The tables that had emptied during the fight refilled quickly. No one had given more than a pa.s.sing glance to the dead men as they were removed; the level of shouted laughter and raucous talk had never decreased. The half-naked courtesan briefly considered the breadth of Conan"s shoulder with l.u.s.t-filled eyes, then pa.s.sed on from his grim face.
His troubles, Conan decided by the time he had emptied four wooden tankards of the sweet wine, would not be settled by the amounts he normally stole. Had he been a man of means the auburn-haired baggage would not have gone. Semiramis would not have thought it so important to ply her trade. But golden goblets lifted from the halls of fat merchants, pearl necklaces spirited from the very bedsides of sleek n.o.blewomen, brought less than a tenth their value from the fences in the Desert. And the art of saving was not in him. Gambling and drinking took what remained from wenching. The only way to sufficient gain was one grand theft. But what? And from where?
There was the palace, of course. King Tiridates had treasures beyond counting. The king was a drunkard-he had been so since the days when the evil mage Yara was the true power in Zamora-but in justice he should willingly part with some portion of his wealth for the man who had brought Yara and the Elephant Tower down. If he knew that man"s deeds, and if he were of a mind to part with anything to a barbarian thief. But the debt was owed, to Conan"s mind, and collecting on it-albeit without Tiridates" knowledge or consent would not be theft at all.
Then there was Larsha, the ancient, accursed ruins not far from Shadizar, The origin of those toppled towers annd time-eroded walls was shrouded in the depths of time, but everyone agreed there was treasure there. And a curse. A decade before, when Tiridates was still a vigorous king, he had sent a company of the King"s Own inside those walls in the full light of day. Not one had returned, and the screams of their dying had so panicked the king"s retinue and bodyguard that they had abandoned him. Tiridates had been forced to flee with them. If any had tried to penetrate that doom-filled city since, none had ever returned to speak of it.
Conan did not fear curses-had he not already proven himself a bane of mages?-as he did not fear to enter the very palace of the king. But which? To remove sufficient wealth from the palace would be as difficult as removing it from the accursed ruins. Which would give him the most for his labors?
He became aware of eyes on him and looked up. A dark, hook-nosed man wearing a purple head-cloth held by a golden fillet stood regarding him. A purple silk robe hung from the watcher"s bony shoulders. He leaned on a shoulderhigh staff of plain, polished wood, and, though he bore no other weapon and was plainly not of the Desert, there was no fear of robbery-or anything else-in his black eyes.
"You are Conan the Cimmerian," he said. It was not a question. "It is said you are the best thief in Shadizar."
"And who are you," Conan said warily, "to accuse an honest citizen of thievery? I am a bodyguard."
The man took a seat across from him without asking. He held his staff with one hand; Conan saw that he regarded it as a weapon. "I am Ankar, a merchant dealing in very special merchandise. I have need of the best thief in Shadizar."
With a confident smile Conan sipped his wine. He was on familiar ground, now. "And what special merchandise do you wish to acquire?"
"First know that the price I will pay is ten thousand pieces of gold."
Conan set his mug down before he slopped wine over his wrist. With ten thousand... by the Lord of the Mound, he would be no longer a thief, but a man with a need to guard against thieves. "What is it you wish stolen?" he said eagerly.
A tiny smile touched Ankar"s thin lips. "So you are Conan the Thief. At least that is settled. Know you that Yildiz of Turan and Tiridates have concluded a treaty to stop the depredations against trade along their common border?"
"I may have heard, but there"s no loot in treaties."
"Think you so? Then know that gifts were exchanged between the kings in token of this pact, which is to last for five years. To Tiridates Yildiz sent five dancing girls bearing a golden casket, on the lid of which are set five stones of amethyst, five of sapphire and five of topaz. Within the casket are five pendants, each containing a stone the like of which no man has ever seen."
Conan was tiring of the strange man"s supercilious air. Ankar took him for a rude, untutored barbarian, and perhaps he was, but he was not a fool.
"You wish me to steal the pendants, not the casket," he said, and was pleased to see Ankar"s eyes widen.
The self-named merchant took his staff with both hands. "Why do you say that, Cimmerian?" His voice was low and dark.
"The casket you describe could be duplicated for far less than what you offer. That leaves the pendants." He measured the other"s age and added with a laugh, "Unless it"s the dancing girls you want."
Ankar did not join in, continuing to watch Conan with hooded eyes. "You are not stupid-" He stopped abruptly.
Conan angrily shut off his laughter. Not stupid-for a barbarian. He would show this man a thing or three of barbarians. "Where are these pendants?" he growled. "If they"re in the treasure room, I will need time for planning and-"
"Tiridates basks in the reflected glory of a more powerful monarch. The casket shows that Yildiz has concluded a treaty with him. It is displayed in the antechamber before his throne room, so that all who approach him may see."
"I will still need time," Conan said. "Ten days for preparations."
"Impossible! Make fewer preparations. Three days."
"Fewer preparations and you"ll never see those pendants. And my head will decorate a pike above the West Gate. Eight days."
