Part 8 (1/2)
What Wikkell heard when the queen spoke was the voice of a female cyclops, honey-shts, al apparatus, upon receipt of the same voice, construed the sound as that of a fe a big, strong worm such as himself to fertilize them at his earliest pleasure Guaranteed pleasure, vermis-mine
Both cyclops and worm knew that the voice was specific to whatever kind of creature that heard it: enerally, and only those with strong minds or experience with the plants could resist the siren song they sang
”Coht discuss this without having to strain ourselves by yelling” Surely no cyclopian fe Wikkellat all, would he simply come a bit closer
”Nay, sister,” Wikkell said His voice held no rancor; he understood the ed them not, for everybody wanted to survive ”What ish to discuss involves a long-terement rather than a quickterh pitch that his kind used, sounds quite inaudible to hu what she was, the call tee supply of food, spaced over a long period”
”How ?” The sweet tones vanished abruptly and the queen's suddenly alien raspheld no pro interested in staying alive would find intriguing The big plant was now all business
Wikkell spared a quick grin and whisper for Deek ”That got her attention”
Softly, Deek scraped back, ”I-i-indeed”
Louder, Wikkell said, ”We need water transportation You can spin a boat of your webbing, can you not?”
”Certainly,” caance and disdain ”There is little we cannot create of the Magic Cord”
”In return for supplying my friend Deek andto offer you, oh, say half a dozen each of Whites and bats to be placed within range of your ah supply lines”
”Twenty each,” the queen said ”And your boat shall be a thing crafted with the utrinned down at Deek He whispered, ”I think we can bargain her down to half that”
”W-whatever B-be q-q-quick t-though”
Wikkell addressed the queen again ”The boat need ht each”
”Even so, such labor requires much skill, mobile one Sixteen”
In the end they settled on a dozen bats and ten Whites as the price for the craft To be delivered as soon as Wikkell and Deek finished a small errand they had to acco iain when she had one, and she and her sisters could survive for a long while without eating did they need to
”Would this errand have anything to do with three small mobile ones who float upon the waters?”
Wikkell blinked his great eye ”You know of them, Majesty?”
”I can speak to all of my sisters via the deep roots we share The three move away from here, toward the Great Ambit Cave”
”Ah Well, yes, as it happens, those are the ones we seek”
”If ht not there be an additional price tendered for such a service? We are not all planted here, you know”
Wikkell and Deek regarded each other They had been given great leeway by their master and inally intended To fail was to die ”Indeed, Your Majesty Soed in that direction”
”Another two dozen each, white walkers and dark fliers,” the queen said Wikkell grinned He loved to bargain, and had little chance to do so ”Two dozen? For a ht to offer, oh, say five each”
Even as the s queen continued their deal, the other plants began spinning an oval, watertight bowl large enough to hold a dozen ht passed quietly for Conan and his friends He relieved Tull after a few hours, and Elashi+ chose to sit with him as the older man fell into slu the water; indeed, a portion of that evening found them far more intent on each other, and the pleasure thereby derived was both refreshi+ng and tiring at the sa-for lack of a better term-the three remounted the dead fish and paddled away
Perhaps two hours later, the walls of the cave narrowed considerably, so that the overhanging ledges on both sides could very nearly be touched with one of the paddles They continued onith such surroundings for another ten er proportions Just ahead, however, the waters split in twain as a bifurcation appeared in the rock One river ran to the left, another of equal size went to the right
”Which way?” Tull called as he paddled
”One is as good as the other,” Conan replied ”To the right”
Elashi+ looked agitated at this Conan refrained fro He had a sudden revelation ”You would rather ent the other way?”
”Did I say that?” she asked
”No To the right, then”
”It looks darker that way”
”To the left, then,” Conan said, playing his hunch
”It looks narrower that way,” she said
Conan grinned to hi to understand how her mind worked
She did not want to make a decision, but she would alo to the left, he ht fork is definitely the better way to go,” he said He waited for a heartbeat, and was not disappointed
”I think it would be better to travel the other fork,” Elashi+ said
Ah, ha! He was right But the trick lay in not agreeing too readily He had to agree without seeue than do aled ”Very well I think the right branch would be better, but perhaps you are correct” ”Of course I am”
He turned his head away so she would not see him smile It worked, this time Of course one snowflake did not a blizzard ht come to understand the ways of women after all
They paddled the fish into the left branch of the split
The Harskeel was more than a little tired and much more than a little irritated What should have taken but a short while had turned into aand flittering about to obscure what should be a simple quest It did not ask for much, the Harskeel-ain Was that too much? One brave man and his sas s; why could not the fates and the Gods tender such awas ever easy Instead of a clean capture and subsequent sundering back into its natural and rightful selves, the Harskeel was forced to grub around under the ground Ijke some ilysudaen snake! It was all too much
Well, when it finally captured this Conan fellow, the man would be made to know some of the Harskeel's own torment After the sas blooded, perhaps some slow torture would repay the barbarian for the effort expended to retrieve him
It seemed only fair