Part 19 (1/2)

115capital He had beaten the frothing mob away from the Pellian soldiers who held the outer walls of Tamar, and impressed them into his service He had sent a swift rider after Trocero to bring him back With these as a nucleus of an ar the countryside for recruits and forcountryside had augmented his forces, and he had levied recruits fro his road

Yet it was but a paltry force he had gathered to dash against the invading hosts, though of the quality of tempered steel

Nineteen hundred armored horsemen followed hihts The remnants of the mercenaries and professional soldiers in the trains of loyal noblemen made up his infantry five thousand archers and four thousand pikeood order first the archers, then the pikeainst them Arbanus ordered his lines, and the allied ar ocean of steel The watchers on the city walls shook to see that vast host, which overshadowed the powers of the rescuers First marched the Shemitish archers, then the Kothian spearhts of Strabonus and Amalrus Arbanus' intent was obvious to employ his footmen to sweep away the infantry of Conan, and open the way for an overpowering charge of his heavy cavalry

The Shemites opened fire at five hundred yards, and arrows flew like hail between the hosts, darkening the sun The western archers, trained by a thousand years of es, ca their ranks as their comrades fell They were far outnue, but in accuracy the Bossonians were equal to their foes, and they balanced sheer skill in archery by superiority in e they loosed, and the Shemites went down by whole ranks The blue-bearded warriors in their light mail shi+rts could not endure punishment as could the heavier-ar away their bows, and their flight disordered the ranks of the Kothian spearmen behind them

Without the support of the archers, these men-at-arms fell by the hundreds before the shafts of the Bossonians, and charging madly in to close quarters, they were met by the spears of the pikemen No infantry was a match for the wild Gundermen, whose homeland, the northernmost province of Aquilonia, was but a day's ride across the Bossonian marches from the borders of Cimmeria, and who, born and bred to battle, were the purest blood of all the Hyborian peoples The Kothian spearmen, dazed by their losses from arroere cut to pieces and fell back in disorder

Strabonus roared in fury as he saw his infantry repulsed, and shouted for a general charge

Arbanus deood order before the Aquilonian knights, who had sat their steeds eneral advised

116a tehts out of the cover of the bows, but Strabonus wasranks of his knights, he glared at the handful of ainst hie

The general coolden oliphant With a thunderous roar the forest of lances dipped, and the great host rolled across the plain, gainingavalanche of hoofs, and the shi+old and steel dazzled the watchers on the towers of Shamar

The squadrons clave the loose ranks of the spear down friend and foe alike, and rushed into the teeth of a blast of arrows frori knights like autumn leaves

Another hundred paces and they would ride a the Bossonians and cut them down like corn; but flesh and blood could not endure the rain of death that now ripped and howled a them Shoulder to shoulder, feet braced wide, stood the archers, drawing shaft to ear and loosing as one man, with deep, short shouts

The whole front rank of the knights melted away, and over the pin-cushi+oned corpses of horses and riders, their co Arbanus was down, an arrow through his throat, his skull s war-horse, and confusion ran through the disordered host Strabonus was screah all ran the superstitious dread the sight of Conan had awakened

And while the glea ranks h the opening ranks of the archers crashed the terrible charge of the Aquilonian knights

The hosts met with a shock like that of an earthquake, that shook the tottering towers of Shaanized squadrons of the invaders could not withstand the solid steel wedge, bristling with spears, that rushed like a thunderbolt against the lances of the attackers ripped their ranks to pieces, and into the heart of their host rode the knights of Poitain, swinging their terrible two-handed swords

The clash and clangor of steel was as that of a es on as many anvils The watchers on the walls were stunned and deafened by the thunder as they gripped the battlements and watched the steelthe flashi+ng swords, and standards dipped and reeled

A hoofs, his shoulder-bone hewn in twain by Prospero's two-handed sword The invaders' nuhts of Conan, but about this coe, which hewed deeper and deeper into the looser forhts of Koth and Ophir swirled and se

Archers and pike disposed of the Kothian infantry which was strewn in flight across the plain, ca their arrows point-blank, running in to slash at girths and horses' bellies with their knives, thrusting upward to spit the riders on their long pikes

At the tip of the steel wedge Conan roared his heathen battle-cry and swung his great sword in glittering arcs that ht through a thundering waste of foes he rode, and the knights of Koth closed in behind hi him off from his warriors As a thunderbolt strikes, Conan struck, hurtling through the ranks by sheer power and velocity, until he ca his palace troops Now here the battle hung in balance, for with his superior numbers, Strabonus still had opportunity to pluck victory from the knees of the Gods

But he screath at last, and lashed out wildly with his axe It clanged on Conan's hel fire, and the Cimmerian reeled and struck back The five-foot blade crushed Strabonus' casque and skull, and the king's charger reared screareat cry went up froave back Trocero and his house troops, hewing desperately, cut their way to Conan's side, and the great banner of Koth went down Then behind the dazed and stricken invaders went up a ration The defenders of Sha the gates, and were raging a down the cae engines It was the last straw The gleaht, and the furious conquerors cut theitives raced for the river, but the men on the flotilla, harried sorely by the stones and shafts of the revived citizens, cast loose and pulled for the southern shore, leaving their coained the shore, racing across the barges that served as a bridge, until the men of Shamar cut these adrift and severed thehter Driven into the river to drown in their ar the bank, the invaders perished by the thousands No quarter they had proot

From the foot of the low hills to the shores of the Tybor, the plain was littered with corpses, and the river whose tide ran red, floated thick with the dead Of the nineteen hundred knights who had ridden south with Conan, scarcely five hundred lived to boast of their scars, and the slaughter areat and shi+ning host of Strabonus and Amalrus was hacked out of existence, and those that fled were less than those that died

118

While the slaughter yet went on along the river, the final act of a gri those who had crossed the barge-bridge before it was destroyed was Tsotha, riding like the wind on a gaunt weird-looking steed whose stride no natural horse could ained the southern bank, and then a glance backward showed hireat black stallion in pursuit The lashi+ngs had already been cut, and the barges were drifting apart, but Conan ca his steed fro ice to another Tsotha screareat stallion took the last leap with a straining groan, and gained the southern bank Then the wizard fled away into the e hard, swinging the great sword that spattered his trail with crimson drops

On they fled, the hunted and the hunter, and not a foot could the black stallion gain, though he strained each nerve and thew Through a sunset land of diht and sound of the slaughter died out behind thele as it approached Swooping down from the sky, it drove at the head of Tsotha's steed, which screa its rider

Old Tsotha rose and faced his pursuer, his eyes those of a maddened serpent, his face an inhu that shi+ disreat sword gripped high