Ankar touched the tip of his tongue to thin lips. For the first time he appeared uncertain. His eyes clouded as if he had lost himself in his thoughts. "Fi... four days. Not a moment more."
"Five days," Conan insisted. "A moment less, and Tiridates will keep his pendants."
Ankar"s eyes dimmed again. "Five days," he said finally.
"Done." Conan suppressed a grin. He meant to have those pendants in his hand that very night, but had he told this Ankar that, when he put the pendants in the man"s hands, Ankar would think it nothing out of the ordinary. By negotiating for ten days and settling for five as the absolute minimum, he would be thought a miracle worker when he produced the pendants on the next morn. He had seen each reaction from men before. "There was mention of ten thousand gold pieces, Ankar."
The swarthy man produced a purse from beneath his robe and slid it halfway across the table. "Twenty now. A hundred more when you tell me your plan. The balance when you hand me the pendants."
"A small part beforehand for a payment of ten thousand," Conan grumbled, but inside he was not displeased at all. The twenty alone equalled his largest commission before this, and the rest would be in hand on the morrow.
He reached for the purse. Of a sudden Ankar"s hand darted to cover his atop the gold-filled pouch, and he started. The man"s hand was as cold as a corpse"s.
"Hear me, Conan of Cimmeria," the dark man hissed. "If you betray me in this, you will pray long your head did in truth adorn a pike."
Conan tore his hand free from the other"s bony grip. He had to restrain himself from working the hand, for those icy fingers had seemed to drain the warmth from his own. "I have agreed to do this thing," he said hotly. "I am not so civilized as to break the honor of my word."
For a moment he thought the hook-nosed man was going to sneer, and knew that if he did he would rip the man"s throat out. Ankar contented himself with a sniff and a nod, though. "See that you remember your honor, Cimmerian." He rose and glided away before Conan could loose a retort.
Long after the dark man was gone the muscular youth sat scowling. It would serve the fool right if he kept the pendants, once they were in hand. But he had given his word. Still, the decision as to where to gain his wealth had been settled. He upended the pouch, spilling thick, milled-edge roundels of gold, stamped with Tiridates" head, into his palm, and his black mood was whisked away.
"Abuletes!" he roared. "Wine for everyone!" There would be time enough for frugality when he had the ten thousand.
The man who called himself Ankar strode out of the Desert, trailed to the very end of the twisting, odoriferous streets by human jackals.
They, sensing something of the true nature of the man, never screwed their courage tight enough to come near him. He, in turn, spared them not a glance, for he could bend men"s minds with his eye, drain the life from them with a touch of his hand. His true name was Imhep-Aton, and many who knew him shuddered when they said it.
At the house he had rented in Hafira, one of the better sections of Shadizar, the door was opened by a heavily muscled Shemite, as large as Conan, with a sword on his hip. A trader in rare gems-for as such he was known among the n.o.bles of the city-needed a bodyguard. The Shemite cowered away from the bony necromancer, hastening to close and bolt the door behind him.
Imhep-Aton hurried into the house, then down into the bas.e.m.e.nt and the chambers beneath. He had chosen the house for those deep buried rooms.
Some works were best done in the bowels of the earth, where no ray of sun ever found its way.
In the anteroom to his private chamber two lush young girls of sixteen summers fell on their knees at his entrance. They were naked but for golden chains at wrist and ankle, waist and neck, and their big, round eyes shone with l.u.s.t and worshipful adoration. His will was theirs, the fulfillment of his slightest whim the greatest desire of their miserable lives. The spells that kept them so killed in a year or two, and that he found a pity, for it necessitated the constant acquisition of new subjects.
The girls groveled on their faces; he paused before pa.s.sing into his inner chamber to lay his staff before the door. Instantly the wooden rod trans.m.u.ted into a hooded viper that coiled and watched with cold, semi-intelligent eyes. Imhep-Aton had no fear of human intruders while his faithful myrmidion watched.
The inner room was barren for a mage"s work-chamber-no piles of human bones to stoke unholy fires, no dessicated husks of mummies to be ground into noxious powders-but what little there was permeated the chamber with bone-chilling horror. At either end of a long table, thin, greasy plumes of smoke arose from two black candles, the tallow rendered from the body of a virgin strangled with her mother"s hair and made woman after death by her father. Between them lay a book bound in human skin, a grimoire filled with secrets darker than any outside of Stygia itself and a gla.s.s, fluid-filled simulation of a human womb, within which floated the misshapen form of one unborn.
Before the table Imhep-Aton made arcane gestures, muttered incantations known to but a handful human. The homunculus twitched within the pellucid womb. Agony twisted its deformed face as the pitiful jaws creaked painfully open.
"Who calls?"
Despite the gurgling distortion of that hollow cry, there was an impenousness to it that told Imhep-Aton who spoke across the countless miles from ancient Khemi, in Stygia, through another such monstrosity.
Thoth-Amon, master mage of the Black Ring.
"It is I, Imhep-Aton. All is in readiness. Soon Amanar will be cast into the outer dark."
"Then Amanar still lives. And the One Whose Name May Not Be Spoken yet profanes the honor of Set. Remember your part, and your blame, and your fate, should you fail."