Part 27 (1/2)
”Never the Spirit-Speaker, nor any of his kin!”
That was another truth. Aondo looked so relieved to hear that Wobeku was not spying for Dobanpu that Wobeku knew the big man would not think any further. The moon would turn to mealie porridge before Aondo wondered if Wobeku might be spying for the Kwanyi.
”G.o.ds! Put me on the rack rather than let me endure this!”
Emwaya made soothing noises as Mokossa rubbed oil into Valeria's aching limbs. Conan laughed. Valeria glared.
”You'll not be laughing this time tomorrow night, Cimmerian. Aondo will take a deal of dancing down.”
”Not more than I'm fit for, I'll wager.”
”How much?”
”What are you wagering, woman?”
This time Valeria's glare ended in laughter. ”I know what you would have me wager, Conan.”
”Has Emwaya taught you the art of hearing thoughts?”
”Conan, some of your thoughts make such a din a babe could hear them, and I'm well past that age!”
”Indeed you are,” Conan said, running his eyes approvingly over Valeria's nude form. She might say that every one of her muscles ached as if she had been racked, but nothing of this showed on the clear skin.
”Pity you can't take my place on the dance-drum,” he continued. ”You dance better than I, and clad as you are now, you'd fuddle the wits of a better man than Aondo.”
”I already have,” Valeria snapped. ”Or have you honestly forgotten that the drum-dance is man's magic among these folk? They would not take my dancing as a jest, I am sure.”
Conan made a rude suggestion as to where the Ichiribu could take anything they did not like. Emwaya seemed to catch his tone, if not his meaning. She raised her eyebrows but could not hold back laughter.
At last Valeria-as slippery as an eel, her body laved with scented oil-was half-asleep on her pallet. The Ichiribu women departed; Conan sat down beside Valeria and rested a hand on her hair.
Drowsily, she rolled over, and with eyes still half-closed, nipped his hand lightly. He s.n.a.t.c.hed it away and glowered at her in mock fury.
”Oh, have it your way, woman. Anyone would have thought you cared about what happened to me tomorrow night!”
Valeria bit her lip. ”Would you believe me if I said that I do?”
”Any man who believes a woman deserves to be bitten harder than I was.”
”That would not be difficult to contrive, Conan.”
The Cimmerian sat down on his own pallet and kicked off his boots.
”Tomorrow night we can drink late and laugh long over these fears.
Tonight I'm for a good sleep.”
Valeria was snoring even before the Cimmerian lay down. As Conan rolled over on his pallet, he heard a distant murmur that swelled to an angry drumming of rain on the hut.
The sky had vanished twice over, once behind the clouds and a second time behind the rain, when Ryku slipped through the darkness to meet Chabano.