Deek moved quickly, but with added caution. He trusted One Eye less than the distance he could fly like a bat, which was to say, not at all.
Together, cyclops and worm started for the tunnel.
In his chamber, Rey"s impatience simmered to a roiling bubble.
In her bed, Chuntha"s agitation at being kept waiting blossomed like a bitter fungus.
"Which way?" Conan asked as the three fleeing humans came to a triple forking of tunnels.
Tull scratched at his beard. "I dunno," he said. "I never took this route afore."
"One is as good as another," Elashi said. "The center path."
Before either man could speak, the desert woman hurried into the chosen tunnel. Tull raised a questioning eyebrow at Conan.
Conan shrugged. "She is like that. I have found it better not to argue. It saves much time." The two men followed Elashi.
"Best you slow down," Conan called to Elashi. She was perhaps ten spans ahead of the Cimmerian youth and running nearly full out.
"Can"t keep up, Conan?" she called back.
"No, it is just that-"
His words were interrupted by Elashi"s scream. She dropped suddenly from view, and her disappearance was followed almost immediately by a splash. Conan increased his speed and skidded to a halt on the damp rock just short of where the desert woman had vanished.
He found himself on the edge of the largest cavern yet, balanced on a rocky lip overlooking a vast lake; he could not see the far sh.o.r.e as the fungal glow faded rapidly with distance, the water being illuminated only by the roof, a good ten spans above.
A span or so below Conan, Elashi came up from the water, which reached only to her hips. Conan grinned down at her. "I can keep up. It is just that we don"t know these tunnels and we might happen upon something unexpected," he said.
"I hate you!" Elashi said.
Tull slid to a stop next to Conan, overbalanced and nearly fell but was stopped by an outthrust brawny arm.
"Take care," Conan said.
Tull nodded, regaining his breath. "The Sunless Sea."
"You know this place?"
"I have seen it from a different vantage point, but yes." To Elashi, Tull said, "Best you exit the water, la.s.s.
There are certain creatures who live in it-"
Whatever ending Tull intended to his sentence was lost in the splashing Elashi made as she frantically left the water. To Conan"s left was a kind of beach a few steps away, and it was but four heartbeats before Elashi attained this drier vantage point. A short ledge led from the mouth of the tunnel along the rock wall to the beach, and Conan and Tull made their way down to the sh.o.r.e to join the woman.
Elashi began to remove her wet clothing, wringing it out as she did so.
"Give me your cape," she said to Conan, who managed to keep himself from smiling as he tendered the garment. The fall had served her right, but it was probably best to refrain from speaking it thus. She wrapped herself in the cape, which was hardly drier than her own clothing.
"So," Conan said, "what of this sea?"
"I know only a little about it," Tull answered. "It widens as you see here, and narrows to a small river"s width in other places. S"posed to go on for miles and miles, though it"s more like a large lake "n a truesea-the water ain"t brine. I learned this from a White I captured once."
"Go on."
"No one knows for certain where the sea ends, but it might be that it eventually emerges above the ground."
Conan looked at the still water. "That would be reason enough to follow it."
"Had we but a ship and rowers," Elashi put in. Sarcastically, as usual.
"That might be possible," Tull said. "After a fashion."
"How so?" Conan asked.
"There are creatures in the water. A form of giant whiskered fish is among them. As big as a house, if the White could be believed."
"So?"
"In my youth I fished the great western rivers," Tull said. "These bottom fish contain large bladders filled with air. When the creatures die, they will float for a time. With one of them, we might make a raft. We could use fins and large bones as paddles."
"All well and good," Elashi said, "but how are we to collect this monster fish?"
"We have your swords and my knife," Tull said. "A sure stroke in a vulnerable spot would slay one."
"And what is to draw one of these fish to a place where we could slay it?" she continued. "We have no bait."
Conan and Tull glanced at each other, then back at Elashi. The two men grinned. Whatever else the desert woman was, she was not slow of wit. "Ha! You are both mad!"
"The other choice is to stay here forever and face the worms, bats, Whites and cyclopes," Conan said, "not to mention the wizard and the witch."
"Then one ofyou may act as bait!"
Tull said, "I am the fisherman. I must watch for the signs of the creature."
"And I am much better with my blade than are you with yours," Conan said. "Do you think you could slay a fish as large as a house with that needle you carry?"
"I will not do it," Elashi said. "You are both addled completely out of your feeble minds!"
Tull sketched a picture of the fish in the wet sand near the water"s edge. "You must drive your blade in here," he said, indicating a spot just behind the head. "Angled in thus, to sever the great nerve within the spine, here." Conan nodded.
"The flesh is soft, as is the bone, but it will require a powerful stab, likely to the full depth of your blade."
Conan nodded again.
Tull stood and brushed the sand from his hands. "Farther along the sh.o.r.e, just there, is a likely spot. You see that spire of rock that juts out over the water?"
"I see it."
"If the la.s.s swims in the deep water below it, you will be positioned to stab the fish as it pa.s.ses underneath."
Elashi grinned at this. "Ah, a shame. I would be willing to go along with this moon-mad plan, but alas, I cannot swim a stroke. Ask Conan, he knows. So much for your plan.""
