Conan the Triumphant.
By Robert Jordan.
Prologue.
The great granite mound called Tor Al"Kiir crouched like a malevolent toad in the night, wearing a crown of toppled walls and ruined columns, memories of failed attempts by a score of Ophirean dynasties to build there. Men had long since forgotten the origin of the mountain"s name, but they knew it for a place of ill luck and evil, and laughed at the former kings who had not had their sense. Yet their laughter was tinged with unease for there was that about the mountain that made it a place to avoid even in thought.
The roiling black clouds of the storm that lashed Ianthe, that sprawling golden-domed and alabaster-spired city to the south, seemed to center about the mountain, but no m.u.f.fled murmur of the thunder that rattled roof-tiles in the capital, no flash of light from lightnings streaking the dark like dragons" tongues, penetrated to the depths of Tor Al"Kiir"s heart.
The Lady Synelle knew of the storm, though she could not hear it. It was proper for the night. Let the heavens split, she thought, and mountains be torn asunder in honor of his return to the world of men.
Her tall form was barely covered by a black silk tabard, tightly belted with golden links, that left the outer curves of b.r.e.a.s.t.s and hips bare.
None of those who knew her as a princess of Ophir would have recognized her now, dark eyes glittering, beautiful face seemingly carved from marble, spun-platinum hair twisted about her head in severe coils and bearing a coronet of golden chain. There were four horns on the brow of that coronet, symbol that she was High Priestess of the G.o.d she had chosen to serve. But the bracelets of plain black iron that encircled her wrists were a symbol as well, and one she hated, for the G.o.d Al"Kiir accepted only those into his service who admitted themselves to be his slaves. Ebon silk that hung to her ankles, the hem weighted by golden beads, stirred against her long, slender legs as, barefoot, she led a strange procession deeper into the mountain through rough hewn pa.s.sages, lit by dark iron cressets suggesting the form of a horrible, four-horned head.
A score of black-mailed warriors were strange enough, their faces covered by slitted helmets bearing four horns, two outthrust to the sides and two curling down before the helmet, making them seem more demons than men. The quillons of their broadswords were formed of four horns as well, and each wore on his chest, picked out in scarlet, the outline of the monstrous horned head only hinted by the fiery iron baskets suspended by chains from the roof of the tunnel.
Stranger still was the woman they escorted, clothed in Ophirean bridal dress, diaphanous layers of pale cerulean silk made opaque by their number, caught at the waist with a cord of gold. Her long hair, black as a raven"s wing, curling about her shoulders, was filled with the tiny white blossoms of the tarla, symbol of purity, and her feet were bare as a sign of humility. She stumbled, and rough hands grasped her arms to hold her erect.
"Synelle!" the black-haired woman called woozily. A hint of her natural haughtiness came through her drug-induced haze. "Where are we, Synelle?
How did I come here?"
The cortege moved on. Synelle gave no outward sign that she had heard.
Inwardly her only reaction was relief that the drug was wearing off. It had been necessary in order to remove the woman from her palace in Ianthe, and it had made her easier to prepare and bring this far, but her mind must be clear for the ceremony ahead.
Power, Synelle thought. A woman could have no real power in Ophir, yet power was what she craved. Power was what she would have. Men thought that she was content to order the estates she had inherited, that she would eventually marry and give stewardship of those landsownership in all but name-to her husband. In their fools" blindness they did not stop to think that royal blood coursed in her veins. Did ancient laws not forbid a woman taking the crown, she would stand next in succession to the childless King now on the throne in Ianthe. Valdric sat his throne, consumed with chiwing his retinue of sorcerers and physicians to find a cure for the wasting sickness that killed him by inches, too busy to name an heir or to see that, for this failure to do so, the n.o.ble lords of Ophir struggled and fought to gain the seat his death would vacate.
A dark, contented smile touched Synelle"s full red lips. Let those proud men strut in their armor and tear at one another like starving wolfhounds in a pit. They would wake from their dreams of glory to find that the Countess of Asmark had become Queen Synelle of Ophir, and she would teach them to heel like whipped curs.
