A Black Wind Blows
The year of the had birth in and and unrest. The black through the of Belverus, the merchant in his stall, the in his kennel, the at his board. Before it the of the were helpless. Men said it had been sent from as for the of and lust. It was and as the of an adder. The victim's and then black, and a minutes he dying, and the of his own was in his death his from his body. A hot, wind from the south, and the in the fields, the and died in their tracks.
Men out on Mitra, and against the king; for somehow, the kingdom, the word was that the king was to and in the of his palace. And then in that death on about which the of the plague. In one night the king died with his three sons, and the that their the and that from the that through the up the dead.
That night, just dawn, the wind that had for to through the window curtains. Out of the north rose a great wind that among the towers, and there was thunder, and of lightning, and rain. But the clean and green and clear; the ground itself in grass, the thirsty up anew, and the was gone—its clean out of the land by the wind.
Men said the gods were satisfied the king and his were slain, and when his Tarascus was in the great hall, the until the towers rocked, the on the gods smiled.
Such a of and as the land is the for a of conquest. So no one was when it was that King Tarascus had the by the late king with their western neighbors void, and was his to Aquilonia. His was candid; his motives, proclaimed, his with something of the of a crusade. He the of Valerius, 'rightful to the throne'; he came, he proclaimed, not as an enemy of Aquilonia, but as a friend, to free the people from the of a and a foreigner.
If there were in quarters, and the king's good friend Amalric, personal to be into the treasury, they were in the of and of Tarascus' popularity. If any that Amalric was the ruler of Nemedia, the scenes, they were not to voice such heresy. And the with enthusiasm.
The king and his moved at the of fifty thousand men—knights in with their above their helmets, in and brigandines, cross-bowmen in leather jerkins. They the border, took a and three villages, and then, in the of the Valkia, ten miles west of the line, they met the of Conan, king of Aquilonia—forty-five thousand knights, and men-at-arms, the flower of Aquilonian and chivalry. Only the of Poitain, under Prospero, had not yet arrived, for they had to up from the of the kingdom. Tarascus had without warning. His had come on the of his proclamation, without of war.
The two each other across a wide, valley, with cliffs, and a through of and the middle of the vale. The camp-followers of came to this for water, and and across at one another. The last of the sun on the banner of Nemedia with the dragon, in the above the of King Tarascus on an near the cliffs. But the of the western like a across the and the army of Aquilonia, and upon the black banner with its lion that above King Conan's pavilion.
All night the the length of the valley, and the wind the call of trumpets, the of arms, and the of the who their along either of the willow-grown stream.
It was in the that King Conan on his couch, which was no more than a of and on a dais, and awakened. He started up, out and at his sword. Pallantides, his commander, in at the cry, saw his king upright, his hand on his hilt, and from his face.
'Your Majesty!' Pallantides. 'Is amiss?'
'What of the camp?' Conan. 'Are the out?'
'Five hundred the stream, your Majesty,' answered the general. 'The Nemedians have not offered to move against us in the night. They wait for dawn, as we.'
'By Crom,' Conan. 'I with a that was on me in the night.'
He up at the great lamp which a soft over the and of the great tent. They were alone; not a or a page slept on the floor; but Conan's as they were to in the teeth of great peril, and the in his hand. Pallantides him uneasily. Conan to be listening.
'Listen!' the king. 'Did you it? A step!'
'Seven your tent, your Majesty,' said Pallantides. 'None approach it unchallenged.'
'Not outside,' Conan. 'It to the tent.'
Pallantides a swift, look around. The with in the corners, but if there had been anyone in the themselves, the would have him. Again he his head.
'There is no one here, sire. You sleep in the of your host.'
'I have death a king in the of thousands,' Conan. 'Something that walks on and is not seen—'
'Perhaps you were dreaming, your Majesty,' said Pallantides, perturbed.
'So I was,' Conan. 'A it was, too. I again all the long, I on my way to the kingship.'
He silent, and Pallantides at him unspeaking. The king was an to the general, as to most of his subjects. Pallantides that Conan had walked many in his wild, life, and had been many a of Fate set him on the of Aquilonia.
'I saw again the I was born,' said Conan, his on a fist. 'I saw myself in a loin-cloth, my at the beasts. I was a again, a of the who along the Zaporoska River, a the of Kush, a of the Barachan Isles, a of the Himelian hillmen. All these I've been, and of all these I dreamed; all the that have been I passed like an procession, and their out a in the dust.
'But my moved strange, and shadows, and a voice me. And toward the last I to see myself on this in my tent, and a shape over me, and hooded. I unable to move, and then the away and a at me. Then it was that I awoke.'
'This is an dream, your Majesty,' said Pallantides, a shudder. 'But no more.'
Conan his head, more in than in denial. He came of a race, and the and of his close the surface of his consciousness.
'I've many dreams,' he said, 'and most of them were meaningless. But by Crom, this was not like most dreams! I wish this were and won, for I've had a since King Nimed died in the black plague. Why did it when he died?'
'Men say he sinned—'
'Men are fools, as always,' Conan. 'If the all who sinned, then by Crom there wouldn't be left to count the living! Why should the gods—who the tell me are just—slay five hundred and merchants and they the king, if the whole were at him? Were the gods blindly, like in a fog? By Mitra, if I my no straighter, Aquilonia would have had a new king long ago.
'No! The black plague's no common pestilence. It in Stygian tombs, and is called into being only by wizards. I was a in Prince Almuric's army that Stygia, and of his thirty thousand, fifteen thousand by Stygian arrows, and the by the black that rolled on us like a wind out of the south. I was the only man who lived.'
