Part 6 (1/2)
A little way down the road a horse screamed and toppled: Durwald's The chariot lurched and bounded as its teaering aside, an arrow standing out from its splendid white neck Shouts and screams sounded before and behind the car as shafts rained out of the brushy woods that fringed the clearing Belatedly a cavalry officer began rasping orders to thehorsemen in the rear
Conan was encumbered by the body of the charioteer, whose eyes were already glazing over Letting Swinn slump heavily to the floor, he jerked back the reins in an effort to control the horses Frightened, they reared and jostled backward, tilting the chariot up sharply and al the wildflowers and fieldstones of the glen Clinging to the rail, he let go the reins, nearly falling to his knees as each of the three horses tried to bolt in a different direction
Then a hand steadied his shoulder and a voice rang in his ear ”Get your feet under you, if you want to ride! I'll soon have these brutes in order” It was Favian, capable-looking in his plain black cuirass and uncrested helm, who had leaped fro-bench, and Swinn's body after it, he groped a tails to find the reins
”Here now! Hang on tight and give me room!” The leather straps suddenly ca forward as one, the chariot bounded across the road and into thethe rail, his knees bent to absorb the ever-increasing shocks of the wheels He had assu would turn back up the road to flee the a instead straight toward the brushy forest in whence the arrow-fire was heaviest As he stared, a shaft flew out of the foliage at hi between the heads of horses and riders alike, al
”Thank your northern snow-sprites for the jouncing of this wagon,” Favian declared ”It , instead unclenching one hand frorasp the sword at his waist
”Nay, nay, you fool, not the saber! The javelin!” Urging the horses to greater speed, Favian shouted exuberantly at his passenger: ”That is a one-handed weapon with the range you'll need Aye, there you are!” he added as Conan reached behind hiht in quivers at the chariot's sides The Cimmerian hefted one of them and braced another ready in the hand that still clutched the rail
”All right,vehicle around to halt before the trees, as Conan expected he would, Favian astonished his passenger by continuing straight ahead into the brushy woods The sunlit wave of green lashed into the Ci across the defensively raised shaft of his javelin Abruptly then, tall trunks and shadows looures who fled left and right before the plunging horses
One of the dibow to speed an arrow at the chariot Reflexively Conan's ar the man's unarmored chest The a where the arroent
”Hiee, you have the knack!” Favian's shout ild as he veered his tea tree trunk ”I shall hunt them out and you shall slay them! There's one!”
Conan readied another spear, but it was not needed, for the fleeing man tripped on a fallen branch a dozen paces ahead of the horses In an instant the ani his body deep into the forest loaly soft impact as the metal-clad wheel passed over the victi, the cowardly traitors! But be careful here” Favian crouched low and Conan sprawled helplessly against the rail as the chariot bounced over a fallen trunk bulking aliddy lurches and dips; the horses were plunging through a tangle of brush and downed trees, ain his feet The last impact was over human bodies, to the accompaniment of screams, as Favian ran his chariot over two athering speed, they were out aain; even so, Conan frequently found it necessary to duck under lashi+ng foliage Hearing shouts and hoofbeats frolance backward to see that Baldo down other ambushers Yet the riders themselves were vulnerable; as Conan watched, one took an arrow in the throat and twoliave his full attention to the glade ahead ”A chariot can go places a horseround!”
So saying, he lashed his tealed, tortuous rabbit trail in pursuit of a pair of fleeing ambushers Conan clutched the rail and crouched low as the horses strained and surged before hi hiuidance, the wheeled platforround, caro overat each jolt to catapult its passengers high into the treetops
”Hiee, that's it! Turn and fight, you skulking coward!” Favian bore down on one of the fugitives, who had stopped between two trees to ai chariot was an unstable target and the shaft ide The lordling, in his turn, slewed the battle-car close under the trees to give Conan a clear stab
The javelin took the man in the armpit as he turned to run Conan did not intend to relinquish the spear, for his others had been lost in the wild chase, and so he held on to it, dragging his victih the forest before the weapon pulled free of the body Then he raised it to face his last quarry
This one had gained the top of an ancient, fallen log too high for even the baron's son to surazed back for only an instant before vanishi+ng on the far side Froe conviction; he felt it as a pang deep in his sto him had been that of a female
”damned rebel snake-kisser! I'll have your head yet!” Favian, still hot in pursuit, drove his teareat tree There he halted, cursing, at the brush-choked bank of a strea boulders at the floor of the forested ravine Conan stepped down from the platforn of the woht
As he returned to the chariot and helped Favian attend to the half-dead, frothing horses, gruff voices and the cracking of twigs heralded the arrival of h the trees with no great urgency other than that raised by the visible agitation of their leader, Baron Baldomer, who sat astride a common soldier's horse
”Favian! Here he is! Come on, men, this way,” he cried with a wave of his ar away so far afield?”
