The Conan Chronology

by J. R. Karlsson

  Half perturbed, half allured, wholly confounded, he retreated from her. She whipped her weapon forward and attacked.

  Almost, she killed him. He sprang back, eluded the whistling edge, brought his pike shaft up to block its second cut. Bêlit slewed her blade around and sliced into his thigh.

  He yelled for help. She closed in, under his guard, smiting right and left. He dropped the pike. Had he kept his wits, he might have used it well against her - but a woman pressing in on him, laughing, reckless of life, roused terror. Bêlit had learned swordplay from her father; she had killed buffalo and lions in Rush

  'Witch, witch!' he screamed, and snatched after his own blade. Bêlit's stroke caught his wrist on the way, and made it useless. He gaped. Bêlit hewed at his neck.

  'I went out,' she told Conan. 'What cared I about what might prowl around? Night fell swiftly, to cover me.

  'I sought the harbour There I slew a watchman and stole a felucca. By then there was an ebb tide to bear me off.

  'Understand, I cherished no hopes, except for revenge. I expected my death in battle, and felt surprised when it came not. Well - I am become a harp that Derketa plays on, to call men to her queendom.

  'For a few hours I did let a dream flicker in me, of regaining Dan-marcah. Soon, though, the gods told me otherwise. The current southward is strong; unless granted favourable winds, which I was not, I could never single-hand a boat against it. Yet

  ample food and water were aboard - a destiny?

  'So I made my way back to the Black Coast, at last to my Suba.

  'The survivors among them had returned after the ship departed. Diminished, they were prey for neighbour tribes, who came looting and slave-catching. As the daughter of Bangulu, I helped them regain some strength.

  'Yet clear was to see, the Suba would not soon be great again. And I ... I had my score yet to pay.

  'A vessel from Shem came in on the chance of trade. With what ivory, apes, and peacocks we could muster, I sent back a commission for a war-craft to be built and outfitted. Soon she arrived, this beautiful, vengeful Tigress of mine - of ours, Conan. My Suba fishermen needed but little exercise to learn the use of her. They are warriors as well, and have death-debts of their own. Moreover, the booty they bring home buys their tribe a new beginning.

  'I am the daughter of Bangulu. They follow me wherever I lead. Now they will follow you too, Conan.'

  The calm that had been upon Bêlit broke. She grabbed the rail harder still, arched her back, and screamed at the sky, 'Stygia, Argos, yes, many in Shem and Rush, what you have done! I curse you, I, Hoiakim's and Shaaphi's daughter, Jehanan's sister, Aliel's wife, Kedron's mother! Fire be upon you forever!'

  Conan gathered her to him. 'Beloved,' he said shakenly, 'you are hurt, beloved, and would that my sword had been there to defend you. At least it is here for your revenge.'

  Bêlit cast herself against his breast and wept. Later she raised her eyes to his, gold-brown against ice-blue, and said low: 'Conan, I have been with no man since I escaped, until you. In you, my joy and my hope are reborn.'

  'And mine in you,' he murmured.

  Her fingers ruffled his hair. 'Vengeance, yes. But afterward, Conan, a life together. If the jealous gods allow.'

  IV

  A Daughter of the Free Folk

  Where the Styx, flowing north from unknown sources, bent west on its long journey to the sea, was the north-eastern corner of the Stygian kingdom. South of this rose ever steeper highlands, which finally crested and descended again toward the primitive but powerful realm of Keshan. Those hills and mountains formed the province of Taia.

  Shuat of Stygia, commanding the governor's militia against rebellious natives, led a detachment up the Helu. That river ran swiftly through its vale, eastward until it joined the Styx, creating a strip more fertile than most of the region. Here the Taians, who elsewhere were mainly herdsmen, dwelt in farming villages; here was the main artery of trade for the province, and of civilisation. Or so it had been. Now, at his back, smoke from the thatch of mud huts rose to stain heaven, date palms and orange groves lay hewn down, vultures descended on corpses, lines of captives stumbled in chains on their way to the slave market at Luxur. As yet the right bank was untouched; but its turn would come.

