The four exchanged looks, then elaborate gestures. Conan judged them all to be mutes. At last one of the blacks nodded and pointed to a door in the far wall, plated in mirror-bright silver. It swung open, as if the black had cast a spell on it.
A distaste for sorcery lay deep within all Cimmerians, and Conan was no exception. Moreover, his experience with the breed of magic-wielders had taught him that magic ate at a man"s honor and judgment faster than gold. Most of that breed he"d met had ended in seeking to rule all who would obey them and ruin all who would not. Being little inclined to be ruled or ruined at another"s whims, Conan could hardly be other than a foe of such wizards.
Reason told him that if Mishrak had magic at his command, he would hardly need the guards. The lord of spies clearly had other resources, beginning with a house built like a fortress.
How like a fortress, Conan began to learn as he and the woman penetrated deeper into it. Their route seemed to have as many turns and windings as the Saddlemakers" Quarter. At every turn was some display of splendor-Aquilonian tapestries, Vendhyan statues of dancing G.o.ds, rich ebony carvings of asps. Conan"s danger-sharpened senses picked out spy holes in the tapestries, the sharpened daggers held ready in the hands of the G.o.ds, the live asps nesting among the carved ones.
From time to time they pa.s.sed iron-bound doors set in deep recesses.
Conan pitied any man foolish enough to think they offered a safer way to the heart of Mishrak"s kingdom. They would lead any stranger nowhere except to death-and probably not a quick one.
At last the way grew straight. No longer was the floor alone tiled.
Walls and ceiling shone with gilded mosaic work or dripped with tapestries done in cloth of silver and the finest silk. They ended in another guardroom, with an open arch beyond it and the sounds of splashing water and a flute.
"Who conies?" demanded the chief guard.
This room held six instead of four, one another Shemite and the rest with an Iranistani cast to their features. Neither mutes nor giants, the six all wore silvered mail and helmets and the plainest and most-used swords Conan had seen in Turan.
"Captain Conan of the King"s mercenaries and a lady sent to bring him to Mishrak," Conan said before the woman could speak. She started.
"I am no mute, like our friends at the first gate," Conan went on. "I am a Cimmerian and a soldier, and both have a certain quaint custom.
When we have twice fought side by side with someone and they owe us their lives, we enjoy knowing their names. I know not what barbarous land you call home, but-"
The woman"s nostrils flared and she had the grace to flush. "I am Raihna of the Stone Hill in the Marches of Bossonia. I serve the Mistress Illyana."
Which, Conan reflected, answered his question without telling him much.
He set his wits to devising a new question. Before he found words, a voice like a bull"s bellow filled the room.
"Come and let us be about our business. We do not have the whole day!"
Conan took Raihna firmly by the arm and led the way into Mishrak"s innermost refuge.
From the splendor of the way in, Conan expected more of the same beyond the arch. Instead everything was bare, whitewashed stone walls and ceiling. Only on the floor did rich Iranistani carpets and dyed Hyrkanian fleeces offer softness to both the eye and the foot. On the floor-and around the pool in the middle of the room.
Five women and a man sat on benches around the pool. Four of the women were a pleasure to any man"s eye, the more so as they wore only sandals, gilded loinguards, and silver collars set with topazes. It took nothing from Conan"s pleasure in the women to detect small daggers hidden in the sandals and loinguards. He wondered what weapon might lurk in the collars. Like much else in Mishrak"s house, the women were both a delight to the senses and a menace to unsuspecting enemies.
The fifth woman had the air of a guest rather than a guard. She wore a white robe, held a wine cup, and seemed older than the others.
Before Conan saw more, the bull"s bellow came again. "Well, Captain Conan? Will you be once more a thief, and of women this time?"
The bellow came from the man on the bench. Conan doubted that he could rise from it unaided; below the knees his legs were shrunken nightmares, seamed and ravaged with scars. Above the waist, he was as thick as the mast of a galley, with arms like tree-roots. The hair of arms and chest was gray shot with white. So were the few strands of beard and hair that escaped the black leather mask covering Mishrak from crown to chin.
