The sound was half growl, half scream, and altogether ghastly. The cavern picked it up, hurling echoes back and forth until it seemed to Valeria that they might be inside a giant drum beaten by a madman.
She would almost rather have been mad than to have seen what came lumbering into the cavern from another tunnel. It was as high as a man at the shoulders, with great plates of bone jutting from behind its eyes to guard its thick neck. Crimson orbs the size of melons glared at them past two stout horns thrusting forward from the beaked muzzle.
With its tail, it was longer than a ship"s boat, and from the way it sank into the ground, it was as heavy as an elephant.
Another dragon, and no Apples of Derketa to slay it. That was Valeria"s first thought. A brighter one followed on its heels. I have good company for a last battle.
As if they had been fighting-partners for years, Valeria and Conan spread apart so that the creature could not attack both of them at once. Valeria studied the horns and headplates. If neither were too sharp, they offered handholds. Then a good thrust with sword or dagger might serve this beast as it had the crocodile.
Instead of attacking, the beast cried out again. It seemed to wait for an answer, or perhaps for the echoes to die. Then it still did not attack. It lumbered forward to the edge of the fungi, lowered its broad muzzle, and bit off a clump.
"That brute"s no dragon," Conan called. "It"s the fungus-eater."
"Then what killed the other-" Valeria began.
In the next moment, she had what might have been the answer to her question. Dim-sighted it might be, but the creature"s hearing was keen enough. It turned toward the voices, and Conan signaled urgently for silence.
Valeria needed no urging. She opened the distance between her and her comrade still wider. If dim enough of sight, the beast might not be able to see two foes, let alone attack them. Then one of them might die, but the other would have a chance at the kill.
If the creature saw them, it gave no sign of it. Valeria wondered if it was so scant of sight that it could spy only movement. After a moment, it lowered its head and resumed feeding.
The creature was no dainty eater. It s...o...b..red and crunched its way through a patch of fungus as large as an Aquilonian kitchen garden. Its eating, it belches, and its footfalls raised more echoes. A cavalry trumpet in its ear might have won its attention, but scarcely any lesser sound.
Sated, it lifted its head and lumbered toward the body of the other creature-its victim, perhaps, in a battle to the death over this caveful of food. It reached the body, snuffled noisily about it, then lifted its head again and gave its challenge louder than before.
Valeria felt as if hot nails were driving into her ears, but she did not take her eyes off the creature. It might be dim of sight and unable to hear much over the sound of its own feeding, but it seemed able to scent the trace of a stranger.
Silently, Conan waved at her to come closer. Still watching their visitor, she knelt, then crawled on hands and knees through the fungi.
The Cimmerian stood as still as a temple image, watching the beast make the rounds of the wall, until she reached him.
"We"ll have to face him now," he whispered. "He"s caught the scent of some stranger on his territory. If we don"t kill him, he"ll hunt us until he catches us off guard."
Valeria was ready to agree. The beast"s jaws were flat, bony plates, with no more teeth than a chicken"s beak. They were also large enough to swallow her whole, and strong enough to crack Conan"s bones like twigs.
They separated again. They were forty paces apart when a puff of air wafted from the tunnel by which they had entered the cavern. It blew past them, and Valeria willed limbs, and even breath to stillness as she waited for the beast"s reply.
It came-another screaming, thundering challenge. The echoes had not begun to die when it charged. Like a heavily laden ship in heavy seas, it labored through the fungi, trampling some, shredding others. It held its head low, horns thrusting forward like the ram of a galley. Valeria remained still as the beast surged between them.
In the next moment, Conan shot forward like a stone from a sling. His hands gripped the upper horn, and he vaulted clear over the beast"s muzzle, aiming for its neck.
Somehow, his iron grip failed him. The leap sent him sprawling across the neck instead of landing safely astride. He slid off and landed rolling, parting company with his sword in midair.
Valeria filled her lungs in a single desperate breath and let out the shriek of a soul in torment. The beast"s head turned toward her. The G.o.ds might be thinking it was Conan"s day to die and hers to kill, but Valeria of the Red Brotherhood let neither man nor G.o.d decide such matters for her.
Clearly, the sensing of two enemies was more than the beast"s dim wits could endure. It cried challenge again, and began to back away.
"Together-now!" Conan roared.
That drew the beast toward him, but he was on his feet and fully armed again. Valeria had seen before that the Cimmerian could move forward and backward with equal speed; now she saw him do it again. As he gave ground, he drew the beast after him, and it seemed to forget that it had ever sensed a second opponent. Against Valeria, that was a death sentence.
