Part 15 (1/2)
In the s eyes, Deek arrived to find Wikkell already waiting Too bad Ah, well, there was no help for it He had to tell his one-eyed friend the bad news
They exchanged greetings, and Deek settled himself upon a particularly resonate patch of rock
”M-m-my b-b-brothers th-th-think I a-a-” Wikkell stopped
”H-h-hoping hat?”
”That you would have better success than I My fellows also think me less than sane”
”Th-they on't h-help?”
”I'm afraid not And from your comments, I assume the same is true of your folk?”
”S-s-sad, b-but t-t-true”
”da to do?”
Deek had pondered that thought long and hard, and his conclusion involved more than a little personal risk He said, ”W-e h-h-have t-to sh-show th-thehts as well Can we but demonstrate that the witch and the wizard are not all-powerful, we have a chance”
”G-g-got a-any i-ideas?”
”Plenty, though I suspect et us killed I should like to avoid such a thing if at all possible”
”I-I-I t-too ould a-avoid s-s-such an e-ending”
”Well, then, let hts and then listen to yours We are resourceful, after all Surely we can coht High time to either defecate or slide out of the scat trench No tays about it ”Here is my first idea”
The blasted bats took their ti Travels would have to be on foot or in the air The Harskeel did not trust itself to the bats' ability to safely carry it, so that ed seemed to have become the Harskeel's perht cause it to do so foolish The Harskeel ht The quarry had escaped once again; at least its two competitors for Conan had been put off the scent Itsbats to replace the a half-wit for an idiot, but one had to make do as best one could All in all, the Harskeel reflected, things were no worse than ever they had been No better perhaps, but no worse When at last it captured its prey, the end would justify all of these rigorousand er, the Harskeel set off after Conan and his friends
Urging the worm raft to its utmost speed, Chuntha scanned the banks of the Sunless Sea, searching for signs of her elusive quarry She knew not how far the ay extended, never having followed it to its end in all the years she had resided below the ground She often thought of the sunlit world above, and how happy she had been there, plundering the bodies of willing men for their carnal spirits Unfortunately, she could not run around naked up there any longer, civilization having curtailed that option, and worse, too many bodies aroused suspicion More than once she had fled fro her, hot for her death
The underground had disadvantages, to be sure, but once she ed to wrest total control of it froe to have a steadier supply of bedmates than before Few men would risk the caves to retrieve a lost traveler, and Chuntha knew she could snag the odd one now and again without arousing erous aniands, too; one had to expect that they would take their toll
A dark opening appeared on the cave wall to her right, just ahead Since her quarry now traveled on foot, such an exit ht well appeal to them The proble the way; there were far tooshe needed
From her supplies she took a tall, black jar and a pair of tweezers She opened the jar's lid and with the tweezers removed a speck of red the size of a pin's head She quickly closed the jar and set the red speck upon the deck of her living raft Uttering a few mystical phrases, Chuntha waved her hands at the speck In a twinkling it expanded into a red hornet the size of a sparrow The creature fluttered its wings, buzzing
”Go,” Chuntha commanded ”Explore that tunnel and return to iant hornet rose fro toward the tunnel in an arrow-straight line The icked hornets were of limited value, but useful within those limits They could be directed for simple tasks such as an in-and-out search of a tunnel More cos were beyond their capacity; still, if her beautiful barbarian were in that tunnel, the insect would find him and return to tell the tale She had dozens of the creatures within her jar, and she would dispatch as ical beasts after a liaison with a self-styled wizard who had, in bed, sought to ics of his she could operate becao, but Chuntha still remembered the man fondly He had lasted the better part of an hour before dying
Being that the escapees were on foot, they could not have gone far They were either in a tunnel close to the place where the wizard had lost the onshore Either way, Chuntha should be able to find theht She had planned to take the captives back to her chamber, to enjoy them at her leisure, but perhaps not Perhaps she would take them to the nearest flat spot and have theht of it warmed her loins Yes Why wait? Better to enjoy theain Afterward her poould be increased, and she would deal with the hapless Rey
The wor upon its back as she moved over the waters
Katamay Rey sat in his sedan chair, borne at a fast trot by his cyclopes He had yet to catch sight of Conan and the others but, he reflected, it should be only a short while before he did so Of course they could have easily darted into one of thethe way Quite probably they had done so, had they any sense, but that did not worry him The wizard was not without certain spells to ascertain such things
Froical ie He shook the bottle, and a faint buzzing began within He reain A sed from the bottle, which the wizard quickly recorked Rey spoke a tongue-twisting phrase in a gutteral language and the gnat-sized creature blossoiant insect buzzed back and forth, awaiting Rey's co
”Go and explore the first tunnel you find that is large enough to ad any men, return and report it to me i toward the shore Rey satory insect species, a jar of ical red hornets, but he had traded theo The hornets and wasps were antipathetical, and it was possible to use one or the other, but not both simultaneously The red and the blue insects hated each other and would fight to the death upon ht it an unnecessary duplication to have both
Of course the witch was somewhere in the vicinity, and she would have to be dealt with in the not-too-distant future He would be better prepared the next tie Kata dock, oblivious to their master's contemplations For his part, the wizard felt that his quest would be ended shortly It could not happen soon enough to suit him, either Seventeen Conan's plan was simple, and he saw no need to complicate it They would travel to the witch's quarters, bypass or dispatch any guards left there, and load their purses and pouches with loot Having done that, they would depart rapidly and find a place where the roof of so their way through the roof, which should prove to be the ground above, claone
Naturally Elashi+ had her doubts, and she voiced them quickly, as was her wont ”First, what uards so easily? What if this witch has left one orready to intercept would-be visitors?”
”Recall the giant fish?” Conan said ”If rub”
”All right, assu this is so, then there is thethrough the roof and depart these caves? Tull here has been underground for five years Think you not that he has tried such a maneuver before?”
Conan looked at Tull ”Have you, then?”
”Sort of,” Tull answered ”The places where the roof is reachable are few, and while I tried digging in a couple, I could never finish before either a wor holes, they usually patch 'e travelers Those are always too high to reach, or guarded”
Conan turned back to Elashi+ ”There are four of us; we can dig much faster than one Besides, the odd wor by will pose less of a threat to four”
”You have all the answers, do you?” Elashi+ was angry
Conan nodded As a matter of fact, he did”Aye, leastways the ones we need, save one: how much farther is our objective, Tull?”
”A few hours' walk”
”Then let us save our breath for walking instead of spending it talking,” Conan said
Elashi+ frowned at this; Lalo's face kept its perpetual sh rocky chatites that dripped tiny drops offungus that the bright green light generated gave the of the full moon
Once the four passed within a few spans of a solitary Webspinner Plant Conan heard the seductive but faint call of the carnivorous plant:Mighty warrior! Come to me and be pleasured beyond belief ! But his earlier experiences s, as were Tull and Elashi+
They warned Lalo but need not have bothered Lalo paused and appeared to listen for a moment, then answered the mindspeech of the plant aloud: ”I have seen better leaves on overripe turnips,” he said ”If ever there was an uglier bit of flora, doubtlessit”