"My business is my own. I but seek pa.s.sage 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 in-tended," 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 travel-ers 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 pa.s.sed.

"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 pa.s.sing time.

"I must find my, packhorse," said Leovigild impa- 148.

149.tiently. "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 ris-ing 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 k.n.o.bby-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, both-ered by strange fears they cannot explain."

"Such was my experience," Leovigild said, nod-ding. "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 s.h.a.ggy, 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 wide-spread. 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 re-treated 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 150.

151.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 a.s.sured 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 amaze-ment 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 pa.s.sed hither?"

"Nay," Hugin said, "I would have heard had they come to this valley."

"That is unfortunate," Leovigild said, disappoint-ment etched upon his brow.

The s.h.a.ggy 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 stand-ing at the base of a large oak, placidly cropping dry, brown gra.s.s. 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 belong-ings that the packhorse had carried. At least he was no longer quite so dest.i.tute.

"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 amus.e.m.e.nt in 152.

153.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 anoth-er'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 ef-forts 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 color of emeralds. Her body was small and slender, but her b.r.e.a.s.t.s 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 tough-ened 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 gal-lantry was little practiced 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 a.s.sistance you might afford me."

"And what form might this grat.i.tude 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 withy basket at her side and cast them upon the coals that glowed upon 154.

CONAN THE CHAMPIOKl 155.the small stone hearth before her. A cloud of fragrant smoke ascended and hung before them both. She in-haled deeply.

Leovigild was aware of a stinging in his nostrils as he breathed the smoke, then an unaccustomed dizziness a.s.sailed 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 proph-ecy of doom and did all in their power to circ.u.mvent catastrophe. Inevitably the actions they took to avoid doom were precisely those that brought it about.

The G.o.ds, 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 G.o.ds 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."

This was a disappointment. The woman spoke in riddles, like the dragons of old tales. "Are you saying that she is dead?"

"No. There are--other places. Some of them are open only to sorcerers, others may not be entered by mortals at all. She has been taken to one of those places by the working of dark forces."

"lilma," he half whispered. "Is she alone?"

"My sight cannot penetrate to the other worlds, but she was followed by two men who crossed over close after her. One was an old man, a wizard. The other a huge man with hair as black as mine. He is no ordinary man, but one with the mark of a strange destiny upon him. He is a sojourner, for his fate lies not in these northern forests."

"Those will be her wizard, Rerin, and her foreign champion, whose name I know not. It may be that her plight is not wholly desperate, then. And what of her people, the Cambres?"

After another pause, she said, "They are leaderless and despondent. Should they be set upon now, they would fall easy prey, for the heart is gone from them."

He chose his next words with great care. "I do not ask what I should do, nor whether I shall die upon the 156.

157.morrow or many years hence. But where would lie my wisest choice of action?"

She smiled. "You are cautious. That is good, for cautious men frequently live longer than rash ones. I give you advice, then, not prediction. Go to the Cambres and their queen. For good or ill your fate lies with them, and no man does well by striving to avoid his fate."

"The Cambres it is, then."

Leovigild felt as if a great burden had been lifted from him. A decision had been reached, and he need trouble his mind no further. When he left here he would climb from the valley and make his way to Alcuina's holding in the field of great stones. Even that uncanny place would seem familiar after his strange day in the valley.

"There is still the matter of my payment," Atalia said, and now her green eyes glowed with a different light.

"And what might it be?" Leovigild asked.

She rose from where she sat and seemed to flow into his arms. Even through his clothing he felt the heat of her naked body, warmer than was natural to any human woman. "As I told you," she gasped, "it is a fee you will not be sorry to pay." Slowly she drew him back into her hut.

It was a frosty morning, and Siggeir was on watch. As he often had these last few weeks, he kept especial watch upon the stone circle out on the plain, in futile hope that he would see Alcuina returning from the place where she had disappeared so mysteriously. He had tried to urge the others to make an expedition against Totila, to slay that king and seize his wizard lilma. Like most of them, Siggeir was certain that Alcuina's disap-pearance was the work of the wizard, and he felt that lilma might be persuaded to return their queen to them. A few had wanted to go, but most were too fearful of both Totila and lilma, and Siggeir's urgings had come to naught.

It was with some interest that he saw the lone figure mounted upon a small horse approaching from the west. Few were the travelers upon the ways at this season. Was it a messenger, or perhaps a wandering bard come to sing for a few meals and a night's lodging? He saw as the man drew near that it was a handsome youth in fine clothing.

"Who might you be?" Siggeir called down.

