Part 8 (2/2)
The battlefronts were uardsmen, at the death of their baron and the desertion of his apparent successor, fought with flagging spirit Conan turned to join the attack, yet the defenders gave ground so fast that he stalked back almost to the head of the stair before he reached the skir the battling rebels, his attention was drawn by fresh shouts and screaallery
He forced his way to the rail and looked over, seeing towns back froes of the croeapons were flailing, swung by armored warriors not yet plainly in view Conan leaned far out to see who they were Reinforcements from the municipal barracks, perhaps?
”Flee, they have co below, the cries drifted up to him ”It is the Einharsons! The dead barons are risen to fulfill their curse!”
CHAPTER 11
The Warlords
Staring down frohten with certainty that the frightened shouts were true Beneath hiantic warriors in weird-looking arhters whose swords appeared rusted and evil and whose ancient copperplate-and-scale reen with tarnish: the dead Einharson warlords! With a chill, Conan remembered the ancestral armor laid out on the stone coffins in the crypt beneath the Manse, and the mystical hints that its owners would someday arise to sway the fate of the province
The attackers were fully suited and hel what lurked inside the decrepit ared, or oddly inco swords and battleaxes relentlessly, their grim efficiency evinced by the hacked corpses strewn behind them on the patterned floor
No sooner had the Cimmerian comprehended the threat than it erupted close at hand Astonished shouts were raised behind him, and he turned to see three of the hoary, sinister warriors issuing froli from the vicinity of Baldomer's apartment directly to the cellar; thence, doubtless, theseout a bitter oath, Conan shoved past the scattering rebels to confront the ne shape that first came before him was certainly the product of sorcery Its bronze-sheathed limbs moved with the noiseless, supple ease of an insect's jointed carapace, while the eye-slits of its crested hel within The creature's long, notched sword plied air with a swift surety that Conan took diligent care to avoid; and yet the vacancies of the shriveled leathern bindings at the strange warrior's elbows and ankles did not appear to contain any for in the wake of one of its long seeps, Conan struck a blow at its green-mottled breastplate He hoped to knock it over, but instead heard his blade gong hollowly on e to unbalance his attacker, rather, it left Conan exposed to a recoiling blow that stung his shoulder, buffeting hiered, he stalked his foe afresh, waiting his turn to feint and strike; this tih his blade-tip passed between the upper and lower arhostly warrior's suit and scattered bits of rotten strapping through the air, the being's sword-slashed arrazed his ear and dented his ar impact
So, Conan learned, it scarcely s' nonexistent bodies The power of these phantoing arcs, ey The armor suits seemed to march behind the weapons asin need of protection Conan fought on doggedly, seeking some means hich to halt his phantom adversary; whether the haunted blades could be broken, or even parried, his best fencing could not discover
As he fell back before the ht, a cal situation around him A few of the rebels on the balcony were halfheartedly battling the Einharsons, but none round, and so of the ancient swords At first the Iron Guardto fight alongside the undead warriors-but apparently the weirdlings knew no allies Conan saw one of the guardsroin by a rusty, cobwebbed sword before his black-mailed comrades had the sense to fall back from the monsters
Whatever thecurse, they did not seem to apply to the unblest, unburied Baldomer, whose transfixed body lay motionless on the balcony a few paces away Nor did the ancient spell command the baron's fine sword, for the stolen weapon had not sprung to unearthly life in Conan's hand-or not yet, at least
These minor boons scarcely mattered, for the Einharsons already under arms were more than adequatelyhu with a dozen orthe central stairway as an escape route
”See thou, traitor!” A shrill, hysterical voice abruptly sounded close behind Conan ”Learn how the undying spite of lance told him that the taunts came from Calissa, who had crept away fro the front of the balcony Clinging to the heavy wooden rail, she watched the one-sided battle with venoe best, Ci, for if you do, my kin will hound you all the way back to your northern wastes! Nay, you will not escape them! Nevermore can they be laid to rest, now that you have murdered the last Einharson heir!”
