"Told him to pull into sh.o.r.e; said there was a white forest runner on the bank who was trying to get a shot at him."
"That doesn"t seem fair," Balthus objected. "He thought a friend was speaking to him. You mimicked a Pict perfectly-"
"We needed his boat," grunted Conan, not pausing in his exertions.
"Only way to lure him to the bank. Which is worse-to betray a Pict who"d enjoy skinning us both alive, or betray the men across the river whose lives depend on our getting over?"
Balthus mulled over this delicate ethical question for a moment, then shrugged his shoulders and asked: "How far are we from the fort?"
Conan pointed to a creek which flowed into Black River from the east, a few hundred yards below them.
"That"s South Creek; it"s ten miles from its mouth to the fort. It"s the southern boundary of Conajohara. Marshes miles wide south of it. No danger of a raid from across them. Nine miles above the fort North Creek forms the other boundary. Marshes beyond that, too. That"s why an attack must come from the west, across Black River. Conajohara"s just like a spear, with a point nineteen miles wide, thrust into the Pictish wilderness."
"Why don"t we keep to the canoe and make the trip by water?"
"Because, considering the current we"ve got to brace, and the bends in the river, we can go faster afoot Besides, remember Gwawela is south of the fort; if the Picts are crossing the river we"d run right into them."
Dusk was gathering as they stepped upon the eastern bank. Without pause Conan pushed on northward, at a pace that made Balthus" st.u.r.dy legs ache.
"Valannus wanted a fort built at the mouths of North and South Creeks,"
grunted the Cimmerian. "Then the river could be patrolled constantly.
But the Government wouldn"t do it.
"Soft-bellied fools sitting on velvet cushions with naked girls offering them iced wine on their knees-I know the breed. They can"t see any farther than their palace wall. Diplomacy-h.e.l.l! They"d fight Picts with theories of territorial expansion. Valannus and men like him have to obey the orders of a set of d.a.m.ned fools. They"ll never grab any more Pictish land, any more than they"ll ever rebuild Venarium. The time may come when they"ll see the barbarians swarming over the walls of the eastern cities!"
A week before, Balthus would have laughed at any such preposterous suggestion. Now he made no reply. He had seen the unconquerable ferocity of the men who dwelt beyond the frontiers.
He shivered, casting glances at the sullen river, just visible through the bushes, at the arches of the trees which crowded close to its banks. He kept remembering that the Picts might have crossed the river and be lying in ambush between them and the fort. It was fast growing dark.
A slight sound ahead of them jumped his heart into his throat, and Conan"s sword gleamed in the air. He lowered it when a dog, a great, gaunt, scarred beast, slunk out of the bushes and stood staring at them.
"That dog belonged to a settler who tried to build his cabin on the bank of the river a few miles south of the fort," grunted Conan. "The Picts slipped over and killed him, of course, and burned his cabin. We found him dead among the embers, and the dog lying senseless among three Picts he"d killed. He was almost cut to pieces. We took him to the fort and dressed his wounds, but after he recovered he took to the woods and turned wild.-What now, Slasher, are you hunting the men who killed your master?"
The ma.s.sive head swung from side to side and the eyes glowed greenly.
He did not growl or bark. Silently as a phantom he slid in behind them.
"Let him come," muttered Conan. "He can smell the devil"s before we can see them."
Balthus smiled and laid his hand caressingly on the dog"s head. The lips involuntarily writhed back to display the gleaming fangs; then the great beast bent his head sheepishly, and his tail moved with jerky uncertainty, as if the owner had almost forgotten the emotions of friendliness. Balthus mentally compared the great gaunt hard body with the fat sleek hounds tumbling vociferously over one another in his father"s kennel yard. He sighed. The frontier was no less hard for beasts than for men. This dog had almost forgotten the meaning of kindness and friendliness.