Abruptly the pa.s.sage widened into a great, domed cavern, the very memory of which had pa.s.sed from the minds of men. Burning tapers on unadorned walls hacked from the living stone lit the smooth stone floor, which bore only two tall, slender wooden posts topped with the omnipresent four-horned head. Ornament had been far from the minds of those who had burrowed into a nameless mountain in a now forgotten age.
They had meant it as prison for the adamantine figure, colored like old blood, that stood dominating the grotto, as it would have dominated the greatest place ever conceived. A statue it seemed, yet was not.
The ma.s.sive body was as that of a man, though half again as tall as any human male, save for the six claw-tipped fingers on each broad hand. In its malevolent, horned head were three lidless eyes, smouldering blackly with a glow that ate light, and its mouth was a broad, lipless gash filled with rows of needle-sharp teeth. The figure"s thick arms were encircled by bracers and armlets bearing its own horned likeness.
About its waist was a wide belt and loinguard of intricately worked gold, a coiled black whip glistening metallically on one side, a monstrous dagger with horned quillons depending on the other.
Synelle felt the breath catch in her throat as it had the first time she had seen her G.o.d, as it did each time she saw him. "Prepare the bride of Al"Kiir," she commanded.
A choking scream broke from the bridal-clothed woman"s throat as she was hurried forward by the guards who held her. Quickly, with cords that dug cruelly into her soft flesh, they bound her between the twin posts on widely straddled knees, arms stretched above her head. Her blue eyes bulged, unable to tear themselves away from the great form that overtowered her; her mouth hung silently open as she knelt, as if terror had driven even the thought of screaming from her.
Synelle spoke. "Taramenon."
The bound woman started at the name. "Him, also?" she cried. "What is happening, Synelle? Tell me! Please!" Synelle gave no answer. One of the armored men came forward at the summons, carrying a small, bra.s.s-bound chest, and knelt stiffly before the woman who was at once a princess of Ophir and a priestess of dark Al"Kiir.
Muttering incantations of protection, Synelle opened the chest and drew out her implements and potions, one by one.
As a child had Synelle first heard of Al"Kiir, a G.o.d forgotten by all but a handful, from an old nurse-maid who had been dismissed when it was learned what sort of evil tales she told. Little had the crone told her before she went, but even then the child had been enraptured by the power said to be given to the priestesses of Al"Kiir, to those women who would pledge their bodies and their souls to the G.o.d of l.u.s.t and pain and death, who would perform the heinous rites he demanded. Even then power had been her dream.
Synelle turned from the chest with a small, crystal-stoppered vial, and approached the bound woman. Deftly she withdrew the clear stopper and, with its damp end, traced the sign of the horns on the other woman"s forehead.
"Something to help you attain the proper mood for a bride, Telima." Her voice was soft and mocking.
"I don"t understand, Synelle," Telima said. A breathy quality had come into her voice; she tossed her head with a gasp, and her hair was a midnight cloud about her face. "What is happening-" she whimpered.
Synelle returned the vial to its resting place in the chest. Using powdered blood and bone, she traced the sign of the horns once more, this time in broad strokes on the floor, with the woman at the posts at the horns" meeting. A jade flask contained virgin"s blood; with a brush of virgin"s hair she anointed Al"Kiir"s broad mouth and mighty thighs.
Now there was naught left save to begin.
Yet Synelle hesitated. This part of the rite she hated, as she hated the iron bracelets. There were none to witness save her guards, who would die for her, and Telima, who would soon, in one way or another, be of no import to this world, but she herself would know. Still it must be done. It must.
Reluctantly she knelt facing the great figure, paused to take a deep breath, then fell on her face, arms outspread.
"O, mighty Al"Kiir," she intoned, "lord of blood and death, thy slave abases herself before thee. Her body is thine. Her soul is thine.
Accept her submission and use her as thou wilt."
