Part 1 (1/2)

Conan The Relentless

Roland Green

PROLOGUE

Night in the wilderness of the Border Kingdoht Darkness was a presence in itself, which reached out to suck a ht

In that darkness, the man who called himself Lord Aybas awoke slowly and reluctantly In another life, under another name, he had been fit to drink and wench until dawn tinted the sky, then rise to do a day's work

Noas older His name was different The chief he obeyed was likewise different, and was harsher than any Aybas had served back in Aquilonia Also, it was more often than not an uneasy sleep Aybas had here in the wilderness, on beds of cut branches or piled reeds, or even of leaves strewn on the sullen rock of the mountains

Yet the true reason for Aybas's sloakening lay elsewhere It was a sound that he heard, riding the night wind as harshly as a troop of cavalry in a stone courtyard He knehat followed on the heels of this sound If he could sleep, he would not hear it and memories of what he heard would not trouble his drearowl, or a hiss, or a rurindstone hard at work It had so of all of these in it, but more that was its own

It also had much in it that was not of the lawful earth or of any of its Gods Called on to put a naht have called thes

He would also have prayed not to be asked to tellthat he knehat those sounds e cursed alike by Gods and men, neither of whom seemed to care much what happened in this wilderness

At last Aybas threw off his sheepskin and stood He would not sleep again tonight, unless the cause of the sounds did The wizards ht send it back to sleep, or at least silence it before dawn They ht also keep it awake and at its work until the sun shone even into the deepest parts of the gorge and the valley

Even if he could sleep through the grisly uproar, it would not be an untroubled sleep He had seen too et any of it Aybas's oi tribe would die only with him

Even if it would cleanse his ht

To avoid it, he had fled his native Aquilonia, changed his na else for which he could find a buyer, to end here in the Border Kingdodoht happen, little of it clean or lawful Aybas had long since learned that too ia He was now learning the sadom

Boards creaked as Aybas walked to the door of his hut Like e, it was built on a slope so steep that one side had to be braced by entire tree trunks Otherwise, anything left on the hut floor would roll ht the hut itself ht even leap wildly down the hill to its ruin

The door also creaked as it opened on leather hinges, letting Aybas into the ht of steps, soed in place What level ground the tribe called its own lay on the valley floor at the foot of the slope Such rich bottomland was too precious to use for huts and storehouses

Aybas had long since decided that if he stayeda tail for the better cli of hills and trees Then, if he survived the service of his presentape such as the Kushi+te e was lit only by the odd torch burning before a hut here and there Clouds had veiled the moon since Aybas had retired The wizards who called themselves Star Brothers did their work in darkness, save when they wanted to sow evenwhat they did

Aybas's breath caught in his throat as he saw the door open in a hut just downhill A girl stood there, the shadowy figure of aabove the waist and only a leather skirt from supple waist to diht on coppery hair and firs that Aybas had often ihts had been an unwanted touch, the girl turned

Green eyes met his brown ones, and it was the Aquilonian who finally looked down He was still staring when he heard a gruff voice say, ”Coawped at”

”It was not that which I caht-I hoped that if I was out here, the the folk up yonder abbling about that where he can hear!” The ”he” was as plain as a pointing finger inAybas

The Aquilonian waited until the door thuusty sigh So Wylla was losing her fear of the Star Brothers, at least enough to show pity for their victioi than either the wizards or Aybas's master cared to admit Indeed, if all who had doubted the Star Brothers' virtue-if not their power-had been sacrificed, the Vale of the Pougoi would be very scant of inhabitants

Perhaps it was time to make another exareat show of asking for -craved favors, of course