Part 4 (2/2)
”And loot anything the friends stole from other caravans, I'll be bound?” Raihna smiled as she spoke, but her voice was as hard as the rock where she sat.
”Well-I'll not deny that, Mistress.”
”Good. You're truthful, if not wise. We have four dead and six hurt past fighting again today. This forest is no place to be dividing our strength against foes who likely know it well.”
The man took the rebuke with a shrug and a smile and set to work mending the harness of a pack mule.
In less time than Conan needed for a meal at a good wineshop, the caravan was on the march again. As they retraced Conan's path from the ruined castle and gallows, the Cimmerian rode in the van. Raihna rode in the center, well out of earshot, which denied Conan the chance for a discreet word with her.
Not that he would have taken it had they been riding side by side.
Every eye and every ear would be needed until they left the forest, and every mouth had best remain closed.
Clouds and the pa.s.sing of the day had brought twilight to the land before they reached the gallows. It was then that Raihna drew rein beside the Cimmerian and studied the ruined village.
”I like not the looks of that place, Conan. Know you anything of it, for good or for ill?”
”You have no one from this realm among your men?”
”Folk of the Border Kingdom who have won free of it seem not overeager to return, I have learned. I had good men of my own, and no wish to burden them with fainthearts.”
Conan nodded. One willing man was worth three dragged into an undertaking. Moreover, a native of this land could well have been in league with the bandits.
”Castle or village?” Conan asked.
”The path up to the castle's too steep for the beasts, and I'll not be dividing the men here, either,” Raihna said.
”Then it's the village or sleep wet and cold tonight,” Conan said, looking at the sky. It had grown yet more sullen in the time they sat their mounts, watching the bandit's body rise to the gallows.
”That would ill serve our wounded,” Raihna said. She cupped her hands.
”Ho! We camp in the village tonight. Find the softest stones and the driest mud it offers, and see to the animals. Blue Watch takes first guard.”
She turned to Conan. ”That means me. The sergeant of Blue Watch is among the wounded. But I will not be awake all night.”
Conan grinned. ”You mean, you'll not be standing guard all night.
Whether you sleep or not-”
”You seem sure of your prowess, Cimmerian!”
”Have I no reason?”
Raihna returned Conan's grin. ”If you press me for an answer, I would not deny it. But before I see to the men-what brought you from Turan?
The service of spylord Mishrak again?”
Conan suggested that Mishrak defiled he-goats and p.i.s.sed in wells, then laughed. ”Not Mishrak, nor anyone in Turan, bade me here. Indeed, the farther the better from Turan for a few years.”
He told of his final year in the Turanian service and of how it had ended in flight when a high-ranking officer took offense at the Cimmerian's ways with the man's mistress. He told more briefly of his travels afterward, north to Cimmeria and then south again.
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