Part 11 (1/2)
”Then ill send a spy-a Yuetshi+ fisherman will do -to the kozak ca on Xapur If I know ht to that place”
”But we do not know that he will go alone,” Jehungir argued
”Does ato a rendezvous with a woman he desires?” retorted Ghaznavi ”The chances are all that he will go alone But ill take care of the other alternative We will not await hiht be trapped ourselves, but a the reeds of a marshy point, which juts out to within a thousand yards of Xapur If he brings a large force, we'll beat a retreat and think up another plot If he comes alone or with a small party, ill have hi slave's slances”
”I will never descend to such shame!” Octavia ith fury and humiliation ”I will die first!”
”You will not die, ir, ”but you will be subjected to a very painful and hu experience”
He clapped his hands, and Octavia paled This time it was not the Kushi+te who entered, but a Sheht with a short, curled, blue-black beard
”Here is work for you, Gilzan,” said Jehungir Take this fool, and play with her awhile Yet be careful not to spoil her beauty”
With an inarticulate grunt the Sheers, all the defiance went out of her With a piteous cry she tore away and threw herself on her knees before her iir disesture, and said to Ghaznavi: ”If your plan succeeds, I will fill your lap with gold”
Chapter Three
In the darkness before dawn, an unaccustomed sound disturbed the solitude that slumbered over the reedy marshes and the misty waters of the coast It was not a droaterfowl nor a waking beast It was a huh the thick reeds, which were taller than a man's head
It was a woman, had there been anyone to see, tail, and yellow-haired, her splendid liood earnest, every outraged fiber of her still tingling from her experience in a captivity that had becoir's h; but with deliberate fiendishness Jehungir had given her to a nobleeneracy even in Khawarizm
Octavia's resilient flesh crawled and quivered at her memories
Desperation had nerved her climb from Jelal Khan's castle on a rope made of strips from torn tapestries, and chance had led her to a picketed horse She had ridden all night, and dawn found her with a foundered steed on the swa with the abhorrence of being dragged back to the revolting destiny planned for her by Jelal Khan, she plunged into theplace frorew thinner around her and the water rose about her thighs, she saw the dim loom of an island ahead of her A broad span of water lay between, but she did not hesitate She waded out until the loaves were lapping about her waist; then she struck out strongly, swior that promised unusual endurance
As she neared the island, she saw that it rose sheer from the water in castlelike cliffs She reached thee to stand on below the water, nor to cling to above She swa the curve of the cliffs, the strain of her long flight beginning to weight her li the sheer stone, and suddenly they found a depression With a sobbing gasp of relief, she pulled herself out of the water and clung there, a dripping white Goddess in the diht
She had come upon what seemed to be steps carved in the cliff Up theht the faint clack of ht shetoward the reedy point she had just quitted But it was too far away for her to be sure in the darkness, and presently the faint sound ceased and she continued her climb If it were her pursuers, she knew of no better course than to hide on the island She knew that most of the islands off that ht be a pirate's lair, but even pirates would be preferable to the beast she had escaped
A vagrant thought crossed her mind as she climbed, in which she mentally compared her former master with the kozak chief hom-by compulsion-she had shamelessly flirted in the pavilions of the camp by Fort Ghori, where the Hyrkanian lords had parleyed with the warriors of the steppes His burning gaze had frightened and humiliated her, but his cleanly elemental fierceness set him above Jelal Khan, a monster such as only an overly opulent civilization can produce
She scrae and looked tirew close to the cliffs, presenting a solidwhirred above her head and she cowered, even though realizing it was only a bat
She did not like the looks of those ebony shadows, but she set her teeth and went toward the not to think of snakes Her bare feet y loa thely about her She had not taken a dozen steps when she was no longer able to look back and see the cliffs and the sea beyond A few steps more and she becah the tangled branches not even a star peered She groped and floundered on, blindly, and then caan the rhyth of a drum It was not such a sound as she would have expected to hear in the tiot it as she are of a presence near her She could not see, but she knew that so beside her in the darkness
With a stifled cry she shrank back, and as she did so, sonized as a human arm curved about her waist She screae for freedo her frantic resistance with ease The silence hich her frenzied pleas and protests were received added to her terror as she felt herself being carried through the darkness toward the distant drum, which still pulsed and e of dawn reddened the sea, a small boat with a solitary occupant approached the cliffs The ure A crimson scarf was knotted about his head; his wide silk breeches, of fla hue, were upheld by a broad sash, which likewise supported a sciilt-worked leather boots suggested the horseman rather than the seah his widely open white silk shi+rt showed his broad, muscular breast, burned brown by the sun
The muscles of his heavy, bronzed arms rippled as he pulled the oars with an almost feline ease of motion A fierce vitality that was evident in each feature and motion set hie nor so blue eyes hinted at ferocity easily wakened This was Conan, who had wandered into the armed camps of the kozaks with no other possessions than his wits and his sword, and who had carved his way to leadershi+p a them