"No need to swim," Tull said. "You will dangle from the rock spire. We can cut that cloak into strips for a swing."
"But-but-" she began.
"So much for your objections," Conan said.
It took less than an hour to make everything ready. Elashi hung from the spire, only her feet touching the surface below. Tull had her waving her legs back and forth, agitating the water. Above . her, Conan stood with his sword held in both hands, point held down. Tull watched the water in the distance.
"If you allow a fish to eat me, I shall never forgive you, Conan. I will follow you around the Gray Lands for ten thousand years making you regret it, I swear."
Conan considered that thought and found it as unpleasant as any he had ever, had. To be tormented by a woman"s bitter tongue for eternity, aye, now there was a truly h.e.l.lish thing. Surely Crom would not punish any man so?
"Look there," Tull said. He pointed.
Conan looked. A wide ripple seemed to be approaching them. "I see no fish."
"But you see the water of its pa.s.sage. It will have to come closer to the surface as it approaches. In a moment... ah, there!"
Something thin and spined broke the surface.
"Its dorsal fin!" Tull cried. "Make ready, lad!" To Elashi he said, "I"ll pull you up when it gets close enough."
"You had better!" Elashi said. "By Mitra, it"s a big "un," Tull said. "You could feed a whole village for an entire moon on it!"
"Should not you pull me up now?"
"A moment more. Conan?"
"I am ready." The Cimmerian took a deep breath, allowed it to escape, and tightened his reverse grip on the sword"s handle. Here it came, closer, it was getting closer and closer...
"Up we go, la.s.s!" Tull started tugging on the twin ropes of cloth holding Elashi. She came up half a span- -then the strap on the left broke. The wetpop ! of the cloth was joined by the woman"s scream as she clutched the remaining support, nearly jerking Tull from his perch.
"Mitra"s a.s.s!" Tull hollered. He began to pull Elashi upward again. Too slow. The fish would be there in another instant and- Elashi scrambled up the cloth strand like a monkey, continued past the end Tull held and clambered over him onto his back just as the fish reached the spot where she had dangled.
Screaming a wordless sound, Conan leaped from the spire, landed wide-legged upon the back of the fish, and drove the point of his sword downward with all of his strength. His chest and stomach and shoulders contracted, his arms flexed with power, and the blue iron sank to the hilt in rubbery flesh. He even managed a grin. Why, this was simple.
The fish thrashed, tossing the outlander from its back as a maddened horse would throw a legless rider.
Conan hit the water and was battered by sudden waves. The fish"s tail slapped the surface next to him as he came up, barely missing him, and the force of the thrashing tail sent the man tumbling through the water like a wood chip in a storm-swollen ditch.
Despite the roiling water, the Cimmerian man aged to orient himself and start swimming for the sh.o.r.e. He attained the base of the spire and climbed rapidly, joining Elashi and Tull within a moment.
Beneath the trio, the fish"s struggles lessened. Conan"s strike had been true. After a few moments the great breast stopped moving on its own. Slowly the dead fish rose to the surface, bobbing up on its side, water streaming downward from scales the size of platters.
Conan grinned at Elashi. "Behold, our boat."
Elashi wrinkled her nose. "It has a loathesome stench already. In a few days it will stink to the ends of the world."
Conan and Tull looked at each other. Some people could find fault everywhere. Give them a chest of gold and they would complain of the weight they must carry.
Eight.
W-we h-h-have th-them!" Deek said. He and Wikkell had paused so that the worm could speak:moving and talking at the same time was all but impossible for Deek"s kind.
"How so? I see no one here but us."
"Th-this t-t-tunnel l-leads to the S-s-sunless S-sea."
"Ah." Even though Wikkell had spent very little time in this region of the vast Black Cave system, he could not help but know of the sprawling underground lake. "Then they are trapped."
"S-s-so it w-w-would s-s-seem."
"Then let us proceed apace. I feel certain that the two of us can capture and hold a mere three humans."
"W-w-without a d-doubt," Deek agreed.
There were limits to Rey"s communication spell. Wikkell was either beyond the reach of the magic or dead, the latter being somewhat more unlikely. Still, either way boded ill for the wizard"s plans. If the prey had managed to somehow elude the cy-clops and move beyond Rey"s range to speak to his servant, that was bad. If Wikkell were somehow indisposed and unable to answer Rey"s call, that was also bad. Not for a moment did the magician consider that the cyclops might ignore his hail. So either of the two choices was unacceptable, and yet one of them must indeed be the case.
Katamay Rey moved to a chest of a.s.sorted magical impedimenta and began to rummage through it.
There was no help for it, then. He would have to gather supplies and a retinue and go find Wikkell, or the barbarian, or both.
d.a.m.n. Why was it that anything of consequence always seemed to require his own hand? Did he have to doeverything around this place?
Chuntha"s patience was ended. That slithering servant of hers was beyond her dreamcasting range, blast him! Who knew what evil might have befallen Deek? The man-the big, strong, handsome,virile man-might be escaping her clutches even as she lay upon her bed dreading the very thought.