"Maryam. This is not proper."
At least those were the words that formed themselves in Bora"s mind.
They seemed to stick in his throat, so that only a croak came out. Then he gasped as if he had run miles as Maryam undid the sash of her robe.
As she stood, she shrugged herself out of it. Bora had never imagined that a woman"s b.r.e.a.s.t.s could be so splendid. b.r.e.a.s.t.s, and all the rest of the dark lushness now revealed.
"Bora," she said, and the word itself was a caress. "Bora, you have never lain with a woman, have you?"
He had no words, but his eyes seemed to speak clearly. Maryam moved to him and pressed herself against him, from shoulder to knee.
"Then you must have a chance, before you ride into the mountains." She continued to press herself against him, while her hands went deftly to work on his clothes.
Presently he had the wits to help her with that work, and at last to follow her to the bed.
Raihna rolled over in the bed as Conan entered. Bare shoulders alone showed above the blankets. He sat on the bed and ran his hand along the curves under the blankets. He knew that Raihna usually slept naked.
His hand ran back up to the edge of the blankets and started to dive under them. Raihna rolled on her back, letting the blankets slide down to her waist. Before Conan could touch what this movement exposed, she caught his hands and held them against her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
"You"re all but healed, from that gash at the Red Falcon," Conan said.
"I heal quickly, Conan. I wish the same could be said of Ma.s.souf."
"His wound is elsewhere. Has he been whining again?"
"I would not call it that, Conan. He wants to come with us, into the mountains."
"He does?"
"He spoke to both me and Illyana."
"Supposing that he did, what will I hear that you said to him?"
"We will let him come."
"Crom! Where"s the Powder?" Conan started to rise.
Raihna shifted her grip, so that he could not do so without some discomfort. She looked at his discomfited expression and laughed.
"Raihna, this is a poor jest. Ma.s.souf wants to kill himself."
"So we surmised. Since Dessa jumped lightly into Khezal"s bed, he has known she is not for him."
"Then why, by Erlik"s yard, can"t he find another woman? That little trull isn"t the only bedmate in the whole world for a lad like Ma.s.souf.
He"s a fool. It"s like my pining away because I can"t bed Illyana!"
Something pa.s.sed over Raihna"s face at those words. Jealousy? No, something different, more complicated, and likely to be revealed only in Raihna"s own good time. Conan gently disengaged himself from Raihna"s grasp and sat down at the foot of the bed.
"You don"t love Illyana," Raihna said at last. "Ma.s.souf-well, he would not believe what you just said. He loves Dessa too much."
"Conan, Illyana and I-we have never been allowed love. It is our fate.
How could we spit in Ma.s.souf"s face? How, I ask you?" She turned her face to the pillow and wept softly.
Conan cursed under his breath. He could not imagine a world without women, and he would hardly want to live in it anyway. Certainly, though, such a world might be a trifle simpler!
All the sympathy in the world didn"t make a man who seemed determined to die a good companion on a dangerous journey. Conan vowed he would do everything in his power to send Ma.s.souf back with the soldiers, when they left.
He also vowed that he would do everything in his power to make Raihna remember this night. Gripping her by the shoulders, he turned her over.
Her tear-filled eyes widened, but when his lips came down on hers her arms rose. Strong, sword-calloused hands locked behind his neck and drew him to her.
Nineteen.
THE MOUNTAIN STREAM plunged from the little cliff, splashed on a flat rock, then flowed into a deep still pool. Where it went after that Conan neither knew nor cared. He knelt by the pool and lifted a cupped hand to his lips.
"Good and clean. Drink up, people, and refill your waterskins too."
"If it is so clean, I think we should bathe as well," Illyana said. She sat down, pulled off her boots, and flexed her long toes with a look of bliss.
"We had no chance to bathe while we marched with the soldiers. Nor will we have any between here and the valley, I fear."
Conan looked beyond the little valley, toward the peaks of the Ibars Mountains. Well to the fore, the Lord of the Winds rose silver-helmeted, its snowcap blazing in the noonday sun.
The Cimmerian sensed no danger lurking close by, but knew that it could not be far away. Precious little they could do about it, either. These mountains could hide enough enemies to overcome them had they still been guarded by a thousand soldiers instead of ten. The sergeant commanding their escort had swiftly realized this, and made no protest against his dismissal two days before. He had made none against their leaving their horses, either. Hill-born himself, he knew a horse in such country gave neither speed nor stealth.
Speed, stealth (all were masters of it save Ma.s.souf, and he was learning), the mountains, and Illyana"s magic-together these gave them a chance of reaching Eremius and defeating him.
How good that chance was, Conan would not have cared to wager.
"Well enough. Women first, then Bora and Ma.s.souf, then me."
The two young men hurried to posts at opposite ends of the pool. Raihna was the first to strip and plunge in. She vanished completely, then rose spluttering and cursing like a drillmaster.
"G.o.ds, this is cold!"
Illyana laughed. "Have you forgotten our Bossonian streams? They were not quite Vanir bathhouses, as I remember."
Raihna ducked under again. This time when she came up, she was in reach of Illyana"s bare legs. A mighty splash, and water cascaded over Illyana. She yelped and jumped up.
"You-!"
"I had not forgotten, mistress. But I thought you had, so I would remind you."
Illyana uttered what Conan suspected was an impolite description of Raihna in an unknown tongue. Then she stood up and drew off her tunic, her last garment. Clad only in sunlight and the Jewel-ring, she started to bind up her hair with her neck ribbon.
Conan sat sword across his lap, contemplating both women with pleasure but without desire. Apart from being younger, Raihna was definitely the comelier. Yet had Illyana not been obliged to remain a maiden, she would not have had to sleep alone more often than she wished.
Certainly she could have had Ma.s.souf for snapping her fingers. He was trying so hard not to stare that it was more evident than if he had been doing so openly. Bora was finding it easier to be a gentleman, or at least an alert sentry. Conan would have wagered a month"s pay that the toothsome Maryam had something to do with this.