Part 2 (1/2)
”Open the door,” Alcuina ordered pereh, and Conan was forced tothe slightest sign of discomfort
She turned back to the hall and called in a coards! We must see to the livestock or they shall all freeze Build up the fires, and get all the spare hangings on the walls!” She beckoned to her steward and the et all the stock you can into the stables with plenty of fodder We cannot afford 10 lose a single horse or cow Get all the fowl into the stables or the sheds as well If need be we'll move any beasts that have no place else into the hall with us until tus weather breaks Better to put up with the ser”
”Yes, Alcuina,” the steward said, and he hurried ff calling the nae of the stock
The queen turned to Conan and beckoned ”Coer, we must see whether the old man is well”
For a moment Conan did not understand who she then he remembered the old wizard, Rerin ”A at,” he said, and rushed back into the hall He e on his sword
”Why do you need that?” she demanded
”You hired rin ”I am of precious little use to you with- led the way to the little hut near the stone wall, i adle plait thick as a maiden's arm, swayed with her purposeful stride The shape of her body was a coown and fur robe, but her carriage was light and graceful
”The old ht,” Conan told her
”How do you know that?”
”I came out after everyone else was abed and spoke awhile with the gate sentry As I returned I saw a light in his ”
”He works inhours,” she said ”Unlike warriors, who fight once in a great while and spend the rest of their ti of their feats”
Conan smiled mirthlessly This one did not yield an inch He rapped on the door of the hut, and it was opened alh he had had no sleep, but he see and alert
He nodded to Conan and turned to Alcuina ”Come inside I have unwelcome news”
Alcuina entered and so, unbidden, did Conan She turned on him
”Wait without Who bade you come in?”
”I'm accursed if I'll freeze my backside out there while you warm yours at the wizard's fire, lady You have hired a warrior, not a lackey” He folded his arrew red in the face and seeue-assault when the wizard touched her shoulder
”Let hireat use to us in the trials we face” The queen instantly quieted
”Very well,” she said She paid no further attention to Conan ”What iants? It is unnatural”
”Unnatural, indeed, my lady I am sure that it has been cast upon us by our enemy, liluely Hyperborean to his with that race
The queen turned on hiesture ”He is a wiz-ard, youngTotila of the Tor, I could sic in the air I searched the sky, but I saw no sign of his pie-familiars I knew then that his as in the very air all around I leht the ”
”What have you discovered?” asked Alcuina
Conan leaned against the jamb, deeply troubled He Ad not like it when sorcerers were at work This old s that disturbed the Gnled from the of-posts Small, stuffed anilass that were nize lay scattered ”He has been rousing the frost giants, as you can for yourself Beyond that, he is up to some that I cannot fatho our stock Icqppiing our people?”
”1 do not see how that can be,” said the oldTotila's folk fully as s our own I fear that there is so far i cold in store for us”
Alcuina rose and turned to go ”I arth, Rerin We ht coht So long as there are evil things abroad at night, I want none ofwithout the walls”
”But, Alcuina, if I aht,” she said in a voice brooking no dispute The old , the queen strode outdoors into the teeth of the wind and began giving orders The Cily admitted to himself that she com-manded as well as any professional soldier he had ever seen While the stock were being seen to, and fuel and fodder gathered, Conan was ordered to mount and was sent out with three others, one of several bands whose task it was to seek out and report on the outlying garths and steadings, and the tiny villages in the forest clear-ings, ned Alcuina as their queen They were to ride as far as they could, while leaving the and cold ride, over snowy hills and through dark forests Here and there they saw the stiff for the night
”I like it not,” said Siggeir as they sat attheir horses rest ”The creatures of the wood should knohen a great freeze comes, even when our dull senses do not tell us I have seen unseasonable freezes in plenty, but never one that caught the beasts by surprise” Conan nodded but held his own counsel
The sun was just dipping below the western hills as they rode back into the garth Alcuina came to hear their report as they stiffly disers weathered the freeze well enough, arths we heard of threeflocks and herds who froze Perhaps one beast in ten perished in the cold”
The queen heard these words with a griht with Odoac's men and the weather, I have lost more than one hundred of ht people will be prepared”
At lanced at the space beneath the eave that ran around the great hall A row of blanketed forhtly covered by snowdrift ”Were they not buried today?” he asked
Alcuina followed his gaze ”Thea late thae'll not see them properly interred this winter Tomor-roe shall have a lich-house built for them outside the wall Doubtless there shall be other winter dead for it to house” She was gloomy but stoical Death and the pitiless elements were commonplace in the North, and one ould be a ruler there must learn to cope with both She turned to Conan ”You are the last party to return Close the gate and see to your ht there was a meal, but no feast Until it was certain that this was a freak storer of a terrible winter, they would be kept on short rations No joints sht, wd they e and each man was restricted to no more than three tankards of the ale
The hall was far ht before At the benches, where before only free warriors and their wives had been permitted, there now sat thralls and children and all the other inhabitants of the garth At the end of the hall where the thralls would be quartered for the eency, several horses and cattle assured that the atrant nobody coenerated ood-sized fire
There would be no sentry posted on so bitter a night Instead, youths took it in turn to perch in the gables and peer out into the yard through the smoke holes at either end of the hall It seemed unnecessary to post a watch in any case, since an eneht for an attack, but Alcuina insisted that vigilance never be relaxed, whatever the weather
Finding that two tankards of ale scarcely took the edge off his thirst, Conan wageredhis last tankard with a warrior, the ownershi+p to be settled by an ars He was soon challenged again, and in this on six more tankards before his arm had tired sufficiently for him to be beaten by a burly, red-bearded thrall whose arms were like tree trunks He took part in so in the straw, scattering piglets and chickens ere sharing the a his last tankard of ale, Conan watched with ad post First the n on the ith a piece of charred stick from the fire It was a cohed out the design with a corner of his belt-ax, wielding the crude weapon with the delicacy of a surgeon His finishi+ng work he perfor, and all the other chores a knife is called to do When the as finished, Conan ran his fingers over it, feeling no splinters or gouges In the course of a long winter evening, the old man had performed a task that would have taken a Zamoran wood-carver a week to finish with a shopful of special-ized tools
To Conan's co, ”I'll paint it tohout the evening Alcuina looked grim but determined She had done all there was to be done Conan tried to cheer her, but she was in no mood for it
”Just keep your sword ar”
”My sword arm is always ready,” Conan said ”And it's at your service What ene's worries, Cimmerian By this day's work I , hard winter It hted If the season continues as hard as this, they will grow hungry, and they'll begin look-ing about for those who have food and fodder to raid”
Conan nodded ”Aye, you've the right of it there Kinging is not just fighting battles and lolling about on a throne drinking wine froave instructions for a watch to be posted and the torches extinguished The fire was banked fcr the night, and the people and livestock bedded down Alcuina retired to her bower behind the arras, nd soon the hall shook to the snores of its packed habitants