Part 5 (2/2)
”So you knew of the poisoning tonight?” Conan asked his hostess at length
”Yes Although I did not understand how it could be an attempt on my brother's life when, at the very sa of less potent mead on the dais beside me”
”The cup was meant for me” Conan shook his head impatiently, as if to sebs of treachery aside from his vision ”Then, to hide his plan, Svoretta killed the killer”
”Are you suddenly so iuard?” Calissa's purring voice held, along with skepticism, a note of wistful jealousy, Conan intuited
”Nayonly an irritant to Svoretta” His voice probed slowly through the di me, the spymaster persuades Baldomer of the rebels' power, and so enhances his own Even in failure, his ploy served that purpose”
”That could be true” It was Calissa's turn to shake her head gloo force here ever sincehiest faction at court, and his clandestine powers are even greater Noith snake-cult stirrings added to the rebel fer”
”Lothian, for one, opposes hihed cynically ”Our harhtto counsel restraint in 's entertainlad I missed itI wish had missed more of it,” Conan amended hi, truly, in spite of all the intrigues” In a gush of enthusiaser hand ”It was like ardens and alive with the best bards and dancers Every night there was a feast Merchants and squires dealt freely here then, not just scowling nore her slight to ed Calissa on ”That hen the Lady Heldra was alive?”
”Aye” She nodded sadly ”Long ago Even Favian is too young to reed so since then My father” Her voice trailed off
”The baron was not so harsh a ruler aforetiht, a hero And Mother was like a sylph, teasing hilooms Oh, she was not weak; they ether to the hunt But in her woht a warreat loss, a great criain ”If she had lived, I would be a better wo line of fierce warriors, hardened to death and suffering, is it not?”
”Yes, so it is said That old legendry stands us in good stead from time to tiht Nereedy Unlike soed byhair across her shoulders; the red of her tresses was so deep that it seeht brushed its soft waves ”Still,” she went on, ”any good ruler would rather live at peace To e of blood and steel has becouardianshi+p of the Einharson forebears?” Conan asked
”Fah, superstitious nonsense!” Calissa's eyes flared at him fro for that! I hope Favian will forget that rigamarole too, once he becomes baron I can help hi trade in the province, and for tithing the landholders s my father would never consider, because they swerve fronored; they do not even intend to include h Favian, I will have some influence”
”And so you creep to your brother's bed to counsel hiht” Conan stroked the noble side him in her restlessness ”A wonder that you dare to He strikesand raping than in good governlance at him, but then nodded reluctantly, even wistfully ”Aye, 'tis true, we are not so close as we once were As Favian approaches his majority, he tries out more and wilder excesses As I do, too But all of it isat our father's overharsh control of us!” She adjusted her position on the cushi+on, propping her fists beneath her chin before speaking further
”If Baldomer would just accept Favian and reassure his of power a little at a tiht, Favian never could please father Now, I fear, he has given up entirely” Calissa stretched beneath the soothing pressure of Conan's hands on her robed back and laughed softly, with a note of sadness ”Strange, the great baron treasures his son and heir above all else, and launches elaborate schemes for his protection, yet he treats hi him the least hint of fatherly love”
”Be that as it e, Dinander is in for a wild ride once Favian's hand wields the whip”
”Bodyguard, you are aof rulershi+p” Calissa spoke chidingly, yet she lay still under his caressing hands ”It is in a great lord's nature to behaveerratically, because of the pressures and prerogatives of his office How can anyone be expected to use power ably if she or he never tests its extremes, even those extremes that command the life and death of one's followers?”
Her words, he noted, were occasionally interrupted by little purrs of satisfaction at his continuing e Even so, she spoke on casually of worldly matters ”You will be surprised, no doubt, to hear that sohteous and well-loved rulers are also the most eccentric, even licentious, ofLaslo in Belverus looms foremost, with a harem of varicolored and variously sexed slaves for his ahborn folk are free of these foibles, as you will learn Few of us are easy in mind
”By contrast with sos arewomen of almost any rank seek hiaze up at Conan-”even as you are”
”Aye, no doubt you like ers reached forth to brush aside dark strands of hair fro, I wonder, is due to uard! Even you can push ossip should cease” She rolled over on the couch ”And here, this s cloak impeded us before Off with it!”
