Part 12 (1/2)

Conan looked across the dwindling fire His chariot was being trundled back fro proudly behind the now gleaht-work Ludya produced aher e out of the nearby food box and began gnawing at it The chewing hurt his skull; otherwise his wound no longer pained hied deeply frouards wheeled the car close by To dry itthe fire and throwing on fresh brushwood

”See what a splendid conveyance it will y Lar leaped down from the platform to face his prisoner ”Oh, Sir Baron, I hope you will notit, since you will have no further need of it” He gave an ireat cities lie ahead of us on our ht despisehis sausage, watching his host warily ”You plan to continuesouthward, then?”

”Oh, indeed!” Lar nodded briskly ”To south and west lie the heaviest populations, the h in ti missions eastward and northward as well, to all the corners of the earth”

”Once you have dealt with uardedly ”How fares the battle, then? Do you know?”

Lar turned his gaze earnestly and slowly across the unfeatured plain, as if the coed mere paces away ”Your side is doomed, I fear For every five of my folloho die, your barons lose one”

”Aye” Conan nodded, believing implicitly in the youth's pronouncehters, vastly outnue host?”

”Fear not If there is an ied blithely, stretching hier-in their devotion and in their fighting skills Truly, I should thank you Neing us weapons, armor and fresh converts, all of which will serve our needs later on”

Conan shi+fted on his cushi+on, dispirited by the lad's calm confidence ”And yet the army you face here is tiny, cos”

”Aye” Lar nodded thoughtfully, gazing at Conan ”You have traveled in the south, have you not? Doubtless there is much you could tell me that would be useful later” His hand reached absently into a fold of his tunic as he studied the Cimmerian's face ”But no! What could possibly lie before us that is stronger than our faith, stronger than the ancient wisdo away to bask nearer the fire

”Theanother pull from the wineskin, Conan pressed on in his resolve to draw the youth out ”It must be very ancient”

”Oh yes, it is” Lar s dry bread and cheese beside him ”More ancient than the cities that will soon throw open their gates to welcome us, more ancient than the human race itself! Older even than these plains, and the hills that border them, and the ancient rew excited, his voice cracked and rasped more frequently than before ”When the first creature raised itself out the prith remains with us to this day!”

”An elder faith indeed,” Conan said, gazing at hiet a blade next to the lad's throat, he could use hiuards But he ion have many shrines and temples?”

”Temples!” Lar obviously found the question co for long moments Conan, disturbed and irritated by this ra of hile the boy coasped, ”the ancients reared strongholds of our religion in the southern desert: lofty fanes and toia But the real terin as he raised his fingertips to his golden chaplet and re his scalp-”why, the oldest temples are here, at the sides of our heads!” His words ended in a falsetto squeak as he stepped to his cart to place the golden orna his possessions

”For you see, Baron, the worshi+p of our great God lurks unbeknownst in everyin to preach enthusiastically, Lar returned to the fireside ”You ends tell it: the serpent is father to the man! In dim past eons, the transformation was made, but the old wisdou scales of Set's children!”

”What do you otten by snakes?” Conan laid aside his wineskin, perplexed and annoyed by the precociousvoice ”Why, that is sheerest folly! Wherever did you learn such rot?”

”I tell you, it is all within us! Brrr, this northern wind blows chill today” Lar stirred the fire with an iron poker as his guardians scurried to throw on more brushwood ”But don't you see, that is why it is so easy to win converts, and why our faith will inevitably triuht in the tight rictus of a grin before it sularity ”All that ere isare The serpent-brain slu back the old faith is just ait up!”

”Curse you, lad, you talk in riddles!” Pri the trend of Lar's speech, Conan arose to his feet andthe fire The short bread knife was palmed invisibly in his oversized hand, yet he had not resolved certainly to use it ”Aii, boy, why do you stand so close to this inferno? You'll set your breeches ablaze! Now tell me, how can you possibly say-” His words choked off ininexplicable had occurred The youth was grinning again, convulsively, from ear to ear, this time for no apparent reason, and his face had an odd look of having been scorched or blistered As Conan watched, Lar's eyes filan to shi+ft eerily just beneath the surface of his face

Then the youth's skin cracked and split apart, peeling back fro stratum Dry and brittle, it curled away fro scales, tender and e, violent contortions and grimaces of his features continued as the inner serpent-body squir up spased re with hands that were theray reptile appendages Meanwhile, a thick, forked tongue flickered fro out pink shreds of its former skin

Ludya's full-throated screaht As she paused for breath hich to renew her shrieks, Conan dropped his short, useless knife and stooped to snatch up the long iron poker, orange-tipped now froainst the sky, its unwieldy length rose and fell relentlessly He struck again and again at the head of the newborn abo even as it sank hissing and spluttering to earth

