Leovigild watched for game to supplement the scant rations in his saddlebags, but he saw little sign of larger animals, and the smaller ones would be passing the winter in sleep. Still, he kept his bow strung, its handle of hide-wrapped yew comforting to his hand.
He was beginning to regret his decision to travel by this route. The men of Totila and Alcuina would never accost him in this place, but it had the aspect of an abode for dragons and giants. His imagination peopled the copses and caves with witches, and behind the mossy boulders he thought he glimpsed ragged dwarfs ducking from sight. He tried to shake off the uncanny mood.
'Tales to frighten children,' he muttered. 'It is men I must be wary of, not goblins from old stories.'
Having thus reassured himself, Leovigild urged his horse forward. There was a tiny clearing in the overhead cover, and a heap of snow lay before him. It was the first sizable drift he had encountered since entering the valley. Then a great many things happened at once. As he guided his horse around the drift the heap of snow burst upward, flinging white clumps far and wide.
Leovigild's mount reared screeching, casting the youth to the ground with enough force to half stun him. Towering above him was a creature of nightmare—its wedge-shaped head reared high upon a sinuous trunk as thick as a man's body. Its unblinking, slit-pupilled eyes fixed malevolently upon the helpless Leovigild, and he knew that he had no chance against this thing from the earth's youth.
'Snow serpent!' he gasped.
Travellers claimed to have seen the giant, white-furred
snakes in the lands north of the forest belt, where the sun rose not for half the year, nor fully set in the other half. Never had he heard of such in the woodlands of his people.
His packhorse bolted toward the upper end of the valley, but his mount fidgeted, too paralysed by terror to pick a direction and run. With Leovigild motionless, the primitive brain of the serpent was distracted by the terrified beast. Its jaws gaped, and yellow slime dripped from its fangs to hiss upon the snow. It lunged forward, and Leovigild heard the doomed beast's shrill neigh cut short by a horrible sound of crunching bones.
With a wrenching, painful effort, the youth raised himself enough to see a writhing, white-furred coil from which protruded the twisted legs of his mount. Horror thrilled his spine as the serpent's head reared from the writhing mass, its jaws grotesquely distended. The horse's head and part of its forequarters had already disappeared into the gaping maw, and he realised that the monster intended to swallow the horse whole.
Now, he knew, was his chance to escape. Even so immense a monster must need some time to swallow an entire horse. He tested his limbs and found them all relatively sound. It would be some time before he was hale enough to run, but he could creep painfully upon hands and knees.
As Leovigild began to drag himself away the serpent turned to fix its eyes once more upon him. It shook its head, trying to rid itself of the carcass, but its backward-curving fangs would not release it. It had to swallow the horse or die with the carcass in its jaws. Gradually it lost interest in the lesser prey and went back to its task.
Leovigild was gasping with a mixture of pain and relief when he pulled himself to his feet with the aid of a small sapling. He bled only from small scrapes, although he felt as if King Odoac's hall had fallen upon him. As he made his slow, halting way up the valley he took stock of his situation.
If he had felt poor and abandoned upon setting out, he was in far worse condition now. He had the clothes he wore, his sword and knife, and a relatively undamaged body. His packhorse with his other belongings was somewhere ahead. With luck, he might recover them. Only the thought that he might have ended as snake food himself kept him from cursing his luck.
He paused to catch his breath. Painfully he bent and touched .the earth. 'Father Ymir, I thank you that I have escaped as cheaply as I did.' He suspected that Ymir took no interest in his doings, but it did no harm to keep on good terms with the gods.
'A pious sentiment, for so young a man.'
Leovigild whirled at the sound of a human voice, causing himself great pain in so doing. He saw nobody. 'Show yourself!'
'I am here before you.'
Leovigild peered into the gloom and saw a lump of mossy stone a few paces before him. It had an oddly regular look to it, a semblance of a human face below the long strands of lichen hanging from its crest. In deep-shadowed pits he saw a pair of unmistakable eyes. At another time it might have sent prickles of horror up his spine. So soon after his encounter with the snow serpent, it was a mere curiosity.