Calissa arched her back, squir robe and tossed it to the floor As she did so a wondrous, moonlit landscape opened before Conan's eyes
CHAPTER 7
Favian's Ride
”Yonder lies Edram Castle, in thestraight in his saddle, slowed his horse to pass the word to those riding in the chariot close behind him ”We should easily be there by sunset”
”Yes, sire, thank Einhar!” Shaking the reins, Swinn, the charioteer, ran his teah bank of the road to improve his view of the valley ”At least the hills and haunted fells are behind us, with their accursed rocky goat-paths!”
Conan, grasping the bronze rail to steady himself, stood up from his seat on the leather-padded plank athwart the chariot Looking over Swinn's rounded shoulder and across the rumps of the horses, he saw the structure that Durwald referred to: a low, broad water-castle at the center of the valley below
Built of yellow stone, it was laid out as five interlinked round towers topped by conical roofs, and enclosing a central courtyard It stood on the opposite bank of the Urlaub, in a sharp bend of the blue, snaking river Its position commanded the ay on three sides; it also controlled a triple-arched stone bridge that spanned the river al keep for a rural squire,, Conan decided And a rich one, judging by the lush green farm fields on either side of the river and the dense sprawl of cottages just before the bridge It would be a long way upstreauessed, so whoever held Edralehold on the valley and a reliable source of tariffs and tolls
The place was not far ahead by the road, which dropped swiftly froh sparse-forested foothills and out into the level valley At the very least, the castle pro-place than the drafty hill-cavern of the previous night, with its starlit serenade of owls and wolves aainst the threat of brigands
Not that the nobles, with forty of Baldomer's picked horsemen formed up behind them, had much to fear from robbers or rebels assassination was the baron's pet worry-concerned as he was not sothe cavalry rode Favian in the guise of a common trooper, surly and aloof fro his nominal officers Ahead of the horse within and garbed in the lordling's aruard rode Baldomer, black-clad astride his white stallion, with Durwald and two other officers keeping hi remained behind in Dinander to twitch the ropes of rulershi+p in the baron's absence
”Here, Swinn, move aside!” As the chariot lurched forward, the castle was lost froruffly addressed the charioteer: ”Let e I've watched you do it these past ten leagues; it can't be difficult” Reluctant to rest his aching nether parts on the jolting bench again, he pressed toward the front of the rattling platform to displace the driver
”Nay, barbarian!” With a flick of the reins, Swinn changed the chariot's er back to his seat ”I may have to bow and scrape to you when the crowds are watching, but not here! Anyway, driving these battle-cars is a touchy skill And a noble one, at that”
Conan grunted ill-naturedly and started to arise again, but he thought better of it as the road began to drop steeply down a rocky hill and into a narrow, grassy glen ”If cart-driving is so noble a pastie on horseback?”
Swinn laughed ”Lord Favian himself would rather be here in my place He is the expert charioteer in the royal family Why do you think he is so ill-telance backward at the for stiffly out of earshot ”Having you go as a passenger in his stead will make him seem a dolt to his future subjects”
”Well then, we can try to please hiain, and Conan now felt safe in standing ”I will learn horse-chasing sorab for the reins, jostling the stocky charioteer to one side
”Here, now, barbarianaahugh!” Resisting Conan's shove, Swinn jerked suddenly rigid, then sprawled against his surprised passenger Looking past the charioteer's shoulder, Conan saw that a long arrowshaft had driven deeply into the h it were parchment As he watched, astonished, another shaft struck the charioteer's rigid body from the opposite direction; it had sufficient force to pass through both breastplate and breast, dinting Swinn's scapular plate outith its point Other projectiles were thudding into the wood of the chariot or clattering against the metalwork One of theainst his skull and causing white starbursts to bloom before his eyes