Part 7 (2/2)
He continued down the corridor he had chosen He passedof interest to hiht have explored more closely, for they were full of treasures, but for once he was not interested in loot He wanted Alcuina, he wanted out of this place, and he wanted to get back to the real world, in that order
His explorings brought hireat hall from which many corridors branched In the center of the room lay Alcuina, naked Her ornaments had been taken from her, and her wrists and ankles were closely bound She did not move
Conan halted without the room He knew a trap when he saw one He would be assaulted upon entering the roo to leave, he had no doubt Nohile it seeood time to decide upon his next move The woman seemed to be unconscious She did not appear to be tethered to any solid object, butupon a pile of silks that nested her own silken nudity What was their game this time?
Then he smiled For certain, none of his blades would cut the cords that bound her That meant that he would have to carry the queen to safety It also ood deal of his ht that would stop hieneral and himself in particular
Like a man without a care in the world, he stepped into the room and crossed to where the queen lay He scooped her up, threw her across his left shoulder, and gave her shapely bottom an affectionate pat ”Fear not, Alcuina, I'll have us out of this place shortly”
”I shall believe that when it happens,” said her woice, so Conan's back ”And a mere swordsman is not entitled id touch his queen in so unseeained your senses, eh? And your tongue as ell 1 swear by Croed my sword arm to I follow you to the demon land, I kill monsters and men in your service, md all you can do is complain about a little pat on your 126
royal backside On top of all those stripes it should feel soothing”
”Put le about on his shoulder
”If I do that, how can I carry you away from here?”
”Then at least carry y wolfhide!”
”That would be inconvenient” He gave her bottom a harder slap, one that cracked loudly ”Now, be still and allow s he held her easily
”Rescue! You idiot, you have walked into a trap any child could have anticipated!”
”I know that, woman,” said Conan with unwonted patience ”I have walked into many traps in my time, and I have walked out of all of them Or crawled at any rate Now, tell ic?”
”asseet us away from here?”
”You weary me with your questions They want ht with perils I hate to leave living enemies be-hind my back in any case Where h ”You are a brave ain You e central tower That is all I know of the place It is there that Sarissa and her friends like to ply their whips and other instruments I think it is the place where they amass to perfore wizardly things, and there is a great thing on the wall, like a 127
looking glass, in which they can see all that goes on in fee castle”
”That sounds like the place ant Let's be off” With Alcuina across his shoulder, Conan scanned the doorways leading from the room His splendid sense of orientation told him which one led toward the center of Ac castle, and he dashed off through it at a fast trot
”Where have they disappeared to?” asked one of the todies impatiently
”They must appear soon,” Sarissa assured the as-selass as it peered into the various passages of the castle, spending a fewon to another The barbar-ian had taken an unexpected exit from the chamber where Sarissa had left Alcuina No doubt he was disori-ented from his captivity They had not seen hie of one of the possible escape routes to the outside of the castle Each had expended a great deal of ingenuity upon guarding and laying traps in the route he had drawn There was et the Ci it would take him to die
Certain basic rules had been laid down, of course Venoainst which a mere human would be powerless Hehis way through, since that hat he did best, and what they foundabout hie in turn and win his way to the outside, then Sarissa would have the privi-lege of killing him in whatever manner she chose He 128
129could not be allowed to escape, with or without Alcuina That would spoil the ga a yawn ”1 begin to tire of this” The glass flashed onto a corridor blocked by an obscene, tentacled thing, which waited hungrily for prey
”Is it me you search for?”
The assembled people whirled to stare at the main entrance There stood Conan, with the nude Alcuina still slung over his shoulder As they boggled, speech-less, Conan set Alcuina down in such wise that she could attend to the proceedings
”Now you have spoiled our gaaht as well kill hiesture
Before he could properly begin, Conan closed the distance between them, and his sas buried in Hasta's skull He wrenched the blade loose and it blurred through the air twice The two lords to either side of Hasta fell screa
The others seemed to be stupefied, unable to co physically attacked by a lower life form He killed three htered with such speed and precision that his earlier fighting had been slow by coed to escape the room he left alone The others he sleithoutthe strangely colored blood from his shen he re-turned to the center of the rooled remains of her brother ”You've slain him,” she said tonelessly
”So I have,” said Conan without pity ”It is a great shame that you were so preoccupied with sorrow You rotesquely sprawled heaps of bodies, the faces upturned, silver eyes fast losing their gleam
”1 must see to my brother's funeral rites,” Sarissa said
”You can do that later,” Conan said, his voice like stone ”If I let you live”
He grasped Hasta's corpse by the front of the gar-ments With a powerful reat mirror, which shattered with a noise that shook the whole castle to its foundations He yanked Sarissa to her feet
”Show us the quickest way out of here if you would live, woered toward the room's entrance As he passed the door, Conan picked up Alcuina, this tioing For once she was too shaken to taunt him
”Make her release my bonds,” was all she said
”For now,” Conan answered, ”I prefer you the way you are”
Sarissa led the staircase Not for a uard He was alert for treachery He knew that the woman would try to kill them; it was only a question of when
Much to his surprise she led the onto the sward outside the castle walls He 130
131pressed the point of his sword into the cleft of Sarissa's spine
”Now you alk over into the trees, and we shall follow close behind you I an that you are casting some spell with your voice or your hands, I shall serve you as I did your brother”
With her spine rigid and her hands close at her sides, Sarissa led them toward the forest The trees closed about the for several hundredher back when her pace did not suit him
”Now you may stop,” said Conan when he deemed they were sufficiently far froed frooods ”Alcuina!” cried Rerin in delight ”He has indeed brought you safe from that place”
”After a fashi+on,” Alcuina said Conan had set her upon the turf, where she sat fu in that bundle to cover rateful, old friend”
Conan hin of e of the mirror
”I am at a loss as to what to do with this one, old man,” Conan said ”If we turn her loose, she'll work soainst us with her spells Yet, we can-not keep her with us”