An instant later one of snake-priest's bodyguards, the for around the fire Conan laid the poker across his jaw, knocking hih his ani heavy footsteps behind hiuard, the blacks toward hihter's crouch that ill-suited her erotic raier, and a bleeding wound creased the man's shoulder, which was unprotected by his brief leather vest The cut was clearly not enough to disable hi blankly ahead, with confusion and pain across his ha, he dropped to one knee, then silently flopped to his side on the tra form warily ”Was that blade poisoned?” Ludya's pale, tear-stained face shook slowly in the negative ”Well then, the thrall's death lance out across the vacant plain ”Let us hope that Lar's lesser servants will likewise follow his exaaze down at the corpse of the prophet, sie was no longer recognizable, either as reptile or as human

Abruptly, within the ichor-stained folds of the corpse's purple tunic, soround, seeking to escape Deftly Conan speared it with the still-s tip of his poker and flicked it into the incandescent coals Its wriggling grewburst of steaers here” ConanLudya and enfolded her in his ar warily around the camp ”I hope Lar lied and that we are safe fro to awaken can surely do so again Weof this place, and make sure these remains are properly disposed of”

They set to work Before long, while day still hung colorless over the plain, they finished hitching the chariot-team and drove the horses forward to find the battle

CHAPTER 17

Ho

”As I predicted, Barons: a swift, successful ca a broken fieldstone wall, Lord Sigmarck raised his cup to his lips He drank deeply before looking again to his felloarlords ”Our ood carouse on their return, ine and wenches aplenty”

”Haw! I suppose so-although the enemy proved less fierce than I was led to believe” Ottislav, bristling with furs even under the war the tree-lined road where the columns of soldiers had fallen out of formation to rest and take refreshment ”Casualties were not so heavy this ti the ith Ludya, shi+fted so abruptly at this remark that his ar, he stared down at his depleted segth of roadway it formerly covered ”I wish the deaths were shared out hters of Dinander did not earn their victory so lightly,” He turned his gaze ominously to the other warlords

After a moment's disdainful silence, Ottislav answered up tolerantly, even soothingly ”Ah well, Baron” -neither he nor Siger to use the name of Favian- ”do not be too hard on yourself 'Tis no surprise that a young, inexperienced commander should suffer heavy losses in the field while his seniors go unscathed Even you will learn in ti his sword-hilt ”I hope ti the ene up a triet your lordly dignity And Ottislav, do not provoke the young warlord just now Can you not see he is distraught over his recent losses? And rightly so” Perched on the wall, the slight, slender arded Conan with inscrutable calm ”In particular I offer you condolence on the death of your friend, Evadne; she was a handsome piece of woh to reply, the brutish Ottislav chiain: ”Haould notstray wenches along the way!”

If Conan's sword-hilt had been a hurip of his fist And yet, feeling Ludya's equally urgent grasp on his ar her intense whisper in his ear, he checked himself

”Stay, Conan, please! Do not start another war, for your weary ar insistence, he shot his fellow barons a last withering glance and stalked away, his lover holding fir Lar's camp, Ludya had clothed herselfkit Her manner was more restrained than it had been in her days at the Manse; her judgments seemed to be cooler now, tempered by experience and hardshi+p Conan found her love, too, more deliberate, and less casually sensual Yet she rereens of the countryside, and was a source of life and hued thetroopers, as she walked with Conan toward his chariot at the front of the column

When, after Lar's death, they had finally rejoined the baronial army, the snake-cult was, for all intents, defeated Of the hideous serpent-warriors, those the least human had collapsed uncannily and simultaneously on the death of their leader Most of them fell into swift, unnatural decay, their mortal flesh apparently unable to bear the stress of the sorcerous changes worked upon it

Other cultists, those whose reptile-stigmata were only superficial, simply lowered their weapons and wandered about dumbstruck They were easily cut down by the Nemedians, who soon formed wide skirmish lines in which to sweep across the plain and flush out the demoralized foe

Still other cult followers, unain a seht only feebly, usually in self-defense, and fled as circu but a return to their northern far his sword, threatening and inti his own Neees

By the time the last cultists were dead or scattered, the clouds and san to disperse, and the land caain Conan h hard-driven and weary, were mindful of their victory and of his pivotal leadershi+p Like him, they were openly disdainful of the other barons' forces There had been little communication between the allies thus far on the march homeward and now, as Conan lashed his chariot-team forward, he swore to have even less in the future

”But after all,” Ludya was reassuring him, ”we should be in Dinander by dusk If you can keep the peace until then, it ood iht” Bunching the reins in one hand, Conan threw his free arainst him with a war what awaits usor whether the wretched city still stands at all But I swear to you, if there re atop another, I will be lord of it!” He laughed lustily, causing the nervous horses to flick their tails before hier a ly or not, along with , I have taken in the trick of rulershi+p