The other end of the corridor was not far distant and was closed by another heavy door. Archaic hanging bronze lamps cast a mellow glow.
Before one of the cell doors stood a resplendent Hyrkanian in glittering corselet and plumed helmet, scimitar in hand. Parusati"s fingers tightened on Conan"s arm.
"Nanaia is in that cell," she whispered. "Can you slay the Hyrkanian?
He is a mighty swordsman."
With a grim smile, Conan tried the balance of the blade she had given him-a long Vendhyan steel, light but well nigh unbreakable. Conan did not stop to explain that he was master alike of the straight blades of the West and the curved blades of the East, of the double-curved Ilbarsi knife and the leaf-shaped broadsword of Shem. He opened the secret door.
As he stepped into the corridor, Conan glimpsed the face of Nanaia staring through the bars behind the Hyrkanian. The hinges creaked, and the guard whirled catlike, lips drawn back in a snarl, and then instantly came to the attack.
Conan met him halfway, and the two women witnessed a play of swords that would have burned the blood of kings. The only sounds were the quick soft shuffle and thud of feet, the slither and rasp of steel, and the breathing of the fighters. The long, light blades flickered lethally in the illusive light, like living things, parts of the men who wielded them.
The hairline balance shifted. The Hyrkanian"s lip curled in ferocious recognition of defeat and desperate resolve to take his enemy into death with him. A louder ring of Blades, a flash of steel-and Conan"s flickering blade seemed to caress his enemy"s neck in pa.s.sing. Then the Hyrkanian was stretched on the floor, his neck half severed. He had died without a cry.
Conan stood over him for an instant, the sword in his hand stained with a thread of crimson. His tunic had been torn open, and his muscular breast rose and fell easily. Only a film of sweat glistening there and on his brow betrayed the strain of his exertions. He tore a bunch of keys from the dead man"s girdle, and the grate of steel in the lock seemed to awaken Nanaia from a trance.
"Conan! I had given up hope, but you came. What a fight! Would that I could have struck a blow in it!" The tall girl stepped forth lightly and picked up the Hyrkanian"s sword. "What now?"
"We shan"t have a chance if we make a break before dark," said Conan.
"Nanaia, how soon will another guard come to relieve the man I killed?"
"They change the guard every four hours. His watch had just begun."
Conan turned to Parusati. "What time of day is it? I have not seen the sun since early this morning."
The Vendhyan girl said: "It is well into the afternoon. Sundown should be within four hours."
Conan perceived he had been in Yanaidar longer than he had realized.
"As soon as it"s dark, we"ll try to get away. We"ll go back to my chamber now. Nanaia shall hide on the secret stair, while Parusati goes out the door and back to the girls" apartments."
"But when the guard comes to relieve this one," said Nanaia, "he"ll see I have escaped. You should leave me here till you"re ready to go, Conan."
"I dare not risk it; I might not be able to get you out then. When they find you gone, maybe the confusion will help us. We"ll hide this body."
He turned toward the curiously decorated door, but Parusati gasped: "Not that way, my lord! Would you open the door to h.e.l.l?"
"What mean you? What lies beyond that door?"
"I know not. The bodies of executed men and women, and wretches who have been tortured but still live, are carried through this door. What becomes of them I do not know, but I have heard them scream more terribly than they did under torture. The girls say a man-eating demon has his lair beyond that door."
"That may be," said Nanaia. "But some hours ago a slave came through here to hurl through that door something which was neither a man nor a woman, though what it was I could not see."
"It was doubtless an infant," said Parusati with a shudder.
I"ll tell you," said Conan. "We"ll dress this body in your clothes and lay it in the cell, with the face turned away from the door. You"re a big girl, and they will fit him. When the other guard comes, maybe he"ll think it is you, asleep or dead, and start looking for the guard instead of you. The longer before they find you"ve escaped, the more time we shall have."
