Conan pointed out. "With the warriors and the gold of the Girumgi behind him, he will think that he can do as he pleases. He may even be right."
"That is not the brother I knew," Bethina replied. "You are saying that he is ready to make slaves of his own people, if he can be their master under the Girumgi?"
"Good men have done worse things when ambition fuddles their wits," Conan said sharply. "Besides, it"s not hard to find tribesmen to follow you if you say you seek to hurt Turan. Turan has not been just in its dealings with the desert folk, and they have long memories for grievances."
Bethina gave Conan a radiant smile, and Khezal gave him a sour look. Farad carefully looked at the desert, but the Cimmerian could see a smile curving the man"s lips under his beard.
Under the stars, they rode toward the Kezankian Mountains.
The Kezankian Mountains did not tower as high as the Ibars range in Turan, let alone the Himelias in northern Vendhya. Those were mountains that seemed fit to hold up the very sky, or pierce it and thrust their snow-clad peaks into the abyss beyond.
However, from the direction Conan and his companions approached them, the Kezankians leaped almost straight from the desert. Eagles nesting halfway up the mountain faces looked as tiny as doves, even to the Cimmerian"s keen eyes. Birds flying any higher were as invisible as if they had been mag-icked.
Meanwhile, the desert wind itself grew cooler, and its flutings and pipings around the rocks set more than one man"s teeth on edge.
"It"s as if the wind itself knows this is a place to avoid," Farad said.
"Ha," Conan said. "I thought you would be feeling more at home than you have since we-"
"Fled Afghulistan?" Farad said. His grin showed all his teeth, but there was no mirth in his black eyes. Then he shook his head.
"I know what my homeland"s mountains may hold-"
"Bandits, sheep, and lice," Bethina said. Farad stared at her, then laughed loud enough to raise echoes. "Not so wrong, lady," Farad said. "But even the lice are-I won"t call them friends, but at least no strangers to a man. Everyone is a stranger to these mountains, and they look like the sort who treat any stranger as an enemy."
Looking up at the gray walls before them and listening once more to the wind, Conan could not find it in his heart to disagree.
They found the remains of the camp the next morning, soon after they themselves had made camp for the day. Out hunting with Farad, Conan was the first to see the patch of soot in the middle of the trampled ground.
While Farad kept watch, the Cimmerian squatted by the trampled ground and studied it. He sifted soil between his fingers, sniffed the ashes, and finally rose.
"You look like a hound seeking a scent," Farad said.
"Close enough," the Cimmerian replied. "Now let"s be finding their midden-pit.
I"d wager this camp held at least forty men, tribesmen and others. Something they left in the pit has to tell us more about who they are."
"If we can find it and dig it up," Farad said.
"Oh, I think we can find it. As for digging it up, I"ll do it myself if there"s no other way."
"I can spare you that, my chief."
As it happened, Khezal"s orders spared both Conan and Farad the dirty ch.o.r.e. A gang of Greencloaks set briskly to work with knives, hands, and the odd spade.
(Cavalry were not much for building field-works or carrying digging tools with them.) The rubbish they unearthed told Khezal and Conan much the same.
"Two score bandits-what the tribes call loose-feet," Khezal said. "They"re commonly a desperate, vicious lot." "Then who left this?" Conan said, holding up a blackened square of metal.
"A Khorajan left his cloak pin," Khezal said. "In truth, a Khorajan captain, or at least a man of rank. That"s silver with a relief of the king, as far as I can judge under the soot."
"Are you sure serving Mishrak never tempted you?" Conan chaffed the Turanian.
"You have a good nose for spy"s work."
"Also a tender conscience about it," Khezal said. He lowered his voice. "More so since Yezdigerd"s accession, and I"d wager I"m not the only one."
Conan had no doubt of that. There were as many honest folk in Turan as anywhere, and more than in some lands he had traveled (and mostly departed as swiftly as he"d come). But as long as Yezdigerd"s promise of empire dazzled their eyes with glory and filled their hands with gold, many Turanians might be less honest than they would be otherwise.
Turan might profit from his quest with Khezal, but the Cimmerian intended to end it far from Turan with the jewels at his belt, bound once again for Koth.
"Best we mount a good guard," Khezal said. "Forty loosefeet with a civilized captain leading them might do some mischief if they surprised us."
Conan nodded. "Perhaps. But we might do them more, if we surprised them."
Khezal frowned. Conan gave a gusty laugh.
"You Turanians still think like the plains hors.e.m.e.n who were your ancestors. You should never go to war without a hillman or few along, to tell you what to do when the land"s at a slant."
Khezal threw the Cimmerian a weary look. "Very well, my friend. You speak and I will listen. But by all the G.o.ds, for every needless word you say, I will take one jewel from that bag before I return it to you. Talk me deaf, and you will ride empty-pursed for Koth."
"Better empty-pursed than empty-headed," Conan riposted. He drew his dagger and began to trace lines in the sand with the point.
Conan shifted his weight cautiously, lest a dislodged stone roll far enough to make a sound. The desert night was still, the wind for once asleep like everything else.
Or rather, as the bandits would expect everything else to be.
