” remarked Valenso
”Korzettas of honor have endured its rottenness with tranquility for several generations,” said Zarono bluntly ”My lord, indulge alleon with the furnishi+ngs of your castle and sail over the horizon out of the knowledge of the king and the nobles of Zingara? And why settle here, when your sword and your naht carve out a place for you in any civilized land?”
Valenso toyed with the golden seal-chain about his neck
”As to why I left Zingara,” he said, ”that is my own affair But it was chance that left ht all s youto build a temporary habitation But ainst the cliffs of the north point and wrecked by a sudden storh at certain tiht to do but remain and make the best of it”
”Then you would return to civilization, if you could?”
”Not to Kordava But perhaps to some far clime to Vendhya, or Khitai ”
”Do you not find it tedious here,hier to see a new face and hear a new voice had brought the girl to the great hall that night
But now she wished she had re the lance Zarono turned on her His speech was decorous and formal, his expression sober and respectful; but it was but a leamed the violent and sinister spirit of thedesire out of his eyes when he looked at the aristocratic young beauty in her low-necked satin gown and jeweled girdle
”There is little diversity here,” she answered in a low voice
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”If you had a shi+p,” Zarono bluntly asked his host, ”you would abandon this settlement?”
”Perhaps,” admitted the Count
”I have a shi+p,” said Zarono ”If we could reach an agreereeuest
”Share and share alike,” said Zarono, laying his hand on the board with the fingers wide spread The gesture was curiously reers quivered with curious tension, and the buccaneer's eyes burned with a new light
”Share what?” Valenso stared at hiht with me went down in my shi+p, and unlike the broken timbers, it did not wash ashore”
”Not that!” Zarono esture ”Let us be frank, my lord Can you pretend it was chance which caused you to land at this particular spot, with a thousand miles of coast from which to choose?”
”There is no need for me to pretend,” answered Valenso coldly ”My shi+p's elito, formerly a buccaneer He had sailed this coast, and persuadedme he had a reason he would later disclose But this reason he never divulged, because the day after we landed he disappeared into the woods, and his headless body was found later by a hunting party Obviously he was ambushed and slain by the Picts”
Zarono stared fixedly at Valenso for a space
”Sink me,” quoth he at last, ”I believe you, ardless of his other accomplishments And I will make you a proposal I will admit when I anchored out there in the bay I had other plans inyou to have already secured the treasure, I y and cut all your throats But circulance at Belesa that brought the color into her face, and nantly
”I have a shi+p to carry you out of exile,” said the buccaneer, ”with your household and such of your retainers as you shall choose The rest can fend for thelances side-long at each other Zarono went on, too brutally cynical to conceal his intentions
”But first you must help me secure the treasure for which I've sailed a thousand miles”
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”What treasure, in Mitra's na like that dog Strom, now”
”Did you ever hear of bloody Tranicos, the greatest of the Barachan pirates?” asked Zarono
”Who has not? It was he who storia, put the people to the sword and bore off the treasure the prince had brought with him when he fled froht thelike vultures after a carrion pirates, buccaneers, even the black corsairs fro betrayal by his captains, he fled northith one shi+p, and vanished froo