Part 6 (2/2)
”Thank you, sirs!” Squire Ulf bowed unctuously, his s swiftly ”We should dispatch the troops before dawn tomorrow I myself will abide with you here at the castle, so as to ensure your safety and conanimously and surveyed the room If he expected his son to thank him for the boon of a cavalry colanced briefly at theaze to the river
After a moment of aard silence, Durwald spoke ”You said you had further information, Squire, on the activities of the snake-cult?”
”Better than that,” Ulf gloated ”I have a captive!” He clasped his hands together, savoring the others' earnest attention ”Recently I sent a party of tax gatherers eastward to Varakiel to collect overdue shares from a balky landholder They found his tracts abandoned and his croft aflan of the serf-master hi rebels, and captured one A devout snake-worshi+per by any ht up only recently in the hysteria”
”And where is this prisoner?” The baron rose from his seat, restless for action ”How soon can we see him?”
”This very moment, if you like, Lord Baldorunt of effort, Squire Ulf hove hih I warn you, he has not proven cooperative; the power of Set is strong within him Both water and fire have been applied, and each has failed to drive the devils out”
”I hope you have left enough of him for us to question,” Durwald muttered He rose to follow his baron and Squire Ulf toward a side door of the dining hall Conan went too, taking with him a couple of ripe quinces from a fruit bowl on the table Behind hi after the between two of the castle's five towers The sun shone bright on yellow bricks fretted with the black, angular shadow of the battlement The Sky was clear blue, dotted hite puffs of cloud driven before a fresh breeze; beyond the river stretched fields of ereen, with the yellow thatches of the town huddled at the bridgehead
Ulf led the ready to sink riverborne boats or drive attackers fro past racks of stones and tar pots kept nearby as ammunition, the stout squire approached the next tower He halted before a pair of sentries standing rigid at each side a bolted, uardhouse,” Ulf explained to his guests while undoing the latch ”The foundations of Edram Castle are too wet froeon But I think you will find these facilities well-equipped”
He pushed the door inward on its grating hingepost and ushered them into a rooht fell in through arrow-slits in the walls Stable harnesses and uard tower, arrayed the curving walls; other devices of obscure function littered the floor
At the roole by a chain froled, was a half-conscious peasant youth Where his rough garb had been cut or torn away, his skin boreand other abuses His wan boyish face stared upith a fixed expression, unresponsive to the men's arrival
”He makes no utterances except that of weird curses,” the squire explained ”Yet when he had strength, he fought like a very fiend” He waved a hand invitingly over the brazier of fluttering pink-and-gray ashes ”Here, Milord, try your skill with the hot pincers Mayhap you will havethe captive with skepticism and evident disappointment ”A mere child! Not a very formidable rebel”
”Have him say 'Kaa nama kaa lajerama,'” Favian remarked from the doorway ”No follower of the snake-God can utter those words and live”
Marshal Durwald leaned over the prisoner, swiftly assu friend ”Come, lad, do not fear! I aether so as to force open his jaws, and peered inside Abruptly he released hie ”Here no is he supposed to tell us anything? Soured his mouth!”
”Nay, nay, that is part of the snake-cult ritual!” Shaking his head anxiously, the squire seized an unheated pair of tongs from the wall and leaned over his captive ”They slit their own tongues, so they can utter the sacred syllables of Set” He delved into the slack ue, but instantly ju to life at the intrusion
”Hathassa fa Sathan!” the pale face spat at them ”Sa setha efanissa, na!” As the peasant lad cursed, the watchers gained eerie gli like that of a serpent Though the voice rasped with startling vehemence at first, the blaze in the pale eyes swiftly faded The head thued even lower in its bonds
”What did he say?” Baldo around at the others' blank looks ”Does anyone know the language?”
”'Tis no local dialect, Milord Nor even a hued ”I do not know his : I shall check !”
