Part 9 (1/2)
”There will be little else in that purse,” the dealer grunted. ”Oh, well and good. For what you're offering, I can hardly throw in much beyond the bridle and bit.”
That was no loss. Mishrak had ordered Conan and Raihna to scatter his gold widely about Aghrapur. They would purchase their remaining horses from other dealers, their saddles and tack from still others, and so on.
Conan was prepared to obey. Reluctantly, because he knew little of Mishrak's reasons and those he suspected he much disliked. But he would obey. To make an enemy of both Mishrak and Houma would mean leaving Aghrapur with more haste than dignity.
Conan was footloose enough not to mourn if that was his fate. He was proud enough to want a worthier foe than Houma to drive him forth.
The dealer was still calling on the G.o.ds to witness his imminent ruin when Conan and Raihna led the horse out the gate. In the street beyond, she stopped, gripped the bridle with one hand and the mane with the other, and swung herself on to the horse's back.
”So you can mount unaided and ride bareback,” the Cimmerian growled.
Raihna had managed no small feat, but he'd be cursed if she'd know it from him! ”Small help that will be, when we take this great lump into the mountains. He'll starve in a week, if he doesn't break a leg or maybe his rider's neck sooner.”
”I know that, Conan.”
”Then why take him at all?”
”There's a good long ride across open country before we reach the mountains. If we took mountain horses all the way, it would take longer. Time is something we may not have.
”Also, mountain horses would tell those watching us too much about where we are going. We would be followed and perhaps run down, because those who followed would surely ride heavy mounts! Do you deny that we are being watched?”
”I think that fruitseller over there-and don't look, for Erlik's sake!-is the same man as the painter who followed us yesterday.”
”You told me of neither.”
”Crom! I didn't think you needed telling!”
Raihna flushed. ”You were hiding nothing from me?”
”I'm not that big a fool. You may not know Agh-rapur, but you'll be fighting beside me until this witling's errand is done!”
”I am grateful, Conan.”
”How grateful, may I ask?” he grinned.
The flush deepened, but she smiled. ”You may ask. I do not swear to answer.” She sobered. ”The next time, remember that what I know of Aghrapur, I know from Mishrak. Anything you can teach me about this city will be something I need not learn from the lord of spies!”
”Now I'll listen to that. I'd teach a serpent or a spider to spare him needing to learn from Mishrak!”
Raihna reached down and gripped Conan's ma.s.sive shoulder. Her grip was as strong as many a man's, but no man could have doubted that those fingers were a woman's.
They pa.s.sed on down the street in silence for another hundred paces. At last Conan lifted his water bottle, drank, then spat the dust from his mouth into the street.
”I'd lay a year's pay on Mishrak having it in mind to use us as bait,”
he said. ”What think you?”
”Much the same,” Raihna replied. ”I would be less easy if Illyana were not so determined to come to grips with Eremius. It is not just ending the danger of the Jewels of Kurag that she seeks. It is vengeance for what she suffered at his hands.” Her tone made it plain she would not speak of those sufferings.
”If your mistress is going to join us on Mishrak's hook, she'd best be able to ride anything we put under her. This is no stroll in a country garden!”