Part 8 (1/2)
”Curse the God-Men!” Emwaya said fervently Then it was her hands that danced down Seyganko's back and under his garments, so that it was not she as the first of the would be needed to finish the work on the reat hope of that much sun and offered Valeria his shi+rt
She held it against her, then laughed ”As a night-shi+ft, I ht accept it”
”My hide's thicker than yours, Valeria, and not bred in Aquilonia”
”If I've survived the sun and salt wind at sea, I'll not broil before this hide cures”
”Or rots”
”Does Crom tell you to look always for the worst, Conan?”
”Cro, at least not for the asking,” Conan replied His gri matter for him, or for anyone else born in the Northlands, where the nahty
”Is that why you're so often close, she threw up her hands and fell in behind the Ciht's camp before a brief but heavy shower soaked them both and left pools of clean water everywhere They drank, then cut still-green branches fro theress the rest of the ry to the bank of a river too deep to wade Conan studied its surface, eyeing the swirls in the murky water He studied with equal care the banks of the river, including places where animal tracks ended in patches of churned mud and scattered leaves
”Crocodiles,” he said briefly
Valeria glowered at the water ”I was thinking we could make a raft and let the river do the work”
”It flows south and west, which is the ant to go But we've no tools, and the crocs would have us off a floating log before we'd gone half a league” Conan looked beyond the banks, seeing fallen tree trunks He saw too few for a raft, and soth to roll to the water
”No, I was thinking we should be hunting for a meal, anyway Share a beast with the crocodiles, and they ed ”If it works with sharks, it may ith crocodiles But, oh, that I'd ever be ready to sell my soul for a canoe”
”Sell your body for an ax, and we'd have the canoe,” Conan said, then ducked as Valeria lashed at hier and the need for silence ended the banter They found hiding places that cole creatures ca wait, as the pools of rainwater would doubtless content the beasts as well as theht be dark before the animals came, and Conan did not care to match ith a crocodile after dark
As a prophet, Conan failed It was not yetand snorting through the bushes There were five in all: an old boar, a sow, and three piglets following in the wake of their elders
Using the hand signals of the Barachan pirates, Conan told Valeria to take the sow, or failing that, a piglet That would do for their own food He himself would face the boar-and any crocodile not sated with that much raw pork was no creature of nature
Conan thrust that thought aside with the saet last night Had he sensed powerful ic at work not far off ?
It would not have surprised the Ciic The tales he had heard in Xuchotl suggested that those who built the city ic, as well as stones, behind Old, evil, tainted htree on how far that lore had spread, how long it had lasted, or how deep it had sunk roots into the ree on how a man became a spell-smeller-the name in the north for those who had so hiree that such nizing subtle changes in the natural world, changes that any spell always uments, and less than most of that one If such talk could have made sorcerers forsake their craft and turn into honest ladly joined it until his throat was dry As matters were, he chose not to let his throat dry out in the first place!
Now the boar was sniffing the air with the care of the scout of a host seeking an a from it toward the hunters, and both Conan and Valeria had been in the jungle long enough for its suise theirs
Conan nodded, and Valeria drew her sword It caught briefly in the scabbard, and the faint scraping as it caain it sniffed the wind, and this tier