Conan grinned. "Keeping stolen gold is hard enough. Keeping what has legs to run with, if it likes not your company or your manner in bed...
Do I look so great a fool?"
"You"ve been gaping about you like one, I must say."
"Call it gaping if you will, Lord Mishrak. I call it admiring fine work. I know now why you have so many enemies, yet live to serve King Yildiz so well."
"Oh? And what magic do I have to perform this miracle?"
"It"s neither magic nor miracle. It"s making ready to kill your enemies faster than their courage can endure. Most men can be brave if they have some hope of life or victory. Losing all hope of either would turn most into cowards."
"Save yourself, no doubt, Cimmerian?"
"I have not tested the defenses of your house, Mishrak. Nor do I have any cause to do so. I am not yet your enemy, and I doubt you plan to make me so. Killing me here might do injury to your rugs and ladies."
"So it would. Yet I would suggest that you learn why I have summoned you, before you call me friend."
"It will be a rare pleasure to be told something, for once," Conan said.
"I predict the pleasure will be brief," Mishrak said, in a tone that told of a grim smile under the mask. "Yet your life might be even more so, if you do not accept what I offer you."
"No man lives as long as he wants to," Conan said. "That"s the way of the world, just as no man can have every woman he desires," he added, grinning at Raihna. She flushed again. "What is going to shorten my days this time?"
"Lord Houma. Ah, I see I have finally driven a dart deep enough in that thick Cimmerian skull to gain your attention."
Conan wasted no breath denying it. "I understand he"s rather fonder of his son than the young witling deserves. You should understand that Raihna and I met his first band of hired swords on our way here. Only one of them left alive, and he only because he fled." Conan would have sworn Raihna threw him a grateful look for not mentioning her mistake.
"As you say, they were the first band sent against you. They will not be the last. Your eye is keen, but can it stay open forever? Who will guard your back when you sleep?"
Almost imperceptibly, Raihna shook her head. Conan shrugged. "I could take leave for a time. Or are you going to tell me that Lord Houma is one of those men with short tempers and long memories? Such have sought my life before, with what success you can see."
"You could not be away from Aghrapur long enough to foil Lord Houma without breaking your oath of service. Are you ready to give up your captaincy?"
"Out of fear of Houma? Lord Mishrak, you can make your offer or not, as you choose. Do not insult me in the bargain."
"I would insult you more by implying that you are too stupid to be afraid. Houma has not the strength he once had, but he is still more than a match for you."
Conan did not doubt the first part of that statement. Houma had owed some of his former strength to his friendship with the Cult of Doom.
Conan himself had cast the Cult down to utter and final destruction the best part of two years ago.
As for the rest-
"Granting that Houma might be my match, how would you change that?"
"If you will leave Aghrapur on-a task-for me, I will find ways to change Lord Houma"s mind. The task. should not take you more than a month. By then you can return to Aghrapur and sleep in peace."
"And this task?"
"In a moment. While you are traveling, I will also protect those you leave behind, who might also feel Houma"s vengeance. I do not imagine that you care much what happens to Sergeant Motilal, but-would you see Pyla"s face turned into something like my legs?"
Conan cursed himself for a witling. Houma was clearly the kind of coward who would hurt a foe however he could, whether honorably or not.
He should not have forgotten the women.
"I would not like that at all," Conan said, then grinned at the look in Raihna"s eyes. So let the swordwench be jealous! He owed Pyla and her friends more than he owed Raihna of Bossonia! "If you can protect them, it would indeed make your offer worth hearing."
"Although," Conan added more calmly than he felt, "I imagine you have plans for Lord Houma whether I"m part of mem or not. You might be keeping him too busy to worry about taverns and their girls anyway. He has more in hand than letting his son misbehave, doesn"t he?"