Sword Woman and Other Historical Adventures M

by Robert E. Howard

  “He.” Chepe Noyon pointed to the blood-stained knight. “By Erlik, they have drunk blood this day. The Frank is a devil; my head still sings from the blow he dealt me; Kassar is but now recovering his senses from an ax the Frank shattered on his helmet, and he has but now fought Subotai himself to a standstill.”

  Genghis reined his horse forward and Godric tensed himself. If the khan would only come within reach – a sudden spring, a last, desperate blow – if he could but take this paynim lord with him to the realm of death, he would die content.

  The great, deep gray eyes of Genghis were upon the knight and he felt their full power.

  “You are of such steel as my chiefs are forged from,” said Genghis. “I would have you for friend, not foe. You are not of the race of those men; come and serve under me.”

  “My ears are dull with blows on my helmet,” answered Godric, tightening his grip on his hilt and tensing his weary muscles; “I can not understand you. Come closer that I may hear you.”

  Instead Genghis reined his steed back a few paces and grinned with tolerant understanding.

  “Will you serve me?” he persisted. “I will make you a chief.”

  “And what of these?” Godric indicated the Black Cathayans.

  Genghis shrugged his shoulders. “What am I to do with them? They must die.”

  “Go to your brother the Devil,” Godric growled. “I come of a race that sell their swords for gold – but we are no jackals to turn on men that have bled beside us. These warriors and I have already killed more than our own number and wounded many more of your warriors. There are still three hundred of us left and the strongest of the barricades. We have slain over a thousand of your wolves – if you enter Jahadur you ride over our corpses. Charge in now and see how desperate men can die.”

  “But you owe no allegiance to Jahadur,” argued Genghis.

  “I owe my life to Chamu Khan,” snapped Godric. “I have thrown in my lot with him and I serve him with as much fealty as if he were the Pope himself.”

  “You are a fool,” Genghis said frankly. “I have long had my spies among the Jahadurans. Chamu Khan planned to sacrifice Jahadur and all therein to save his own hide. That is why he refused to bring more soldiers to the city. His main force he gathered on the western border. He planned to flee by a secret way through the cliffs as soon as I attacked the pass.

  “Well, he did, but some of my warriors came upon him. They only asked a gift of him,” Genghis chuckled. “Then they made no effort to hinder him. He might then go where he would. Would you see the gift they took from Chamu Khan?”

  And a Mongol behind the khan held up a ghastly, grinning head. Godric cursed: “Liar, traitor and coward though he was, he was yet a king. Come in and make an ending. I swear to you that before you ride over this wall, your horses will tread fetlock-deep in a carpet of your dead.”

  Still Genghis sat his horse and pondered. Subotai came up to him, and grinning broadly, spoke in his ear. The Khan nodded.

  “Swear to serve me and I will spare the lives of your men; I will take Black Cathay unharmed into my empire.”

  Godric turned to his men. “You heard – I would rather die here on a heap of Mongol dead – but it is for you to say.”

  They answered with a shout: “The emperor is dead! Why should we die, if Genghis Khan will grant us peace? Give us Gurgaslan for ruler and we will serve you.”

  Genghis raised his hand. “So be it!”

  Godric shook the blood and sweat out of his eyes and snarled a bitter laugh.

  “A puppet king on a tinsel throne, to dance on your string, Mongol? No! Get another for the task.”

  Genghis scowled and suddenly swore. “By the yellow face of Erlik! I have already made more concessions today than I ever made in my life before! What want ye, Gurgaslan – shall I give you my scepter for a war-club?”

  “If he wishes it you may as well give it to him,” grinned Subotai, who was no more awed by his khan than if Genghis had been a horse-boy. “These Franks are built of iron without and within. Reason with him, Genghis!”

  The khan glared at his general for a moment as if he were of a mind to brain him, then grinned suddenly. These men of the steppes were a frank, open race greatly different from the devious-minded peoples of Asia Minor.

  “To have you and your warriors fighting beside me,” said Genghis calmly, “I will do that which I never expected to do. You are fit to tread the crimson road of empire. Take Black Cathay and rule it as you will; I ask only that you aid me in my wars, as an equal ally. We will be two kings, reigning side by side and aiding each other against all enemies.”

