Part 1 (2/2)
He stood silent for a moment, then stalked off without another word Whatever was on the other side of that boulder had better not be intent on causing hirief
When he rounded the shelter of the rock, Conan found hi trouble Five men stood before hier-tipped pike They wore cracked and sweat-stained leather arle being sat astride a tall black stallion This creature wore a heavy riding cape, woolen shi+rt, and leather breeches, and held in a gauntleted hand a thin sword across the front of the horse's saddle
Conan was solance, it seemed a man from its dress and manner; on closer examination, the beardless face was definitely female, this self-evident not merely from its smoothness of complexion but from its shape and the bearer's use of cosed, the eyebrows partially plucked, and the area around the eyes darkened with a bluish hue The reddish-brown hair was shorter than Conan's own, and cut feathery on the ends Additionally, the creature's shi+rt front jutted out in twin peaks that certainly seeht leather breeches revealed a bulge than seemed most definitely male
Conan's exaure was interrupted by its speech ”Stand and deliver!” it said The voice added to his confusion It was deep, that of a strongfrom those ruby lips, it soundedmost odd indeed
”Stand and deliver what?” Conan asked ”Are you blind, that I appear to be soold or wares? What you see is all I own, and that is little enough”
”I will have your sword,” the figure said
At thatup the rock so that she was above the the sword back and forth to liripped the handle with both hands and aimed the point at the throat of the nearest pikeman, a techinque he had learned from the swordmaster of the Suddah Oblates ”I think not,” he said
The pikeman sed dryly
”Do not be a fool,” the horse rider said ”We are six to your one Give us your sword and live Refuse and die”
”I find it so to lose at least soe is bad business I think that perhaps there is sohed, a deep, throaty sound ”Wise, for a savage”
On the boulder, Elashi+ had put her sword down and was lifting a head-sized rock
The leader of the bandits leaned forward on the horse The creak of the saddle leather was loud in the otherwise quiet clearing ”Very well Then we shall have to obtain that which ish the hard way Take him!”
Elashi+ chose this precise instant to hurl the rock she held Now the desert woman was not much of a soman, true, and she talked tooof rocks could be nue stone s hi the skull was much like that of a melon when smashed with a heavy board That worthy would trouble no one else in this world
Startled, the pikemen turned to espy this new threat The rider'sitself almost to the boulder Before the rider could turn, Elashi+, sword in hand, leaped upon hie of the confusion, Conan darted forward, swift for athe ancient blue-iron blade The strokea second pikeman into a fall that would ultimately end in the Gray Lands-and likely Gehanna
Elashi+ and the rider fell from the horse Conan had time to see the mysterious bandit leader leap up and twist about sharply; the movement spun Elashi+ away as a terrier tosses a rat She hit the ground and rolled up, sword held ready
No matter Her distraction had acco his sword back and forth, chopping at the disorganized pikemen, ere at quarters too close to use their weapons effectively
Blue ironon to carve bloody canyons through leather arutting oneallbefore the Ciather their wits, four of the five pikemen were down, one by Elashi+'s stone, the others by courtesy of Conan's blade
The fifth pikee occupations at thathis pike to attain yetone of the fallen pikes to use as a spear against the fleeingwith the leader was ed to recapture the horse
Flinging itself onto the saddle, the leader of the bandits spurred the anied, swiping at the rider, but the figure leaned away froCimmerian off balance In a heartbeat, horse and rider were past, ive chase
Conan watched the retreating figures of pike-man and rider Came the rider's call: ”I'll have your sword yet, barbarian!”
Conan, shook his head Why would anyone be willing to risk death for a sword of uncertain worth? In fact, while the blued-iron weapon was of good quality and quite serviceable, it had no intrinsic value The handle was plain and leather-wrapped, not bejeweled or carved ivory, and the guard was e bandit leaderdirt from her cloak
”Are you injured?” Conan asked
”Nay” She finished her cloak dusting and looked at Conan askance ”You let two of therunt ”You never mentioned that you desert dwellers drank blood”
”Little point in leaving a job half acco to be done for it Let us exaarded hiht a simpleminded child ”And you intend to become a thief? For valuables, of course”
Conan nodded at this For once she had a point But even as he rifled the sparse purses of the fallen bandits, the question of why they had attacked continued to plague hi threat to have his sas that all about?
Well, he would pay it no more mind It was finished and done with, and like as not, he had seen the last of that odd personage
Two
Although the purses of the slain mountain bandits yielded only a few coppers, Conan was not the least averse to collecting the coins and sharing them equally with Elashi+ Certainly the bandits had no further need for money where they were bound As the Cimmerian and the desert woman made their way down the e; thanks to the bandits, they could now buy food and a rooht Only a few days past, Conan had carried two silver coins, the last of his profit from the pelt of a dire-wolf he had slain Unfortunately, as he had raced through the halls of the necroed the silver froravation of the bandit's attack, providing supper and shelter was the least the dead ht to claiathered on the horizon The wind grew colder, carrying in its chilly teeth the pro It would beweather The village lay less than an hour ahead by his reckoning, and the two of them should arrive there at about the tie was like a dozen others Conan had Seen in his travels Perhaps a score of structures, , sprawled along the sides of the road, now soest of the buildings was, naturally, the village inn The wordless sign over the doorway borethewas also of stone, weathered and in disrepair, with oiled but torn lalow from within
As Conan and Elashi+ approached the inn, the snow began to flurry about the winds had the powdery whiteness dancing thickly in the evening air The co darkness quickly reduced visibility to a few spans
”Not a very appealing place,” Elashi+ observed
”Our choices are so the heavy wooden door inward and took in the interior of the inn The ceiling was low, hardly an arth taller than Conan himself, and the central room into which they stared was occupied by perhaps twenty people, most of thee fireplace within which a fat log burned brightly An archway at the end of the rooe for food and drink
Stepping into the rooaze from the occupants
Most of them were obviously locals: dark-coarb There were a feoe and clothes, also likely local folk
At the far end of the co rooth trousers and a short tunic He had hair the color of straw and a foolish grin upon his face
Likely drunk or slack-witted, Conan thought
Behind this summery fool sat two men who looked very much like the five who had assaulted Conan upon the trail There were no pikes in evidence, but each er ensheathed upon his belt, and their features looked hard in the light of guttering tapers mounted at odd intervals upon the stone walls