Conan, lingering near the half-open door, had long since lost the appetite for his second quince; now he set it aside on a charred table He pressed forward behind Favian, a little surprised at the anger tapping in his temples and not sure of just what action it boded Me at his before hilance at the prisoner showed that there was no point in intervening The last relared sightlessly upward Feeling soiled and somewhat queasy, Conan turned and ht battle a double chain of horsemen rode abreast across the meadows of the Urlaub Valley They did not follow the river upstream, for it meandered too widely to mark a sensible route Nor did they use any road, for their ride had detoured in the first hour after dawn to the fringe of a forest tract There they gathered twigs and bound theots, which they tied in bunches behind their saddles
Conan, by virtue of his noble ar wood, as were the officers He rode in his cavalry officer's equipage with Durwald and Lord Favian, near the center of the line The two less-aristocratic riders flanked the young lord to protect him, and Favian in turn was sullen, so there was little conversation
But the lordlinga brisker pace and savagely rebuking any trooper who failed to stay in line The twenty cavalry supplied by Baldo their ranks than were Ulf's men; these struck Conan as lax and surly, especially the weasel-faced guide who rode beside Durwald
As the led toward noon over the hazy eastern plain, the cow pastures beneath the horses' hooves changed to lush grainfields A curving line of trees and brush ahead signaled the position of the river One of the Dinander cavalry, a farin, voiced dis down At this sentihed and hooted
Harshly, Favian commanded them to silence But it mattered little; a uide, the lordling called the troop to a halt He signaled Ulf's men, who carried torches and a firepot, and waited while they set their brands alight Then he drew his sword and shouted the order to charge
At first it was iuide reassured the officers at the top of his voice that it lay straight ahead Conan let his horse dash forward on faith with the others, concentrating on keeping his perch in the aard, bulky saddle
The druh grain, but there was no real obstacle to their flying advance The rich fields of river bottoes and walls, were divided only by loeedy mounds that flew beneath the horses' swift leaps
Suddenly, just ahead, roughly clad figures were seen looking up fro tumult The peasants dropped their hoes and fled in panic Conan, to his surprise, heard the steely whisper of swords being drawn all along the plunging line, aeful cries Afarmers had been cut down or ridden doithout so e
Ah well, these Hyborians play rough, Conan told himself They were even quicker to slay one another than they were to slay strangers, he had observed He felt relieved that none of the wretches had co hooves
Nevertheless he was in the thick of it, and had better be alert Having drawn his blade along with the others, he now had to lendsteed one-handed
Soon the riders found thes Their formation curved and widened to encohtly raised area of ground near the riverside The surprise of their appearance was total, it appeared, forfor shelter The pace of the horses slowed, but their gallop grew rougher and louder on the hard-packed earth
The center of the column thundered into theand brandishi+ng his sword in the lead Conan followed so to avoid the fallen bodies of villagers cut down by the first wave of attackers Screams and terror-stricken cries sounded beyond as other peasants were overtaken by horse
Conan knew he had been a fool to expect soanized search This was forthright slaughter, withthe steel The local squire's troops were particularly zestful at it, even hacking with lusty shouts at tethered, yelping anied on by Favian's shouted coes of the sack of Venarium flashed before the northerner's eyes, but here the zest was somehow tainted This wretched place did not even offer the proined that the killing of Nemedians would ever be a source of concern to hi unease But he did not intend to forfeit his life, either to rebels or to Baldomer's troops Me dismounted froh the sht
The torches had finally coreen crops in the fields could never have been set alight, but the parched edges of thatched roofs flared brightly at the merest touch of flame Under Favian's supervision, a handful of troopers was setting the bundled twig fascines alight, forcing open the doors and shuttered s of the huts and hurling the torches inside This brought cries of alared were cut down by waiting pillagers or flying horsen of armed resistance He decided that this miserable hamlet could hardly be the den of rebel activity that Squire Ulf had described
Then his attention was caught by soap between two burning huts In spite of the s his horse, Conan rushed between the buildings, one ar out of the s watering eyes, and then spied several figures disappearing into brushy s near the riverbank He followed, holding his sword at the ready
Only a few paces into the brush, a peasant attacked him The sandaled, jerkined man wielded only a pitchfork, whose wooden tines Conan battered aside with a swipe of his saber His blade's recoil caught the man at the base of his skull As his opponent went down, Conan realized that he had used the flat of his sword, likely doing no permanent injury Still, the fellow did not stir as Conan stepped over hie, fourwith a tiny boat of wood and hides concealed aard hi cloak, her cowl thrown back to reveal her long-plaited blond hair It was yesterday's ambusher, he knew-the one who had escaped him in the forest She was accoe
One of thee-faced boy, turned fro a broken-bladed knife The worabbed the child by the collar of his serf-shi+rt and dragged him back to her side ”See to the boat,” she told him in fir, straight dagger and coolly awaited her pursuer
A new crashi+ng sounded in the brush nearby; Conan turned to see one of Baldo his horse through the reeds ”Ah, a country lass, and nearly flown the nest! We shall have her to ourselves, eh, fellow?uuh!”
The ht, as Conan's saber struck hie of his breast ar stoic resistance to the pain of his sundered abdomen; but he had lost any chance of survival at Conan's first, speed-blurred attack The Cimmerian's second stroke, a deft slash to the unar, h the neck-hole of his cuirass left hi his last The horse shi+ed back into the brush, rolling its eyes fearfully at the sirl, only to see that she and the others had freed their boat and were pushi+ng off into the open channel, out of his vision ”Wait,” he started to call, but the word died in his throat He strode to a place where the brush sprouted thinner and watched the coracle drift out of sight around a stand of trees downstrea, the woaze upstrea the pebbled shore where slower currents moved, the clear water was clouded by lazy, red tendrils: blood fro streari flames and smoke-veiled sky, the whole reach of the river seemed to be stained criht the Cihing in bitter disbelief At either side of the river, loooden docks had been constructed Each bore a rude windlass, the one on the village side now brightly aflame Towropes, probably slashed by the invaders, trailed far out into the rolling current, while in the shallows at the foot of the village there floated a wide, flat-bottomed wood boat, staved in and swamped A ferry it was, one that must have served farmers in this part of the valley Doubtless it had accounted for the healthy growth of the place, until now
Muttering darkly, Conan turned from the river and strode up the bank As he went, so before his eyes and tinge his vision redly He found his way through the weeds and broken sheds near the water's edge, s of the town