Part 11 (1/2)
”The knights ride into a hail of arrows!” cried the squire ”But they do not falter! They sweep on they have crossed! They charge up the slope! Pallantides has hurled the wings across the river to their support! It is all he can do The lion banner dips and staggers above the hts of Nemediais in full flight, and our pike and shting-lust Men no longer look to Pallantides They follow Valannus, dee him Conan, as he rides with closed vizor
”But look! There is s wide of the Nehts, the pick of the army The main host of the Nemedians is in confusion and look! Their flank is protected by the cliffs, but there is a defile left unguarded! It is like a great cleft in the wall that opens again behind the Nemedian lines By Mitra, Valannus sees and seizes the opportunity! He has driven their wing before hi wide of the e into the defile!”
”An aht
”No!” shouted the squire exultantly ”The whole Neotten the defile! They never expected to be pushed back that far Oh, fool, fool, Tarascus, tofrom the farther mouth of the defile, beyond the Nemedian lines They will smite those ranks from the rear and crumple them Mitra, what is this?”
He staggered as the walls of the tent swayed drunkenly Afar over the thunder of the fight rose a deep bellowing roar, indescribably ominous
”The cliffs reel!” shrieked the squire ”Ah, Gods, what is this? The river foaround shakes and horses and riders in ar!”
With his words there caround trembled Over the roar of the battle sounded screams of mad terror
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”The cliffs have crumbled!” cried the livid squire ”They have thundered down into the defile and crushed every living creature in it! I saw the lion banner wave an instant a stones, and then it vanished! Ha, the Nemedians shout with triumph! Well may they shout, for the fall of the cliffs has wiped out five thousand of our bravest knights hark!”
To Conan's ears ca in frenzy: ”The king is dead!
The king is dead! Flee! Flee! The king is dead!”
”Liars!” panted Conan ”Dogs! Knaves! Cowards! Oh, Crom, if I could but stand but crawl to the river with my sword in my teeth! How, boy, do they flee?”
”Aye!” sobbed the squire ”They spur for the river; they are broken, hurled on like spu to stem the torrent he is down, and the horses trahts, bowled in one mad torrent of destruction The Ne them down like corn”
”But they willWith an effort that brought the sweat dripping from his temples, he heaved himself up on his elbows
”Nay!” cried the squire ”They cannot! They are broken! Routed! Oh Gods, that I should live to see this day!”
Then he remembered his duty and shouted to the ht of their co upon it We dare not bide here”
But before they could do his bidding, the first drift of the stor the tents, stuled with theht and left at all alien figures Tent-ropes were cut, fire sprang up in a hundred places, and the plundering had already begun The gri and thrusting, and over their led corpses beat the hoofs of the conquerors
But the squire had drawn the flap close, and in the confused hter none realized that the pavilion held an occupant So the flight and the pursuit swept past, and roared away up the valley, and the squire looked out presently to see a cluster ofthe royal tent with evident purpose
”Here co of Nemedia with four companions and his squire,” quoth he ”He will accept your surrender, my fair lord ”
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”Surrender the devil's heart!” gritted the king
He had forced his painfully off the dais, and staggered upright, reeling drunkenly The squire ran to assist hiritted, indicating a longbow and quiver that hung froreat perturbation ”The battle is lost! It were the part ofone of royal blood!”
”I have no royal blood,” ground Conan ”I a away the bow and an arrow he staggered toward the opening of the pavilion So formidable was his appearance, naked but for short leather breeks and sleeveless shi+rt, open to reveal his great, hairy chest, with his huge liled blackthan of the whole Nes Conan drunkenly tore the door-flap open and staggered out under the canopy The king of Nemedia and his co in wonder at the apparition confronting them
”Here I a! Death to you, dog-brothers!”
He jerked the arrow to its head and loosed, and the shaft feathered itself in the breast of the knight who stood beside Tarascus Conan hurled the bow at the king of Nemedia
”Cursebackward on unsteady legs, he fell with his shoulders against a tent-pole, and propped upright, he lifted his great sith both hands
”By Mitra, it is the king!” swore Tarascus He cast a swift look about hihed ”That other was a jackal in his harness! In, dogs, and take his head!”
The three soldiers uards rushed at the king, and one felled the squire with a blow of a mace The other two fared less well As the first rushed in, lifting his sword, Conanstroke that severed mail-links like cloth, and sheared the Nemedian's ar backward, fell across his cos The reat sas through hi gasp, and staggered back against the tent-pole His great limbs trembled, his chest heaved, and sweat poured down his face and neck But his eyes flaery and he panted: ”Why do you stand afar off, dog of Belverus? I can't reach you; colanced at the reaunt, saturnine man in black mail, and took a step forward He was far inferior in size and strength to the giant Cimmerian, but he was in full armor, and was famed in all the western nations as a swordsht his arm
”Nay, Your Majesty, do not throay your life I will summon archers to shoot this barbarian, as we shoot lions”
Neither of theht was going on, and now ca over their shoulders, and a queer chill sensation crawled along his spine There was souely unnatural about the appearance of the black horses that drew the vehicle, but it was the occupant of the chariot that arrested the king's attention
He was a tallunadorned silk robe He wore a Shemitish head-dress, and its lower folds hid his features, except for the dark,the rearing horses back on their haunches, hite but strong
Conan glared at the stranger, all his primitive instincts roused He sensed an aura of ure, a rass that marks the path of the serpent
”Hail, Xaltotun!” exclai of Aquilonia! He did not die in the landslide as we thought”
”I know,” answered the other, without bothering to say how he knew ”What is your present intention?”
”I will su as he lives he will be dangerous to us”
”Yet even a dog has uses,” answered Xaltotun ”Take hily ”Cos I'd hew you out of that chariot like a wood a tree But you'll never take me alive, damn you!”