Part 9 (2/2)
”In the hills sroups of folk still boast descent from Acheron,” answered Orastes ”For the rest, the tide of my barbarian ancestors rolled over them and wiped thes of Acheron”
A grim and terrible smile curled the Pythonian's lips
”Aye! Many a barbarian, bothon the altar under this hand I have seen their heads piled to s returned from the ith their spoils and naked captives”
”Aye And when the day of reckoning came, the sas not spared So Acheron ceased to be, and purple-towered Python becadoreat And noe have brought you back to aid us to rule these kingdoe and wonderful than Acheron of old, are yet rich and powerful, orth fighting for Look!” Orastes unrolled before the stranger a arded it, and then shook his head, baffled
”The very outlines of the land are changed It is like so seen in a dream, fantastically distorted”
”Howbeit,” answered Orastes, tracing with his forefinger, ”here is Belverus, the capital of Nemedia, in whichare Here run the boundaries of the land of Nemedia To the south and southeast are Ophir and Corinthia, to the east Brythunia, to the west Aquilonia”
”It is the map of a world I do not know,” said Xaltotun softly, but Orastes did not miss the lurid fire of hate that flickered in his dark eyes
”It is a e,” answered Orastes ”It is our desire first to set Tarascus on the throne of Nemedia We wish to accomplish this without strife, and in such a way that no suspicion will rest on Tarascus We do not wish the land to be torn by civil wars, but to reserve all our power for the conquest of Aquilonia
”Should King Niue for instance, Tarascus would mount the throne as the next heir, peacefully and unopposed”
Xaltotun nodded, without replying, and Orastes continued
”The other task will be more difficult We cannot set Valerius on the Aquilonian throne without a war, and that kingdom is a forhened by continual ith the Picts, Zingarans and Cimmerians For five hundred years Aquilonia and Nee has always lain with the Aquilonians
”Their present king is thethe western nations He is an outlander, an adventurer who seized the crown by force during a ti Namedides with his own hands, upon the very throne His name is Conan, and no man can stand before hihtful heir of the throne He had been driven into exile by his royal kinsman, Namedides, and has been away from his native realm for years, but he is of the blood of the old dynasty, and many of the barons would secretly hail the overthrow of Conan, who is 86
a nobody without royal or even noble blood But the common people are loyal to hi provinces Yet if his forces were overthrown in the battle that must first take place, and Conan himself slain, I think it would not be difficult to put Valerius on the throne Indeed, with Conan slain, the only center of the governone He is not part of a dynasty, but only a lone adventurer”
”I wish that Itoward a silvery mirror which formed one of the panels of the wall This mirror cast no reflection, but Xaltotun's expression showed that he understood its purpose, and Orastes nodded with the pride a good craftsnition of his accomplishments by a master of his craft
”I will try to show hi hiazed hypnotically into its depths, where presently a dian to take shape
It was uncanny, but those watching kneas no ht, ehts are eic crystal It floated hazily, then leaped into startling clarity a tall htily shouldered and deep of chest, with a massive corded neck and heavily muscled limbs He was clad in silk and velvet, with the royal lions of Aquilonia worked in gold upon his rich jupon, and the crown of Aquilonia shone on his square-cut black reat sword at his side seeal accouterments His broas low and broad, his eyes a volcanic blue that smoldered as if with some inner fire His dark, scarred, al-erous lines of his limbs
”That man is no Hyborian!” exclaimed Xaltotun
”No; he is a Ciray hills of the north”
”I fought his ancestors of old,” s of Acheron could conquer them”
”They still remain a terror to the nations of the south,” answered Orastes ”He is a true son of that savage race, and has proved himself, thus far, unconquerable”
Xaltotun did not reply; he sat staring down at the pool of living fire that shi+ain, long and shudderingly
II
A BLACK WIND BLOWS
87
The year of the Dragon had birth in war and pestilence and unrest The black plague stalked through the streets of Belverus, striking down the ht at his banquet board Before it the arts of the leeches were helpless Men said it had been sent from hell as punishment for the sins of pride and lust It ift and deadly as the stroke of an adder The victim's body turned purple and then black, and within a few , and the stench of his own putrefaction was in his nostrils even before death wrenched his soul fro wind blew incessantly from the south, and the crops withered in the fields, the cattle sank and died in their tracks
Men cried out on Mitra, and do was secretly addicted to loathsohted palace And then in that palace death stalked grinning on feet about which swirled thedied with his three sons, and the druri fro up the rotting dead
That night, just before dawn, the hot wind that had blown for weeks ceased to rustle evilly through the silkencurtains Out of the north rose a great wind that roared a the towers, and there was cataclys rain
But the dawn shone clean and green and clear; the scorched ground veiled itself in grass, the thirsty crops sprang up anew, and the plague was gone its hty wind
Men said the Gods were satisfied because the evil king and his spaere slain, and when his young brother Tarascus was crowned in the great coronation hall, the populace cheered until the towers rocked, acclai the monarch on whom the Gods s as swept the land is frequently the signal for a war of conquest So no one was surprized when it was announced that King Tarascus had declared the truce hbors void, and was gathering his hosts to invade Aquilonia His reason was candid; hisof the glahtful heir to the throne”; he came, he proclaimed, not as an enemy of Aquilonia, but as a friend, to free the people froner
If there were cynical s's good friend A into the rather depleted royal treasury, they were unheeded in the general wave of fervor and zeal of Tarascus's popularity If any shrewd individuals suspected that Amalric was the real ruler of Nemedia, behind the scenes, they were careful not to voice such heresy And the ent forith enthusias and his allies hts in shi+ning ar above their helandines, crossbowmen in leather jerkins They crossed the border, took a frontier castle and burned three es, and then, in the valley of the Valkia, ten miles west of the boundary line, theyof Aquilonia forty-five thousand knights, archers and th and chivalry Only the knights of Poitain, under Prospero, had not yet arrived, for they had far to ride up frodo His invasion had come on the heels of his proclamation, without formal declaration of war
The two hosts confronted each other across a wide, shallow valley, with rugged cliffs, and a shallow streah masses of reeds and n the middle of the vale The camp-followers of both hosts came down to this stream for water, and shouted insults and hurled stones across at one another The last glints of the sun shone on the golden banner of Neon, unfurled in the breeze above the pavilion of King Tarascus on an eminence near the eastern cliffs But the shadow of the western cliffs fell like a vast purple pall across the tents and the arolden lion that floated above King Conan's pavilion
All night the fires flared the length of the valley, and the wind brought the call of trues of the sentries who paced their horses along either edge of the n strea Conan stirred on his couch, which was no more than a pile of silks and furs thrown on a dais, and awakened He started up, crying out sharply and clutching at his sword Pallantides, his coht, his hand on his hilt, and perspiration dripping froely pale face
”Your Majesty!” exclaiht auards out?”
”Five hundred horseeneral ”The Neht They wait for dawn, even as we”
”By Cro that dooht”
He stared up at the great golden las and carpets of the great tent They were alone; not even a slave or a page slept on the carpeted floor; but Conan's eyes blazed as they ont to blaze in the teeth of great peril, and the 89
sword quivered in his hand Pallantides watched hi
”Listen!” hissed the king ”Did you hear it? A furtive step!”