Slasher glided ahead, and Conan let him take the lead. The last tinge of dusk faded into stark darkness. The miles fell away under their steady feet. Slasher seemed voiceless. Suddenly he halted, tense, ears lifted. An instant later the men heard it-a demoniac yelling up the river ahead of them, faint as a whisper.
Conan swore like a madman.
They"ve attacked the fort! We"re too late! Come on!"
He increased his pace, trusting to the dog to smell out ambushes ahead.
In a flood of tense excitement Balthus forgot his hunger and weariness.
The yells grew louder as they advanced, and above the devilish screaming they could hear the deep shouts of the soldiers. Just as Balthus began to fear they would run into the savages who seemed to be howling just ahead of them, Conan swung away from the river in a wide semicircle that carried them to a low rise from which they could look over the forest They saw the fort, lighted with torches thrust over the parapets on long poles. These cast a flickering, uncertain light over the clearing, and in that light they saw throngs of naked, painted figures along the fringe of the clearing. The river swarmed with canoes. The Picts had the fort completely surrounded.
An incessant hail of arrows rained against the stockade from the woods and the river. The deep tw.a.n.ging of the bowstrings rose above the howling. Yelling like wolves, several hundred naked warriors with axes in their hands ran from under the trees and raced toward the eastern gate. They were within a hundred and fifty yards of their objective when a withering blast of arrows from the wall littered the ground with corpses and sent the survivors fleeing back to the trees. The men in the canoes rushed their boats toward the river-wall, and were met by another shower of clothyard shafts and a volley from the small ballistae mounted on towers on that side of the stockade. Stones and logs whirled through the air and splintered and sank half a dozen canoes, killing their occupants, and the other boats drew back out of range. A deep roar of triumph rose from the walls of the fort, answered by b.e.s.t.i.a.l howling from all quarters.
"Shall we try to break through?" asked Balthus, trembling with eagerness.
Conan shook his head. He stood with his arms folded, his head slightly bent, a somber and brooding figure.
"The fort"s doomed. The Picts are blood-mad, and won"t stop until they"re all killed. And there are too many of them for the men in the fort to kill. We couldn"t break through, and if we did, we could do nothing but die with Valannus."
"There"s nothing we can do but save our own hides, then?"
"Yes. We"ve got to warn the settlers. Do you know why the Picts are not trying to b.u.m the fort with fire-arrows? Because they don"t want a flame that might warn the people to the east. They plan to stamp out the fort, and then sweep east before anyone knows of its fall. They may cross Thunder River and take Velitrium before the people know what"s happened. At least they"ll destroy every living thing between the fort and Thunder River.
"We"ve failed to warn the fort, and I see now it would have done no good if we had succeeded. The fort"s too poorly manned. A few more charges and the Picts will be over the walls and breaking down the gates. But we can start the settlers toward Velitrium. Come on! We"re outside the circle the Picts have thrown around the fort. We"ll keep clear of it."
They swung out in a wide arc, hearing the rising and falling of the volume of the yells, marking each charge and repulse. The men in the fort were holding their own; but the shrieks of the Picts did not diminish in savagery. They vibrated with a timbre that held a.s.surance of ultimate victory.
Before Balthus realized they were close to it, they broke into the road leading east.
"Now run!" grunted Conan. Balthus set his teeth. It was nineteen miles to Velitrium, a good five to Scalp Creek beyond which began the settlements. It seemed to the Aquilonian that they had been fighting and running for centuries. But the nervous excitement that rioted through his blood stimulated him to herculean efforts.
Slasher ran ahead of them, his head to the ground, snarling low, the first sound they had heard from him.
"Picts ahead of us!" snarled Conan, dropping to one knee and scanning the ground in the starlight. He shook his head, baffled. "I can"t tell how many. Probably only a small party. Some that couldn"t wait to take the fort. They"ve gone ahead to butcher the settlers in their beds!
Come on!"
