The Conqueror by Louis Shalako Read Free Book Online Page B

the County, the door was half open before one of the
guards thought to reach for the papers. Kann pulled them away
jokingly and then handed them over with an exaggerated flourish.
His timing was impeccable.
    “ Yeah, yeah, slow down!”
The other guards hauled away at the foot-thick gate halves.
“Idiot.”
    “ Thank you.” Lowren spurred
his horse into the opening and as the others kicked up their
horses, the way was fully open and there was no stopping them now.
“I resemble that remark.”
    “ Ride!” Lowren’s heels
slapped against hard, warm, surging horse-flesh.
    The moon was well up above the horizon,
the gravel of the road a white ribbon winding its way down the
hillside, following the contours and exposed to the full fire from
the battlements in case of war or siege.
    Just ride.
    “ Well, that seemed to go
very well.” Garvin held up a skin bottle of the local red, a bit
resinous, very dry and with enough alcohol in it to take the top of
the head off if one overindulged even the slightest. “Quite an
adventure, I must say.”
    Their voices went and came echoing back
off the stone walls and abutments. It was a naked feeling, and yet
there was this rush of intense and rather pleasurable juices
inside. With a fairly sure-footed mount, Kann risked a quick look
up, knowing there must be men watching them go from the top of the
battlements. He thought he caught the gleam of a helmet here and
there as they patrolled on their rounds.
    It was best not to think about it too
much.
    “ I’ll take that.” Kann had
worked up a powerful thirst over the preceding couple of
hours.
    He removed the stopper, drank greedily,
and showed no signs of passing it on.
    The warm golden lights of the town lay
below, and as yet, there was no alarm raised behind them. It would
seem that their ten minutes must be up by now.
    The paper was a simple travel order,
ostensibly signed by Captain Nyron, who had gone off duty earlier.
It had been carefully forged for the eventuality. It was unusual
not to get a document properly stamped, as it really should have
gone on with the riders. It would take a while for them to figure
that out. In the meantime, as soon as the riders got to the bottom
of the castle’s approach road, they took the left fork, thundered
over the long stone bridge built at great expense decades
previously. Cantering through the cobbled streets, they came to an
intersection and headed for the northwest road, leading deeper into
the hinterlands. Their real destination was the coast and the
marshes.
    The horses would be turned loose, to
run free and eventually, some might be caught and find new
masters.
    Lowren was quiet when they slowed the
horses to a walk. Having circled back two hundred seventy degrees
from their original course, they had hours ahead of them. There was
time to think, and it was all he could do to hope.
    A ship lying up there for just such a
purpose would take them away. Hopefully it would still be
there.
    “ Do you feel
that?”
    Lowren licked a finger tip and held it
up to the wind.
    “ Southwest.”
    There were nods and murmurs from the
riders. The moon was up, but for much of the time, the road lay
under trees. There was a sense of urgency and yet they must pick
their way carefully. So far, their maps and travel notes from their
spies had been fairly good.
    The hours passed and the pain
began.
    “ Dawn is not far off,
Sire.” Kann was slumping in the saddle.
    Although his eyes were tired he was in
pretty good shape.
    “ Yes. And with a bit of
luck—”
    They might be home, or near enough as
made no difference, in two or three days of clear
sailing.
     
    ***
     
    Dawn was breaking and the sky to the
east was a salmon-colored glow. They had her all ready to go,
having heard them coming for the last half mile or so.
    They kept their voices low, but so far
the boat had remained undiscovered. With their minimal draft and
long, lean lines, the Lemni ships were ideal warships, although
limited as to