"You would, if someone heated a spear and applied it to sufficient parts of your body to unman or blind you," Chabano said. "Do not deny it."
"I do not," Ryku said st.u.r.dily, but seeming a trifle bemused.
"As well. Do not, then, tread like an elephant when you come to our meetings. Even if you have no enemies, I do, and they might follow you to me."
"As you wish." Then Ryku took a more defiant tone. "One would think you feared that the over-throwers of Xuchotl were abroad in the land instead of your own warriors!"
"They could well be. Or do your masters know otherwise?"
"I came to tell you that they do not know one way or the other. They cannot even be sure what magic was wrought to bring down the Accursed City."
To Chabano, it seemed likely as not that it was the city folk"s own magic that had finally sent them mad, and not outsider"s spells. If they had then fallen on one another and cleansed the city of their foul and useless lives, so much the better.
The folk of Xuchotl had bred for too long, and to little purpose. Now they had left what would be a fine city from which to rule these lands when the Kwanyi under him had done with all their enemies.
That was a dream he would not dwell on, however. Not while this close to Ryku, who had the rank of Silent Brother but more of the G.o.d-Men"s knowledge than a wise man would offend without good cause.
"Then what do the G.o.d-Men wish of the Kwanyi?"
"Who says they wish anything?"
"I, Paramount Chief of the Kwanyi, say so. When have you come to me without telling me some wishes of your masters? They know not what you bear to me, but you do it nonetheless."
"The First Speaker wishes as before to learn anything you discover of how Xuchotl was overthrown," Ryku said. "He also wishes the return of the slave girl taken by the Ichiribu on the night of their raid."
This last demand was new. "Nothing more?"
"It is enough for the First Speaker."
Chabano laughed coa.r.s.ely. "I should say that a wench of that age is more than adequate for such an old man. What does he want of her?"
Ryku had enough courage, or enough fear of his leader to glare at Chabano, a thing few did and lived. "Know you not what it is to be a man with a woman? It will make a fine tale, that the great chief of the Kwanyi-"
"-dashed out the brains of a G.o.d-Man whose tongue flew too far too long," Chabano finished. He returned the glare, and Ryku fell silent.
"I shall discover what may be done prudently to return the girl, and then find men to do it. This is not to be doubted."
"I do not doubt it," Ryku said. He was wise enough to make no promises for the masters who did not know of his divided loyalties. "What of Xuchotl"s fate?"
"What of it?" Chabano retorted. "To ask me to seek wielders of mighty magic is to ask the snake to hunt the leopard. Only by great good fortune will I win any knowledge worth having."
Ryku"s gestures and face told Chabano that matters were unchanged. The G.o.d-Men would not put into Kwanyi hands any of their power, not even to seek the cause of Xuchotl"s doom. They would rather remain in ignorance than risk giving others too much knowledge.
There lay the difference between the First Speaker of the Living Wind and the Paramount Chief of the Kwanyi. For knowledge, Chabano had given much, and might yet give more. There was another difference, too. The chief knew that the G.o.d-Men would use the magic of Xuchotl"s foes against even the Kwanyi. He would not, if he could help it, give them the power to doom his people.
Ryku went through the rituals of farewell from hunter to chief, then withdrew. He could be heard for a shamefully long distance, but at least he seemed to be attempting silence.
Valeria knelt beside the skeleton and the glowing ma.s.s of fire-stones until she saw what Conan had wished her to see. Then she rose. It seemed that every movement of her joints, every breath she took, had to be loud enough to raise echoes and warn whatever lurked farther within this nightmare of stone.
She wanted to whisper, but when she tried to speak thus, no sound came out. Then she took a deep breath, bid fear kiss her hindquarters, and laughed aloud.
"So the Golden Serpents are no legend after all? This brute lost its scales a while back, I judge, but the eyes tell the tale."
Conan nodded. "And I"m thinking that it hasn"t been dead for as long as the beast we found dead in the fungus cave."
"I wish it had been," Valeria said. "Even a slab of that fungus would seem like a banquet." She looked at the Cimmerian. "What are you staring at? The new shape of my stomach, after being so near empty these past days?"
The Cimmerian grinned. "You take it lightly, our sharing these tunnels with the Golden Serpents."
Valeria blinked-and realized that her eyes were not quite dry. She turned away, and Conan did her the courtesy of letting her stand thus until she had command of herself again.
"How should I take it?" she said at last. "We are, I think, at that time of an ordeal when one can either run mad or laugh. I"ll laugh, if it"s all the same to you."
Conan"s roar raised echoes and made stones fall from the pile. He kissed her roundly on both cheeks, then on the lips, and finished with a smart slap to her rear.
"I"ll have to buy that pox-ridden captain a drink the next time I see him. How else would I have won such a comrade if he hadn"t driven you into flight?"
"The G.o.ds only know. I"d rather voyage with a bog-troll, as often as not." She knelt and set her boots on the floor.
"What do you mean by that?"
"Conan, this may be our last h.o.a.rd of fire-stones. Have you forgotten that I am of the Red Brotherhood, that you have a name among the Barachans, and that good pirates do not leave fine loot to gather dust?"
Conan laughed shortly and joined her at her work. The fire-stones were light for their size, and enough to fill the toes of their boots was no great burden.
Magic might be in the stones, of course, magic as evil as any in Xuchotl. They might even draw other Golden Serpents, living ones, to avenge the theft of their dead mates" treasures.
Valeria did not care. The magic here would slay her and the Cimmerian or not, as fate would have it. It would no longer put her in fear.
As for the Golden Serpents, let them come. A day or two more and she would be ready not only to spit one on her sword, but to eat it raw afterward!
SIX.
"Conan," Valeria whispered, "I smell cooking fat. Or else my wits have finally parted their mooring lines."
Conan sniffed the air, more damp and mephitic of late than before. They had come, he judged, half a league through sc.u.m-coated water that seemed to both ooze from below and drip from above. He wondered if they were under a river, or more likely, a lake.
At times, the water was no more than a thin coating of slime on the stone, which made footing treacherous even for two nimble warriors like the Cimmerian and his companion. At other times, it rose to their ankles, or even to their knees. After the first such place, Valeria slung her jewel-laden boots about her neck. The Cimmerian"s greater stature allowed him to keep his treasure riding at his waist. Neither needed the boots to guard leather-tough feet, and indeed, preferred bare toes by which to feel out lurking menaces.
When knee-deep, the water seemed sometimes almost solid with plant and animal matter that the ancient magic of these tunnels had been unable to keep alive. In those places, it exhaled a noisome stench that made even the hardened Cimmerian wish for something to bind over his mouth and nose.
He wished even more to know what sort of creature had risen to attack Valeria on the day they had entered this maze. Was it a water-dweller, and were they perhaps approaching the lair of more of the breed?
Well-wielded steel was an answer to most creatures, but if the water grew much deeper, swordplay would be sadly slowed... to say nothing of what this muck could hardly fail to do to their blades-
Conan finished his sniffing. "Your wits are as sound as ever. I smell it, too. Fish oil, I"d wager."