Part 14 (2/2)
Chuntha's raft had very nearly colue had softened and the entire construct had shi+fted and wobbled before she had enough sense to turn her craft and beat a fast retreat froed froic had been drained before her raft becalue solidified and Chuntha sparked the her rotation The beautiful barbarian had escaped, and no doubt he and his party would be running for all they orth, away from the wizard Chunthathe ay until she spotted thee of the wizard now, and she meant to utilize it fully She wondered what that apparition had been falling fro, but did not worry overmuch about it Probably soht to have it backfire so That was not her concern; the ies to bear upon his retrieval
Having abandoned the raft and taken the route along the shore, the Harskeel arrived at the end of the confrontation betitch and wizard As thestill enshrouded the scene, the Harskeel realized that there was perhaps er here for itself and its quest Quickly the Harskeel ordered the bats dispersed, to return later It found a large, horseshoe-shaped rock to crawl under and conceal itself
Fro a beautiful, naked woman This craft went back the way the Harskeel had just co dissipated and the wizard was revealed, ranting upon a dock in the middle of the ay
Of Conan and his con
After aupon his dock and a new section of it appeared in front of thecyclopes They followed the path of the witch's worht It had been beyond the edges of the fog, and Conan had not come this way Since the barbarian was not held captive by either witch or wizard, he one in the opposite direction Aha! The witch and the wizarddirection; too bad for them, but not for the Harskeel
As soon as the wizard moved from view, it would summon those stupid Bloodbats and resuht be some time before wizard or witch realized their error; with h the Harskeel thought it best not to depend greatly upon that
The wizard and his cyclopes ht Nohere were those moronic bats?
Sixteen
With his uncanny sense of direction fully operative, Conan h twists and turns that eventually ended at the hideaway Tull had constructed Oddly enough, the bat cave, which had to be traversed again, was eed creatures
Not that Conan particularly cared where they had gotten to, as long as that place lay far away
”My,” Lalo said as he observed Tull's hidden alcove, ”quite the nest-maker, are you not? Pity you aren't female, you'd make some man a fine wife”
Tull's s with the handle of his dagger
Conan could well see hoould be necessary for Lalo to be an adept in some form of corate upon the nerves in a hurry To break the tension, Conan asked, ”Which is the closer-the witch's abode or that of the wizard?”
”Each is about the same distance from here, I reckon,” Tull said
”Hmm Then which would likely hold the most booty?”
Tull scratched at his bearded chin, considering the question ”Depends on what you're looking for The wizard, he has a fondness for gold It don't tarnish like silver nor rust like iron, and the caves are some damp, as you no doubt have noticed”
”Ah, that sounds pro,” Lalo said
Both Conan and Tull held their silence for afor Lalo to add an insult, but none was forthcoain,” Tull finally continued, ”the witch, she has a liking for precious stones Rubies, emeralds, fire-rocks, like that”
Conan considered that Such a choice was ems? A dilemma ”Can we perhaps raid both chambers?”
”Madness,” Elashi+ said to Lalo ”Whatever wits he one now Greed nored her, but Tull's next comment scotched the idea of a dual robbery
”Not likely,” Tull said ”They are maybe the same distance from here, but in different directions It's two days' march between 'em, easy”
”Too bad,” Conan said ”Well, the witch's chambers, then”
Elashi+ raised one eyebrow at Conan ”Why so?”
It lay upon the top of Conan's tongue to answer that he thought dealing with a witch-a wo with a wizard-ahis travels with Elashi+ so far, however, he realized that to speak such reasoning aloud would only irritate her arid bring forth an undammed flow of invective For some reason, Elashi+ seemed convinced that wos, and Conan had no desire to listen to another of her tirades Perhaps, he thought, he was learning to deal oht quickly ”Well-cut jewels are ems than coin”
That made sense, and Elashi+ nodded
Conan kept his face an expressionlesswith the way histo the contrary
”Then let us wait no longer,” Conan said ”Lead on, Tull”
Wikkell's labors a his fellow cyclopes had not been spectacularly successful Their resistance had been soed along a back tunnelway to meet Deek, he recalled one of many similar conversations: ”Attack the wizard?And the witch? Are you daft?”
”Certainly there is soan
”Somerisk? By all the demons in Gehanna, Wikkell, those till certainly turn us into ooze if we dare oppose their will”
”They are but two, and we areboulders, brother There is much room upon the floors of these caves for puddles that once were such as we”
It pained Wikkell to hear this, the more so because the speaker was in fact his true brother, born of the same mother only a year after Wikkell himself had been born
”We shall have aid from the worms”
”Ah, well, that is different, then You have been eating the black-spoored ain, haven't you? I trust the worms almost as far as I do the wizard”
In the end Wikkell realized that he asting his breath If he could not convince his own brother of the lightness of his cause, what chance did he have of enrolling others in his plan? And perhaps ”plan”
was too strong a tere of the revolution
He needed so to show the cyclopes that the wizard and the witch were not invulnerable Could he but deical arical iron hand, and if they truly thought a real chance existed to overthrow the tyrant, Wikkell was certain he could convince thealling to admit that the worms were more reasonablethan his own kind, but he had to adht be possible He could s his pride, he supposed, if Deek could generatehis fellows It was the end that ht The prearrangedplace lay only a few minutes ahead It was an out-of-the-way spot, unlikely that anyone would accidentally happen upon thehed and tried to think of the best way to break his bad news to the worm