Part 3 (1/2)
”Tarriors, lady,” said Siggeir ”And three thralls Had the Cimmerian not taken a hand when he did, the toll would have been far higher”
”Yes,” she said distractedly, ”he did well Get plenty of fuel together I want all the dead reduced to ashes; and the ashes scattered”
”It groar up that would have been cold at any other time, but that seemed warm after the last two days
”So it does,” Alcuina said She turned to her wiz-ard ”What make you of this?”
”It is plain nohat lilreat cold upon us to freeze the ground so we could not bury our dead He used theainst us, both to attack us and to let in Odoac's men, or, rather, ihe liches ere once men”
”Let's go pay King Totila a visit,” Conan sug-gested ”I would very much like to kill this lilht,” Alcuina said ”With the door repaired and the dead safely disposed of, then we can discuss action To work”
All the rest of the night they toiled to set the house in 52
order While the women saw to the hall, the warriors and thrall-men went to the woods and cut trees to build a pyre They could not spare seasoned firewood, but the winter pine would burn fiercely, even though it was still green With teaarth Just outside the wall they stacked therease from the kitchen-midden
The bodies of the freshly slain were cast upon the pyre, along with those of friend and enemy Even a few beasts that had perished were tossed on The sun was high in the east when the pyre was set alight The arms of the slain warriors were thrown into the blaze, since they could not be buried together
”Look,” said Rerin as the flaer straight upward Far overhead a pair of pies circled
ftoe Wizard-Craft Jilma,” said Totila oed beneath his reindeer skins ”It was not I who failed you, Totila, but the dead”
”I ask little of the dead, wizard,” said the king, barely able to restrain his temper ”Fro an unnatural cold upon us, costing me dear in livestock and thralls, then your army of deadwhile theof the un-atural spell of cold weather
lilhtily ”If my lord has no further use for eturned conciliatory ”Oh, sit down, lilma I spoke overhastily Wethat can devastate the whole eooBtryside, though Like it or not, a king lives by plows as well as by swords I would not have thought it 535455
when I was merely a chieftain over a dozen men, but the loss of oxen can hurt a ruler as severely as the loss of fighting h his luxuriant, red-gold beard ”How ht?”
”Master,” lilma said, ”let me ht provide the answer for us Certain powers commune with me Let me suo to raciously
The men quieted as the wizard rattled fro Totila hiers through the scalps of dead chieftains and cha counsel with her warriors and her wizard ”What may we do to counter this threat from Totila? It is plain that he will destroy us all if we do not do so Odoac?” Conan asked
”Several hundred, if he calls them all up,” she answered ”More than I have Why do you ask?”
”Why not ally yourself with him? With your com-bined armies, you could destroy Totila It would be of profit to you both” He drained his tankard and held it out forof the freakish cold Alcuina had lifted the rationing
”I knohat the price for his alliance would be!” she said hotly ”I'll not lie in that pig's bed for a score of kingdoms!”
”So much for that, then,” Conan muttered
”I fear,” Rerin said, ”that his next attack will be ical as well After all, why should he risk his men when he has the evil lilma to do his work for hieir
”Aye, I'm for that,” Conan said ”Just tell me where to find this spell-caster, and I'll take care of him He must sleep sometiht, but one who raises deadhas no claim on any man's mercy or justice”
Alcuina turned to her oizard ”What of it, Rerin? Could Conan steal upon lilma and kill hiive”
The old ht k lil to his defenses He will be rounded with traps and warnings Most especially, Acre are hisus even now” Many heads jerked around, eyes ith fear and searching the surround-g shadows ”No, they or so killer, be the man ever so eakhy and crafty”
”Oo down his 1 ”These are mortal men There must be some m to deal with them” But none there had an answer 'tarn
the wizard strode through the forests and across His Above hiht and keen for the sight of ene-l Liave no notice to the cold or the snow, t tcun those of a normal winter The pouch at his tnaaiinrd a little food, which was all he needed
56To a ician, the needs of the flesh were the pettiest of concerns
Ten years before, he had coe lands, driven froone south, to the rich kingdoes in his spirit-trances But his ic of the snows and the forests His was the iants, of the spirits that lived in stone and wood and water To the south was the ic of other Gods, equally ancient, and dominated by the serpent cult of Set In those lands his power reat, and he was too old to learn a new art
Thus, he had colets arid chose one such to bend to his will Totila was strong and fierce, but he was also crafty and saw no reason to use ic would do his work He was the perfect instrureatest king of the North, and liles such as Rerin would be no stop to hireat powers
On his third day of travel liletation as it supported was stunted and with-ered, and it took strange shapes not pleasant to look upon lilma journeyed there two or three tirehere else in the North Alrew there had powers and prop-erties that were valuable to hiical plants
As he progressed into the heath the plants greer, until there were none at all Here the ground was 57frozen and cracked, like a dried lake-bottoht In the center of the wasteland towered a ular in shape and croith an encircling wail, much like those that dotted the plain where Alcuina had built her hall Leaning upon his staff, liled to the top of the s He could see the cracked plain he had crossed, but neither hills nor forests were visible in the distance Only a waver-ing haze was to be seen The laws of the ordinary world did not always apply to this demon-haunted place
The as breached by a narrow doorway, and within the top of the mound was empty save for a beehive-shaped huthis fah the low doorway into the hut The inside was dark and smelled of damp, and the wizard quickly kindled a fire froathered on the way As it blazed high the fire revealed a conical chah stone and a floor of packed earth, nothing more
Onto the fire lilma cast small objects from his pouch: bones, feathers, clots of dried blood, and certain plants plucked froathered thickly in the chamber, for there was no smoke hole at its peak For reasons peculiar to this place, no sh the door lil back and forth, he began to chant, occasionally stirring the embers of the fire with his staff In tiourd rattle in a monotonous rhythm Gradually he lost all sense of where he was The hut and the smoke disappeared from his senses, and he entered the spirit world
58
59suwas revechaloriously locked thows reround the He was never sure at what point he would enter that strange realm The spirit world and the world of men were not like nations, whose borders remain in the same juxtaposition He had ate, and never had he twice entered the sa in theto display stars that were not those to be seen from the world ofshapes offashi+on Sitting in the middle of this plain, lilma continued to rattle and chant The flames of his fire were still before hin
Froaunt and hideous Great, glowing eyes and long teeth shone in the diers were tipped with claws Bloodlust burned in their eyes, but none ventured within the circle of light cast by the little fire In tier
The thing that ca plain of the spirit world was evil to behold, bloated of body and with a face like that of a toad, if a toad's face were capable of expression andin loose folds about its repulsive body It squatted before the wizard and waited with an air of intelligent expectation
”What would you?” it asked in a hissing voice The tongue it spoke was one known only to wizards and demons
”I have an ene should have a certain woman It is my desire that you attend to my ene”
”The wo hissed