'Yet only five hundred died in Nemedia,' Pallantides.
'Whoever called it into being how to cut it at will,' answered Conan. 'So I know there was something planned and about it. Someone called it forth, someone it when the work was completed—when Tarascus was safe on the and being as the of the people from the of the gods. By Crom, I a black, brain all this. What of this who men say to Tarascus?'
'He a veil,' answered Pallantides; 'they say he is a foreigner; a from Stygia.'
'A from Stygia!' Conan scowling. 'A from hell, more like!—Ha! What is that?'
'The of the Nemedians!' Pallantides. 'And hark, how our own upon their heels! Dawn is breaking, and the captains are the for the onset! Mitra be with them, for many will not see the sun go the crags.'
'Send my to me!' Conan, with and off his night-garment; he to have his at the of action. 'Go to the captains and see that all is in readiness. I will be with you as soon as I my armor.'
Many of Conan's were to the people he ruled, and one of them was his on sleeping alone in his or tent. Pallantides from the pavilion, in the he had at midnight after a hours' sleep. He a over the camp, which was to with activity, and men moving about in the light, among the long lines of tents. Stars still in the western sky, but long pink along the horizon, and against them the banner of Nemedia out its folds.
Pallantides toward a smaller near by, where slept the squires. These were out already, by the trumpets. And as Pallantides called to them to hasten, he was by a and the impact of a the king's tent, by the heart-stopping crash of a body. There a low laugh that the general's blood to ice.
Echoing the cry, Pallantides and into the pavilion. He out again as he saw Conan's powerful out on the carpet. The king's great two-handed near his hand, and a tent-pole to where his had fallen. Pallantides' was out, and he about the tent, but nothing met his gaze. Save for the king and himself it was empty, as it had been when he left it.
'Your Majesty!' Pallantides himself on his the giant.
Conan's were open; they up at him with full and recognition. His writhed, but no came forth. He unable to move.
Voices without. Pallantides rose and to the door. The and one of the who the there.
'We a within,' said the apologetically. 'Is all well with the king?'
Pallantides him searchingly.
'None has entered or left the this night?'
'None save yourself, my lord,' answered the knight, and Pallantides not his honesty.
'The king and his sword,' said Pallantides briefly. 'Return to your post.'
As the away, the to the five squires, and when they had him in, he the closely. They at the of the king upon the carpet, but Pallantides' quick their exclamations.
The over him again, and again Conan an to speak. The in his temples and the in his with his efforts, and he his clear of the ground. Voice came at last, and intelligible.
'The thing—the thing in the corner!'
Pallantides his and looked about him. He saw the of the in the lamplight, the that along the of the pavilion. That was all.
'There is nothing here, your Majesty,' he said.
'It was there, in the corner,' the king, his lion-maned from to in his to rise. 'A man—at least he looked like a man—wrapped in like a mummy's bandages, with a about him, and a hood. All I see was his eyes, as he there in the shadows. I he was a himself, until I saw his eyes. They were like black jewels.
'I at him and my sword, but I missed him clean—how, Crom knows—and that instead. He my as I off balance, and his like iron. All the out of me, and the rose and me like a club. Then he was gone, and I was down, and—curse him!—I can't move! I'm paralysed!'
Pallantides the giant's hand, and his crawled. On the king's the marks of long, fingers. What hand so hard as to its print on that thick wrist? Pallantides that low laugh he had as he into the tent, and cold his skin. It had not been Conan who laughed.
'This is a thing diabolical!' a squire. 'Men say the children of for Tarascus!'
'Be silent!' ordered Pallantides sternly.
Outside, the was the stars. A light wind up from the peaks, and the of a thousand trumpets. At the a ran through the king's form. Again the in his temples as he to the which him down.
'Put my on me and tie me into my saddle,' he whispered. 'I'll lead the yet!'
Pallantides his head, and a his skirt.
'My lord, we are if the the king has been smitten! Only he have us to victory this day.'
'Help me him on the dais,' answered the general.
They obeyed, and the on the furs, and spread a over him. Pallantides to the five and their long he spoke.
'Our must be sealed for as to what in this tent,' he said at last. 'The of Aquilonia upon it. One of you go and me the officer Valannus, who is a captain of the Pellian spearmen.'
The and from the tent, and Pallantides at the king, while blared, thundered, and the of the rose in the dawn. Presently the returned with the officer Pallantides had named—a tall man, and powerful, much like the king. Like him, also, he had thick black hair. But his were and he did not Conan in his features.
'The king is by a malady,' said Pallantides briefly. 'A great is yours; you are to wear his and at the of the today. None must know that it is not the king who rides.'
'It is an for which a man might give up his life,' the captain, overcome by the suggestion. 'Mitra that I do not fail of this trust!'
And while the king with that the and that ate his heart, the Valannus of shirt, and leg-pieces, and him in Conan's of black plate-mail, with the salade, and the dark over the crest. Over all they put the with the lion in gold upon the breast, and they him with a gold-buckled which supported a jewel-hilted in a cloth-of-gold scabbard. While they worked, outside, arms clanged, and across the river rose a deep-throated as after into place.
Full-armed, Valannus to his and his the that on the dais.
'Lord king, Mitra that I do not the I wear this day!'
'Bring me Tarascus' and I'll make you a baron!' In the of his Conan's of had from him. His flamed, he ground his teeth in and blood-lust, as as any in the Cimmerian hills.