Part 43 (1/2)

The druiving Chabano uncertain tidings He nonetheless kept his place at the head of the warriors racing downhill toward the shore

The drums and his eyes told hiers told hiic, an ene a landing place for thewarriors

Chabano hoped it was not treachery It wouldthe kin of those warriors who had died if trusting Wobeku had shed Kwanyi blood At least the dead could not number more than a handful, even if Wobeku had contrived their demise

At Chabano's back there trotted more than five hundred Kwanyi warriors

Each bore the shi+eld and three spears he had devised and taught them to use so well When they reached the shore, it would hardly be a battle at all

He did wonder that he had not heard from Ryku The First Speaker certainly had to know all that was happening, including theSpirit-Speaker Dobanpu!

It did not un He would hardly have as ainst five hundred of the Kwanyi's best There would be spears through the h spirits to slay a goat!

Conan had led the Ichiribu ambush party up the path fro to find the men he had led

The fewer he found, the better they had learned the art of concealment

He found one and whistled softly, then pointed to a bush that would hide hiround

Conan was ready to curse hi courtesy before obedience, but then theplace

He had just vanished when the sta feet reached the Cier and rested his free hand on a pile of small stones he had chosen from a stream-bed

This would be close work, too close for swords, and the more silent, the better If a few-score Kwanyi died before they even knew they faced death, Chabano would have a busy tianko had all of his men ashore

That would strain even Chabano's discipline, although the a live vipers But then, an them

The sound of the Kwanyi on the an to fade In moments, silence had taken its place Few ears but Conan's could have heard the softer sound of iven in whispers instead of in shouts

”They're still co,” he murmured to the man next to him ”Pass the word, and have every rown suspicious, he ht-footed scouts beat the bushes ahead and on either side The Kwanyi would lose tiht save warriors They would certainly put Conan and his men in peril

Conan whispered another coet silence!

Shout and screas, burst your throats-”

”Make them think a score are a thousand?” his companion whispered back

The Ciain, this tiripped a stone and balanced it, ready to throw

The first Kwanyi appeared Conan let him pass, and likewise the ninestone in theblood and teeth, into the reach of another Ichiribu This one held a short spear, which he thrust into the Kwanyi's back

”Yah-haaaaaa!” Conan roared as he leaped onto the path He thrust over a lunging spear-point and into a et his shi+eld positioned He snatched another stone and flung it far up the path, into the shadowyforward to the attack

The faster the warriors crowded forward, however, the less rooht Conan had done his best to find a place where the trail was narrow and the ground to either side of it nearly i the need for haste rule his judgment