  Shuat, a big, hard-faced man, rode at the head of his force. On his left, a standard-bearer held on high the snake pennon of his rank. Immediately behind him, amongst his personal guards, came his chariot. Thereafter, in a cloud of dust, boom of drums, tramp of feet and hooves, creak of wheels, the regiment followed. Ahead of him the riverside road lifted sharply with the terrain, and the valley narrowed into a gorge. Its sides were red rock, vivid against a sky where the sun blazed fierce. There the stream dashed white and loud.

  His adjutant trotted up to join the commander on the right, slowed his own horse, and reported, 'Sir, Captain Menemhet requests orders as to where we shall camp for the night.'

  'What, when it is scarcely past noon?' Shuat snapped.

  The adjutant pointed. 'My lord knows well that that defile is a long one. We cannot get through it, out onto open ground, before dark. May I respectfully suggest that it is no good place for us to be attacked?'

  'I hope we shall be.' Noting the officer's surprise, Shuat deigned to speak on: 'Have you considered why we are ravaging the valley, instead of merely garrisoning it as was done in past uprisings? After all, it yielded more taxes than the entire rest of this wretched domain. Well, it has been even more important to the highlanders, both for what it produces and because of what it once meant in their history. Were it left intact, they would get supplies smuggled to them by their kin-folk here, and we might spend years chasing down their last insurgent bands. This way, outrage and a sense of desperation should provoke them to headlong tactics. A troop that has seemingly boxed itself in a ravine can tempt those of them who are nearby into an immediate assault.

  'If that happens, fear not. I am not so foolish as to try pushing on. We will repulse them and then make an orderly withdrawal. Our men are well equipped, they are used to fighting in close ranks, they will inflict far heavier casualties than they suffer. That is my objective.'

  'It is not for me to question my lord's wisdom,' said the adjutant dubiously.

  Shuat gave a dour chuckle. 'Nevertheless you do. I agree, this seems much more expensive in every way than simply wearing the clansmen down as afore-time. But I have my orders. The rebellion must be crushed soon, regardless of price. I have laid my plans accordingly, and Governor Wenamon has approved them. He dared not do otherwise.'

  'Sir?'

  Shuat grew sombre. 'Those orders came lately from Khemi, countersigned on their way here by the king in Luxur. They were borne in a magical boat which made the journey in some three days. That I know from the date on the document, and from the priest-magician Hakketh who was aboard and now waits at Seyan for my report on this expedition.' He made a sign. 'I did not ask why the matter is so urgent. Before the hierophants of the Great Lord Set, one does not ask for reasons. One prostrates oneself and obeys.'

  Despite the heat and brilliance of the day, the adjutant shivered.

  Above the gorge, land rolled rugged, immense, to mountains which made a distance-purpled wall on its southern horizon. Save for scattered tamarisks and acacias, it was treeless, begrown with tawny grass and thorny shrubs. The largest of the boulders that lay strewn about had long since been piled into dolmens, where ancient heroes slept. Antelope grazed among those graves. They had drifted back here after folk drove cattle and goats to the safety of higher ground.

  They bounded off as a troop of warriors approached. These were Taians, taller, more slender, darker of skin than Stygians. They tended to be handsome, their features broad-nosed, full-lipped, but regular, hair blue-black and straight, beards generally shaved off. Most wore little besides a kilt dyed to show the owner's clan, a part of it draped over the left shoulder; at night it became a blanket rolled around the person. Their chief arms were dirk, spear, sling,
bow, axe, though some possessed Stygian short-swords or curved blades from the East. Many bore rectangular hide shields, reaching from knee to chin, and on many of these, the bright paint included a solar disc.

  Ausar, their chieftain, led them at the long stride of a mountaineer. His hair was grey and his face furrowed, but time had done little else to his body. That countenance was sharper than common in these parts, its complexion lighter. His garb was a lion skin, and on a headband shone the Sun symbol, in gold. Besides a dagger, he carried a battle axe - three-foot haft, steel head tapered at the rear to a point.

  Reaching the brink, he signalled his followers to hold back and crouched for a look unseen from below. Noise and gleam of the river came to him out of shadows filling the ravine. When he peered downstream, he caught a different sound and glitter that made him nod in grim satisfaction.