'What manner of creature are you?' he asked.
'I might ask the same of you, O foolish one.'
Leovigild could now see that it was a small, gnarled man sitting atop the boulder. So twisted and irregular
was his shape that he seemed more a part of his surroundings than a living man, and whether he was covered with ragged garments, hair, or moss was equally uncertain.
'I am Leovigild, heir to the Lordship of the Thungians. My pack-beast was slain by a great white serpent, and I now search for my mount.'
'And what brings you hither, to a place avoided by men since your breed first came to these wooded hills?' An oversized, knobby hand emerged from the rags and scratched at a bark-brown cheek.
'My business is my own. I but seek passage up this valley and intend to leave it two days' journey to the north. That at least was my intention. The loss of my horses may cause me to tarry here a while longer.'
'You may stay here far longer than you had intended,' said the ugly little man.
Uncomfortably Leovigild thought of old tales he had heard as a child, of places outside human ken. There were said to be barrows and hills where unwary travellers were drawn by mysterious lights or music, to spend a night feasting with the small people, only to emerge with the dawn and find that twenty or more years had passed.
'Would you seek to ensorcell me?' His hand went to his sword hilt. After his battering he was far from his best fighting form, but he had little doubt that he could defeat this homunculus.
The creature laughed, a sound like two boulders rubbing together. 'The pause of death is the longest delay of all. You men are a short-lived race.' The creature spoke slowly, as one who never felt the press of passing time.
'I must find my, packhorse,' said Leovigild impatiently. 'This is your valley, and I would be grateful for your aid in tracking the beast. But if you will not aid me, then at least hinder me no further.' Painfully and stiffly he turned to trudge off.
'Be not so hasty, youth.'
Leovigild turned back to see the dwarfish figure rising from its rock. Standing, the creature stood no higher than Leovigild's waist, but it was easily twice as broad through the body. The long arms were roped with heavy coils of muscle, and the youth was no longer so sanguine about besting the little man in combat.
'Let us go and find your animal. I warrant you would not live long alone in this valley.'
The dwarf picked up a club and shouldered it. The bludgeon was a knobby-headed oaken cudgel as long as Leovigild's leg, old and hand-polished. The creature handled it as lightly as a willow-wand. He set off at an easy walk, his stubby legs adjusting to the irregularity of the footing with the effortlessness of long custom.
'What manner of man are you?' Leovigild asked once more. 'I have never encountered your like, though you live so close to my homeland.'
'I am no man at all. I am a Niblung, and my people lived in these Northlands long before men arrived with their long legs and their short lives. Your kind have encountered us seldom because we wish it so. This valley has such an aspect that few wish to venture hither, and those who camp nearby are troubled with strange dreams. Those who enter soon turn back, bothered by strange fears they cannot explain.'
'Such was my experience,' Leovigild said, nodding. 'I persisted only because I had no safe route through the lands of my foemen.' The words were out
before he could stop them. He had not intended to reveal
his fugitive status.
'It may be,' said the little man, 'that we of this valley shall help you. I am Hugin. Follow close behind me, young Leovigild. There is danger for you in much that seems harmless in this valley.'
'I have already encountered some of the peril of this place,' Leovigild said.
'Aye. And if you failed to see a thing as huge as the snow serpent, how will you see the things that are small but just as deadly?' His shaggy, mossy eyebrows flapped up and down like the wings of a bat.
'How came that creature to this small valley?' Leovigild asked. 'They are figures out of our oldest tales and are said to live only in the lands of eternal snow in the farthest north.' They scrambled over a litter of fallen logs, a legacy of some mighty storm of years past.