  Godric’s thin lips smiled. “It is fair enough.”

  The Mongols sent up a thunderous roar and the bloody Jahadurans swarmed over the barricades to kiss the hands of their new ruler. He did not hear Genghis say to the warrior who bore the grisly severed head of Chamu Khan: “See that the skull is prepared and sheathed in silver, and set among the rest that were khans of tribes; when I fall I would wish my own skull treated with the same respect.”

  Godric felt a firm grasp on his hand and looked into the steady eyes of Subotai, feeling a rush of friendship for the man that equaled his former rage.

  “Erlik, what a man!” growled the chief. “We should be good comrades, Gurgaslan! Here – by the gods, man, you are sorely wounded! He swoons – get off his armor and see to his hurts, you thick-headed fools, do you want him to die?”

  “Scant chance,” grinned Chepe Noyon, feeling his head tenderly. “Such men as he are not made to die from steel. Wait, you big buffalo, you’ll kill him with your clumsiness. I’ll bring one more fitted to attend him – one that was found being forcibly escorted out of Jahadur by the palace eunuchs. I saw her only five minutes agone and I am almost ready to cut your throat for her, Gurgaslan. Genghis, will you bid them bring the girl?”

  Again Godric saw, as in a closing mist, two great dark eyes bend over him – he felt soft arms go about his neck and heard a sobbing in his ear.

  “Well, Yulita,” he said as in a dream, “I went to Genghis Khan after all!”

  “You saved Black Cathay, my king,” she sobbed, pressing her lips against his. Then while his dull head swam those soft lips were withdrawn and a goblet took their place, filled with a stinging wine that jerked him back into consciousness.

  Genghis was standing over him.

  “You have already found your queen, eh?” he smiled. “Well – rest of your wounds; I will not need your aid for some months yet. Marry your queen, organize your kingdom – there is a great army drawn up on the western border ready to your hand now that there is to be no invasion of your kingdom. It may be the western Turks will dispute your liegeship – you have but to send the word and I will send you as many riders as you need. When the desert grass deepens for spring, we ride into Greater Cathay.”

  The khan turned on his heel and strode away and Godric gathered the slim form of Yulita into his weary arms.

  “Wang Yin will wait long for his bride,” said he, and the laughter of Yulita was like the tinkle of the silvery fountains in the cherry blossom courts of Jahadur. And so the dream that had haunted Godric de Villehard of an Eastern empire woke to life.

  The Sowers of the Thunder

  Iron winds and ruin and flame,

  And a Horseman shaking with giant mirth;

  Over the corpse-strewn, blackened earth

  Death, stalking naked, came

  Like a storm-cloud shattering the ships;

  Yet the Rider seated high,

  Paled at the smile on a dead king’s lips,

  As the tall white horse went by.

  – The Ballad of Baibars

  I

  The idlers in the tavern glanced up at the figure framed in the doorway. It was a tall broad man who stood there, with the torch-lit shadows and the clamor of the bazaars at his back. His garments were a simple tunic, and short breeches of leather; a camel’s-hair mantle hung from his broad shoulders and sandals
were on his feet. But belying the garb of the peaceful traveller, a short straight stabbing sword hung at his girdle. One massive arm, ridged with muscles, was outstretched, the brawny hand gripping a pilgrim’s staff, as the man stood, powerful legs wide-braced, in the doorway. His bare legs were hairy, knotted like tree-trunks. His coarse red locks were confined by a single band of blue cloth, and from his square dark face, his strange blue eyes blazed with a kind of reckless and wayward mirth, reflected by the half-smile that curved his thin lips.

  His glance passed over the hawk-faced seafarers and ragged loungers who brewed tea and squabbled endlessly, to rest on a man who sat apart at a rough-hewn table, with a wine pitcher. Such a man the watcher in the door had never seen – tall, deep-chested, broad-shouldered, built with the dangerous suppleness of a panther. His eyes were as cold as blue ice, set off by a mane of golden hair tinted with red; so to the man in the doorway that hair seemed like burning gold. The man at the table wore a light shirt of silvered mail, a long lean sword hung at his hip, and on the bench beside him lay a kite-shaped shield and a light helmet.