Ahead of them presently they saw a small blaze through the trees, and heard a wild and ferocious chanting. The trail bent there, and leaving it, they cut across the bend, through the thickets. A few moments later they were looking on a hideous sight. An ox-wain stood in the road piled with meager household furnishings; it was burning; the oxen lay near with their throats cut. A man and a woman lay in the road, stripped and mutilated. Five Picts were dancing about them with fantastic leaps and bounds, waving b.l.o.o.d.y axes; one of them brandished the woman"s red-smeared gown.
At the sight a red haze swam before Balthus. Lifting his bow he lined the prancing figure, black against the fire, and loosed. The slayer leaped convulsively and fell dead with the arrow through his heart.
Then the two white men and the dog were upon the startled survivors.
Conan was animated merely by his fighting spirit and an old, old racial hate, but Balthus was afire with wrath.
He met the first Pict to oppose him with a ferocious swipe that split the painted skull, and sprang over his falling body to grapple with the others. But Conan had already killed one of the two he had chosen, and the leap of the Aquilonian was a second late. The warrior was down with the long sword through him even as Balthus" ax was lifted. Turning toward the remaining Pict, Balthus saw Slasher rise from his victim, his great jaws dripping blood.
Balthus said nothing as he looked down at the pitiful forms in the road beside the burning wain. Both were young, the woman little more than a girl. By some whim of chance the Picts had left her face unmarred, and even in the agonies of an awful death it was beautiful. But her soft young body had been hideously slashed with many knives-a mist clouded Balthus" eyes and he swallowed chokingly. The tragedy momentarily overcame him. He felt like falling upon the ground and weeping and biting the earth.
"Some young couple just hitting out on their own," Conan was saying as he wiped his sword unemotionally. "On their way to the fort when the Picts met them. Maybe the boy was going to enter the service; maybe take up land on the river. Well, thats what will happen to every man, woman, and child this side of Thunder River if we don"t get them into Velitrium in a hurry."
Balthus" knees trembled as he followed Conan. But there was no hint of weakness in the long easy stride of the Cimmerian. There was a kinship between him and the great gaunt brute that glided beside him. Slasher no longer growled with his head to the trail. The way was clear before them. The yelling on the river came faintly to them, but Balthus believed the fort was still holding. Conan halted suddenly, with an oath.
He showed Balthus a trail that led north from the road. It was an old trail, partly grown with new young growth, and this growth had recently been broken down. Balthus realized this fact more by feel than sight, though Conan seemed to see like a cat in the dark. The Cimmerian showed him where broad wagon tracks turned off the main trail, deeply indented in the forest mold.
"Settlers going to the licks after salt," he granted. "They"re at the edges of the marsh, about nine miles from here. Blast it! They"ll be cut off and butchered to a man! Listen! One man can warn the people on.the road. Go ahead and wake them up and herd them into Velitrium.
I"ll go and get the men gathering the salt. They"ll be camped by the licks. We won"t come back to the road. We"ll head straight through the woods."
With no further comment Conan turned off the trail and hurried down the dim path, and Balthus, after stating after him for a few moments, set out along the road. The dog had remained with him, and glided softly at his heels. When Balthus had gone a few rods he heard the animal growl.
Whirling, he glared back the way he had come, and was startled to see a vague ghostly glow vanishing into the forest in the direction Conan had taken. Slasher rumbled deep in his throat, his hackles stiff and his eyes b.a.l.l.s of green fire. Balthus remembered the grim apparition that had taken the head of the merchant Tiberias not far from that spot, and he hesitated. The thing must be following Conan. But the giant Cimmerian had repeatedly demonstrated his ability to take care of himself, and Balthus felt his duty lay toward the helpless settlers who slumbered in the path of the red hurricane. The horror of the fiery phantom was overshadowed by the horror of those limp, violated bodies beside the burning ox-wain.
He hurried down the road, crossed Scalp Creek and came in sight of the first settler"s cabin-a long, low structure of ax-hewn logs. In an instant he was pounding on the door. A sleepy voice inquired his pleasure.