Vault of the Ages Read Free

northerners, these Lann as they call themselves, would envy us. Their own scouts and explorers have visited us now and then, you know.”
    He ran a hand through his hair. “Also,” he went on, “this is a matter which I do not understand very well, but some say the world is getting colder. Old men all tell how the summers were warmer and the winters shorter in their youth, that their grandfathers had told them things were still better. Old Donn, the High Doctor at Dalestown, who keeps the ancient wisdom, says that the wise men before the Doom knew of such changes too. Anyway,” he finished lamely, “if the weather really is getting colder and stormier, it would strike the north first and hardest. They have had several bitter years and thin harvests, my father’s spies have told, and are themselves harried by desperate raiders from still farther north. So all in all, it is easy to see that the Chief of the united Lann may want to lead a host which can conquer the south and take its lands.”
    “That would take a great army,” said Owl.
    “It is a great army,” said Carl grimly.
    “But why should they fall on us?” asked John. “There are weaker tribes, easier prey.”
    “I don’t know,” said Carl, “but my father thinks it’s just because we Dalesmen are the largest and strongest of the tribes that they want to overrun us first. Once we are beaten, our neighbors will have no chance.” He scowled. “Even so, those other tribes won’t join with us. They’re afraid to stir up the anger of the Lann. We stand alone.”
    “And where is this northern army?” asked John.
    “I don’t know,” said Carl. “Nobody does. They could be anywhere in the great hills and forests to the north, and will move almost as fast as any scout of ours could bring word of their coming. I suppose they’re scattered through the woods, so they can live off the country better, and will join forces again when they come out into the farm lands. There’ve been fights elsewhere in the northern marches between some of their advance guards and men of ours, so they must be near.”
    “But no one can tell how near, eh?” John knocked out his pipe. A tiny coal glowed in the ashes for a moment and then went out like a closing eye. “I thought so. You see, Carl, it isn’t at all sure that theLann will come out of the woods just hereabouts, or if they do that it will be a force too big for us to handle, or even if it’s their whole army that it will waste time attacking the gathered warriors of this neighborhood. So all in all, we men of this district voted to stay at home and defend our own hearth-fires.”
    “It was your right under the law,” admitted Carl gloomily, “but a divided tribe is a weak tribe.”
    He sat for a while in a stillness broken only by the crackling of the fire and the whisper of the loom where John’s wife worked. Somewhere outside, a wild dog howled, and Bull stirred where he lay on a deerskin and snarled an answer.
    “It isn’t so bad,” said John kindly. “We’ll win out. There may not even be a war.” He smiled. “Besides, lad, I don’t think you’re here as Ralph’s messenger to us border men.”
    “No,” said Carl, brightening in spite of himself. “I’m really heading north to the City.”
    “The City!” whispered Owl, and a stir of awe ran about the room. John’s eyes narrowed, Tom leaned forward with his thin, sharp face drawn tight, Arn and Samwell looked at each other, and the woman at the loom stopped her weaving for a startled instant.
    “It isn’t far from here, is it?” asked Carl.
    “Only about a day’s ride,” said Tom slowly. “But none of us have ever been there. It’s taboo.”
    “Not completely,” Carl told him. “The Chief of a tribe can send men to bargain with the witch-men smiths there. That’s me.”
    “You’re after iron weapons, I suppose?”
    “Yes. Every Dalesman has his own war tools, of course, but we need things like catapults and horse armor