Carrying her with careful tenderness, he limped toward the reed-masked riverbank and lay her down gently on the dry, cushioning reeds. Filling his cupped palms with river water, the barbarian bathed her white face and cleansed her cuts as gently as a mother might tend her child.
Her wounds proved superficial, mere bruises, save for the cut on her brow. And even that, although it had bled heavily, was far from mortal.
Conan grunted with relief and bathed the girl"s face and brow with cold, clear water. Then, awkwardly pillowing her head against his chest, he dribbled some of the water between her half-parted lips. She gasped, choked a little, and came awake-staring up at him from eyes like dark stars, clouded with bewilderment and the shadows of fear.
"Who-what-the bats!"
"They are gone now, girl," he said gruffly. "You have naught to fear.
Came you hither from Yaralet?"
"Yes-yes-but who are you?"
"Conan, a Cimmerian. What is a la.s.s like you doing on a battlefield?"
he demanded.
But she seemed not to hear. Her brow frowned a little, as one in thought, and half under her breath she repeated his name.
"Conan-Conan-yes, that was the name!" Wonderingly she lifted her gaze to his scarred, brown face. "It was you I was sent to seek. How strange that you should find me!"
"And who sent you to seek me, wench?" he rumbled suspiciously.
"I am Hildico, a Brythunian, slave to the House of Atalis the Far-seeing, who dwells yonder in Yaralet. My master sent me in secret to move among the warriors of King Yildiz, to seek one Conan, a mercenary of Cimmeria, and to bring him by a private way to his house within the city. You are the man I seek!"
"Aye? And what does your master want with me?"
The girl shook her dark head. "That I know not! But he said to tell you that he means no harm, and that much gold can be yours, if you will come."
"Gold, eh?" he mused, speculatively, helping her to her feet and steadying her with a brawny arm about her slim white shoulders as she staggered weakly.
"Yes. But I came not to the field in time to seek you before the battle. So I hid in the reeds along the river"s edge to avoid the warriors. And then-the bats! Suddenly they were everywhere, swooping upon the fallen, killing- and one horseman fled from them into the reeds, trampling me under his hooves unawares-"
"What of this horseman?"
"Dead," she shuddered. "A bat tore him from the saddle and let his corpse fall into the river. I swooned, for in its panic, the horse struck me..." She lifted one small hand to her gashed brow.
"Lucky you were not slain," he growled. "Well, la.s.s, we shall visit this master of yours, to learn what he wants of Conan-and how he knows my name!"
"You will come?" she asked breathlessly. He laughed and, vaulting astride the black mare, lifted her to the saddlebow before him with powerful arms.
"Aye! I am alone, amid enemies, in an alien land. My employment ended when Bakra"s army was destroyed. Why should I scruple to meet a man who has picked me from ten thousand warriors, and who offers gold?"
They rode across the shallow ford of the river and across the gloom-drenched plain towards Yaralet, stronghold of Muntha.s.sem Khan.
And Conan"s heart, which never beat more joyously than when thrilled with the promise of excitement and adventure, sang.
4. The House of Atalis
A strange conclave was taking place in the small, velvet-hung, taper-lit chamber of Atalis, whom some men called a philosopher, others a seer, and others a rogue.
This figure of mystery was a slender man of medium height, with a splendid head and the ascetic features of a dedicated scholar, yet in his smooth face and keen eyes was something of the shrewd merchant. He was clad in a plain robe of rich fabric, and his head was shaven to denote devotion to study and the arts. As he talked in low tones with his companion, a third viewer-had any been present-might have observed something strange and curious about him. For Atalis, as he conversed, gestured with his left hand only. His right arm lay stretched across his lap at an unnatural angle. And from time to time his calm, clever features were hideously contorted with a sudden spasm of intense pain, at which time his right foot, hidden under his long robes, would twist back excruciatingly upon his ankle.
His companion was one whom the city of Yaralet knew and praised as Prince Than, scion of an ancient and n.o.ble house of Turan. The prince was a tall, lithe man, young and undeniably handsome. The firm, clean outline of his soldierly limbs and the steely quality of his cool gray eyes belied the foppishness of his curled and scented black locks and jewelled cloak.
