Part 26 (1/2)
Conan was chained to the oar in their place He was to do the work of all three As they fastened hiri an oar, boy You'll pull and pull until you think your back is breaking-and then you'll pull some more And every time you slack off or miss a boat, I'll re; the whip uncoiled against the sky and ca down across Conan's shoulders The pain was like that of a white-hot iron rod against his flesh But Conan did not screa, so strong was the iron of his will
The overseer grunted, and the lash cracked again This tirimly set mouth twitched, but his eyes looked stonily ahead A third lash, and a fourth Sweat formed on the Ci and save no sign of feeling pain
Behind hie!”
Then came a call from the afterdeck; the captain wished to sail
Reluctantly, the overseer gave up his pleasure of lashi+ng the Cimmerian's back to pulp
The sailors cast off the ropes that moored the shi+p to the quay and shoved off with boathooks Aft of the oar benches but on the sath of the shi+p over the heads of the rowers, sat a naked Meruvian behind a huge drum When the shi+p had cleared the quay, the coxswain lifted a wooden an to thump the dru to their feet, raising the looht the the looht the rhythm, as did Juma, chained to the oar behind him
Conan had never before been on a shi+p As he heaved at his oar, his quick eyes peered around him at the listless, dull-eyes slaves hip-scarred backs, orked on the slialley was low through the waist, where the slaves labored; the rail was only a few feet above the water It was higher in the bohere the seailded stern, where the officers had their quarters A single ular sail, and the furled sail itself, lay along the catwalk over the oar pit
When the shi+p had left the harbor, the sailors untied the lashi+ngs that held the sail and its yard to the catwalk and raised it, heaving on the halyard and grunting a chantey The yard went up by jerks, a few inches at a tiold-and-purple striped sail unfurled and shook out with snapping, boo sounds Since the as fair on the quarter, the oarsiven a rest while the sail took over
Conan noted that the entire galley had beenwas of a dark red color As he gazed about, eyes half shut against the glare, the shi+p looked as if it had been dipped in blood Then the whip sang above him and the overseer, on the catwalk above, yelled down:
”Now lay to, you lazy swine!”
A lash laid another welt across his shoulders It is indeed a shi+p of wood, he thought to hiue's Moon
For seven days, Conan and Jualley as it plodded its way around the shores of the Suht at each of the seven sacred cities of Meru: Shondakor, Thogara, Auzakia, Issedon, Paliana, Throana, and then-havinglabor brought the muscles seemed incapable of further effort Yet still the tireless dru whip drove them on
Once a day, sailors drew buckets of cold, brackish water up over the side and drenched the exhausted slaves Once a day, when the sun stood at the zenith, they were given a heaping bowl of rice and a long dipperful of water At night they slept on their oars The aniery sapped the will and drained thethe rowers soulless autoth of anyCi burden of fate as did the apathetic Moravians The unending labor at the oars, the brutal treat his will, only fed the fires within him
When the shi+p returned to Shamballah and dropped anchor in the wide harbor, Conan had reached the limits of his patience It was dark and still; the newlow in the western sky, casting a wan, illusive light It would soon set Such a night was called a ”rogue's ht ont to be chosen by highwaymen, thieves, and assassins to ply their trades Bent over their oars, ostensibly asleep, Conan and Jualley, the feet of the slaves were not fettered But each wore a pair of h an iron ring loosely looped around the loo the loom, its travel was stopped at the outer end by the oarlock and, at the inner, by a collar or ferrule of lead
This collar, securely fastened to the butt end of the oar by an iron spike, acted as a counterweight to the blade of the oar Conan had tested the strength of his chain and of thea hundred tith, hardened by seven days of rowing, could not strain any of theed scheet Gorthangpo down on our level,” he said, ”we could tear him to pieces with our nails and teeth And he carries the keys to all our bonds While ere unlocking the ot loose, we should outnumber them five or six to one-”
”Do not speak of it!” hissed the nearest Meruvian ”Do not even think of it!”
”Aren't you interested?” asked Conan in astonishment
”Nay! Even to talk of such violence turns my bones to water”