Part 12 (2/2)
Rerin came in to check on his patient ”You rinned crookedly ”Physicians are the saild Your shi+eld o but turned back at a last word froild
”Conan, you must slay Totila You are the only rew haunted ”It was like fighting a rim ”He'll not have my hair either”
After the feast, where each hting, Conan sat working a few nicks out of his sith a whetstone He looked up to see Rerin standing by his side
”How goes it, Rerin?”
The oldhis head ”I am most apprehensive It is three battles we face”
1
197Conan raised his sword and sighted along one edge ”Why three?”
”There will be a battle of ars, and a battle of wizards To survive, we must win all three”
Conan turned the sword over and checked the other edge ”Do you think ill not?”
”My greatest fears are for the wizard-duel I know my craft, as you have seen, but lilma has traffic with powers I dare not even contact They must destroy him in the end, but until he is overwhelmed by the fruits of his ambition, he may wield powers far in excess of any I co it fros are worse for an army than too much talk of defeat before battle can even be joined Thus, you are defeated ere you fight If you have already lost in your ownat all”
”That may be true of warriors, but I canneither optimism nor despair As of now, he has the upper hand”
”So in toe e in the htly ”You are not merely the simple warrior you seeht of ale ”When it co, I prefer to meet my foe man-to-man and sword-to-sword Wizardry is dif-ferent I have no liking for it, and if I et Nohat is your suggestion? You did not coe idle talk”
”Be sure of it Do you think that you can defeat Totila?”
Conan shrugged ”I haveTotila is a great war-rior, by all accounts When we reater”
”Odoac is of no account as a ht shall depend upon who kills Odoac first, we or Totila They will probably join his slayer for lack of a king The deciding factor must be lilma, and he is in bad odor with Totila now”
”How so?” asked Conan
”He has failed a nu deadhipies fro theain favor with Totila In this desperation we ed Conan, intrigued Wizard and chaht
199
thirteenDereat hall had been curtained off as an infir With the stoicish they knewLeovigild was in such pain that even breathing was an agony, but he felt that he was fortunate to be a such
His gaers was interrupted when an arras stitched with the deeds of a warrior dead two hundred years was pushed aside, ad with Alcuina, Rerin, and Conan
”I trust you are on the ild,” Alcuina said
”I have seldo no one, ”and I hope to raise my sword in your cause soon”
Alcuina smiled, and such was her beauty that he 198
found Atalia slowly vanishi+ng froht he had spent in the little valley now see fro
”I'll not call upon your sword arm until you are fully fit,” Alcuina said ”However, there is a bold plan afoot to weaken Totila somewhat, and I deemed it meet that you should have a part in our counsels”
”I am honored that you so value ed a weak smile at Conan ”And I warrant that, if there is a bold plan brewing, this great, black-haired rogue is in the midst of it”
Uncereild's rude cot and leaned forward, crossing his arroeary of Totila's taood Rerin, here, thinks he knows a good way to strike at hiild said ”But how may a plain warrior deal with one who has dark powers in his hands?”
”Rerin,” said Alcuina, ”tell Leovigild and these warriors what you told ”
The old ray beard ”I have now observed much of this man, lilma, farfar, far different from my own I seek to use the properties of the plants, stones, and beasts of our land to aid ain the help of the Gods and spirits of the forest and the streas are not hostile to iven the proper respect, and by my spells theythe cold and snows of winter,the beasts of the forest plentiful to the hunters, and causing the streams to teem with fish for the nets of fishermen They cause the cattle, sheep, swine, and horses to be fruitful and bearOthers of these benevo-lent spirits helpof the injured, such as these warriors, whose honorable wounds have brought theracefully to include all the bloodied, bandaged, but unco men who occu-pied the cots and the pallets in the straw
”lilma, the Hyperborean, is a different breed of wiz-ard” His mien became solemn and baleful ”He does not seek to help ers of nature He seeks power for hiain him only so much True power over men is wielded by the arms of war-riors, and for this reason he has attached hiive lilma much of the credit for his ascent to power
”For such power as this wizard wishes to control, the so, lilreat powers of the worlds beyond ours Until recently these orlds I had only glireat puis-sance to a mortal man, but at a terrible price His ed When such a dark bargain is struck, there is an exchange The wizard of this world gives some part of himself, some crucial part of his soul that is forever accursed In return he receives one or reatly expand his powers and act as go-betweens in his dealings with the other worlds”
”The ild said
”Exactly,” said Rerin solepies They are demons of another world, but they could not maintain their true form in this world, nor would they want to, for one of the tasks of such fae back to their master, and it is best for them not to attract attention In all the lore I have studied, birds or bats have been the favored for powers, all the great sky as their field so that they can bring back to their er birds such as pies, crows, and ravens are le always draws attention A wren or sparrow looks out of place in certain areas, and owls are not seen in the day But the scavengers are everywhere”
Conan broke into the lengthy recitation ”Tonight, I go on a pie hunt”
”If lilma is deprived of his familiars,” Rerin said, ”he must lose much of his power”
”I hold,” Alcuina said, ”that Conan should take other warriors with him It is not meet that one man should venture into such peril alone”
”Soeir But there was a hesitation in his voice that said that his heart would not be in such a venture
”Nay,” said Conan, ”if it were a fight with ainst two birds and a wizard There is no advantage in nuht, and none here except ht the liches at night,” Siggeir said, ”al- 202