Part 17 (2/2)
For a er ”You do not own me, Cimmerian You have no leave to question me of what I did or did not do with Leucas or anyone else”
”What's this of Leucas?” Graecus said, a into the courtyard
”Have you seen him? Or heard where he is?”
”No,” Ariane snapped, her face coloring ”And what call have you to skulk about like so beyond her denial ”He's not been seen since last night Nor Stephano, either When I heard his nahed weakly ”Perhaps we could stand to lose a philosopher or three, but if they're taking sculptors this tireen
Ariane was suddenly soothing ”They will return” She laid a concerned hand on the stocky ht in drink Conan, here, did the same”
”Why should they not return?” Conan asked
Ariane shot hier look, but Graecus answered shakily ”Some months past some of our friends disappeared Painters and sketchers, they were But tere never seen again, their bodies found in a refuse heap beyond the city walls, where Golden Leopards had been seen to bury thehten us into silence”
”It sounds not like the way of a king,” Conan said, frowning ”They frighten with public executions and the like”
Graecus suddenly looked ready to vo ready tofor an answer, she turned to Graecus, uttering soothing sounds and stroking his brow
Disgruntled, Conan tugged on his padded under-tunic and jazeraint hauberk,to himself on the peculiarities of Ariane As he buckled his sword belt about hio so, as if ar, her annoyance at hiht him”
”I have old as big as a cask would he have told her that so to kill hi to shi+ft her syht
Setting his spiked helm on his head, he said coldly, ”Give ave them was just as cold
The Street of the Smiths, whence Ariane's directions took him, was lined not only with the shops of swordsold, silver, copper, brass, tin and bronze A cacophony of ha blended with the cries of sellers tofrom end to end The Guilds made sure that a man orked one uards that patrolled the street No bravos lurked on the Street of the Smiths, and shoppers strolled with an ease seen nowhere else in the city
As he ca-roo a narrow hall next to a coppers the stairs at its end-the less he wished to enter it unprepared He had no reason to foresee trouble, but too many times of late someone had tried to put a blade into hian to dawdle, pausing here to heft a gleaer a silver bowl hammered in an intricate pattern of leaves But all the while he observed the building that housed the coppersmith with an eye honed by years as a thief
A pair of Guild guards had stopped to watch him, where he stood before a silversmith's open-fronted shop He raised the bowl he held to his ear and thu his head and tossing the bowl back on the merchant's table He strolled off pursued by the silversuards paid him no more mind
Just beyond the coppers as much of mold and old urine as any other in the city Into this he slipped, hurrying down its narrow length As he had hoped, damp air and mold had flaked away
A quick glance showed that no one was looking down the alley froht cracks aht have found such a climb impossible, most especially in heavy hauberk and boots, but to one of the Ciood as a highway He scra so quickly that soround and looked away for a ht he had simply disappeared
As he heaved himself onto the red clay tiles of the roof, a sht, a frame stretched with panes of fish-skin It was, he was certain, situated above the rooe loose tiles-and perhaps send hi to the street below-he h to allow so It was the work of a er to make a slit, to which he put his eye