Part 13 (1/2)
”By the harvest-reed to rule this city that it would be a toil!” The baroness, blinking and unke-closet into the antechaht ”But does it have to begin so early, before the first of er, has even gone to sleep?”
Hugging her green robe tightly about herself, she sank onto the cushi+oned divan opposite circled chairs occupied by Durwald, old Lothian, the rebel priest and two other rebels ”Oof!” she gasped, catching the heavy aainst her breast ”I feel as decrepit as the brittle re below in the family crypt”
”No, you do not appear so, Milady” Sage Counselor Lothian bowed fragilely fro with the courtiers and merchants Would that I had dared to risk my old bones as your partner in one of those wild upcountry reels!”
Calissa s, ruht I had much to rejoice over, Counselor My eneirl again”
”Milady, you are but a girl!” Marshal Durwald, fixed prolance, hastened to continue: ”In health and beauty, I ht your subjects and char the personal overtures iazed coolly on him ”Best to remember that I am also a warlord when the occasion demands, Marshal-and your military commander I am at present burdened by the cares of state and sorely tried by ain be able to abandon irlhood will be dictated by events” She drew a preray strand froly ”One thing is sure: if I am to serve you and this city well, I must be less swayed by males than any Einharson woman before me”
”A brave and selfless resolve, Milady,” the rebel priest interposed ”It seeh yesterday's crisis”
”Indeed” Durwald, preening his ruffled poise, sroup with satisfaction ”The barbarian iftly dealt with; and the city, swept away in revelry as it was, did not see or dissension over it, not even aned with him”
”No I feared soate” Old Lothian shook his head wistfully ”But apparently it camarck's spy told me that it was all incited by the officer Rudo, one of the Cimmerian's old prison cronies whouard shadowed the rascal last night and caught hi the till of an ale house So he is back in the s” The er that none of the other returning troops cares enough this groggyto speak up on the outloander's behalf”
”A lesson well reravely ”My father found it out, now likewise his killer: theif not fickle Hope that you never learn it so bitterly!”
”In any case, Milady,” the priest put in complacently ”the city is quiet for now I can attest that the forment, our position is secure”
”Aye,” Lothian added reassuringly ”Even the escape of the barbarian, sonificant threat to us”
”What!” The already scant color, drained entirely from Calissa's face as her co me?” Her look raced around the circle of unsurprised faces ”Conan has escaped! And what of his trollop, Ludya? Is she gone too?”
Durwald nodded earnestly ”Soht sentry into their chamber and thumped him senseless The eyebolt of their chain was levered out of the ith a broken table leg” Thefor his guard's ineptness ”Their route has been traced downstairs into the cellar; apparently they exited the Manse through an old passage under the wall that none knew existed, opening from your faiven?” During Durwald's report, Calissa had sprung from her chair to pace feverishly before the”Are the Red Dragons ates?”
Lothian sat watching her, his withered hands clasped nervously together ”Their flight was only recently discovered, Milady We thought it best to consult you before sounding an alaratekeepers have perht, I am told”
”Well, sound the alar here so ry look ”Is it in the belief that I will go e, she followed Lothian's involuntary glance toward the closed door, beyond which guards undoubtedly waited ”And whom, onder, will the army now obey?-the counselors or the ed soothingly, ”we ht provokethe populace than if ait and see-”
”Wait and see!” Calissa laughed, her voice ringing with an uncontrolled wildness ”While this usurper again sets in motion his ainst us? And his prowess -have you not seen him, as I have, toss armored men about like ninepins? This Conan is a force to be reckoned with, I warn you!” She turned and paced again, her robe slashi+ng the air behind her ”If he lurks outside the city, we can send detach he has not already crept into their tents and slit their throats as if they were spring lahtened in his seat, speaking up with surprising firmness ”To call for their aid would reveal unseemly weakness in our state Can we really afford to have the neighbor barons ransacking our province, flaunting ray head ”At last report, Sig camp If we keep this affair silent, - they may leave us in peace”
”Silent!” Calissa wheeled on theain with red, feverish eyes ”Can you possibly understand what this man has done to ht and expect ravely from his chair ”I do not knohat your intentions were for this barbarian, Milady It would have been unsafe to hold hi, because of his irrespressible violence and the controversy his imprisonment would cause We should soon have been forced to kill him, which would only have made him a particularly irksome kind of martyr” He faced the baroness dispassionately ”As it stands, you have stripped him of baronial pretensions Without noble blood, he can never rule Dinander He is too unripe to overthrow us, and too shallow a self-seeker to try He will simply run away, and once he does” the marshal's hand flicked aside an invisible bubble of air”our probleone”
As Calissa stood silent, her downturned face concealed by a red cascade of hair, the priest arose fro hand on her shoulder ”It is well, Baroness It will be as you have said; the chain of bloodshed is ended”