Part 18 (1/2)
109eyes regarding hiiant wings And he saas neither bat nor bird
”Mount and ride,” said Pelias ”By dawn it will bring you to Tahtmare from which I shall presently awaken in my palace at Ta your ene me,” answered Pelias ”At dawn the people of Khorshemish will know they have a new master Doubt not what the Gods have sent you I will meet you in the plain by Sharipping the arched neck, still convinced that he was in the grasp of a fantastic nights, the creature took the air, and the king grew dizzy as he saw the lights of the city dwindle far below hi cuts the cords of the empire”
Aquilonian proverb
The streets of Ta fists and rusty pikes It was the hour before dawn of the second day after the battle of Shamu, and events had occurred so swiftly as to daze the mind By means known only to Tsotha-lanti, word had reached Ta's death, within half a dozen hours after the battle Chaos had resulted The barons had deserted the royal capital, galloping away to secure their castles against doe of dissolution, and commoners and merchants treiainst their own aristocracy no less than foreign foes Count Trocero, left by Conan in charge of the city, tried to reassure the terror they reed Tamar fifteen years before It was shouted in the streets that Trocero had betrayed the king; that he planned to plunder the city Theforth screa merchants and terrified women
Trocero swept down on the looters, littered the streets with their corpses, drove them back into their quarter in confusion, and arrested their leaders Still the people rushed wildly about, with brainless squawks, screa that the count had incited the riot for his own purposes
110
Prince Arpello came before the distracted council and announced hiovern could be decided upon, Conan having no son While they debated, his agents stole subtly a the people, who snatched at a shred of royalty The council heard the storm outside the palace here the multitude roared for Arpello the Rescuer The council surrendered
Trocero at first refused the order to give up his baton of authority, but the people swar stones and offal at his knights Seeing the futility of a pitched battle in the streets with Arpello's retainers, under such conditions, Trocero hurled the baton in his rival's face, hanged the leaders of the mercenaries in the market-square as his last official act, and rode out of the southern gate at the head of his fifteen hundred steel-clad knights The gates slammed behind hie of the hungry wolf
With thein their barracks, his were the only soldiers in Tareat square, Arpello proclai of Aquilonia, amid the clamor of the deluded multitude
Publius the Chancellor, who opposed this reeted the procla with relief, now found with consternation that the newtax on theation of protest, were seized and their heads slashed off without ceremony A shocked and stunned silence followed this execution The merchants, confronted by a power they could not control with money, fell on their fat bellies and licked their oppressor's boots
The common people were not perturbed at the fate of the an toPellian soldiery, pretending to maintain order, were as bad as Turanian bandits Complaints of extortion, murder and rape poured in to Arpello, who had taken up his quarters in Publius' palace, because the desperate councillors, dooainst his soldiers He had taken possession of the pleasure-palace, however, and Conan's girls were dragged to his quarters The peoplein the brutal hands of the iron-clad retainers dark- eyed daara and Hyrkania, Brythunian girls with tousled yellow heads, all weeping with fright and shaht fell on a city of bewilderht word spread mysteriously in the street that the Kothians had followed up their victory and were ha at the walls of Shamar Somebody in Tsotha's mysterious secret-service had babbled Fear shook the people like an earthquake, and they did not even pause to wonder at the witchcraft by which the news had been so swiftly trans that he march southward and drive the eneht have subtly
111pointed out that his force was not sufficient, and that he could not raise an arnized his claihed in their faces
A young student, Athe words accused Arpello of being a cats-paw for Strabonus, painting a vivid picture of existence under Kothian rule, with Arpello as satrap Before he finished, the e Arpello sent his soldiers to arrest the youth, but the people caught hi retainers with stones and dead cats A volley of crossbow quarrels routed the e of horseled out of the city to plead with Trocero to retake Tamar, andhis camp outside the walls, ready to doent pleas he answered that he had neither the force necessary to storm Tamar, even with the aid of the mob inside, nor to face Strabonus Besides, avaricious nobles would plunder Poitain behind his back, while he was fighting the Kothians With the king dead, eachto Poitain, there to defend it as best he n allies
While Athemides pleaded with Trocero, the mob still raved in the city with helpless fury
Under the great tower beside the royal palace the people swirled andtheir hate at Arpello, who stood on the turrets and laughed down at theers on the triggers of their arbalests
The prince of Pellia was a broad-built uer, but he was also a fighter Under his silken jupon with its gilt-braided skirts and jagged sleeves, gli black hair was curled and scented, and bound back with a cloth-of-silver band, but at his hip hung a broadsword the jeweled hilt of which ith battles and cans
”Fools! Howl as you will! Conan is dead and Arpello is king!”
What if all Aquilonia were leagued against hihty walls until Strabonus caainst itself Already the barons were girding thehbor's treasure Arpello had only the helpless h the loose lines of the warring barons as a galley-ra, Arpello had only to hold the royal capital
”Fools! Arpello is king!”