Part 6 (2/2)
”And I am much better with my blade than are you with yours,” Conan said ”Do you think you could slay a fish as large as a house with that needle you carry?”
”I will not do it,” Elashi+ said ”You are both addled completely out of your feeble minds!”
Tull sketched a picture of the fish in the wet sand near the water's edge ”Youa spot just behind the head ”Angled in thus, to sever the great nerve within the spine, here” Conan nodded
”The flesh is soft, as is the bone, but it will require a powerful stab, likely to the full depth of your blade”
Conan nodded again
Tull stood and brushed the sand fro the shore, just there, is a likely spot You see that spire of rock that juts out over the water?”
”I see it”
”If the lass swims in the deep water below it, you will be positioned to stab the fish as it passes underneath”
Elashi+ grinned at this ”Ah, a sha with this moon-mad plan, but alas, I cannot swim a stroke Ask Conan, he knows So much for your plan”'
”No need to swile from the rock spire We can cut that cloak into strips for a swing”
”But-but-” she began
”So much for your objections,” Conan said
It took less than an hour tofro the surface below Tull had her waving her legs back and forth, agitating the water Aboveher, Conan stood with his sword held in both hands, point held down Tull watched the water in the distance
”If you allow a fish to eat ive you, Conan I will follow you around the Gray Lands for ten thousand years ret it, I swear”
Conan considered that thought and found it as unpleasant as any he had ever, had To be torue for eternity, aye, now there was a truly hellish thing Surely Crom would not punish any man so?
”Look there,” Tull said He pointed
Conan looked A wide ripple see them ”I see no fish”
”But you see the water of its passage It will have to come closer to the surface as it approaches In athin and spined broke the surface
”Its dorsal fin!” Tull cried ”Make ready, lad!” To Elashi+ he said, ”I'll pull you up when it gets close enough”
”You had better!” Elashi+ said ”By Mitra, it's a big 'un,” Tull said ”You could feed a whole village for an entire moon on it!”
”Should not you pull me up now?”
”A moment more Conan?”
”I am ready” The Cihtened his reverse grip on the sword's handle Here it cao, lass!” Tull started tugging on the twin ropes of cloth holding Elashi+ She came up half a span- -then the strap on the left broke The wetpop ! of the cloth was joined by the wo support, nearly jerking Tull froan to pull Elashi+ upward again Too slow The fish would be there in another instant and- Elashi+ scrambled up the cloth strand like a monkey, continued past the end Tull held and clambered over him onto his back just as the fish reached the spot where she had dangled
Screa a wordless sound, Conan leaped froed upon the back of the fish, and drove the point of his sword doith all of his strength His chest and stomach and shoulders contracted, his arms flexed with power, and the blue iron sank to the hilt in rubbery flesh He even rin Why, this was si the outlander froless rider
Conan hit the water and was battered by sudden waves The fish's tail slapped the surface next to hi hi tail sent the h the water like a wood chip in a stor water, the Ci for the shore He attained the base of the spire and cli Elashi+ and Tull within a les lessened Conan's strike had been true After a fewon its own Slowly the dead fish rose to the surface, bobbing up on its side, water strearinned at Elashi+ ”Behold, our boat”
Elashi+ wrinkled her nose ”It has a loathesome stench already In a few days it will stink to the ends of the world”
Conan and Tull looked at each other Soold and they would coht
W-we h-h-have th-them!” Deek said He and Wikkell had paused so that the wor at the same time was all but impossible for Deek's kind
”How so? I see no one here but us”
”Th-this t-t-tunnel l-leads to the S-s-sunless S-sea”
”Ah” Even though Wikkell had spent very little tiion of the vast Black Cave systeround lake ”Then they are trapped”
”S-s-so it ould s-s-seem”
”Then let us proceed apace I feel certain that the two of us can capture and hold a reed
There were limits to Rey's communication spell Wikkell was either beyond the reach of thesomewhat more unlikely Still, either way boded ill for the wizard's plans If the prey had ed to soe to speak to his servant, that was bad If Wikkell were somehow indisposed and unable to answer Rey's call, that was also bad Not for a nore his hail So either of the two choices was unacceptable, and yet one of them must indeed be the case
Kataical ih it
There was no help for it, then He would have to gather supplies and a retinue and go find Wikkell, or the barbarian, or both
da of consequence always see around this place?
Chuntha's patience was ended That slithering servant of hers was beyond her dreaht have befallen Deek? Theher clutches even as she lay upon her bed dreading the very thought