'Such of the breed as are left inhabit those lands,' Hugin agreed. 'Yet once they were numerous and widespread. Far back in the mists of time, longer ago than you humans can remember, the world was covered with unending snow and great sheets of ice. Then the land was ruled by such as the snow serpent, and the great hairy tuskers, and the giant white apes. The ice retreated to the north, and the great snow-beasts with it. Once in a great while, though, some ancient instinct stirs in the brain of one of those fell creatures, and they are driven to wander south. In time they return to the north, unable to bear the heat or to find food to suit them. The serpent would have returned soon, but your horse has provided it a good meal, and it will sleep for many days.'
It seemed incredible to Leovigild that no more than an hour's walk to either hand were the familiar pine forests of his homeland. This was a slice from another time and place set amid his accustomed surroundings.
Not all its dangers were as outlandish as the snow serpent. Silently Hugin pointed to a writhing nest of vipers in a hollow beside the little stream. They were of a breed Leovigild had never seen before. Unwarned, he might have trod in their midst. From time to time tracks in the mud assured him that they were still on the trail of his packhorse.
At midday they picked their way gingerly around a thicket from which came regular snortings. Leovigild could not keep from peering within, despite Hugin's silent urgings to leave well enough alone. To his amazement he saw a sleeping boar, large as a full-grown bull. Its curling tusks were longer than his forearm. The sight made him long for his boar-spear, but he knew that all the boar-spears and nets in Odoac's hunting lodges might not suffice to slay so terrific a beast. There would be great carnage among the huntsmen, at best.
Something occurred to Leovigild. 'Hugin, a few days ago, the queen of the Cambres disappeared. Her name is Alcuina, and she is said to be a woman of great beauty. It may be that she is accompanied by her champion, a huge black-haired outlander, who I have heard is more than commonly handy with his sword. Have they passed hither?'
'Nay,' Hugin said, 'I would have heard had they come to this valley.'
'That is unfortunate,' Leovigild said, disappointment etched upon his brow.
The shaggy brows flapped once more. 'It sounds important to you, the whereabouts of this beautiful queen.'
'In truth, I would give much to know where she is, if she still lives. It is important to our peoples.'
'And to you, as well,' Hugin said with a rasping chuckle. 'I take you to one who may be able to tell you about your lost queen, and it may be about much else besides. Just follow old Hugin.'
'Whom do you lead me to?' Leovigild asked. But Hugin would say no more.
As they trekked northward, the valley widened and trees grew larger. Without warning, they came to a small clearing, and Leovigild saw his packhorse standing at the base of a large oak, placidly cropping dry, brown grass. Then he saw that the beast was tethered to a sapling.
'Who has caught the animal and tethered it?' he asked.
'You'll see soon enough.' The small man waddled to the base of the tree, where an untidy bundle of objects rested by the trunk. Leovigild examined the bundle and confirmed that it contained all his belongings that the packhorse had carried. At least he was no longer quite so destitute.
'Who have you brought me, Hugin?' Leovigild looked around, seeking the source of the voice. He was growing mighty weary of disembodied voices. 'Up here,' said the voice. It was a woman's voice, and it came from the tree-above him. He leaned back to scan the tree over his head.
In the thick lower branches a hut perched on a small platform. Thin smoke rose from a fire-hearth he could not see. Of the speaker he could discern nothing.
'Show yourself,' Leovigild called.
'Come to my house if you would see me, youth.'
He thought he caught a thin edge of amusement in the voice. That was all to the good because he would otherwise have suspected treachery to lurk in such an invitation. Among his people, a man coming to another's home stood in plain view and announced himself loudly if his intent was honest. The house holder was then expected to come outside and greet the visitor, unarmed or at least with hands well away from his weapons. The inhabitants of this valley lived by odd customs, or so it seemed. He was comforted by the fact that it was a woman's voice, a consequence of his youth and inexperience.
