Part 51 (1/2)
Twenty-three.
”So THERE YOU were, deep in the Ibars Mountains, with one pair of trousers, a dagger, and a sling among the three of you. How did you contrive a way out?” Mishrak sounded more amused than suspicious.
”We found help,” Conan said. ”Not that they wanted to help us, but we persuaded them.”
”Them?”
”Four bandits,” Raihna put in. ”They were holding a mother and daughter captive. The women were from a village destroyed by the Transformed.
They fled the wrong way in the darkness and ran into the bandits.”
”They must have been grateful for your help,” Mishrak said.
”They helped us too,” Conan added. ”Bora and I crept close to the camp.
Raihna stayed back, then stood up. Clothed as she was not, she made a fine sight. Two of the bandits ran out to win this prize.
”Bora killed one with his sling. I took the other with my dagger. One of the others ran at me but I knocked him down with a stone and Raihna kicked his ribs in.
The mother hit the last one with a stick of firewood. Then she pushed him face down into the campfire, to finish him off.”
The delicate faces of Mishrak's guardswomen showed grim satisfaction at that last detail.
”And then?”
”Does it need telling? We took the bandits' clothes and everything else that we could carry and left the mountains. We saw no sign of the Transformed or Eremius's human fighters.
”On the third day we met the soldiers from Fort Zheman. They mounted us and took us back to the fort. We told Captain Khezal the whole tale.
You may hear from him any day.”
”I already have.” The voice under the mask sounded meditative. ”You left Fort Zheman rather in haste, did you not? And you took the tavern wench named Dessa with you.”
”We heard that Lord Achmai was bringing up his men, to help scour the mountains for the last of the Transformed. Considering what happened at our first meeting with Lord Achmai, we decided it would serve the peace of the realm if we did not meet again.”
Mishrak chuckled. ”Conan, you almost said that as though you meant it.
How is Dessa taking to Aghrapur?”
”She's in Pyla's hands, which are about the best to be found,” Conan said. ”Beyond that, she's a girl I expect can make her own way almost anywhere.”
”More than equal to the task, if you describe her truly. Is it the truth, by the way, that Pyla is buying the Red Falcon?”
”I'd hardly know.”
”And if you did you wouldn't tell me, would you, Conan?”
”Well, my lord, I'd have to be persuaded it was your affair. But it's the truth that I don't know. Pyla can keep a secret better than you, when she wants to.”
”So I have heard,” Mishrak said. ”You are no bad hand at telling tales, either. Or rather, leaving tales untold.”