Part 7 (1/2)

Conan rode north in the vanguard of fifty Green-cloaks Farad and Sorbi a complete circle around their chief every few ht, Khezal rode with three picked Greencloaks

They kept a similar watch out for his safety

”Conan,” Khezal called, across the gap ”What would you have done if I had refused to let you ride north?”

”I remember a wise captain who said that 'if is a word for priests and scribes, not fighting men”

”I re a young Ciht” ”Indeed, I would have owed the other captain an answer to such a question,” the Cierously level voice ”Do I owe you as ht me also, and there is another reason for you to think carefully before you refuse I do not teach I lead men, who, like me, must kno far we can trust you”

Conan hts Indeed, Khezal was in a position wherein the trust of his then that trust, and would not weaken Conan, was Khezal's right

”So be it,” Conan said ”Had you refused, I would still have gone north, with Farad and Sorbih to stand in our path We ht even have saved the captives”

”And if you could not?” one Greencloak said Khezal shot the man a barbed look, but Conan held up a hand

”No, the answer's his right as well as yours If they had to die, they would have died as whole men, or at least not without rites”

The Greencloak looked more content than his captain Conan spat into the sand

Khezal iser than the Cimmerian intended to tell him for sohulis and those the tribesmen called chief

Seven

Conan rode well to the fore, flanked by Farad and Sorbim They were careful to keep their distance fro out of bowshot That would soodwill that Khezal bore the Cimmerian would stay the captain's coht be otherthis patch of desert, besides Turanians and Afghulis A them, the three riders left no part of the horizon unwatched, nor the ranks of Turanian riders behind the was direly needed ht be two hours away at a fast pace, as much as three at one that spared the horses Conan stood silent as to which pace they should use, but gave the world a dusty grin as he saw the Turanians settle down to a pace that their mounts could keep up all day

This wasno fool However, even wise ht this would show loyalty and help keep their heads on their shoulders

Conan had no quarrel with any such desire in Khezal He only insisted that Khezal's head not survive at the price of his and his Afghulis'

Everyone's head re that first hour They were riding out from a well-supplied, atered camp, and even the newest to the ranks of the Greencloaks was a veteran of at least five years' service

Watching the ranks of desert-wise riders behind hiht at the rocks, Conan felt a twinge of regret at his flight from Turanian service The officer whose mistress he had ”stolen” (a word he always resented, considering hoillingly the lady had coerd Even if others had been able to patch up a truce between Conan and the officer, the lady would surely have suffered The truce would also have ended the h on the throne to do suchthem a Cimmerian's head

No, it was as well to be out of Turanian service It would have been better to be out of Turanian reach altogether, but Conan had shulis who had exiled themselves out of loyalty to hi the nobleman could control, and as for the rest, the Cimmerian trusted to his sword arood hulistan

They were halfway through the second hour of their journey when Conan saw the horsee to the north

Danar son of Araubas looked rather better than his captain had expected when the two Khorajans erexecution A second look told Muhbaras that the walls had once been bricked, o than he cared to think about

What he faced noas quite sufficiently disagreeable-and as nothing coht face if his luck were out

Four Maidens had escorted the captain to the entrance of the chamber, so low that he had to stoop to enter-and he was not tall for a Khorajan Four other Maidens were already on guard, which seemed none too fehen the captain saw that the door itself was only a woven screen of rushes A child with a toy dagger could have cut his way through that to a brief freedouards cut him down

But none of the Maidens approached it, and on the floor the captain saw a dead mouse and more than a few dead insects When a Maiden did open the screen, she did it with the bronze point of a spear whose shaft was carved into unpleasantly familiar if still incomprehensible runes She also wore an amulet of feathers and small rose- and amethyst-hued stone beads, and ht open up and s her at a misstep

The captain had seldom moved with such exquisite care as when he stooped and entered Danar's chaone down on his hands and knees to avoid touching the screen if it had been necessary

To his h enough to spare him that hu that even if she would keep the secret, her comrades would not The Lady of the Mists kept her Maidens, if not at one another's throats, at least looking over one another's shoulders

Doubtless the Lady knew that this could do harainst a serious foe Coues as much as they did the enemy's steel could hardly be called comrades at all

Just as certainly, the Lady wasthe Maidens loyal to her A serious foe, she no doubt thought, would not enter the Valley of the Mists before her as done

It was no pleasure to Muhbaras to realize that the Lady of the Mists was quite probably right

Even Conan's hawk-keen sight could make out little about the rider, other than that he rode a horse and wore dark robes

”Which is the garb of half the tribes in this land,” Khezal said when he rode up to e of pace or forht think they had not seen hiarb of the other half when they go long enough without washi+ng,” Farad said

”Speak for yourself, rock-crawler,” Sergeant Barak lare from both Conan and Khezal silenced their followers

The watcher see the easiest march route but not actually on it As they drew closer, the watcher drew back, and Conan saw that he was retreating toward a nightain the size of the Turanians could hide in that land, and seeking one man in it would take the rest of the day before they had to adround before the Turanians also grew rough

They could slow to a trot thatto the watcher

The conversation was brief

”The tribes could not have sent too many men into this area,” Khezal said

”Otherwise the patrol's er could not have returned to cah with the purpose of drawing us out into an ambush,” Conan added

”We have still done e bands to the south and west,” Khezal insisted ”One doubts that our number of Greencloaks has much to fear from any number of tribesmen who may lie ahead”

It would be unwise to dispute with Khezal before his own men, and Conan had little wish to do so The Turanian captain ht Still

”Far be it froainst your hulis? I wager that the tribesmen consider all alike lawful prey If the tribesht-”