Part 12 (2/2)

'Bid the keeper see to my steed which is tied behind yonder oak,'

requested Conan, and Servius nodded, drawing the king up the path The patrician, recovering froht, had become extremely nervous

'I will send a servant froe--but I dare not trust even my servants in these days It is better that only I know of your presence'

Approaching the great house that glih the trees, he turned aside into a little-used path that ran between close-set oaks whose intertwining branches forathering dusk Servius hurried on through the darkness without speaking, and with so panic in his h a small side-door into a narrow, dimly illuminated corridor They traversed this in haste and silence, and Servius brought the king into a spacious cha and richly paneled walls Logs flae to the air, and a great any board Servius locked the uished the candles that stood in a silver candlestick on the table, leaving the chamber illuminated only by the fire on the hearth

'Your pardon, your Majesty,' he apologized 'These are perilous times; spies lurk everywhere It were better that none be able to peer through the s and recognize you This pasty, however, is just fro on n----'

'The light is sufficient,' grunted Conan, seating hi his poniard

He dug ravenously into the luscious dish, and washed it doith great gulps of wine frorown in Servius' vineyards He seemed oblivious to any sense of peril, but Servius shi+fted uneasily on his settle by the fire, nervously fingering the heavy gold chain about his neck He glanced continually at the diaht, and cocked his ear toward the door, as if half expecting to hear the pad of furtive feet in the corridor without

Finishi+ng his meal, Conan rose and seated himself on another settle before the fire

'I won't jeopardize you long by my presence, Servius,' he said abruptly

'Daill find me far from your plantation'

'My lord----' Servius lifted his hands in expostulation, but Conan waved his protests aside

'I know your loyalty and your courage Both are above reproach But if Valerius has usurped my throne, it would be death for you to shelter h to defy him openly,' admitted Servius 'The fifty men-at-arms I could lead to battle would be but a handful of straws You saw the ruins of E darkly

'He was the strongest patrician in this province, as you know He refused to give his allegiance to Valerius The Nemedians burned him in the ruins of his own villa After that the rest of us saw the futility of resistance, especially as the people of Tarantia refused to fight We subh he levied a tax upon us that will ruin ht you were dead

Many of the barons had been slain, others taken prisoner The army was shattered and scattered You have no heir to take the crown There was no one to lead us----'

'Was there not Count Trocero of Poitain?' demanded Conan harshly

Servius spread his hands helplessly

'It is true that his general Prospero was in the field with a sed men to rally to his banner

But with your Majesty dead, men remembered old wars and civil brawls, and how Trocero and his Poitanians once rode through these provinces even as A noith torch and sword The barons were jealous of Trocero Some men--spies of Valerius perhaps--shouted that the Count of Poitain intended seizing the crown for hiain If we had had one man with dynastic blood in his veins ould have crowned and followed hiainst Nemedia But we had none

'The barons who followed you loyally would not follow one of their own nuhbor, each fearing the aots together When the cord was cut, the fagots fell apart If you had had a son, the barons would have rallied loyally to him But there was no point for their patriotis anarchy and a return of feudal days when each baron was his o, cried out that any king was better than none, even Valerius, as at least of the blood of the old dynasty There was no one to oppose him when he rode up at the head of his steel-clad hosts, with the scarlet dragon of Neates of Tarantia

'Nay, the people threw open the gates and knelt in the dust before hi the city They said they had rather be ruled by Valerius than by Trocero They said--truthfully--that the barons would not rally to Trocero, but thatto Valerius they would escape the devastation of civil war, and the fury of the Nehts, and the horsemen of the Nemedians entered the city a few hours later They did not follow him

They remained to see that Valerius was crowned in Tarantia'

'Then the old witch's s a queer chill along his spine 'Amalric crowned Valerius?'