  He rose and returned to the men. Several hundred strong, they

  stood close enough together that all could hear him. 'Aye,' he told them, 'the scout spoke truly. The Stygians did indeed go on, and are now making camp just where I deemed they would. It appears as desirable a site as can be found hereabouts, the bank wider between cliff and stream than at most places. However, they are still perforce strung out in a long line. And because the Helu is narrower at this point, it is also deeper and swifter. An armoured Stygian, merely pushed into that water, would not come back out of it.' He lifted his axe 'No cheers yet, lest they be warned. But we will strike them!'

  Weapons shook aloft to catch the red beams of a sun sunken nearly under the mountaintops.

  'Here is my plan,' Ausar went on. 'They outnumber us, but we will come on them behind the head of the snake that they are, chop it off, and kill those men. Mitra grant their commander be among them! Meanwhile certain of us will form a row across the bank and hold off the rest. There is no time to talk further, so I bestow that honour on those of Clan Yaro who are present. After dark, we will retreat back up the steeps - yon blundering flat-landers will never dare pursue - and tomorrow see how next we can harass them. For Mitra and Taia - now onward!'

  He started off parallel to the verge. His youngest daughter Daris increased her pace to join him. Unwed women often hunted beside their brethren in this country, and fought in time of war. Though he had been unhappy about her wish to fare along in his roving force, he could not well deny it, when her sisters had infants to care for and her brothers were off on forays of their own.

  'Stay behind,' he urged. 'You send a wicked arrow, but this will be fighting at close quarters, and some of the foe will not yet have doffed armour.'

  A dirk slid forth in her grasp. 'I am nimble enough to make good use of this, Father,' she answered.

  He sighed. 'Mitra ward you, then. Your mother was dear to me while she lived, and you are much like her.'

  Daris loped on. Her rangy height did not lack curves to bespeak a woman. Her features were still more straight and finely than his, her hue still lighter, golden rather than brown midnight hair. She too wore a small Sun disc on her brow. Otherwise her garb was a cuirass of boiled cowhide over a brief tunic, and a leather skirt studded with brass. On her back she had slung a bow, quiver, and packet of dried meat such as Taians were wont to carry when travelling

  'Remember,' she said, 'I vowed before Derketa that I would see dead Stygians to the number of the Farazis. It is for me to bring down as many of them as the Sable Queen will grant.'

  Ausar's lips drew taut. When Clan Farazi protested a redoubled tax on livestock, Governor Wenamon invited them to Seyan for a east of reconciliation and parley. About half came. His militia seized them for hostages. That latest act of Stygian misrule brought most of the Highlanders up in arms. When the governor then slew his prisoners, instead of terrified submission he got rebellion ablaze throughout the province.

  Daris fell silent, for her father had turned toward the defile.

  Quickly he scanned over its edge, nodded, raised his axe for a sign, and started down. Few people in the world could readily have crossed a slope so steep, gullied, and twilit, but these mountaineers were agile as goats, quiet as leopards. Below and ahead, the Stygians were blots of gloom, glints of metal, beside the roaring Helu. Campfires twinkled to life through the length of their host; a breath of smoke drifted with the coolness breathed from the water.

  Not until talus rattled beneath calloused feet did anybody notice the Taians. A shout lifted, trumpets blared, horses whinnied in alarm, iron clanged. 'Forward!' Ausar cried, and sped to battle.

  Helmet, breastplate, greaves, shield of a sentry sheened in the dusk before him. The Stygian drew blade, stood his ground, sought to stab his oncoming foe. Ausar dodged. His axe flickered

  sideways. Barely did the soldier withdraw his sword arm in time.

  The axhead edge clashed on his shield. Again Ausar hewed, and again, to bring the greater mass of his weapon in battering and leverage on the defence The shield slipped just enough aside, and his axe bit into the Stygian's thigh. Blood jetted. The soldier howled and stumbled. His face was unguarded. Ausar sent the point through a temple, leaped over the corpse, and plunged on. Around

  him raged a wave of his men.

  A mailed Stygian fought a Taian who wielded a scimitar. Unarmoured, the highlander could not stand before his opponent. Already slashed in a dozen places, he gave way step by step; at his back was a line of the enemy. Abruptly he saw an opening, yelled, and sprang closer, while his sword whirred downward. A skilful feint had caught him. The shield tilted back to intercept, while the soldier trod forward. He sheathed his blade in the native's belly, and ripped. Then Daris had an arm under his chin from behind. Her dirk made a single deep slash across his throat. He fell, gurgled, flopped, and lay still beside the Taian man. Daris was already elsewhere.