She sprang forward, light-footed as a cat, leaping successfully where Conan had failed. She ended straddling the neck. She gripped the edge of the neckplates and lunged to her feet, ready to stab.
As she did, the beast reared up on its hind legs. With the swiftness and agility learned high in the rigging of half a score of ships, Valeria entrusted her sword to the wrist-thong and gripped the neckplates with both hands. Both thong and hands did their duty as Valeria dangled from the neckplates like a puppet. The beast hissed, growled, and screamed all at once, then tossed its head, trying to rid itself of the distracting nuisance.
This gave the Cimmerian his chance for a stroke at the beast"s unprotected throat. His sword sang as it parted air, hand-sized scales, and the flesh beneath. Driven by all the strength of two brawny arms, the sword slashed clean through to the beast"s life.
Its next cry bubbled and hissed, and sprayed a mist of blood everywhere. It did not fall, though, and Valeria heaved herself onto the neckplates. For a moment, she balanced there as if atop a mast swaying in a storm, displaying the grace of one who had done that many times.
Then her sword slashed at thin bone between the crimson eyes. The next moment, she was flying through the air as if the mast had snapped. She landed among the fungi, which broke her fall and coated her in their grease.
As she struggled to her feet, she saw Conan leading the beast away from her. It was bleeding generously now, and clearly all but blind, yet it would not fall! Valeria cursed whatever misbegotten sons of flea-bitten apes had conjured up this creature with its unnatural life.
As if her curse had been a spell, the thing seemed to find new strength. It lunged at Conan, and the Cimmerian had to break into a run to stay ahead of it. The jaws clanged and clashed, and the beast swung toward the tunnel from which Conan and Valeria had entered the cavern.
It swung toward the opening, then charged with single-minded frenzy, as if the answer to all of its woes lay in that tunnel. The charge carried it across the cavern faster than Valeria could have run, and she caught only a brief glimpse of Conan staying ahead of the jaws.
Then Cimmerian and monster together reached the mouth of the tunnel.
Conan"s war cry, the creature"s last challenge, and the rumble of falling rock blended into one ear-torturing din. Echoes stormed about the cavern, doubling and redoubling themselves.
Valeria knelt and watched a vast cloud of dust belch from the tunnel.
Nothing remained visible outside it but the tip of the beast"s tail, thrashing feebly. Then the thrashing subsided to a twitching, and even the twitching ended.
Valeria commanded her hands to stop shaking and her knees to hold her up, and walked toward the fallen tunnel. She had no clear idea of what she would do when she reached it, other than seek Conan"s body. If it was only caught under the beast and not under the fallen stones, she might be able to carve a way through the beast"s flesh-
A ma.s.sive, dark form took shape out of the dust cloud.
Valeria crammed her free hand into her mouth to stifle a scream. Her sword rose in the other, as much good as it might be against a spirit-
"Valeria!"
Valeria"s mouth opened, but no sound came out. She did not drop her sword, and she was still rooted to the spot when Conan reached her.
His arms around her were so comforting that she wondered why she had not asked for them many times already. After a little while, she stopped shaking, and after a while longer, she found her voice again.
"It"s as well I didn"t need to go after you a second time. I"ve hardly a rag to spare, and that beast"s hide looks too tough to cut up for garments."
Conan shrugged. "I"ve told you what your best garb is. If you won"t believe me, that"s only proof that you don"t trust men."
"I give men all the trust they deserve," Valeria said with dignity. She held her thumb and forefinger about a hairbreadth apart. "At least that much." She was relieved to see that her hand was steady.
"We"d best be on our way before this uproar draws all our friend"s kin," Conan said. "But there"s no going back the way we came. It"s solid with fallen stone where it isn"t solid with dead beast."
It did nothing for Valeria"s spirits to see that the only other way out of the cavern sloped sharply downward. But at least there was light as far ahead as she could make out, and a dampness in the air that hinted of water.
She turned, to see Conan slicing off a clump of fungi as large as a hunting dog. "Rations for the journey?" she asked. Her stomach wanted to heave at the thought, but she was hungry enough that it rumbled instead.
"Why not?" Conan replied, tossing the fungi to her. "If it killed quickly, I"d be dead along with that beast. If I"m still alive at our next halt, I"ll say it doesn"t kill at all."
Valeria tucked the ma.s.s of fungi under her arm and sheathed her sword.