Part 11 (2/2)
Conan grasped Leovigild's ar man down to sit on the bench beside his, boy” He held up a single, greasy finger ”One, I serve Alcuina, not you Any rewarding is for her to do, not you Two”--he placed a second finger beside the first--”never congratulate a man for a victory that is yet unwon The Gods don't like it and have been known to punish such presuer went up beside the other two--”I sail south with the springtime Land is difficult to take on shi+pboard in any quantity, so I'll take rant us the victory”
To Conan's surprise Leovigild grinned broadly at his words ”Truly, the Ciend has it I thank you for words of wisdoreatest champion in the Northland, and I am a penniless out- 182
183cast who rejoices to follow you into battle Let the victory fall where the Gods wish it”
Conan smiled thinly Despite all his best efforts, he could not keep fro the boy ”However it be-falls,” he said, ”there will be blood on the snow soon”
Conan surveyed his little arranted an extra, precious day to train in their encaave hi the trees, then charging down upon the enenal The men had been divided into six squadrons, three to each eneet theh that he could count on the squadrons to strike the head, center, and rear of each enemy army siagement as reliably However, he saw no choice The best way for a sreater force inorder
As they disht, he felt that they were now as ready as he could make them It was just as well, because he saw a party of hunts from the tree line They ran up to him, and one of them, a tousle-headed youth who carried a boar-spear; reported
”We've found the Torht hoursThey will be bedding down about now, perhaps six hours away”
”Have they an advance guard out?” Conan asked
The youth shook his head ”No All together, with a fewTotila Him we knew by his cloak of men's hair”
”Good,” Conan said ”On the ht, you shall lead one of our force to a good place on their route of march for an attack” Within the hour another little band of huntsians had been spotted, co by a more southerly route If all ell both of Alcuina's forces should spring their first areed that Conan would lead the group to attack the Thungians Leovigild would lead the at-tack against the Tormanna This disturbed Conan be-cause he was certain that Totila and his Torerous enemy, and he would have pre-ferred to lead the attack hih, that the band not led by the queen's chaild would not fight his fellow Thungians In spite of Conan's reputation those in Leovigild's party counted themselves lucky, for they would have a chance to show their prowess and loyalty before the
They arose before the tardy winter sun and readied theeir to one side The ild as his second in coeir, do not let Leovigild try to fight Totila himself From what I've heard of that e hieir was silent for a ainst it, but howall the glory he can? He'll 184
185be wanting to show Alcuina he's brave as well as wise”
Conan clapped him on the shoulder ”Just do what you can In the end he ers as the rest of us, I suppose” Conan turned to his follow-ing ”Mount up! We ride now!” He swung into the saddle of his little, northern stallion and faced Leovigild He raised an arild returned the salute ”We'll ain, warrior In Alcuina's hall or Ymir's!”
There was a brief thunder of hooves, a flurry of chumed-up snow, and the two bands split up, one to the west, the other to the south
Conan stood beside his horse, holding the cloth that covered its eyes He and his ood view of the road below The Thungians were co, and they were already well past the first two squadrons Conan's own force would strike the head of the coluripped the sword at his waist
He had scoured Alcuina's arth he found one, Aquilonian by the look of it It had probably been a gift froht never have been used, since it was unsuited to the local style of coh ”Mount,” he said in a quiet voice
The men stripped the covers frorins of anticipation They readied their spears, and Conan's sword rasped frobard, who sat his horse beside Conan The , loud blast With a shout they spurred theirslope
The men below looked up in amazement at the little band of horsemen who bore down upon them Surely this could not be an attack Why were the et off their horses if they wanted to fight? Where were the customary boasts and taunts that always preceded combat? Then they had no more leisure for speculation as the horse his blade down over the edge of a shi+eld The man he faced was unused to such blows and failed to raise his shi+eld high enough The steel sword opened a gap in his bronze hellanced about and saw that histheir spears over the shi+elds of the foe A few had given in to the te he had specif-ically forbidden theht with except their swords
A man thrust at Conan with a spear, and he flicked the shaft aside before chopping into the ht knot of ray-bearded man in fine armor This must be Odoac and his household warriors Conan tried to force a way to hio no farther
”Hagbard!” Conan called ”Sound your horn!”
Hagbard broke away fronal, most of the men dreay from the battle and rode up to the trees Conan waited for a nal As he had feared, several were fighting on in a berserk fay Quickly, those were overpowered and slain He 186187even saw one leap froround briefly before being cut to pieces
Arouped Conan made a quick count and found that they had lost ten men He had expected to lose more Henceforth, their losses should be fewer because now the berserks and the fools were dead
”Shall we try the from beneath the rim of his helm
”Not today,” Conan answered ”It is too late for another sally, and the horses are too excited We'll find a good camp and hit thehtfall”
That night thethereat victory instead of a trifling raid against their enemy, with no riht By then they would have learned that this kind of fighting was long, hard, dangerous ith little glory in it
”What do you think, Conan?” asked Hagbard ”Did we not do well today?”
”Aye,” Conan said ”Most of the rinned ”The Thungians huddled like sheep They will be no stop to us”
”Today they were surprised To they will be a little less so After that it is only a ht us and how easy it is for men behind a shi+eld-wall to deal with horsemen, especially when they are not bard, crestfallen
Conan gave a curt nod ”Today, out of habit, they struck at the riders Soon they will realize that it isfor the e the riders, we'll know that it is tiarth”
Totila cursed the dense flurry of snow that had begun to fall The horsemen had struck thepies flew close by his head to perch upon lil?” Totila de,” lilma answered ”The snow is too dense” He hesitated ”I feel soin”
Totila spent a brief ht After the first strike the day before, the horsemen had attacked in the ether!” he shouted ”Form a shi+eld-wall here! They'll be back soon!”
The colu men closed up quickly and stood shi+eld-to-shi+eld They were grim and impatient for combat The will-o'-the-wisp horseet for their wrath This ti or hearing the hated horseild waited nervously at the edge of the trees They could hear theht of this when the old wizard had suggested this plan of action The snow 188
189blinded the birds, but it blinded the horsemen as well He turned to Rerin
”I do not like this We had an advantage e could see theood an idea”
”It was the only hope,” Rerin told hiive us two undetected a snow ”You had best make your move The snoill thin soon”
”They've stopped,” said Siggeir, who sat his ht on this for a moment ”Totila is no fool We hit him twice in the sno he expects us to strike while it is snowing” He ca the other two squadrons here If they are no longer strung out in line of roups Best to pick one spot on the shi+eld-wall and throw all our force against it”
”That was not Conan's instruction,” said Rerin doubtfully
”Conan is not here,” said Leovigild ”I aeir advised ”Leave battle to the warriors” He wheeled his horse and was off The ild's aret into the thick of the fight That was enough for the Caild assured Rerin with a smile, ”I think this is the course Conan would have advised had he been here”
Before the snow had begun to thin, the rest of the ild ”We'll find them in a shi+eld-wall down there,” he called out ”This tiainst one part of the wall Those wedo not engage can do nothing but watch Do not try to seek out a chaht, but help your comrades to break the wall We can hurt them sorely that way When 1 order the horn sounded, break off and rally in the trees”
”Where do we hit theeir