Part 13 (1/2)
”Then ca the galley slaves, slain the overseers, and struck the chains froed up on the deck like a horde of lost souls They snatched whatever weapons they could find from the corpses
Their hatred of their masters must have run deep Heedless of their own lives, they drove into the Turanian ranks, shouldering us aside So themselves forward to be spitted upon Hyrkanian swords and spears, while others clile Turanians with their bare hands I saw a giant galley slave use a Hyrkanian's body as a club, knocking his foes to the deck, before sinking doith a dozen arrows in his body
”Confusion reigned The glittering ranks wavered Conan yelled a weird battle cry and flung himself into the press We followed, deterned In a bloody tidal ept the shi+p from stem to stern with steel We scattered the foe like chaff before the wind of our swords, and the scuppers were choked with blood
”Conan was terrible as a tiger His broadsword struck like a thunderbolt Corpses were scattered about hied in where the fighting was thickest, and always his advent spelled dooe passion, he erd hi orders, surrounded by his pickedelephant Men went down beneath his sword like dolls Then a cry of rage ca hierd must have missed hie curses streaed
”'I saw your hand in this, Cimmerian cur!' he screamed 'By Erlik, now you shall reap your deserts! Die, barbarian dog!'
”He aimed a terrific stroke at Conan's head No ordinary man could have avoided or stopped that swift and powerful blow, but Conan is superior to a dozen ordinarymovement too quick for the eye to follow”
”'Die yourself, jackal of Turan!' he thundered For an instant they struck and parried like lightning, while the rest of us stopped fighting to watch Then a erd's shi+eld andsweep, Conan siant body, which crumpled to the deck”
”After that, the Turanians surrendered et many prisoners, for the swords had taken too heavy a toll A bare half of our original two hundred were left standing, but we had captured or slain three hundred of the Hyrkanian dogs”
He gulped downthe pause, a hearer asked: ”What about the Turanian yedka? What becaave a visible shudder ”That was the strangest event of thatprisoners, when the sun seemed to cloud over and a chill of doom fell upon us The water swirled blackly about our shi+ps Wind h ere under the lee of a cliff
”Sorowing swiftly larger At first it looked like a bird or bat Then it grew to a fantastic, horrible shape, s it swooped to the poop deck, uttering a shrill cry that smote our hearts like death
”At that cry, the woman of Maypur stepped from the poop cabin, which none of us had yet entered In the wink of an eye, theheavily over the oily waters of the channel In a few seconds both were out of sight, and the sun shone once again
”We stared at one another, white-faced Everybody asked his neighbor what had happened Had the fiend stayed, I am sure we should have all leaped into the sea to escape it, though it was gone so quickly that we had no time for panic Even Conan looked shaken and pale
”I have seen that thing before,” he muttered, but he would not explain
So Thanara off to the hell of Erlik's worshi+pers But others, who had been standing close to her when the creature swooped upon us, said that she showed no fear of it, but rather eagerness, as if she had summoned it herself
”At last Conan shook hi out of a daze and bellowed orders to strip the slain of valuables and pitch the corpses over the side, even the body of the king All he would say of the abduction of Thanara was:
”'Let the daeyh I would have striped her hide for her treachery'
”And that was the end of the alley and sailed the other one hither”
”And where is Conan? ” cried another listener ”Why is he not here to tell us tales of his adventures himself? Will he return as our leader to sweep the Turanians from the sea?”
”Alas, no! The Ciht for the eastern shore He said he was on a vital mission He had paused here only to settle his old score with Yezdigerd One of the slaves we freed was a Khitan Conan re in conversation They talked of far lands beyond the Hioal, he must seek some really fabulous treasure Otherwise, ould be so mad as to try for those lands beyond the sunrise?”
”Why took he not a score of sea rovers with him?”
”That is another mystery He swore he had taken an oath to journey alone, and that his goal would be unattainable otherwise
”We landed him on the eastern shore, and the farewell between him and Rolf the northerner was short and e, until he lifted his hty voice to curse us to silence We watched him disappear behind a sand dune on his way to unknown perils
”Rolf is our captain now, and an abler one is not to be found barring Conan For Conan will always rereatest captain of them all, even when Vilayet Sea has become a desert waste and the stars have fallen from the heavens I drink his health, and may his quest be successful!”
The toast was drunk in a silence oddly out of place in a pirates'