Beside Atalis, who sat in a high-backed chair of dark wood carven by intricate skill with leering gargoyles and grinning faces, stood a small table of ebony inlaid with yellow ivory. Upon this rested a huge fragment of green crystal, as large as a human head. It flickered with a weird inward glow, and from time to time the philosopher would break off his low conversation to peer deeply within the glitterinp stone.
"Will she find him? And will he come?" Prince Than said, despairingly.
"He will come."
"But every moment that pa.s.ses increases our danger. Even now Muntha.s.sem Khan may be watching, and it is dangerous for us to be together..."
"Muntha.s.sem Khan lies drugged with the dream lotus, for the Shadows of Nergal were abroad in the hour of sunset," said the philosopher. "And some danger we must risk, if ever the city is to be freed of this b.l.o.o.d.y-handed scourge!" His features knotted sickeningly in an involuntary grimace of intolerable pain, and then smoothed out again.
He said grimly, "And you know, O Prince, how little time is left to us.
Desperate measures for desperate men!"
Suddenly the prince"s handsome face contorted with panic and he turned upon Atalis with eyes suddenly gone dead as cold marble. Almost as swiftly, light and animation returned to his gaze, and he sank back in his chair, pale and sweating.
"Very-little-time!" he gasped.
A hidden gong rang softly, somewhere within the dark and silent house of Atalis the Far-seeing. The philosopher raised his left hand to check the prince"s involuntary start.
A moment later, one of the velvet wall-hangings drew aside, revealing a hidden door. And within the door, like a b.l.o.o.d.y apparition, stood the giant form of Conan with the half-fainting girl leaning on his arm.
With a little cry, the philosopher sprang to his feet and went toward the grim Cimmerian. "Welcome-thrice welcome, Conan! Come, enter. Here is wine-food-"
He gestured to a tabouret against the further wall and took the fainting girl from Conan. The Cimmerian"s nostrils widened like those of some famished wolf at the scent of the food; but also, like a wolf, suspicious, wary of a trap, his smouldering blue eyes raked the smiling philosopher and the pale prince, and pried into every corner of the small chamber.
"See to the wench. She was trampled by a horse but brought me your message," he growled, and without ceremony he swaggered across the room, and poured and drained a goblet of strong red wine. Tearing a plump leg from a platter of roast fowl, he chewed hungrily. Atalis tugged a bell-rope and gave the girl into the keeping of a silent slave, who appeared from behind another hanging as if by magic.
"Now, what is this all about?" the Cimmerian demanded, seating himself on a low bench and wincing from the pain of his gashed thigh. "Who are you? How do you know my name? And what do you want of me?"
"We have time for talk, but later," Atalis replied. "Eat, drink, and rest You are wounded-"
"Crom take all this delay! We shall talk now."
"Very well. But you must let me cleanse and bind your wound while we talk!"
The Cimmerian shrugged impatiently and yielded with poor grace to the philosopher"s swift ministrations. As Atalis sponged his gashed thigh, smeared the gaping wound with a scented salve, and bound it with a strip of clean cloth, Conan appeased his hunger by wolfing down the cold spiced meat and drinking deeply of the red wine.
"I know you, although we have never met," Atalis began in a smooth, soft voice, "because of my crystal-there, on yonder stand by the chair.
Within its depths I can see and hear for a hundred leagues."
"Sorcery?" Conan spat sourly, having the warrior"s contempt for all such magical mummery.
"If you like," Atalis smiled ingratiatingly. "But I am no sorcerer-only a seeker after knowledge. A philosopher, some men call me-" His smile twisted into a terrible grin of agony, and with p.r.i.c.kling scalp Conan watched the philosopher stagger as his foot bent horribly.
"Crom! Are you sick, man?"
Gasping from the pain, Atalis sank into his high-backed chair. "Not sick-cursed. By this fiend who rules us with a dread sceptre of h.e.l.l-born magic..."