The trap Conan had proposed was simple. The main band would camp in the very shadow of the cliffs, choosing a place where no one could strike from above unless they rode on the back of an eagle. They would be loud and lax in keeping watch, as if they thought themselves safe in their barracks. Anyone watching as the light faded would see easy prey, with hardly a sentry about, and none of those sober.
After dark, the revelry would continue, for all that Khezal swore to geld anyone who actually let a drop of wine touch his lips. Meanwhile, bands of men chosen for their handiness with steel and their keen night-sight would creep unseen out into the sand, at three points covering the three approaches to the main body.
Anyone who yielded to the thought of murdering and looting unsuspecting and incapable victims would face the rudest of surprises. Indeed, a man could die from such a surprise.
A small hand touched the Cimmerian"s shoulder. He did not move, but his heart leapt within him. Perhaps the thought about dying of surprise had been ill omened.
He did not strike, however, because in the next moment the hand was laid gently across his mouth. He felt slender but strong fingers across his lips, and smelled healthy woman and the faintest of perfumes.
Conan shifted position again. His eyes were now accustomed to the dark, and he had no difficulty recognizing Bethina. What gave him difficulty was her reason for being out here with the ambush posts, and he could hardly ask her now, not when the slightest whisper might warn lurking foes.
She solved the problem for both of them by sliding into his arms, until her head rested on his shoulder and her lips were against his ear. They were more than agreeable lips to feel, fluttering softly on his skin as she explained.
"The men are taking their part too seriously. They do nothing but sing one lewd song after another."
Conan grunted, and shifted a third time, so that he could reply to Bethina as she had spoken to him. Her ear also felt more than pleasant against his lips.
"You"re no garden rose, to wilt at a few rough words. Tell me the truth."
She was silent briefly, then replied: "I see you know women."
"If I didn"t at my age, I"d be a fool or bleaching bones."
"Perhaps. But-under law, I can be chief over the Ekinari, instead of Doiran.
Under law, if I do as a man does."
"And how do men among the Ekinari?"
"They must-they must be whole men, not eunuchs. Also, they must have taken a foe in battle."
The promise in the first words made Conan"s blood race. The danger in the second silenced it at once.
"This is no game, Bethina."
"The bandits are no friend to Ekinari or any other tribe. The Khorajans still less so. I did not come here for sport, Conan."
The Cimmerian fought back laughter. "There are sports and sports, lady. But I agree, a dark ditch waiting for flea-ridden bandits is no place for most of them." He squeezed an admirably firm and rounded shoulder. "You"ll find me as apt as-"
The Cimmerian broke off abruptly. In a lull in the songs from camp, a less convivial sound had reached his ears. It might have been the wind rising again; it might also have been the hiss of sand sliding under an incautious footfall.
The wisest thing was to wait for the intruder"s next mistake. Bethina stiffened but made no sound, save the faintest rustle as she drew steel from under her robes.
The sound came again. This time it was unmistakably a footfall. A moment later a pebble rattled, the sound lasting until Conan could judge the direction. The intruder was close to the left. Too close to be left alone.
All very well, but he had no wish to spring the trap for a single man. "We want to draw them in, put an end to most of them, and learn from the rest," he remembered Khezal telling the men.
Again Conan moved, with the caution of a snake approaching a bird. He saw a darker patch against the sky, man-shaped and hardly a spear"s length away. The man wore a bandit"s ragged robes and was as hairy and bearded as one, but he wore a sword and dagger with silver hilts.
Too vain of his blades to blacken them for night work, the Cimmerian thought.
The ranks of warriors would not miss this one.
The man turned at the last moment, so saw his death coming in the shape of a gigantic dark form leaping apparently from the ground. Then a fist like a maul exploded in his stomach and an arm like a giant snake locked around his neck. The man"s senses had left him before his a.s.sailant had laid him on the ground.
Conan crouched in turn, stripping off the man"s robes. A wide-eyed Bethina pulled the senseless man into the ditch and began binding his hands and feet with strips of his own garments, as Conan took his victim"s place. He had to stoop a trifle to look the same size, although the man had been well grown. He had also worn under his robes more than enough to say "Khoraja" to anyone who knew the handiwork of that city"s artisans.
The Cimmerian reached down and stroked Bethina"s forehead, all he could reach without dropping his guard. He thought he heard a light, nearly stifled giggle, and vowed to touch more than her forehead as soon as they found a time and place. The la.s.s had heart and wits to go with her looks!
In the Khorajan"s place, Conan had a clear view all around him, to the horizon in three directions and the cliff in the fourth. The fires in the camp were dying down; no need to burn scarce dung to keep up the act. The stars no longer glowed undimmed; a haze was creeping across the sky. Another sandstorm? Conan hoped not, for he had small taste for another blind groping against a far deadlier foe than Bethina"s "guards."
The sound this time was many footfalls, men trying so hard to be silent that they would have succeeded against almost any man but the Cimmerian. He counted more than twenty dark-robed and hooded figures with either bows or swords. Then farther off he heard a horse whicker.
