Part 1 (2/2)

The woman was tall and robustly formed, yet her companion overtopped her by th to go with that stature

He was similarly clad, with the difference that his sas stouter and hung fro with three knives His hair was black, flowing freely across his broad shoulders, and his eyes were of an icy blue, with the look of the north to theht of more than a few men over the years The tall man was Conan the Cimmerian, his companion Valeria of the Red Brotherhood

They owed their garb to having once been pirates in Baracha, and their companionshi+p to many curious circumstances

Most iht for their lives within the walls of Xuchotl It aged against enemies both animal and human, armed with both steel and spells In the end, it had cleansed the accursed city of the very last of its bloody, unnatural life

It had also given each of the too many of the city's secrets to trust loot removed from its halls Those halls reeked of blood shed and spells cast over reen-lit vastness when the bones of the dead were dust on the floors of polished stone

Conan had traveled in the Black Kingdole, then in others hardly less friendly He feared neither man nor beast Yet had the Kwanyi hunter seen the wanderer of Cihed for Conan also threw lances over his shoulder to see what reht be on his trail

It was taboo a the Kwanyi to leave the dead in the place where they died, nothe body Left where the spirit departed froain by that sa dead”

So from the time they could bear a burden, the folk of the Kwanyi learned to s, vines, even the leaves of the smokebush, had their uses

A litter able to bear the dead was also fit for the living who could not walk

The hunter was ain in less tiourd of beer Two of the Monkey hunters bore hiround, trailed by the third, while the leader strode on ahead

The hunter noted that the leader bore his spear in both hands, held across his chest ready to either throw or thrust This was a hunting party, so the men bore no shi+elds, but it seemed that the leader did not expect their visit to Thunder Mountain to be entirely peaceful

It further seemed that he wanted their presence to be unnoticed Twice he raised hand and spear to halt all nals to send them all into a thick stand of smoke-bush

The hunter had no notion of what they were hiding froh at the first halt he heard the chatter of wo across their backs No doubt it was a band of the brew-sisters, taking jars of grain to the brew-house, or perhaps beer down from it So what made the leader as careful not to be seen by them as he would if they were a war party of the Ichiribu?

The hunter had no answer, or at least none to lift athe leader that the God-Men ht know that the hunter had asked to come to them

Would the Monkey warriors presu out the wishes of the God-Men by carrying hiainst a tree of a kind Conan had never seen before Its bark was a nubbly mass of red-and-white stripes, within cracks between the stripes It looked unwholesoht be merely because the tree was unknown to hidoms Indeed, he had sat on a throne in them and been hailed with the praise-name of Amra the Lion But that was farther south and west than here, not a two-day ht reach lands that Conan knew, or even real journey before they did

Meanwhile, the Cie than he could wish of this land and its perils To be sure, no peril of the jungle could equal what he and Valeria had faced and survived in Xuchotl Nor did Conan lack any woods craft or hunting skills such that h he were cast down naked in a desert

But Valeria was like a fish out of water in this jungle, or rather, a sailor far from the sea She would doubtless prefer the rack than ad Conan to lead thehed and kicked off first one boot, then the other Rubbing her battered feet, she looked about for a stream None lay close, but a puddle of water from the last rain offered hope

One slender foot was dipping toward the water when Conan laid a hand on Valeria's shoulder ”Best leave standing water alone Those blisters ht fester or draw leeches”

”They are my blisters, Conan”

”Yes, and it will be ht if you cannot walk Or would you rather I left you behind?”

That was the Cih jest From the way Valeria's hand darted toward her Xuchotl blade, it seemed that the jest was lost on her

”Peace, wo”

”Your wit smells no sweeter than the rest of you”

”Take a whiff of yourself, woman, before you co into the Golden Anchor in Messantia would clear the place in a heartbeat”

Valeria smiled thinly and kept her feet clear of the puddle Instead, she pulled a handful of leaves fro branch and dipped them in the water

”Best not do that either,” Conan said ”A blindat the branch could tell that people had passed by”

”And ould this blind e?” Valeria snapped At least she did not reach for steel this tio to keep hiht slow us a trifle, but-”

”Would to Mitra it did slow us!” Valeria said She looked at her boots as if they had offered her a mortal insult ”Anyone would think fro that a whole new tribe of those brown-skinned cutthroats and spellers was on our trail”

”I can't swear that they aren't,” Conan said, then added hastily as Valeria's eyes flaainst it If you hadn't insisted that we search for our clothes, we'd have been out of Xuchotl-”

”If I hadn't insisted on finding our clothes-you knoas garbed”

The Cihtly than you are now, I swear Of course-”

Valeria rolled her blue eyes toward the canopy of the jungle with the look of a wohed ”Of course it was quite unsuitable for trah, as the garb had been a swathe of silken cloth about her hips and not a ragmuch better in their wardrobes,” she added

”What else could we have done?”

”Nothing, I admit But it took us time we could have used to put distance between ourselves and the city We still have that to do, and the sooner, the better”

”Is that a hint we should be on our way again?”

”With you, Valeria, I can only hint Cro you an order!”

Valeria rolled her eyes again, and this tiue as well

But she also lurched to her feet and eased into her boots She could not entirely stifle a gasp of pain, but Conan paid her the co her finish the work herself

The Cimmerian added to the curses he had already heaped on the folk of Xuchotl, this one for their wretched footgear Only sandals-suited to their polished floors-had been in use for more years than the Cimmerian had lived The sailors'

boots he and Valeria had worn going into Xuchotl had been the best things to bring theain