A series of limb stubs jutted from the trunk at heights convenient for climbing. Despite the awkwardness of the sword at his waist, Leovigild climbed nimbly to the little bower. One who hunted boar and bear in the northern woods had to be adept at scrambling swiftly into trees. When he saw the woman who sat cross-legged in the doorway of the tree-hut, he nearly lost his hold on the tiny platform before her. Only a quick scramble saved him from a bad fall and worse loss of dignity.
He had half expected a female version of the gnarled, ugly little Hugin. What he saw instead was a young woman of great beauty. Not only was she not clad in the rough garments of the Niblung, she was clad in nothing at all. Confusion warred with excitement in his somewhat disordered mind.
'Come sit with me,' said the woman, now sounding even more amused than before.
Leovigild complied, unable despite his strongest efforts to keep his eyes from staring at the woman. Aside from her state of nudity she was a woman such as he had never before seen. Her hair was raven-wing black, a great rarity in the North, but her skin was fair to the
point of near translucency. Her face was triangular, with wide cheekbones and large, tilted eyes the colour of emeralds. Her body was small and slender, but her breasts were full and firm, and her hips swelled ripely below her tiny waist.
He had to swallow a few times before he regained control of his voice. 'I, ah, thank you for your kind invitation, my, ah, lady.'
Never in his life had he felt so foolish. It occurred to him to wonder how she kept from freezing. True, the valley was somewhat warmer than the forests outside, but it was nonetheless cold enough that even a toughened northerner felt the need of a heavy cloak.
'You seem to be ill at ease,' she said.
'I fear so, my lady. In my homeland one does not often come upon unclothed women.' The art of gallantry was little practised in the North.
'Oh, I see. Have no fear, my kind are not bothered by the cold, as are you.'
Leovigild felt a violent urge to change the subject. 'Hugin told me that you might be able to help me with certain questions that trouble me. I do not wish to impose upon you, but I would be most grateful for any assistance you might afford me.'
'And what form might this gratitude take?' Her green eyes were unfathomable. He knew not whether she made sport of him or meant her words seriously. Her expression was grave, but that might easily hide mockery.
'As you can see, I possess little,' he said, 'but what I have you may ask of me.'
'Fear not,' she said. 'I shall ask nothing you would be loath to give.'
She took some shreds of bark from a basket at her side and cast them upon the coals that glowed upon the small stone hearth before her. A cloud of fragrant smoke ascended and hung before them both. She inhaled deeply.
Leovigild was aware of a stinging in his nostrils as he breathed the smoke, then an unaccu
stomed dizziness assailed him. He blinked smoke-tears from his eyes and saw the woman with a new sharpness and clarity, as if the light had somehow grown stronger.
'What is your name?' he asked bluntly.
She had closed her eyes, but now the lids rose, and her emerald gaze had a distant look. 'My true name you may not know, for it would give you power over me. You may call me Atalia. I come of a race as ancient as Hugin's. Where his folk are of earth and water, mine are of air and fire. Secrets of past and future are disclosed to us. Ask me now what you would know.'
Leovigild had heard of witch-women and spaewives who told fortunes and performed small magics, but he had always been half convinced that most of them were mere posers or deluded half-wits. This woman was different. Though her face and form were as beautiful as any he had ever imagined, she was as alien to him as the dwarfish Hugin. She might truly have the gift of prophecy. But what could he ask her? He was curious about the future, but the tales and poems of his people were full of heroes and kings who received some prophecy of doom and did all in their power to circumvent catastrophe. Inevitably the actions they took to avoid doom were precisely those that brought it about.
The gods, then, did not like for mortal men to know too much about the future. The past did not concern him. There was much that was confusing about the present, though. Perhaps Father Ymir and the lesser gods would not resent his arming himself with some knowledge of how things went outside this little valley.
'Where is Queen Alcuina of the Cambres?' he asked.
Atalia's eyelids drooped, and she breathed deeply of the smoke. After a long silence she began speaking, very slowly and in a voice somehow more hollow than that with which she had spoken earlier.
'She is in a place that is neither this valley nor the world you know.'
The Conan Chronology Page 343