Part 2 (1/2)
”Foraging for your lunch, barbarian?”
Of several heads bent over wooden worktables, the only one raised toward Conan was that of a curly haired young woht and comely appearance The lushness of her shape was shown off by a girdle of bright yarns laced around her narroaist, joining her flilanced at Conan appraisingly-with eyes that had been artfully shadowed, probably by means of chimney soot
”You come too late, you know Most of the food is already sent upstairs, or gobbled down here” She flashed hio in and sit I'll see what I can scrape up for you” Suddenly she laughed, gaily enough to draw glances from her worke, barbarous appetites I wouldn't want you carving up one of naw on!” She turned with a toss of a shapely hip and busied herself at another table
Conan passed on through the kitchen The adjacent rooh in the wall A long wooden table and rude benches stood in the center, and two sides of the roo-closets separated by wooden partitions The one at the further end, alongside the cold stone wall, had been assigned to Conan late the previous night
Ah well No matter the chill, since this land was so much hotter in this season than his native Cimmeria in any season He did not intend to stay in Dinander for the winter, in any case; ht Slowly, tenderly, he lowered his saddle-drubbed hindquarters onto the bench
In a few -wench appeared She carried a ooden platter of food close against her belly, swaying her hips and shoulders gracefully on the approach Conan's eyes were drawn up from the trencher's ample contents to the equally ample stresses and curves of her embroidered blouse As she deposited her burden before hion of purple wine to one side of it, she leaned low enough to give him an even better perspective on her charh to stave off your northern appetites If not”-she laughed good-naturedly-”givebefore you attack the horses with a meat knife, and I will look for h” Conan tossed a red-hot turnip into hisapart a thick loaf of black bread ”I could not stand to eat a horse, not after having been jounced about on one all hed, not loudly this tilance at the curtained archway leading to the kitchen, she eased her round, wool-skirted thigh onto the end of the table ”Mine is Ludya”
”I ah a ht?” She rolled her eyes ”When I was a girl, I was not even sure Cimmeria really existed We were told the wildest stories about it-tales of ogres, cannibals, draken and even stranger things!” With a little shi+ver she folded her bare arirdle ”It sounded like a dreadful place”
”There is no truth in that” Conan took a deep pull from his wine-jack ”The teller ard and Vanaheim to the north, where such terrors abound”
”Oh” Ludya's eyes widened a little as she considered this ”Well, when I came to the city I learned that the Baron Baldoht back a Cins-the Lady Heldra I never saw her, but they say she was beautiful and kind” Her gaze drifted away thoughtfully for a moment, then returned to Conan ”So now the northern lands are arded here The people rehter, Calissa, and have even grown accusto ruled someday by her boychild, Favian You look very like him, by the way” This she said with an appreciative flash in her glance
”Hhtfully ”He is no relation to h, and I have not heard of his hter of an eastern chief, or else she was a far-roving warrior-girl”
Ludya sighed ”The thought of a listened ”It proves that a coh a man be bound by his fa herself of Conan, and added quickly, ”Excepting you, of course You have done well, to becouard in a noble household”
Conan busied hi up ”And what becaaze sank to the floor
”She did? How?”
”She was murdered, poisoned by a tainted venison pie The bane was meant for her husband, 'tis said” Ludya shook her head sadly ”There is so much of that here-murders, revolts and so forth But Lady Heldra's death was at the start of all the troubles”
Beco sounds, Ludya looked over at Conan He was poking with his wooden spoon through the dainties left on his plate, which included a baked tart of uncertain co is the custom here, you said?”
”Oh, no-Conan, I'm sorry!” She was contrite ”I shouldn't have told you that I prepared all these things , as I do when I serve the nobles, to prove that it's safe”
She leaned down, picked up a piece of cheese and bit offa s hunk of the pie and scooped it toward her mouth
At this Conan's doubtful look turned to one of a, arched her eyebrows at hi on one elbow, she reached close in front of hion to her lips
”Here now, that's enough!” Laughing, Conan wrapped a large hand around her wrist, drawing arm and cup away from her face ”You can stop now I a into Conan's eyes A drop of as rolling froue It occurred to the northerner that her whole lush body was spread before hinificent dessert For acloser Then hishers His hands clasped her waist and pulled her against hied food platter was shoved aside and they were nuzzling together in a tight embrace
Somewhere beyond the kitchen arch a bell clanked flatly, once, then twice Ludya stirred, but Conan grasped her closer, seeking her rily She whiling violently against hi her body free of his, cuffed hio
”Stupid barbarian!” Her face was flushed with rage ”They rang for ed?” She rubbed her hten it and turned away toward the kitchen She was still patting her clothing straight as she pushed past a scrawny tow-haired boy who stood in the archway; he gave Conan a knowing, impertinent look, then came forward to clear the table
An instant later the boy dodged nirihts in a turmoil The little vixen, how dare she use him so! And yet, he told himself, perhaps he had been too forward; who could know all the unaccountable local ways? Crom's curse on these Hyborians and the madness they called civilization!
