Part 20 (1/2)
If they had begun in any sort of order, they had little or none by the tith of Conan Their order had not survived scrae of earth From the screams heard even over the war cries, it seemed that some of the men would not survive either
Conan wished that the palace's unknown ally were not using sorcery nearly as dreadful as Count Syza it down upon its defenders was to Conan neither honorable nor wise
At least the sight could leave the men under Conan and Raihna no doubt that any chance of safety, let alone victory, lay to the fore To the rear lay only a palace sinking into ruins even as they watched To the fore lay a human foe, and above that foe, the open sky
”Eloikas!” Conan roared, his voice rising over the battle din He hurled himself forward As a lode-stone draws iron, so the Cimmerian drew after him the men who saw him Raihna was not far behind Conan, and she did as ith those who saw her
Count Syza, and, in places, actually outnumbered They had better armor and weapons, and h
Nothing save h against the Ciainst arhterhouse sounds When the fighting grew too tangled or opponents too close for proper sork, it was the turn of his dagger or ether, the Cimround before any of thehim reached an eneht of Conan's work, against foes equally cast down
The count'swhen their lord scrae and sahat see way to shouts of warning, even to stark terror
He saw the Ci forward like an elemental force of nature
He shouted an order, and the top of the ridge sprouted his archers
They cocked or drew, and arrows and bolts sleeted down into the ranks of the palace's defenders Now the warnings and screams were not only from the count's men Beneath his dust-caked beard, he smiled
Conan had hoped that in the dust and confusion, the count's archers would be holding back for fear of hitting co this, to be sure, but they were also bringing down too many of the Guards The Guards would be spent and broken before ”friendly” archery wasted the count's ranks
The Cied as best he could the distance to the count If a round and scale the slope to bring the count down-
Arrows thudded into the earth and tinged off chunks of rubble by way of a warning The archers had picked the Cirapple the count, he would be an arrow-sprouting corpse long before he covered half the distance
Conan withdrew, more slowly than he had advanced in spite of the arrow hail It was against his nature to retreat at all, ten ti his men
The Guards' archers went to work as their co in the open, with only luck and armor between themselves and steel-tipped shafts, h ground The rest hastily sought the protection of the reverse slope, and not all of the count's curses and entreaties could bring them back
Thus Conan and Raihna, and more than half of their men, returned to such safety as the palace still provided In the swirling din of the fight, Conan had not noticed that the duel of earth-e an arrow gash in one of her arms, he realized that the earth was both still and silent Also, the palace was no longer raining stones and tiles!
”What now?” Raihna asked, gritting her teeth as Conan tightened the bandage to hold the lips of the wound together ”We've barely won a skirer that's runted
He would have given half the hoard of the Border realrit from his round, they're in the count's rear,” Conan went on ”Curse it! I'd deal with a sorcerer e to-”
Raihna put a hand on the Cimmerian's ar his way cautiously through the rubble He kept looking up to see as about to tumble on hi that had already tumbled down
At last Raihna took pity on him, scurried down the hall, and led him the rest of the way Behind what had once been the wall of a sculpture gallery, the three leaders took counsel
”Decius wishes you to bring your men back to join his so that we an He said no more before a Cimmerian roar interrupted him