Trembling, her hands moved forward to grasp the ma.s.sive ankles; slowly she pulled herself across the floor until she could kiss each clawed foot.
"O, mighty Al"Kiir," she breathed, "lord of pain and l.u.s.t, thy slave brings thee a bride in offering. Her body is thine. Her soul is thine.
Accept her submission and use her as thou wilt."
In ages past, before the first hut was built on the site of Acheron, now eons gone in dust, Al"Kiir had been worshipped in the land that would become Ophir. The proudest and most beautiful of women the G.o.d demanded as offerings, and they were brought to him in steady streams.
Rites were performed that stained the souls of those who performed them and haunted the minds of those who witnessed them.
At last a band of mages vowed to free the world of the monstrous G.o.d, and had the blessings of Mitra and Azura and G.o.ds long forgotten placed on their foreheads. Alone of that company had the sorcerer Avanrakash survived, yet with a staff of power had he sealed Al"Kiir away from the world of men. That which stood in the cavern beneath Tor Al"Kiir was no statue of the G.o.d, but his very body, entombed for long ages.
Two of the guards had removed their helmets and produced flutes. High, haunting music filled the cavern. Two more stationed themselves behind the woman kneeling between the posts. The rest unfastened their scabbarded broadswords from their belts and began to pound the stone floor in rhythm to the flutes.
With boneless sinuosity Synelle rose and began to dance, her feet striking the floor in time with the pounding of the scabbards. In a precise pattern she moved, cat-like, each step coming in an ancient order, and as she danced she chanted in a tongue lost to time. She spun, and weighted black silk stood straight out from her body, baring her from waist to ankles. Sensuously she dipped and swayed from the looming shape of the G.o.d to the kneeling woman.
Sweat beaded Telima"s countenance, and her eyes were glazed. She seemed to have lost awareness of her surroundings and she writhed uncontrollably in her bonds. l.u.s.t bloomed on her face, and horror at the realization of it.
Like pale birds Synelle"s hands fluttered to Telima, brushed damp dark hair from her face, trailed across her shoulders, ripped away one single layer of her bridal garb.
Telima screamed as the men behind her struck with broad leather straps, again and again, criss-crossing from shoulders to b.u.t.tocks, yet her jerking motions came as much from the potion as from the lashing. Pain had been added to l.u.s.t, as required by the G.o.d.
Still Synelle danced and chanted. Another layer of diaphanous silk was torn from Telima, and as her shrieks mounted the chant wove into them, so that the cries of pain became part of the incantation.
The figure of Al"Kiir began to vibrate.
Where neither time, nor place, nor s.p.a.ce existed, there was a stirring, a half awakening from long slumber. Tendrils of pleasurable feeling caressed, feeble threads of worship that called. But to where? Once appet.i.tes had been fed to satiation. Women had been offered in mult.i.tudes. Their essences had been kept alive for countless centuries, kept clothed in flesh forever young to be toys for the boundless l.u.s.ts of a G.o.d. Memories, half dreams, flickered. In the midst of eternal nothingness was suddenly a vast floor. A thousand women born ten thousand years before danced nude. But they were merely sh.e.l.ls, without interest. Even a G.o.d could not keep frail human essence alive forever.
Petulance, and dancers and floor alike were gone. From whence did these feelings come, so frequently of late after seemingly endless ages of absence, bringing with them irritating remembrance of what was lost?
There was no direction...shield was firmed and blessed peace descended.
Slumber returned.
Synelle slumped to the stone floor, panting from her exertions. There was no sound in the cavern except for the sobs of the midnight-haired beauty kneeling in welted nudity.
Painfully the priestess struggled to her feet. Failure again. So many failures. She staggered as she made her way to the chest, but her hand was steady as she removed a dagger that was a normal sized version of the blade at the G.o.d"s belt.
"The bowl, Taramenon," Synelle said. The rite had failed, yet it must continue to its conclusion.
Telima moaned as Synelle tangled a hand in her black hair and drew her head back. "Please," the kneeling woman wept.