  A horseman forced his way through the struggle. From above, he chopped down right and left on rebels as they combated Stygian infantry. Daris wove her way amidst violence. Heedless of danger from hooves or aught else, she glided under the horse. It screamed and reared as she hamstrung it, fell heavily, thrashed about. Daris was on the rider like a cat. Before he could recover himself, the lifeblood was pumping out of a forearm laid open on the inner side from elbow to wrist.

  Daris rolled and scrambled to her feet. Seeming chaos ramped on the riverbank. But - Armour! Lines! Horses! She gasped in dismay as she realised. The Stygians had kept themselves fully ready to fight, well-nigh every last man of them. The Taian assault had only thrown them back a little, then they rallied in disciplined ranks. The confusion was among Ausar's band, suddenly made to recoil. And now torches flared out of camp fires, to light this ground for the king's troopers. Now trumpets sounded triumphant, cavalry thrust in close formation, chariots rumbled forward on sword-hubbed wheels. The Stygian standards advanced from both east and west; the defenders of Clan Yaro had gone down under weight of mail, horses, vehicles; the attackers were trapped.

  'No! she dimly heard her father shout through the clamour and clangour Above the heads of men who surged back and forth, seeking to win out of the press, she saw Ausar. He had cut his way back to the talus slope. Instead of fleeing at once, he stood, axe raised high, in flickery torchlight, under the first stars, for a sign and a rallying point. Stygian arrows buzzed around him, but he

  heeded them not, and they missed him in the dusk. 'Here, men of Taia, here to me!' he bugled.

  His warriors had not penetrated the foe so deeply that they were boxed in beyond escape. Pantherish cries lifted from them. They hurled themselves toward him with terrifying vigour. Comrade elided comrade as they charged. The soldiers did not harvest many of them before they had reached the wall of the gorge and bounded off, unfollowable, starward into the night.

  Daris glimpsed that much while she struggled for her own freedom. She had been headed out of the battle when its tides 'Wept her against two Stygian infantrymen. They seized her by the arms. She fought them in hissing fury. Once she tripped the left-hand man and all three went down in a heap. She managed to
sink her teeth in his neck. Horrified, he slackened his grip. She tore loose of him and twisted about, to bring the heel of her hand under the nose of his companion. That could have been lethal, but he ducked in time and the nose was merely broken. The first man was upon her again. His fist slugged at her jaw. She took the blow on her cheekbone instead. Yet it dazed her momentarily. He took hold of her throat and squeezed. The other Stygian hampered her resistance till she sank into blackness.

  Little remained of Thuran. In the course of conquering Taia, the Stygians had besieged and largely destroyed its capital, while devastating the hinterland. Afterward, five hundred years of neglect and weather gnawed at what had survived. Terraces crumbled, walls collapsed, canals and reservoirs silted, soil eroded, rich farmland became gaunt wilderness. When at last men returned, it was as pastoralists. They bore off the toppled stones of the city to make shelters, miles apart. Mostly they lived in skin tents, carried on ox-back, in the cycle of their wanderings. This was had country for horse, camel, or wheel; its dwellers perforce grew deep-chested and fleet-footed.

  Nevertheless Thuran-on-the-Heights was holy to them. Varanghi had founded it when he led the ancestors hither, and had consecrated it to Mitra. Here a long succession of kings reigned gloriously, a civilisation flowered. Here was still the olden temple of the Sun god, half in ruins but housing a few priests who still

  practised the pure rites and conserved something of ancient relied and lore. Here the clan chiefs and their households gathered each winter solstice for sacrifice, deliberations, trying of lawsuits, and business more worldly. Here folk made pilgrimage to cleanse themselves of guilt, swear the most sacred oaths, to find solace in the mysteries of Mitra.

  Here Ausar brought his men after their defeat on the Helu. It was a natural place for all to meet who fain would join his army. The Stygians would not soon come this far; if nothing else, supply lines were too easily cut in the arid, tumbled uplands. He could hope to find new recruits waiting for him.