Part 22 (1/2)
It was long and narrow, a typical trading-shi+p of the southern coasts, high of poop and stern, with cabins at either extremity Conan looked down into the open waist, whence wafted that sickening abominable odor He knew it of old It was the body-scent of the oarsroes, forty men to each side, each confined by a chain locked about his waist, with the other end welded to a heavy ring set deep in the solid runway beam that ran between the benches froalley was a hell unfathomable Most of these were Kushi+tes, but some thirty of the blacks who now rested on their idle oars and stared up at the stranger with dull curiosity were from the far southern isles, the hohter features and hair, their rangier, cleaner-li them men who had followed hinized in one swift, all-elance as he rose, before he turned his attention to the figures about his, his fists clenched wrathfully, he glared at the figures clustered about hi, the empty bucket still poised in his hand, and Conan cursed hi for his hilt Then he discovered that he eaponless and 189
naked except for his short leather breeks
”What lousy tub is this?” he roared ”How did I coly stocky, bearded Argosseans to a man and one, whose richer dress and air of command proclaily: ”We found you lying on the sands Somebody had rapped you on the pate and taken your clothes Needing an extra ht you aboard”
”What shi+p is this?” Conan deo of ilded helold ore I am Demetrio, captain of this vessel and your master henceforward”
”Then I'o, after all,”southeastward, following the long curve of the Argossean coast
These trading-shi+ps never ventured far from the shore-line Soalley was speeding southward
”Have you sighted a Stygian galley ” began Conan, but the beard of the burly, brutal-faced captain bristled He was not in the least interested in any question his prisoner h time he reduced this independent wastrel to his proper place
”Get for'ard!” he roared ”I've wasted ti you brought to the poop to be revived, and answered enough of your infernal questions
Get off this poop! You'll work your way aboard this galley ”
”I'll buy your shi+p ” began Conan, before he remeh reeted these words, and the captain turned purple, thinking he sensed ridicule
”Youstep forward, while his hand closed on the knife at his belt ”Get for'ard before I have you flogged! You'll keep a civil tongue in your jaws, or by Mitra, I'll have you chained a an oar!”
Conan's volcanic te at best, burst into explosion Not in years, even before he was king, had a man spoken to him thus and lived
”Don't lift your voice to usty as the sea- 190
wind, while the sailors gaped dumfounded ”Draw that toy and I'll feed you to the fishes!”
”Who do you think you are?” gasped the captain
”I'll show you!” roared the maddened Cimmerian, and he wheeled and bounded toward the rail, where weapons hung in their brackets
The captain drew his knife and ran at hiripped his wrist with a wrench that tore the arm clean out of the socket The captain bellowed like an ox in agony, and then rolled clear across the deck as he was hurled contemptuously from his attacker Conan ripped a heavy ax from the rail and wheeled cat-like to ue like hounds, clumsy-footed and aard in comparison to the pantherish Cimmerian Before they could reach hiht and left too quickly for the eye to follow, and blood and brains spattered as two corpses struck the deck
Knives flailed the air wildly as Conan broke through the stue that spanned the waist from poop to forecastle, just out of reach of the slaves below Behind hi after him, daunted by the destruction of their fellows, and the rest of the crew soe toward him, eapons in their hands
Conan bounded out on the bridge and stood poised above the upturned black faces, ax lifted, black mane blown in the wind
”Who aa, Laranga! Who am I?”
And frohty roar: ”Amra! It is Aht and understood the burden of that aweso in sudden fear at the wild figure on the bridge Was this in truth that blood-thirsty ogre of the southern seas who had so ory legends? The blacks were frothing crazy now, shaking and tearing at their chains and shrieking the name of Amra like an invocation Kushi+tes who had never seen Conan before took up the yell The slaves in the pen under the after-cabin began to batter at the walls, shrieking like the da the deck on one hand and his knees, livid with the agony of his dislocated ars, before the slaves break loose!”
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Fired to desperation by that word, the ed on to the bridge froe and hit like a cat on his feet on the runway between the benches
”Death to the ly full on a shackle- chain, severing it likeslave was free, splintering his oar for a bludgeon Men were racing frantically along the bridge above, and all hell and bedlam broke loose on the Venturer Conan's ax rose and fell without pause, and with every stroke a frothing, screaiant broke free, eance
Sailors leaping down into the waist to grapple or s like one possessed at the shackles, found theed down by hands of slaves yet unfreed, while others, their broken chains whipping and snapping about their limbs, ca like fiends, s and rending with talons and teeth In the midst of the ing up on the decks, and with fifty blacks freed of their benches Conan abandoned his iron-hewing and bounded up on the bridge to add his notched ax to the bludgeons of his partizans
Then it was , sturdy, fearless like all their race, trained in the brutal school of the sea But they could not stand against these erish barbarian Blows and abuse and hellish suffering were avenged in one red gust of fury that raged like a typhoon from one end of the shi+p to the other, and when it had blown itself out, but one white man lived aboard the Venturer, and that was the blood-stained giant about whoed to cast themselves prostrate on the bloody deck and beat their heads against the boards in an ecstasy of hero-worshi+p
Conan, his ripped in his blood- sht have glared in some primordial dawn, and shook back his black ain lord of the black corsairs, who had hacked his way to lordshi+p through flame and blood
”Amra! Amra!” chanted the delirious blacks, those ere left to chant ”The Lion has returned! Noill the Stygians howl like dogs in the night, and the black dogs of Kush will howl! Noill villages burst in fla of women and the thunder of the spears!”
”Cease this yas!” Conan roared in a voice that drowned the clap of the sail in the wind ”Ten of you go below and free the oarsmen who are yet chained The rest of you man the sweeps and bend to oars and halyards Cro the fight? Do you want to run aground and be retaken by the Argosseans? Throw these 192
carcasses overboard Juues, or I'll notch your hides for you!”
With shouts and laughter and wild singing they leaped to do his commands The corpses, white and black, were hurled overboard, where triangular fins were already cutting the water
Conan stood on the poop, frowning down at the black men atched him expectantly His heavy brown ars, blew in the wind
A wilder and e of a shi+p, and in this ferocious corsair few of the courtiers of Aquilonia would have recognized their king
”There's food in the hold!” he roared ”Weapons in plenty for you, for this shi+p carried blades and harness to the Sheh of us to work shi+p, aye, and to fight! You rowed in chains for the Argossean dogs: will you row as free men for Amra?”
”Aye!” they roared ”We are thy children! Lead us where you will!”
”Then fall to and clean out that waist,” he commanded ”Free men don't labor in such filth
Three of you come with me to break out food from the after-cabin By Crom, I'll pad out your ribs before this cruise is done!”
Another yell of approbation answered hi The sail bellied as the wind swept over the waves with renewed force, and the white crests danced along the sweep of the wind Conan planted his feet to the heave of the deck, breathed deep and spread hisof the blue ocean he was still
XVI
BLACK-WALLED KHEMI
The Venturer swept southward like a living thing, her oars pulled now by free and willing hands She had been transforalley, insofar as the transformation was possible Men sat at the benches noith swords at their sides and gilded hel the rails, and sheafs of spears, bows and arrows adorned the mast Even the elements seemed to work for Conan now; the broad purple sail bellied to a stiff breeze that held day by day, needing little aid froh Conan kept a , low, black galley fleeing southward ahead of them Day by day the blue waters rolled e-craft which fled like frightened birds before the the rail The season for trading was practically over for the year, and they sighted no other shi+ps