The day's heat sain as he entered the yard He scuffed across the dirt, a te in his breast Just ahead, in the shade of the sreaves, chain kilt, and cuirass, holding a battered helmet under one ar warrior gone to seed
Eubold, the fencing- with a shorter, thick-set man, barely visible in the shadows As the second nized hi, Eubold watched Conan approach ”Well, barbarian, 'tis about ti, if only at the cost of so-master's ill-shaven, leathery face creased further in distaste ”Tell azed on the man sullenly ”I carried a broadsword at the sack of Venariuone”
”He since the weapon is far too heavy to bring the point into play Youa hatchet!” He started away across the yard ”Frankly, I regret my orders to teach the use of a , you -at least so once more into the yard, this time from the west, as Conan struck and hacked at the exercise duh from a wooden post His exertions had fallen into a steady, rhythmic pace, and this, apparently, was the source oforders froainst the Manse's shaded wall
”Faster! Not like that, boy Put so, not an oak cudgel!” His voice, Conan thought, had the sour croak likely born when the first infant drill officer, still wet fro ”The secret of a blade like that is in its lightness, its quick recovery You can lunge with it Use the point -no need to dawdle about like a lead-footed ox!”
That Conan's strokes h every aspect of a circle, and that the tough, slack rawhide was deeply slashed, its straw entrails strewn over half the yard, were facts the instructor chose to ignore The youth, his upper body unclothed and his hair pasted to his forehead by sweat, continued striking deliberately If he , it was to slow his pace
”And when you h with all your ht The curvature of that blade will let you take off a lih the wound without losing power” Eubold carved air enthusiastically with the side of his hand ”The sawing !
”Of course you can learn little by hacking at a straw du-up human carcasses won't do-too limp, no resistance There can be no substitute for a live, rew round and expansive, as if he elaborated his argu but a fragile tower of muscle and tendon, boy, a mere balloon of blood! When that frail tent of blood and ainst you, a sword can do ht in half if the blades- back and scarcely following his student's motions ”With any luck, the baron will order up some live captives for us to ith later - malcontents from the Temple School That would be fine!
”But what now, barbarian? Are you still plodding along? No, no, that's not good enough Again, there, and harder! Fah!” The tutor spat in disgust between his spraddled legs ”Curse you, northerner, you have paid no heed tohis stool aside ”We must have at it, then 'Tis the only way you will ever learn” He strode forward, buckling the chin strap of his helauntlets from his belt
”Adown loosely at his side ”Well enough! Where is h ”True, youoff your own foot Otherwise, fear not You will be in no danger unless I -master's sword leaped from its scabbard with a metallic hiss
”Now then, this is the Neainst any Hyborian blade” He flicked the thin, slightly recurved edge in front of him, forth and back, while Conan raised his own saber on the defensive ”Thus arht easily invest your ho for frostbite and snow-leh was drolly contemptuous ”Now first, when you slash, do it on the -le Conan had to duck and sidestep quickly, his own blade screening his head
”Now the backhand, thus!” The tutor stopped to pivot fro out, and Conan was forced to retreat another step
”'Tis clear that even a stumblekin like yourself can waltz away from my slashes all day Hence the value of the point!” An acrobatic lunge sent the fencing- toward Conan The only possible response was body right, blade left -and the tords clashed together where the youth's midsection had been
”Ah, there you see where tardiness could easily cost you your life! Now more slashesthus, and thus, and thus!” Eubold seehtly winded froradually he fell silent Yet his saber-strokes continued relentlessly
Conan, after a night and day of exertion finding hiainst an ar blade only by his inbred, feral quickness He leaped and dodged agilely; nevertheless the grating clash of steel rang out almost continuously He was forced more and more to rely on steel rather than swiftness to ward off Eubold's blade