”Father, ere slaying rebels-” the lordling began
”Well, I will not have it! You yourself ht have been slain, and the royal line of Dinander cut short!” The baron jerked his horse aside in irritation, halting the animal before the chariot ”Henceforth stay ata commandeered mount, reined up close behind hiet here, Milord! After all, the young lord did scatter the rebels, and he dispatched quite a nu the way”
”Aye This barbarian shows an able hand with the javelin” Baldo, Favian? I thought ashis head ”Well, someday you must learn to be a true commander and lead your troops honorably, fro no answer to his father, Favian went to fill his hel turned away, Conan saw that his features were distorted in anger, and ith un up through the trees to make his report to the baron ”Eleven rebels dead, sire None left alive for questioning, sad to say We think that five or six others erous to track them in this forest”
”Nay, there is no need Squire Ulf knows the district and will tell us how best to strike at them” Baldomer turned to Durwald ”These were a desperate lot Likely these were the snake-cultists we have heard tell of, judging by their hoods Wouldn't you say?”
The e the risk of frankness ”'Tis hard to tell, indeed, Milord The cloaks were obviously meant to hide their identity But the few headshavehis n of cult fetishes or distinctive ands of the worst stripe, 'tis clear, since they shot our horses!” Baldolinting fiendishly ”The sill pay for their murder of those fine, costly animals!”
”Indeed, sire They were not simple thieves, or they would have spared the horses”
”Ah well, there is no telling what incites these turbulent types to revolt and take up heinous religions” Baldoet back to the road and on our way Drive this wagon out of here if you can, Favian; follow us closely Squire Ulf will be able to tell us more about these rebels once we reach Edram Castle”
CHAPTER 8
River of Blood
”And so you see, it was a costly skirmish on both sides” Baldooblet ”We lost a dozen of our troops and soht Yet in turn we routed the auise as a comlance across the littered board toward Favian, who sat within an archedof the circular dining hall
The lordling, resting taciturn with one foot propped before him on the brick sill, did not return the look, nor did hearistocrat continued gazing out across the slow-rolling river He cut a dashi+ng figure even in the office of a common cavalryman
His double, Conan, sat easily at the broad oaken table, tearing at the re since lost interest in The Cimmerian had recently accomplished a brief, stiff masquerade before the rural populace He had passed froh Edra no further attempts on his life Now he remained with the nobles decked in his borrowed armor but with no pretense at nobility
Their host, the rotund Squire Ulf, shi+fted his leather-armored body in his capacious chair to face Baldorave inconvenience is a sorrow to me 'Tis a shame, I fear, to this entire district Would that her in the hills Would that I myself had taken the arrow that slew your noble steed!” He clutched the flesh of his broad belly as if it had been pierced by a clothyard shaft ”But the infaainst the rebels at once!”
”We lance aside at Marshal Durwald ”You have some idea, I take it, as to a local source of this orously, setting his stubbled jowls aquiver ”Heresy and treachery lurk in ence of the snake-cults; I have more to tell you on that score later” The stout squire shook his long, unwashed blond locks in fervent co
”Even locally there are nests of viperish disloyalty One village in particular, ayearned to chastise myself, even before this latest offense If you could send part of your elite force to help in the task, Milord, 'twould be most welcome I can say with some certainty that these miscreants had a hand in the cowardly attack on your party”
”Ah, that is what I like to hear!” The baron nodded approvingly, with another sidelong glance at Durwald ”A plan of action, without posing endless riddles and hypotheses We would be glad to assist you, Squire”
”Aye, Milord, but we should act carefully” Durwald regarded the fat squire with some doubt ”If you recall, we noticed that the weave of the ambushers' cloaks had the look of city workmanshi+p, perhaps from Dinander or Numalia It may be that the rebels preceded us here from the west”
”Aye, but undoubtedly they had local support -else why did they not fall on us deep in the hills? And where did they flee?” Baldo his mouth askew ”Nay, Marshal, there are times when it is best simply to act, swiftly and decisively, with no hint of hesitation”
He swiveled his vulpine gaze back to Ulf ”I shall send a score of horse-troopers to aid you, Squire My son, Favian, shall lead them-properly this time, in the uniform of a cavalry officer, with a keen blade in his hand and a strong , Durwald, to oversee the boy Take the barbarian, of course, to make sure no harnedly