Part 12 (1/2)

Daas still white on the peaks when Conan rode ard A glance back showed hi in the door of her hut, inscrutable as ever, the great wolf beside her

A gray sky arched overhead, and aas chill with a promise of winter Brown leaves fluttered slowly down fro upon his h the hills, avoiding roads and villages Toward nightfall he began to drop down frohts, tier by tier, and saw the broad plains of Aquilonia spread out beneath hies and farms lay close to the foot of the hills on the western side of theacross the frontier had been done by the Aquilonians But now only embers and ashes shohere far darkness Conan rode slowly on There was little fear of discovery, which he dreaded from friend as well as from foe The Nemedians had remembered old scores on their ard drive, and Valerius had made no atte the love of the coh the country from the foothills ard Conan cursed as he rode over blackened expanses that had been rich fields, and saw the gaunt gable-ends of burned houses jutting against the sky He host out of a forgotten and outworn past

The speed hich the army had traversed the land shohat little resistance it had encountered Yet had Conan been leading his Aquilonians the invading arained with their blood The bitter realization permeated his soul; he was not the representative of a dynasty He was only a lone adventurer Even the drop of dynastic blood Valerius boasted had more hold on the minds of men than the iven the kingdom

No pursuers followed hi Neave hi him to be one of the conquerors, what of his harness

Groves and rivers were far more plentiful on the western side of the

So heonly to rest his horse, eating frugally of the food Zelata had given him, until, on a dahen he lay hidden on a river bank where s and oaks grew thickly, he gliroves, the blue and golden towers of Tarantia

He was no longer in a deserted land, but one teeress thenceforth was slow and cautious, through thick woods and unfrequented byways It was dusk when he reached the plantation of Servius Galannus

8

Dying Embers

The countryside about Tarantia had escaped the fearful ravaging of the more easterly provinces There were evidences of the es, plundered fields and looted granaries, but torch and steel had not been loosed wholesale

There was but one grim splotch on the landscape--a charred expanse of ashes and blackened stone, where, Conan knew, had once stood the stately villa of one of his staunchest supporters

The king dared not openly approach the Galannus farht he rode through an extensive woodland, until he sighted a keeper's lodge through the trees

Dis his horse, he approached the thick, arched door with the intention of sending the keeper after Servius He did not knohat ene He had seen no troops, but they ht be quartered all over the countryside But as he drew near, he saw the door open and a coure in silk hose and richly embroidered doublet stride forth and turn up a path that wound away through the woods

'Servius!'

At the low call the master of the plantation wheeled with a startled excla-sword at his hip, and he recoiled fro in the dusk before him

'Who are you?' he demanded 'What is your--_Mitra!_'

His breath hissed inward and his ruddy face paled 'Avaunt!' he ejaculated 'Why have you coray lands of death to terrify eman in your lifetime----'

'As I still expect you to be,' answered Conan 'Stop tre with uncertainty Servius approached and stared into the face of the iant, and then, convinced of the reality of what he saw, he dropped to one knee and doffed his plumed cap

'Your Majesty! Truly, this is a reat bell in the citadel has tolled your dirge, days agone Men said you died at Valkia, crushed under a ranite'

'It was another in runted Conan 'But let us talk later

If there is such a thing as a joint of beef on your board----'

'Forgiveto his feet 'The dust of travel is gray on yourhere without rest or sup! Mitra! I see well enough now that you are alive, but I swear, when I turned and saw you standing all gray and diht, theto ht dead in the woodland at dusk'