Part 8 (1/2)
Conan avoided the missile with a jerk of his black-maned head The next second his arm was around the neck and his knee in the back of the Turanian amir His voice was a terrible whisper in Veziz Shah's ear
”Dog, rehulis when you commanded a squadron in Secunderam? And how you sent me their pickled heads in jars ishes for a hearty repast? Your time has come Rot in hell!”
With a terrible heave, the blood-ainst the thrust of his knee until the Turanian's spine snapped like a dry twig A lifeless corpse flopped to the floor
Sweating and panting, Conan turned to the woht Now she rose, eyes shi+ning, raised her ar the bloody sword in his hand The blood ran swiftly through his veins at the sight of her
”You are a real hher arms around his corded neck ”None other could have slain Veziz Shah I alad you did He forced ”
Conan felt the hot urge of his racing blood In his younger days he would have swept the woman into his arms and da experience asserted itself He groarningly
”You were clad otherepaw and drawing her firmly down to the couch beside him ”Tell me the tale behind that ambush, and your part in it
No lies, now, if you knohat's good for you!”
The dark eyes under the long lashes regarded hiently drew itself frooblets of wine fro the other herself The assurance of a beautiful and intelligent woman colored her actions
”You ht of this wine It is the best from Veziz Shah's own cellar Drink, and I will tell you the story you ask for”
Conan stared into the depths of the cup as Thanara's h-born lady of Maypur King Yezdigerd has graciously appointed , as we call them in Turan When word came that you had embarked on your lonely journey, I was sent to supervise the work of the stupid ent in Tarantia I suppose-”
Conan hurled his cup to the floor and furiously turned upon the woman
He had sniffed the wine and let a little touch his tongue, and his keen barbarian senses told hie hand fastened itself in her long black hair
”I'll supervise you, struht-”
Thanara's hand ca into his face a pinch of the pollen of the yellow lotus Conan jerked back, coughing and sneezing, and let go Thanara's hair Holding her breath, she slipped out of his reach and stood up
Snoring heavily, Conan sprawled upon the couch
Thanara nodded in satisfaction For the next two or three days he would be like amurmur from without attracted her attention She stepped to aoverlooking the square and pulled back the curtains At the sight she saw she jerked back Houses flair horde Shrieks of captive wohostly shapes flitted here and there No soldiery was to be seen Evidently Conan had entered the fort, not alone as she had thought, but in the company of the desert wolves
Swiftly she collected her wits A seasoned spy, she was already hatching a plan to save herself and further the king's airabbed a white robe from one of the chests and donned it She ar aside the broken and staring corpse of the late governor, she searched with swift hands for the spring activating the secret door
With a grating sound, a section of the wall swung inward, disclosing a spiral staircase leading doards She went back to the couch where the unconscious fored hi her ht She worked the spring from inside to close the door and laid the Ci like a hibernating bear
Thanara hurried down the steps Light caround floor she found herself in a small circular chamber The exit worked in the sae She pressed the stud and slipped out, taking good note of the irs had broken out the contents of the wine cellars and gotten swiftly drunk, with the light-hearted irresponsibility of the pri torchmen had set fire to every house Bands of captive, half-naked women were rounded up and herded, hiplashes and coarse jests, toward the hter had been awful The cornered soldiers, rushi+ng out through the only exit, had run into a hail of arrows froir archers None of them had a chance, blinded by smoke and confused by sleep Hundreds of pin-cushi+oned bodies lay in heaps about the ruins of the barracks, while charred bodies in the debris showed that ht by the flames before they could win out the door to face the arrows
As of the fort, bands of blood- down the remnants of the company of the Imperial Guard who, awakened by the noise, burst out of their scattered lodgings Such a bloody stroke as tonight's sack had not been dealt a Turanian stronghold in decades