"Then I wish-may I enter?" Decius chose prudence over rank and turned an order into a question.
The tone of the Cimmerian"s reply told him that he had chosen wisely.
"You may."
Conan was sitting cross-legged on the floor, wearing only a loinguard.
He was rubbing oil into the various leather items of his harness. His sword, already sharpened and oiled, lay on a linen cloth beside his sleeping pallet.
"Greetings, my lord Decius," Conan said. "I fear that my hospitality is poor. But what I have is yours."
Decius took that as an invitation to sit. "Captain Conan, I will be brief. What I would most like from you is for either you or Raihna to remain behind. Both of you going into the jaws of the Pougoi-I like it not."
"Does it matter which of us remains?" Conan asked. His tone made Decius wary; then understanding dawned. The captain-general laughed.
"I wasn"t planning on courting you, Cimmerian!" Decius said. "Nor will I be courting Mistress Raihna until I can be sure I have something to share with her besides an unknown grave in the hills."
"Decius, I don"t envy anyone the work of burying you," Conan said.
"Your corpse might bite the grave digger."
"I thank you," Decius said. "Now, a little plain speaking. Both you and Raihna are seasoned captains. We have few. To put each of you in danger imperils the king"s very cause."
"We"ve the best chance of winning through and bringing out the princess and the babe," Conan said with a shrug. "If it can be done at all, we"re the best to do it. If it can"t be done, does it matter how many captains the king has?"
Decius sighed. "No. The doctors say that he will be lucky to see the first snow at best. If he loses hope of seeing his daughter again..."
Silence said the rest.
"I"d not complain about taking one of your veterans and leaving Raihna behind," Conan said. "But Marr says that it must be she and I, and no others."
Decius frowned. "Does this mean that either of you... has... is... ?"
"I"m no more a sorcerer than I"m a tavern dancer, and Raihna likewise,"
Conan said. "What the piper sees in us... it"s one of the things he doesn"t speak of. What it would take to make him speak, I don"t know, and I"m not going to spend time in searching for it."
Decius wanted to curse the G.o.ds, the Pougoi, their wizards, Count Syzambry, and everything else that had brought matters to this pa.s.s. He had the sense of throwing a better man than himself into a pit of venemous serpents, with scant hope of seeing the man climb out again.
"Eh?" the Cimmerian said.
"I was thinking that there ought to be a farewell for the three of you.
Wine, meat, music, anything else you desired."
"Don"t tempt the G.o.ds," Conan said. He stood up and stretched. His head nearly touched the roof of the tent, and his outflung hands did touch either side. "Save the feasting for when we"re safe in the palace again. But if there"s any wine in the camp-?"
Decius remembered a jar of the best Nemedian vintage that he had saved for the departure of men on desperate ventures. It was buried, and probably shattered by now, beneath the ruins of the palace, along with so much of the past.
Chapter 13.
Among them, Conan, Raihna, and Marr had faced every peril that a land such as the Border Kingdom could offer. Had they provided themselves against every one of them, they would have needed a pack train for their baggage.
"We"ll see about a riding mule for the princess when we come out,"
Conan said. "Best we go in traveling light and fast. Syzambry may still die, but he may also heal. By his own strength, perhaps, or with the help of the Star Brothers."
"The Pougoi wizards have no healing magic," the piper said. "Their star-magic is-"
"Who asked you?" Decius said. He was sitting by the tent entrance as the three travelers packed. Conan judged that this was to avoid the king, and also perhaps in hope of Raihna"s defying Marr and remaining behind.
He was hoping that pigs would fly, Conan knew.
Nothing save a threat to her guards would force Raihna to turn back.
Decius was too honorable to use that trick.
"No one asked me," Marr said. "But then, does a wise man wait to be asked when there is truth to be spoken?"
It was in Conan"s mind that a man who wanted his teeth in his mouth and his bones unbroken might know that truth was not always welcome. He remained silent and studied the st.i.tching of his sword scabbard. It would not last beyond this journey, but it would do for that.
In time, all the work was done, some of it twice over. Conan stepped outside to permit Decius and Raihna to say what they wished. He bid Marr to follow him.
It was nearing twilight, for the three would-be saviors of the princess and her son intended a night departure. If any unwanted eyes or ears were close at hand, the night and Marr"s pipes should make them blind and deaf.
"Who are you, Cimmerian?" the man asked. In the fading light, his face might have been that of a youth or an ancient. Only the eyes denied the youth. They were wide and dark, and clearly had seen much commonly hidden from men.
"My true name is the same as I am called," Conan said. "If sorcerers have tried to use this against me, nothing has yet succeeded. Are you hoping to better them?"
"That was not my question," Marr said. "Who are you, to be here now, embarking on this venture laden with risk?"
Conan shrugged. "I suppose no more than a man who won"t run from a fight when his friends are already in it."
"On the rock of such strength, mountains have broken and kingdoms fallen. Am I one of those friends?"
"You will be if you stop talking in riddles and stop asking questions you don"t need answered."
"Who are you to judge which questions need no answers?"
"Crom! I"ll certainly be no friend if you talk like a sorcerer or a priest, full of mystical wind that blows you where no one can follow.
At least no one with his wits about him. Now, for the last time-what do you need to know for this journey?"
"Nothing that I do not know already, in truth. Forgive me. I did not mean to give offense. I was only looking beyond this journey."
"The time for that, my musical friend, is when we"ve done with the journey and are safe home with Princess Chienna! Now, instead of tempting the G.o.ds, do you want to join me in a hunt for some wine? I"ll not leave with a dry throat, even if I have to wet it with that vinegar they call wine hereabouts!"
They traveled throughout the first night and lay up during the day, keeping no watches and building no fires.
"If Syzambry has put so many men on our trail that they can find three people with no smoke to guide them, the king"s cause is already lost,"
Conan said. "I"ll wager it needs us rested and fit when we reach the valley."
It was in Conan"s mind that they would need more than strength when they reached the Vale of the Pougoi. They would need a wonder or two from Marr"s magic or somewhere else.
Until now, the piper had been so unlike the common run of sorcerers that Conan could have doubted he was one were it not for the pipes. Yet even the most honorable intentions had not kept Lady Illyana from becoming the slave of magic, rather than its mistress.