Part 31 (1/2)

and thrashed like a beheaded snake

Then the sha of warriors and threw up his head and howled like a wolf, and the firelight fell full on his face and I recognized hiht of my personal peril ept away, and with it recollection of h of the Hawks, he who burnt alive my friend Jon Galter's son

In the lust of my hate I acted almost instinctively whipped up my bow, notched an arrow and loosed, all in an instant The firelight was uncertain, but the range was not great, and we of the Wester of bow But he h yowled like a cat and reeled back and his warriors hoith a suddenly in his shoulder The tall light-skinned warrior wheeled, and Mitra, he was a white man!

The horrid shock of that surprize held me paralyzed for a moment, and had al up and rushed into the forest like panthers, knowing the general direction from which the shaft had come, if not the actual spot Then I jerked out of the spell ofand dodging a else, for it was dark as ever But I knew the Picts could not strike my trail in the dark but must hunt as blindly as I fled

I headed southward, and behind , whose blood-h to freeze the blood, even, of a forest-runner And I believed that they had plucked my arrow from the shaman's shoulder and discovered it to be a whitefrohtmare I had witnessed And that a white man, a Hyborian, should have stood there as a welcouest was so htmare For never before had a white man observed a Pictish ceremony save as a prisoner, or a spy, as I had And whatit portended I knew not, but I was shaken with foreboding and horror at the thought

And because ofhaste at the expense of stealth, and occasionally blundering into a tree I ciuld have avoided had I taken more care

And I doubt it was the noise of this blundering which brought the Pict upon my trail, for he could not have seen me or my footprints in that blackness

But once he had crept to within a score of feet of me he located me by the faint noises I ht I knew of hiround and wheeled and could not even make out the dim bulk of him, but knew that he must have seen me, for they see like cats in the dark But he could not have seen me very well, for he impaled himself on the knife I thrust out blindly, and his death-yell rang like a 271

note of doom under the forest-roof as he went down And was answered by a score of wild shouts behindstealth for speed, and trusting to luck that I would not dash out ainst a tree-stem in the darkness

But I had co alh the branches, for the clouds were clearing a little And through this forest I fled like a darew fainter and fell away behind s of a white forest-runner And presently as I advanced, I saw a gliht of the first outpost of Schohira

CHAPTER 2

Perhaps, before continuing with this chronicle of the bloody years, it ive an account of myself, and the reason for which I traversed the Pictish Wilderness, by night and alone

My naar's son I was born in the province of Conajohara But when I was five years of age, the Picts broke over Black River and stormed Fort Tuscelan and slew all within save one man, and drove all the settlers of the province east of Thunder River Conajohara was never reconquered, but becaain part of the Wilderness, inhabited only by wild beasts and wild hout the Westera, or Oriskonie, but many of them went southward and settled near Fort Thandara, an isolated outpost on the Warhorse River,them There they were later joined by other settlers for whom the older provinces were too thickly inhabited, and presently there grew up the province of Thandara It was known as the Free Province of Thandara, because it was not ruled by grant or patent of any lord, as were the other provinces, since its people had cut it out of the wilderness without aid of the nobility We paid no taxes to any baron beyond the Bossonian overnor was not appointed by any lord, but we elected him ourselves, fro We manned the forts with our own men, and sustained ourselves in war as in peace And Mitra knoas a constant state of affairs, for our neighbors were the wild Panther, Alligator and Otter tribes of Picts, and there was never peace between us

But we throve, and seldodorandsires had come But at last an event in Aquilonia did touch upon us in the wilderness Word ca man risen to wrest the throne froration set the frontier ablaze, and turned neighbor against neighbor and brother against brother And so I was hastening alone through the stretch of wilderness that separated Thandara froe the destiny of all the Westermarck

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I crossed Sword River in the early daading through the shallows, and was challenged by an outpost on the other bank When he kneas from Thandara: ”By Mitra!” quoth he

”your business ent, that you cross the Hawk Country, instead of coer road

For Thandara was separated from the other provinces by the Little Wilderness east of us, but no Picts dwelt there, and there was a road through it into the Bossonian marches and thence ran road to the other provinces

Then he desired me to tell him the state of affairs in Thandara, for he swore they in Schohira knew naught definite, but I told hi scout into Pictish country, and desired to be told if Hakon Strom's son was in the fort For I knew not how events were shaping in Schohira and wished to be acquainted with the situation before I spoke

He told me he was not in the fort, but was at the town of Schondara, which lay a few miles east of the fort

”I hope Thandara declares for Conan,” said he with an oath, ”for I tell you plainly it is our political co the onslaught of Baron Brocas of Torh, and but for the necessity of watching the cursed Picts ould all be there”

I said naught, but was surprized, for Brocas was lord of Conawaga, and not Schohira, whose patroon was Lord Thespius of Kor in the civil war raging there, and I wondered that Brocas was not so employed

I borrowed a horse from the fort went on to Schondara, a handsoe, with neat houses of squared logs, some painted, but not so e toplaces for defense, and there is not so e in all our province

At the tavern I was told that Hakon Strom's son had ridden to Orklay Creek where the militia- army of Schohira lay encary and weary, I ate a meal in the tap-room, and then lay down in a corner and slept And was so slu when Hakon Strom's son returned, close to sun-set

He was a tall y and broad-shouldered, likeshi+rt and fringed leggins and moccasins like myself

When I named myself and told him that I had word for him, he looked at me closely, and bade ht us leathern jacks of ale

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”What is the word you bring h of the state of affairs in Thandara?”

”No sure word; only ru you froovernor of Thandara, and the council of captains: Thandara has declared for Conan, and stands ready to aid his friends and defy his allies”

At that he srasped ers

”Good!” he exclaione from my mind We knew that which ever way Thandara went, that province would not go quietly We have enemies on all sides, and dreaded a raid from the south, over the Hawk Country, in case Thandara held fast to Naet Conan?” said I ”Nay, I was but a child in Conajohara, but I remember him when he was a forest-runner and a scout there When his rider ca us that Conan had struck for the throne, and asking our support he asked no volunteers, saying he knew all our uard our frontier we sent hiotten Conajohara” Later came the Baron Attalius over the marches to crush us, but we ambushed him in the Little Wilderness and cut his host to pieces The longbows of his Bossonians were useless; we harried the into close quarters, fell on them ar-axe and knife and cut them to pieces We drove the remnants beyond the border, and I do not think any will dare attack Thandara again”

”I would I could say as rimly ”Baron Thespius sent us word that we could do as we chose he has declared for Conan and joined the rebel army But he did not ask for any western levies

”He removed the troops from the fort, however, and we ainst us At least nine-tenths of us in Schohira are for Conan, and the loyalists either keep silent or have fled into Conawaga, swearing they would return and cut our throats

In Conawaga Brocas and the land-owners are for Namedides and the people who are for Conan are afraid to speak”

I nodded I had been in Conawaga before the revolt, and are of conditions there It was the largest, richest and most thickly settled provinces in all the Westermarck, and only there was there an extensive, comparatively, class of titled land-holders

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”Having crushed revolt a his own people,” said Hakon, ”Brocas thinks to subdue Schhiro

I think the black-jowled fool plans to rule all the Westerht his ara loyalists across the broder and now they lie at Coyaga, ten ainst us Ventriuees from the eastern country he has devastated