  The man in the guise of a traveller strode purposefully forward and halted, hands resting on the table across which he smiled mockingly at the other, and spoke in a tongue strange to the seated man, newly come to the East.

  This one turned to an idler and asked in Norman French: “What does the infidel say?”

  “I said,” replied the traveller in the same tongue, “that a man can not even enter an Egyptian inn these days without finding some dog of a Christian under his feet.”

  As the traveller had spoken the other had risen, and now the speaker dropped his hand to his sword. Scintillant lights flickered in the other’s eyes and he moved like a flash of summer lightning. His left hand darted out to lock in the breast of the traveller’s tunic, and in his right hand the long sword flashed out. The traveller was caught flat-footed, his sword half clear of its sheath. But the faint smile did not leave his lips and he stared almost childishly at the blade that flickered before his eyes, as if fascinated by its dazzling.

  “Heathen dog,” snarled the swordsman, and his voice was like the slash of a blade through fabric, “I’ll send you to Hell unshriven!”

  “What panther whelped you that you move as a cat strikes?” responded the other curiously, as calmly as if his life were not weighing in the balance. “But you took me by surprize. I did not know that a Frank dare draw sword in Damietta.”

  The Frank glared at him moodily; the wine he had drunk showed in the dangerous gleams that played in his eyes where lights and shadows continuously danced and shifted.

  “Who are you?” he demanded.

  “Haroun the Traveller,” the other grinned. “Put up your steel. I crave pardon for my gibing words. It seems there are Franks of the old breed yet.”

  With a change of mood the Frank thrust his sword back into its sheath with an impatient clash. Turning back to his bench he indicated table and wine pitcher with a sweeping gesture.

  “Sit and refresh yourself; if you are a traveller, you have a tale to tell.”

  Haroun did not at once comply. His gaze swept the inn and he beckoned the innkeeper, who came grudgingly forward. As he approached the Traveller, the innkeeper suddenly shrank back with a low half-stifled cry. Haroun’s eyes went suddenly merciless and he said, “What then, host, do you see in me a man you have known aforetime, perchance?”

  His voice was like the purr of a hunting tiger and the wretched innkeeper shivered as with an ague, his dilated eyes fixed on the broad corded hand that stroked the hilt of the stabbing-sword.

  “No, no, master,” he mouthed. “By Allah, I know you not – I never saw you before – and Allah grant I never see you again,” he added mentally.

  “Then tell me what does this Frank here, in mail and wearing a sword,” ordered Haroun bruskly, in Turki. “The dog-Venetians are allowed to trade in Damietta as in Alexandria, but they pay for the privilege in humility and insult, and none dares gird on a blade here – much less lift it against a Believer.”

  “He is no Venetian, good Haroun,” answered the innkeeper. “Yesterday he came ashore from a Venetian trading-galley, but he consorts not with the traders or the crew of the infidels. He strides boldly through the streets, wearing steel openly and ruffling against all who would cross him. He says he is going to Jerusalem and could not find a ship bound for any port in Palestine, so came here, intending to travel the rest of the way by land. The Believers have said he is mad, and none molests him.”

  “Truly, the mad are touched by Allah and given His protection,” mused Haroun. “Yet this man is not altogether mad, I think. Bring wine, dog!”

  The innkeeper ducked in a deep salaam and hastened off to do the Traveller’s bidding. The Prophet’s command against strong drink was among other orthodox precepts disobeyed in Damietta where many nations foregathered and Turk rubbed shoulders with Copt, Arab with Sudani.

  Haroun seated himself opposite the Frank and took the wine goblet proffered by a servant.

  “You sit in the midst of your enemies like a shah of the East, my lord,” he grinned. “By Allah, you have the bearing of a king.”

  “I am a king, infidel,” growled the other; the wine he had drunk had touched him with a reckless and mocking madness.

  “And where lies your kingdom, malik?” The question was not asked in mockery. Haroun had seen many broken kings drifting among the debris that floated Eastward.

