Part 22 (2/2)
The reason Rey had chosen the location of his chainally froic per thick and potent A spell that ht hardly take a sies resident in this particular area So it was that the wizard had sufficient force to conjur the dera display of purple and yellow, much like a liquid bruise upon the atmosphere Came a loud clap of noise and suddenly the deers, naht Tunk was easily twice the size of the largest cyclops, thrice the weight in his earthly forer-sized black claws on hands and feet His mouth-and there was no doubt of his maleness to anyone with even the srimace that be caht of Tunk's arrival, and the sound he ed and scraped together with great force
Tunk's appearance put a halt to the advancing horde of worms and cyclopes as quickly as if those worthies had reached the end of a stout tether
”Go and kill them, all of them!” Rey ordered ”I call upon you with your true name Tunk, and demand that you obey”
Tunk, of course, had no choice; still, his rage at being jerked away fro encounter with a de would have coh without an order The deram toward the startled worms and cyclopes
Wikkell sucked in a deep breath as he saw the monstrous apparition bound froht at him, it seemed, and the small form of Conan perched atop a new-ive the cyclops confidence that he would survive for long once that thing arrived Panic flowed through Wikkell, and he scrabbled in his belt for a weapon, any weapon, he ht use to defend hihtened as he, the cyclops thought, and yet thede, that this puny human would dare to stand hat aainst such a beheround Conan was, and no one could see such a thing and not feel adainst the amazement that anyone could be so foolishess to hope to prevail
The thing reached the base of the rocky slope upon which Conan stood and began its ascent
The problem was that after it crushed Conan, Wikkell and Deek were next in line
The black vapor lapped at the edges of the inner chaan to ooze across the floor like some cold and thick liquid
Tull, Elashi+, and Lalo moved across the antechamber away from the blackness, toward the exit Now they could see the wizard outside, directing so of worms and cyclopes and-yes!-Conan!
Not that he had a chance against the thing that rushed toward hiiant beast made Conan look tiny, perched as he was atop a hill of rock, sword raised The ed
Rey sht as Tunk sprinted toward Conan and his doo to re the excitement as the demon prepared to destroy Conan and the rebels This would be
”D-d-do s-s-soraystone jar full of pale powder they had stolen froht help
Instantly Wikkell saw that he would have but one chance, and that one sli ain, it was not as if there were a number of choices left to him
Better a small chance than none at all
”Conan!” Wikkell yelled ”When I yell again, leap to the side!”
”What?” Conan did not turn, but kept his gaze upon the thing bounding up the side of the hill at him
”Just do it! I have a plan!”
Conan considered his options Heat hiht before it swiped at him with one of those clawed hands or feet and disemboweled hi it He could always die swinging his blade later, if it came to that
”Aye!” Conan yelled He bent his knees further
Rey watched as his enthralled de up the hillside Another leap and he would be upon Conan, and good riddance-!
”Now, Conan, now!” the cyclops behind the Cimmerian yelled
Was not that Wikkell, his old assistant? Rey wondered I thought hiilely to one side, tu on the loose rock as he landed, out of the demon's path Well, no matter Tunk could attend to Conan after he slew the cyclopes and the wor What was he doing? Rey could not see anything, no
wait, soht, some kind of dust
The cyclops leaped to one side and the worm next to him slithered the opposite way just as Tunk landed on the spot where Conan had only recently been
Tunk's feet shot out from under him and he fell upon his back, hard As heavy as Tunk was, he should have hit the rock and stuck, but instead, he skipped over the ground as a cast stone does over water-once, twice-and on the second bounce, flew into the air a good span high The demon sailed like a bird for a moment; unfortunately for him, Tunk was not a creature of the air in his current forht became less birdlike and round past the base of the slope after having gone perhaps fifty paces through the air, dropping an easy four spans
Rey felt the earth shake beneath him when Tunk slammed into the cave's floor Such a fall would have killed anyelse born of nature as well Even a de as he wore solid flesh
But Tunkwas a demon, and while his recovery would have been painful, he would have risen froed than ever, except that the force of the impact shook loose a few of the more solidly entrenched roof rocks that had resisted the wizard's earlier release spell
Two house-sized boulders fell The first landed squarely upon Tunk's prone for with a large er than the first, ca rock, and thus drove it into the floor, shattering the top of the first and the bottom of the second What was thus formed looked much like a rather fat mushroom when the dust settled
There were li to be digging out from under that any ti to his feet, sword in hand Best to retreat to his chaht, to consider his next move And now!
The black miasma had swirled to fill nearly all of the antechamber Elashi+, Tull, and Lalo crouched at the dooratching the darkness coet out of here, at once!”
With that, the three of the for the exit-just as the wizard leaped at the portal fro
Fortunately for the three captives, their coh to force the fall to end outside the chale the whose voice they recognized: the flying reptile that had taken Conan before