The bandits themselves had divided their forces. Some would no doubt rush in to surprise the camp and sow panic. Then their mounted comrades would ride in to finish the work, driving off the Turanians" horses and carrying away loot and prisoners. The surviving Greencloaks would have small chance of pursuing, or even of living through another encounter with the meanest foe.
It did not take a warrior of Conan"s experience to doubt that the bandits had devised this scheme by themselves. A shrewder captain than the bandits of any land usually produced was behind tonight"s work.
The silence from the camp ran on. Conan cursed in several tongues. Before, he would have given much to send a silent message to the camp for quiet so he could hear the enemy approaching. Now he would have as gladly sent a message to them to sing and dance, so the bandits would not suspect that they had been detected.
Another whicker, closer, and Conan turned only his head in the direction of the horse-sounds. The mounted bandits were approaching through a dry wash that they thought concealed them completely. But a low part of the bank let Conan"s eyes pick them out of the darkness.
Before darkness, the Cimmerian had ridden over much of the country for several bowshots around the camp. If his memory served him as to the ground in the enemy"s path, there was a narrow end to the dry wash, where a handful might block many. A pity not to be able to do the work himself, but being where you were not expected in a night battle was the easiest way known to G.o.ds or men to be killed by your friends.
Conan now turned his head the other way, and this time the curses escaped his lips. Another band of loosefeet had drifted into sight as silently as a moving sand dune. They were marching straight for the mouth of the draw. No barring that to the hors.e.m.e.n now, not even by a Cimmerian"s sword.
A very longheaded captain, the one who led the enemy tonight. Conan would gladly enroll him among the chiefs he had slain and sing a death song for him. He would still more gladly ask him what he did in this land, and who else aided him.
With his hands, Conan signaled to the six Afghulis at his post. The plan had been for all three outposts to strike the enemy in the rear. But the men in posts closer to the cliff now could not move that fast without being seen or heard and caught on open ground by bandit archers. In that situation, they were to rally on the camp itself and swell the ranks of its defenders-or face the wrath of both Khezal and Conan together.
The attack from the rear would now rest on broad Cimmerian shoulders-although six Afghulis accustomed to bladework in the dark were no despicable foe either.
Together, Conan expected that he and the Afghulis might even be able to keep Bethina alive, although the harder she tried to "take her man," the harder that task would be.
Conan"s chivalry toward women never let him keep one out of a fight she entered of her own free will. But the Ekinari would not be grateful if he led Bethina into battle and did not lead her out again safely. Ungrateful Ekinari could be a menace to the quest or the peace of Turan, and either way a menace to Khezal"s future.
A man did not need to deal with moneylenders, Conan thought, to learn that he could owe too much to too many different people!
The Afghulis slipped along behind Conan as silently as the Cimmerian, more so than their enemies. Bethina not only kept up, she made hardly more noise than her companions.
So it was not any of those with Conan who alerted the prowling loosefeet to their danger.
"Eeeeenaaaa-ha!"
The war cry split the night. Conan saw shadows swirl and dance as some bandits faced about, to repel attack from their rear. Others dashed forward, hoping to reach the camp in time to find the sleepy or the drunken struggling out of their blankets.
With battle joined, speed was now more important than silence. Conan broke into a run, slowing his pace only enough to not outdistance his companions too much.
Being a match for any three warriors was no reason to go into battle alone when there was no need.
So Conan struck the bandits only a few paces ahead of Farad, and Farad only a few paces ahead of the other Afghulis. Bethina brought up the rear, but just before Conan drew his sword he heard her shriek.
"Leave one for me, Conan!"
Conan cursed and laughed in the same breath. He needed no advice, and Bethina had revealed her presence to the enemy. He would be glad to leave her a live foe or two, but he wondered if her enthusiasm for blooding her steel would survive her first battle. Knowing that you held men"s lives on the edge of your sword sobered most warriors, and those it did not sober were as mad dogs, and the faster they were killed, the better for honorable men.
The ground dropped from under Conan"s feet. He turned a stumble into a somersault and came up with gravel in his hair, sand in his mouth, and his sword still in his hand. He also came up so close to his first opponent that he barely had time to parry the first stroke of the man"s tulwar.
Conan"s riposte disarmed the man, and as he drew back to make way for better-armed comrades, the Cimmerian let him go. He was fighting against four or five, as far as he could tell. He would not borrow trouble unless his foes knew no more of swordsmanship than children. The children, that is, of other lands than Cimmeria.
Conan cut down two men without ever seeing them clearly, or so he judged from the way his slashes jarred his arm and the men he slashed screamed. A third proved that he was no child by getting in under the Cimmerian"s guard with a long dagger. Conan buffeted the man with his fist, and as he reeled, brought his knee up under the man"s jaw. Jaw and neck both sundered by the blow, the man fell lifeless.
By now the ground about the Cimmerian was slippery with blood and cluttered with the dead or the dying. Fortunately he could give way, because now the Afghulis were up on either flank, and he could hear their steel meeting the bandits" even as he kept his eyes firmly on his own part of the battle.
So he did not see Bethina running up until she had run past him, into the midst of the enemy. How she escaped being skewered by mistake was a mystery that only the G.o.ds of battlefields knew, and Conan doubted that they ever bothered to share their knowledge with honest warriors.