  “On the dark side of the moon,” answered the Frank with a wild and bitter laugh. “Among the ruins of all the unborn or forgotten empires which etch the twilight of the lost ages. Cahal Ruadh O’Donnel, king of Ireland – the name means naught to you, Haroun of the East, and naught to the land which was my birthright. They who were my foes sit in the high seats of power, they who were my vassals lie cold and still, the bats haunt my shattered castles, and already the name of Red Cahal is dim in the memories of men. So – fill up my goblet, slave!”

  “You have the soul of a warrior, malik. Was it treachery overcame you?”

  “Aye, treachery,” swore Cahal, “and the wiles of a woman who coiled about my soul until I was as one blind – to be cast out at the end like a broken pawn. Aye, the Lady Elinor de Courcey, with her black hair like midnight shadows on Lough Derg, and the gray eyes of her, like – ” He started suddenly, like a man waking from a trance, and his wayward eyes blazed.

  “Saints and devils!” he roared. “Who are you that I should spill out my soul to? The wine has betrayed me and loosened my tongue, but I – ” He reached for his sword but Haroun laughed.

  “I’ve done you no harm, malik. Turn this murderous spirit of yours into another channel. By Erlik, I’ll give you a test to cool your blood!”

  Rising, he caught up a javelin lying beside a drunken soldier, and striding around the table, his eyes recklessly alight, he extended his massive arm, gripping the shaft close to the middle, point upward.

  “Grip the shaft, malik,” he laughed. “In all my days I have met no one who was man enough to twist a stave out of my hand.”

  Cahal rose and gripped the shaft so that his clenched fingers almost touched those of Haroun. Then, legs braced wide, arms bent at the elbow, each man exerted his full strength against the other. They were well matched; Cahal was a trifle taller, Haroun thicker of body. It was bear opposed to tiger. Like two statues they stood straining, neither yielding an inch, the javelin almost motionless under the equal forces. Then with a sudden rending snap the tough wood gave way and each man staggered, holding half the shaft, which had parted under the terrific strain.

  “Hai!” shouted Haroun, his eyes sparkling; then they dulled with sudden doubt.

  “By Allah, malik,” said he, “this is an ill thing! Of two men, one should be master of the other, lest both come to a bad end. Yet this signifies that neither of us will ever yield to the other, and in the end, each will work the other ill.”

  “Sit down and drink,” answered the Gael, tossing as
ide the broken shaft and reaching for the wine goblet, his dreams of lost grandeur and his anger both apparently forgotten. “I have not been long in the East, but I knew not there were such as you among the paynim. Surely you are not one with the Egyptians, Arabs and Turks I have seen.”

  “I was born far to the east, among the tents of the Golden Horde, on the steppes of High Asia,” said Haroun, his mood changing back to joviality as he flung himself down on his bench. “Ha! I was almost a man grown before I heard of Muhammad – on whom peace! Hai, bogatyr, I have been many things! Once I was a princeling of the Tatars – son of the lord Subotai who was right hand to Genghis Khan. Once I was a slave – when the Turkomans drove a raid east and carried off youths and girls from the Horde. In the slave markets of El Kahira I was sold for three pieces of silver, by Allah, and my master gave me to the Bahairiz – the slave-soldiers – because he feared I’d strangle him. Ha! Now I am Haroun the Traveller, making pilgrimage to the holy place. But once, only a few days agone, I was man to Baibars – whom the devil fly away with!”

  “Men say in the streets that this Baibars is the real ruler of Cairo,” said Cahal curiously; new to the East though he was, he had heard that name oft-repeated.

  “Men lie,” responded Haroun. “The sultan rules Egypt and Shadjar ad Darr rules the sultan. Baibars is only the general of the Bahairiz – the great oaf!

  “I was his man!” he shouted suddenly, with a great laugh, “to come and go at his bidding – to put him to bed – to rise with him – to sit down at meat with him – aye, and to put food and drink into his fool’s-mouth. But I have escaped him! By Allah, by Allah and by Allah, I have naught to do with this great fool Baibars tonight! I am a free man and the devil may fly away with him and with the sultan, and Shadjar ad Darr and all Saladin’s empire! I am my own man tonight!”