"You lie! Not the smallest louse ever found a home in my inn!"
A broad, florid face topped by a haystack of gray hair thrust itself out the nearest window. The woman shook her fist at Conan and drew in breath for another accusation.
"Mistress," Conan said, in a chill voice. "Perhaps the sheep will offer better hospitality. t.u.r.ds and all, they"ll not call us liars."
Ruddiness turned to pallor at the prospect of losing a customer.
"Forgive me, my lord and ladies. I meant no insult, You"d have a cold hard bed with the sheep. I swear I can offer better than that."
"We"re neither lords nor ladies," Raihna snapped. "We"re honest merchants, who know what a thing"s worth. We can also recognize lice when we see them. Now, what are your prices?"
Conan let Raihna do the bargaining, with accustomed skill. He used the time to study the village, with an eye to where the houses might let foes wait in ambush. He also took a moment to counsel Ma.s.souf to stop fidgeting.
"You"ll make the whole village remember you without freeing Dessa a moment sooner. She"ll not thank you if that keeps her captive."
From Ma.s.souf"s horror-stricken gape, this was clearly a new idea.
Conan"s curses were silent; they owed Ma.s.souf too much.
At last Raihna struck a bargain that Conan suspected was nothing of the kind, from the glee on the old woman"s face. Louse-ridden straw still offered more comfort than stones. Perhaps the woman also knew where Dessa was.
They ate their own food but drank the inn"s wine, near kin to vinegar.
Two women brought it, both looking old enough to be Pyla"s mother.
At last Conan felt he could cease insulting his stomach without insulting their hostess.
"Goodwife," he called. "The last time I was here I stayed at the Three Coins. They had a fine dancing girl who went by the name of Dessa. She wore rose scent and precious little else. It would be worth much, to see her dance again."
"Ah, you"ll have to guest with Lord Achmai. Not that he"s much of a lord, but he does have the Hold. He"d long had his eye on Dessa too.
When Master Kimon died, he left so many debts that his kin were glad to sell all they could. Dessa went up to the Hold, and Mitra only knows what happened to her then."
Conan ignored strangled noises from Ma.s.souf. "What"s this "Hold"? I saw no such thing, the last time."
"Oh, perhaps you did. But it was only a ruin then. Achmai"s put it to rights. Even in the old days it couldn"t have been half so fine. Lord Achmai struts around now, like he was one of the Seventeen Attendants."
Conan made some ill-natured sounds of his own. This part of Turan was dotted with the old forts of the robber lords who"d infested the countryside before the early kings put them down. From time to time some lordling would bribe a governor to let him move back into one of them.
Doubtless Achmai would overreach himself one day. Then Mughra Khan would descend on the Hold with an army and an executioner. That would help neither Dessa nor those who wished to rescue her tonight.
"Well, I shall see if Lord Achmai"s hospitality is worth having," Conan said, feigning doubts. "Who knows? If he"s open-handed, perhaps I"ll come back to serve him when my mistress and her sister are safe with their kin."
"Oh, he"ll not refuse a fine stout young soldier like yourself," the innkeeper said. She giggled lewdly.
"Nor will the women he keeps, I"ll wager. Half the men in his service are old enough to be father to such as you."
"How can you stand here talking, when Mitra only knows what Dessa may be suffering?" Ma.s.souf shouted. "Mistress, you owe me-ukkkh!"
A ma.s.sive Cimmerian hand closed on the neck of Ma.s.souf"s tunic. An equally ma.s.sive arm lifted him until his feet were kicking futilely in the air two hands above the floor.
With a harsh ripping, the filthy tunic gave way. Ma.s.souf thumped in a heap on the floor. He glared at Conan but the look on the Cimmerian"s face froze the words on his lips.
"Outside!" Conan snarled. Ma.s.souf regained his feet and bolted as if the inn had caught fire. The women followed at a more dignified pace.
Conan said only the smallest part of what he wanted to say, nor did he raise his voice. He still left Ma.s.souf looking much like a recruit caught stealing. At last the young man fell to his knees, not to beg mercy but because his legs would no longer support him.
Illyana turned her gaze from the sable sky above to Conan. "I wonder now about the wisdom of trying to rescue Dessa."
Ma.s.souf leaped up, with a choking cry. "Lady, for the love of all the G.o.ds-!"
"Leave the G.o.ds in peace, and us as well," Illyana snapped. "Because I say I wonder about something, does not mean I will not do it. I use my wits before I use my tongue. Do not think that I have as little honor as you have discretion!"
"What will you do if I think otherwise?" Ma.s.souf said uneasily. "Turn me into a frog?"
"Turn you into something useless to Dessa or any other woman, more likely," Illyana said. Her smile grew wicked. "If you spend less of your few wits on women, you will have more to spend on other matters.
"Now be silent. You can hardly help us rescue your Dessa. Have the goodness not to hinder us. Now, I must seek something in my baggage. I shall return as swiftly as I can."
Conan much doubted that anything short of stuffing Ma.s.souf into a sack would silence him. Nonetheless, he and Raihna took places where they could see each other, Ma.s.souf, and all approaches to Horned Wolf. They would also have a quick and safe way to the stables.
The last glimmers of light died in the village and the west. Even the cries of the night birds fell silent, as one by one they found their nests. In the stables a horse stamped restlessly; another whickered softly.
"Raihna,?"
"You fear for Illyana?"
"She"s been inside a good while. Our innkeeper may have decided to settle matters herself."
"Her and what army, Conan? I"ve seen only lads and women inside.
Illyana"s no fool. If she"s to be taken, it will need more than our hostess-"
The inn door creaked open and a woman appeared. She moved with the gliding step of an accomplished dancer and the sway of a woman who knows everything about exciting men. She was of Illyana"s height but a trifle less slender in those places where it mattered, fairer of skin and with hair that fell in a crimson cascade over freckled shoulders.
Conan could see all the freckles, for the woman wore only a brief silk garment that covered her from b.r.e.a.s.t.s to loins.
Ma.s.souf stared as if he had indeed become a frog. At last he closed his mouth and stepped forward, reaching for the woman. Her hand leaped toward his, then batted it playfully aside.
"Come, come, Ma.s.souf. Have you forgotten Dessa so swiftly?"
Ma.s.souf swallowed. "I have not. But if she is in the Hold, perhaps I should. Will you help me forget her? I have-"
"Ma.s.souf, my friend," the woman said again. "I will do better than that. I will help her escape from Lord Achmai and all his old soldiers.
She deserves a-"
"By Crom!" Conan growled. He"d finally recognized the voice and set aside the evidence of his eyes. "Mistress Illyana, or have my ears been spelled as well as my eyes?"
"Ah, Conan, I thought you would not be long in seeing through the glamouring. I do not imagine that Lord Achmai or his men will be as keen of ear or wits.""
"Very likely not," Conan said. "But what good is that going to do us?"
"Conan, we do not know what we face in the Hold. I much doubt that even you could s.n.a.t.c.h Dessa from within it unaided."