The young man looked up and grinned at him. "I am Leovigild, once a prince of the Thungians, now an exile. Who is in charge here in the absence of Queen Alcuina? I have some words that may be of interest to her people."

King Totila was bored. Winter life was a weary round of eating, sleeping, gaming, and trying to pa.s.s the long, dark hours until the return of spring. Then would re-same the exciting pastimes of fighting, hunting, and raiding, which were the proper amus.e.m.e.nts for a man cf good blood. The rare winter hunts helped, but now rtoey were past the great midwinter feast, and game was icarce. Unless his huntsmen turned up an incautious sag or boar, they would be reduced to smoked meat iad dried fish until spring brought the beasts from their winter dens.

h could be worse. He had seen winters when he and iks warriors had had to subsist on cheese and porridge, jtst like the thralls. He shuddered at the thought. A 158.

159.clean death in battle was better than a life such as that. He had heard of the great kings of the South, where the land enjoyed spring all year round, where there was always sparkling wine instead of sour beer that had been in the cask too long. That was the way for a king to live, and that was how he intended to live as soon as he had settled with his neighbors. Then he would push his borders southward and establish a southern capital near the Zamoran border.

That was for the future, though. The problem now was how best to subdue those neighbors. He had come to depend upon the wizard lilma. He was not sure that this was a good thing, but what else could he do? A king needed a counselor, for a king's true vocation lay in war-leaders.h.i.+p.

As if on signal, lilma came rattling into the hall. A few of the warriors looked up from their game boards, but they gave the mage no more than pa.s.sing attention. He was a common sight, and in winter men developed the ability to ponder their moves in a game with awe-some intensity and patience.

"I bring you news, my liege," said lilma.

"I could use diversion," Totila said. "I trust that it is about Alcuina. Have you come to tell me that your vaunted allies in the spirit world have delivered her to me?"

"It is not that, my liege. As I have told you, time in the spirit world is not the same as time here. While many long weeks have pa.s.sed among us, no more than a day or two may have pa.s.sed there."

The wizard was uncomfortable with this questioning. What lilma said was true in general, but he knew that something must have gone seriously wrong in the spirit world. He could not imagine what factor might have been introduced to throw his plans awry. He was not sure how much longer he could keep Totila waiting. Now, though, he had a distraction.

"The burden of my news concerns your neighbors, the Thungians and the Cambres."

"Say on." Now Totila's interest was aroused. Idly the king picked up his helmet and turned it in his hands, admiring its workmans.h.i.+p. Like all the northern war-riors, he loved fine metal work.

"I have found that King Odoac has driven forth his heir, young Leovigild. He rode from the king's hall some days ago, and no man knows where he has gone."

Totila barked a short laugh. "That makes a clean sweep of the family, then. That foolish pig Odoac rushes to his own doom. With no heir of their own blood, the Thungians shall be all the more willing to acknowledge me their king when I have slain him."

"You have no heir either, my liege," said the wizard.

Totila glanced at him from beneath lowered brows. "I shall have, as soon as you produce Alcuina for me. Besides, I am far younger than Odoac, and no man doubts my ability to produce an heir. And I am a proven war-leader. 1 am of royal blood. Thus, Alcuina's people as well as Odoac's can have no objection to my overlords.h.i.+p. Once I have wed Alcuina, who comes of an ancient line, our son must be an heir satisfactory to all concerned. Is that not so, wizard?"

"That is so, my liege. It is also of the Cambres that I bear news. Since Alcuina's abduction by my allies, they have been shut up within their garth on the plain of the Giants' Stones. I have found out that Odoac plans to take advantage of their leaderless state and attack them within a few days."

"A winter hosting!" said Totila eagerly. "Who would 160.have thought that old Odoac would show such enter-prise? It is more like him to doze away the winter in a drunken stupor." He fell to pondering, and his shrewd mind turned over the various ramifications of this stun-ning news. "But, yes, I see now what his thinking is. He has exiled his heir. Now he must quickly prove that he is still a good war-leader, lest his own men slay him and send to young Leovigild to return and be their king. He dare not attack me, but the Cambres are a tempting target."

lilma nodded at these words. Once again he knew that he had chosen well in picking Totila to groom as a mighty king. The man had a quick mind as well as a strong arm and a ruthless will.

"So tempting are they in fact, that I think I shall go conquer them myself," said Totila. "I shall swallow up both peoples at once. Such an opportunity must not escape me. Warriors!" He bellowed the last word at the top of his rafter-shaking command voice. "Gather your gear and summon your kin! Prepare for a winter hosting!"

A mighty cheer greeted these words, and another northern nation prepared for war.