Part 19 (1/2)
Trocero paced the floor like a panther, a lithe, restless man with the waist of a woman and the shoulders of a swordshtly
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”Let us proclaied the count ”Let those northern pigs wear the yoke to which they have bent their necks The south is still yours Dwell here and rule us, amid the flowers and the palms”
But Conan shook his head ”There is no nobler land on earth than Poitain But it cannot stand alone, bold as are its sons”
”It did stand alone for generations,” retorted Trocero, with the quick jealous pride of his breed
”We were not always a part of Aquilonia”
”I know But conditions are not as they were then, when all kingdoms were broken into principalities which warred with each other The days of dukedoms and free cities are past, the days of e ith”
”Then let us unite Zingara with Poitain,” argued Trocero ”Half a dozen princes strive against each other, and the country is torn asunder by civil wars We will conquer it, province by province, and add it to your doarans ill conquer Argos and Ophir We will build an eain Conan shook his head ”Let others dream imperial dreams I but wish to hold what is ether by blood and fire It's one thing to seize a throne with the aid of its subjects and rule then realm and rule it by fear I don't wish to be another Valerius No, Trocero, I'll rule all Aquilonia and no ”
”Then lead us over the mountains and ill sloith appreciation
”No, Trocero It would be a vain sacrifice I've told you what I dom
I must find the Heart of Ahriman”
”But this is s of a heretical priest, the s of a mad witch-woman”
”You were not in lancing at his right wrist, on which blue marks still showed faintly ”You didn't see the cliffs thunder down to crush the flower of my army No, Trocero, I've been convinced Xaltotun's no ainst hi to Kordava, alone”
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”But that is dangerous,” protested Trocero
”Life is dangerous,” ru of Aquilonia, or even as a knight of Poitain, but as a wandering ara in the old days Oh, I have eneh south of the Alimane, in the lands and the waters of the south Many on't knowof Aquilonia will remember me as Conan of the Barachan pirates, or Amra of the black corsairs But I have friends, too, and men who'll aid rin touched his lips
Trocero dropped his hands helplessly and glanced at Albiona, who sat on a near-by divan
”I understand your doubts, my lord,” said she ”But I too saw the coin in the temple of Asura, and look you, Hadrathus said it was dated five hundred years before the fall of Acheron If Xaltotun, then, is the man pictured on the coin, as his Majesty swears he is, that means he was no common wizard, even in his other life, for the years of his life were numbered by centuries, not as the lives of other men are numbered”
Before Trocero could reply, a respectful rap was heard on the door and a voice called: ”My lord, we have caught aabout the castle, who says he wishes to speak with your guest I await your orders”
”A spy froer, but Conan lifted his voice and called: ”Open the door and let me see hirasped on either hand by stern-looking men- at-arms He was a slender man, clad in a dark hooded robe
”Are you a follower of Asura?” asked Conan
The lanced hesitantly at Trocero
”The word came southward,” said the oes no farther southward, but stretches eastith the Khorotas But this I have learned: the thief who took the Heart of Ahriman from Tarascus never reached Kordava In the mountains of Poitain he was slain by robbers The jewel fell into the hands of their chief, who, not knowing its true nature, and being harried after the destruction of his band by Poitanian knights, sold it to the Kothic alvanized ”And what of Zorathus?”
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”Four days ago he crossed the Alios, with a sara in such times,” said Trocero
”Aye, times are troublous across the river But Zorathus is a bold reat haste to reach Messantia, where he hopes to find a buyer for the jewel Perhaps he hopes to sell it finally in Stygia Perhaps he guesses at its true nature At any rate, instead of following the long road that winds along the borders of Poitain and so at last coht across eastern Zingara, following the shorter and more direct route”
Conan sreat board quivered
”Then, by Crom, fortune has at last thrown the dice for me! A horse, Trocero, and the harness of a Free Co for me to overtake him, if I follow him to the end of the world!”
XII
THE FANG OF THE DRAGON
At dawn Conan waded his horse across the shallows of the Alimane and struck the wide caravan trail which ran southeastward, and behind him, on the farther bank, Trocero sat his horse silently at the head of his steel-clad knights, with the cri folds over hi breeze Silently they sat, those dark-hairedhad vanished in the blue of distance that whitened toward sunrise
Conan rode a great black stallion, the gift of Trocero He no longer wore the armor of Aquilonia His harness proclaimed him a veteran of the Free Companies, ere of all races
His head-piece was a plain morion, dented and battered The leather and mail-mesh of his hauberk orn and shi+ny as if bycarelessly from his mailed shoulders was tattered and stained He looked the part of the hired fighting- man, who had known all vicissitudes of fortune, plunder and wealth one day, an empty purse and a close-drawn belt the next
Andof old lorious days of old before his feet were set on the i, brawling, guzzling, adventuring, with no thought for theale, red lips, and a keen sword to swing on all the 166
battlefields of the world
Unconsciously he reverted to the old ways; a neagger beca, in the way he sat his horse; half-forgotten oaths rose naturally to his lips, and as he rode he hus that he had roared in chorus with his reckless companions in many a tavern and on many a dusty road or bloody field
It was an unquiet land through which he rode The companies of cavalry which usually patrolled the river, alert for raids out of Poitain, were nowhere in evidence Internal strife had left the borders unguarded The long white road stretched bare froons or lowing herds roups of horsemen in leather and steel, hawk-faced, hard-eyed ether and rode warily These swept Conan with their searching gaze but rode on, for the solitary rider's harness proes lay in ashes and deserted, the fields and meadows idle Only the boldest would ride the roads these days, and the native population had been decimated in the civil wars, and by raids froed with os, or back But now these found it wiser to follow the road that led east through Poitain, and then turned south down across Argos It was longer, but safer Only an extreoods on this road through Zingara
The southern horizon was fringed with fla pillars of smoke drifted upward; in the cities and plains to the southup in fla-, the pillaging and the looting as in the days of old
Why should he toil to regain the rule of a people which had already forgotten him? why chase a will-o'-the-wisp, why pursue a crown that was lost for ever? Why should he not seek forgetfulness, lose hiulfed him so often before? Could he not, indeed, carve out another kingdoe of war and iht well rise above the ruins of nations as a supreme conqueror Why should it not be himself? So his familiar devil whispered in his ear, and the phantoms of his lawless and bloody past crowded upon hi a quest that grew dimmer and dimmer as he advanced, until sometimes it seemed that he pursued a dream that never was
He pushed the black stallion as hard as he dared, but the long white road lay bare before hi start Zorathus had, but Conan rode steadily on, knowing that he was traveling faster than the burdened merchants could travel And so he came to the castle of Count Valbroso, perched like a vulture's eyrie on a bare hill overlooking the road
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