Part 4 (1/2)
”He said he thought not Some spirits are friends of the God-Men, others their enemies, or at least ene the spirits! Seyganko silently cursed the spirits, those who made them, those who served them- ”The God-Men have learned that Xuchotl the Accursed has fallen”
The words ca foul Indeed, her face seeanko and pressed her face into his shoulder He rested an arth within, but not seeking anything further now
”How did it fall?”
”It was hard to tell It seeame far to the east at the time the city fell He entered unharmed, explored it, saw that all within were dead, then fled, fearing that its destroyers would coave hie until they knohat use to make of it” If the God-Men had the wits of a leech, they would be asking Dobanpu to join his knowledge to theirs to fight whatever had the power to cast down the Accursed City Any such being could eat the tribes of the forest as a lionfish ate fingerlings
The God-Men lacked such wisdom, however Even if they found it now, Chabano of the Kwanyi would not let them spoil his dreams of conquest And Dobanpu would most likely refuse to trust the God-Men even if they and Chabano both asked for his aid Sey-ganko hoped he would not have to say the last in E
She knew her father could be proud and obstinate, but she had not granted her betrothed the right to say so
”Who else knows of this a the common folk of either tribe?”
”That, ht try to keep this knowledge froht serve theanko answered ”It is said that Chabano is jealous of the power of the God-Men and seeks to wage his ithout them If the God-Men joined with the power that destroyed Xuchotl, Chabano would be a babe against them”
”They would be mad to think that such a power could serve them!”
”I know that a shaman can do only so much You know that as well Both of us learned it froanko shrugged ”The God-Men were not so fortunate”
”Curse the God-Men!” Emwaya said fervently Then it was her hands that danced down Seyganko's back and under his garments, so that it was not she as the first of the would be needed to finish the work on the reat hope of that much sun and offered Valeria his shi+rt
She held it against her, then laughed ”As a night-shi+ft, I ht accept it”
”My hide's thicker than yours, Valeria, and not bred in Aquilonia”
”If I've survived the sun and salt wind at sea, I'll not broil before this hide cures”
”Or rots”
”Does Crom tell you to look always for the worst, Conan?”
”Groin's not a God to tell anyone anything, at least not for the asking,” Conan replied His gri matter for him, or for anyone else born in the Northlands, where the nahty
”Is that why you're so often close, she threw up her hands and fell in behind the Ciht's camp before a brief but heavy shower soaked them both and left pools of clean water everywhere They drank, then cut still-green branches fro theress the rest of the ry to the bank of a river too deep to wade Conan studied its surface, eyeing the swirls in the murky water He studied with equal care the banks of the river, including places where animal tracks ended in patches of churned mud and scattered leaves
”Crocodiles,” he said briefly
Valeria glowered at the water ”I was thinking we could make a raft and let the river do the work” ”It flows south and west, which is the ant to go But we've no tools, and the crocs would have us off a floating log before we'd gone half a league”
Conan looked beyond the banks, seeing fallen tree trunks He saw too few for a raft, and soth to roll to the water
”No, I was thinking we should be hunting for a meal, anyway Share a beast with the crocodiles, and they ed ”If it works with sharks, it may ith crocodiles But, oh, that I'd ever be ready to sell my soul for a canoe”
”Sell your body for an ax, and we'd have the canoe,” Conan said, then ducked as Valeria lashed at hier and the need for silence ended the banter They found hiding places that cole creatures ca wait, as the pools of rainwater would doubtless content the beasts as well as theht be dark before the animals came, and Conan did not care to match ith a crocodile after dark
As a prophet, Conan failed It was not yetand snorting through the bushes There were five in all: an old boar, a sow, and three piglets following in the wake of their elders
Using the hand signals of the Barachan pirates, Conan told Valeria to take the sow, or failing that, a piglet That would do for their own food He himself would face the boar-and any crocodile not sated with that much raw pork was no creature of nature
Conan thrust that thought aside with the same distaste he felt for all wizardry
Yet he could not forget last night Had he sensed powerful ic at work not far off ? It would not have surprised the Ciic The tales he had heard in Xuchotl suggested that those who built the city ic, as well as stones, behind Old, evil, tainted htree on how far that lore had spread, how long it had lasted, or how deep it had sunk roots into the ree on how a man became a spell-smeller-the name in the north for those who had so hiree that such men existed
Soes in the natural world, changes that any spell always uments, and less than most of that one
If such talk could have made sorcerers forsake their craft and turn into honest ladly joined it until his throat was dry As matters were, he chose not to let his throat dry out in the first place!
Now the boar was sniffing the air with the care of the scout of a host seeking an a from it toward the hunters, and both Conan and Valeria had been in the jungle long enough for its suise theirs
Conan nodded, and Valeria drew her sword It caught briefly in the scabbard, and the faint scraping as it caain it sniffed the wind, and this tier
The danger that struck first was not the human hunters Conan did not see the ripple in the strea, tooth-studded jaws burst from the water and close on the sow
Her squeals raised echoes and sent birds flying andbowshot Valeria leaped fro down at one of the piglets as they scattered
The boar paid her no attention at first as it lowered its head and tried to gore the crocodile The reptile, a patriarch of the breed, had flung itself so far up the bank that it could not return at once to the water Its claws gouged mud, and its tail lashed as it tried to fend off the boar, hold on to the dying sow, and reach the refuge of the river
At last it succeeded in all three A bloody swirl in the water marked its escape Valeria had just sheathed her sword in the neck of a second piglet when the boar turned on her
Had the boar been a little quicker, the songs sung in later days about Valeria of the Red Brotherhood would have been rather shorter But she turned, freeing her sword, drawing her dagger, and leaping aside from the boar's rush with a speed that rivaled Conan's The Cimmerian remembered how deadly she had been in the battles in Xuchotl as her dagger slashed the boar's e and pain and drew back Its hooves churned up alain footing on the slippery bank for launching a charge, but again it was a trifle too slow Conan ithin sword's reach before the boar could charge There was no subtlety or art in the way his sword caara to Vanaheith of the blow, more suited to an executioner than a swordsman
It did not matter to Conan who struck the blow, or to the boar, who fell dead, or to Valeria, who found the boar lying at her feet Valeria turned, the battle-light in her eyes, and brushed her hair from her face The ether she was a sight toher prey, silhouetted against the sun-dappled river
She stood so that once again Conan did not see the warning ripples in the streae as the first, but not as swift Also, it exhaled a great, foul, hissing breath as it slid up the bank
Valeria juth fro where she leaped, she landed on a slippery patch, reeled, and staggered hard against the Ci her backith hiainst a red-barked tree The tree shook anda new danger, Conan stepped away frorip on Valeria as he did so