She was ht's bloody events How unlike the noble girl who had caressed him mere hours past! His heart flinched even as his body shrank before the blade of his attacker
And yet, at her ravings, a new thought awakened in his brain Breaking clear of his undead foe's tireless sword-play, he turned to dart after the noble girl She sought to flee, but he caught her tightly by the wrist
”What? Away from me, villain! Do you mean to add me to the list of your murders?” As she writhed in his clutch, Conan sheathed his weapon and reached to his throat He took the chain with its heavy aled red hair She spat at hi the six-pointed talisht hold of her shoulders and held her fast, letting the pendant settle between her unruly lace-gowned breasts
In an instant a transforallery around the Conan pro the proud, erect bearing of a victorious duelist, it pivoted away in the direction of the cellar stair Its fellow ghosts on the terrace did the salance over the rail showed that the coround floor had likewise ceased
”What trickery is this?” Calissa dee ”Who ever said that a worasped the glea amulet and tried to tear it from her throat, but Conan's fist knotted in its stout chain, drawing it up so snugly that a twist of his arm could easily have throttled her ”Co, I say!” But the undead warriorsher frantic, half-choked cries
The surviving rebels, no longer beset, were quick to surround Conan and help him restrain Calissa Meanwhile, they faced down the Iron Guards, who looked as if they ht move to rescue her The Cihters near him
”Keep her quiet, and keep this trinket secured around her neck” He knotted the chain at her crea tresses ”This is the power that staves off the hosts Belike their curse requires only that a living Einharson wear the sigil, not that she rule the city grandly Here, hold her fast, but do not harm her, at your peril! Dru, the blacksh this chain at the first opportunity”
The last of the Einharson forebears shaan to sound froallery below Most of the watchers audiblylord for joining the rebels and turning back his father's curse, where ht to wipe out his line Many who had fled now found their way back into the Manse, and the press in the lower gallery deepened once again
The rebel force rely easy prey for the close-knit Iron Guard And yet moments later, to Conan's surprise, a party of nobles came forth from the loyalist line, their weapons sheathed and their enify a truce
”Hold your steel, for ould parley!” ca, coation were Marshal Durwald and the elderly chief of protocol, Lothian Flanked by lesser nobles, they ca a few paces away for the sake of their dignity and safety Rebel officers, including the woathered on the scene, and now the Cimmerian moved with them as a body to confront the eues with lies and threats, noble rogues, be assured that ill accept nothing but your absolute surrender!” The speaker was a lean rebel youth with short-cropped yellow hair, having hter ”The Manse is practically ours, and our followers have risen up throughout the province” Several of his coh none spoke to second hi at the center of the royalist faction, his helmet laid in the crook of one arazed on the youth Finally he answered
”And so you think you can do without us? You have been pledged the support of the town's leading families and the squires, perhaps? Can you muster an army fit to police and defend this city?” His jet mustache arched in aristocratic disdain ”Or will you ia to run your stolen fiefdom?”
”Set-priests? We have no truck with the snakecult!” This ca the brown robe of a disciple of Ulla, cinched now at the waist with an unpriestly sword-belt ”Our party is loyal to the true church of Ne the east, but our cause here is a pious one”
”Aye, and our Reform Council includes the best families,” Evadne declared fro others who claarded the royalists with a challenging look ”In our council, the voice of the craftsht, the farmer's as freely as the squire's We clai an end to the cruelties and inequities that have worsened daily under Baldomer's rule!”
At her speech, a murmur of assent sounded fro attention instead to Durwald's reply
”Fine-sounding sentii barons will think of themarck and Ottislav?” This time Durwald'swill it be, do you suppose, before they turn on Dinander with sharp swords and sharper pens, to redraw the maps of their baronies and write an end to your little political experi Laslo, ns all the lands,” a black-bearded rebel protested ”He holds the barons in check, and he has chaainst unfair decrees and taxes His arht hed ”So that is the fate you would call down on our heads: to be invested and garrisoned by royal legions! Think you that such shah mercenaries from the south of the euardsmen?” He shook his head broadly ”Be assured that they will strut and steal as ruthlessly as any invaders! Likely as not, King Laslo will appoint some petty officer as satrap over us, with unbridled powers”
The rebels, ry dismay, fell silent as Conan spoke abruptly ”What do you propose, Durwald?”
Before the marshal could answer, frail old Lothian leaned forward at his side to speak with surprising firest a course of action that will benefit both sides If you insurgents will decide who a you are leaders, you can withdraith us to s to discuss the matter”
At this the rebels fell back to confer for a h they ates with a speed and unani priest were chosen, as well as the black-bearded man and two others The Ci the elect party
The two groups walked to one of the doors adjoining Baldomer's apartings with their swords; then followed the half-dozen nobles A guard of each faction stayed just outside the door, waiting in a standoff along with the battle lines nearby
”Well, nobles and rebelofficers” Walking slowly across the roo table opposite the door, although the others continued to stand with hands ready at sword-hilts ”'Tis clear, I think, that some form of compromise would be in the best interests of all As you may know, I differed with the late baron over his more draconian decrees; in fact, I frequently warned hie adjusted his slender shanks primly in the cushi+oned chair ”On the other hand, of course I have fir as one of the originators of the science of noble precedence-”
”Get on with it, Counselor!” Evadne interrupted hi, your troops and municipals all across the city will be whittled away by our arain with Just tell us”-her eyes flashed at Durwald as she spoke-”what interest the people of Dinander can possibly find in common with our recent tormentors”
”Here now,” Durwald protested, ”I, too, warned Baldoainst his excesses too There is none here who despises needless cruelty ood-naturedly ”We are not so far apart as all that Noe can just settle on a suitable division of power-”
”Old fool!” interposed the slim, yellow-haired youth ”When has power ever been divided in Dinander, except by the cutting edge of a sword?”
Evadne firmly overruled her fellow rebel ”Rather, when has it not been divided? Tell me, Counselor, who is next in the line of baronial succession after Favian?”
”Why, 'twould be old Eggar, Baldoht; a drunken trifler, already infamous for the misrule of his own petty domain Our folk would never accept such a contely around the coht?”
”If he was here, he is dead or fled,” Durwald replied ”And no great loss If you are thinking of a puppet, I agree, we need a more attractive palatable than that”