Without hesitation, Nanaia slipped out of her jacket, whipped her shirt off over her head, and dropped her trousers while Conan pulled the clothes off the Hyrkanian. Parusati gave a gasp of shock.
"What"s the matter, don"t you know what a naked human being looks like?" snarled Conan. "Help me with this/"
In a few minutes Nanaia was dressed in the Hyrkanian"s garments, all but the helmet and corselet She dabbed ineffectively at the blood that soaked the upper part of the longsleeved coat while Conan dragged the Hyrkanian, in Nanaia"s clothes, into the cell. He turned the dead man"s face down and toward the wall so that its wisp of beard and mustache should not show and pulled Nanaia"s shirt up over the ghastly wound in the neck. Conan locked the cell-door behind him and handed the keys to Nanaia. He said:
"There"s nothing we can do about the blood on the floor. I have no definite plan for escaping the city yet. If I can"t get away I"ll kill Virata-and the rest will be in Crom"s hands. If you two get out and I don"t, try to go back along the trail and meet the Kushafis as they come. I sent Tubal after them at dawn, so he should reach Kushaf after nightfall, and the Kushafis should get to the canyon below the plateau tomorrow morning."
They returned to the secret door, which, when closed, looked like part of the blank stone wall. They traversed the tunnel and groped their way up the stair.
"Here you must hide until the time comes," said Conan to Nanaia. "Keep the swords; they"ll do me no good until then. If anything happens to me, open the panel-door and try to get away, with Parusati if she comes for you."
"As you will, Conan." Nanaia seated herself cross-legged on the topmost step.
When Conan and Parusati were back in the chamber, Conan said: "Go now; if you stay too long, they may get suspicious. Contrive to return to me here as soon as it is well dark. I think I"m to stay here till this fellow Tiger returns. When you come back, tell the guard the Magus sent you. I"ll attend to him when we are ready to go. And tell them you saw me drink this drugged wine, and that you searched me without finding any arms."
"Aye, my lord! I will return after dark." The girl was trembling with fear and excitement as she left.
Conan took up the winejug and smeared just enough wine on his mouth to make a detectable scent Then he emptied the contents in a nook behind the tapestries and threw himself on his divan as if asleep.
In a few moments the door opened again and a girl entered. Conan did not open his eyes, but he knew it was a girl by the light rustle of her bare feet and the scent of her perfume, just as he knew by the same evidences that it was not Parusati returning. Evidently the Magus did not place too much trust in any one woman. Conan did not believe she had been sent there to slay him-poison in the wine would have been enough-so he did not risk peering through slitted lids.
That the girl was afraid was evident by the quick tremor of her breathing. Her nostrils all but touched his lips as she sniffed to detect the drugged wine on his breath. Her soft hands stole over him, searching for hidden weapons. Then with a sigh of relief she glided away.
Conan relaxed. It would be hours before be could make any move, so he might as well s.n.a.t.c.h sleep when he could.
His life and those of the girls depended on his being able to find or make a way out of the city that night. In the meantime, he slept as soundly as if he lay in the house of a friend.
5. The Mask Falls
Conan awoke the instant a hand touched the door to his room, and came to his feet, fully alert, as Khaza entered with a bow. The Stygian said:
"The Magus of the Sons of Yezm desires your presence, my lord. The Tiger has returned."
So the Tiger had returned sooner than the Magus had expected! Conan felt a premonitory tenseness as he followed the Stygian out of the chamber. Khaza did not lead him back to the chamber where the Magus had first received him. He was conducted through a winding corridor to a gilded door before which stood a Hyrkanian swordsman. This man opened the door, and Khaza hurried Conan across the threshold. The door closed behind them. Conan halted.
He stood in a broad room without windows but with several doors. Across the chamber, the Magus lounged on a divan with his black slaves behind him. Cl.u.s.tered about him were a dozen armed men of various races: Zuagirs, Hyrkanians, Iranistanis, Shemites, and even a villainous-looking Kothian, the first Hyborian that Conan had seen in Yanaidar.
But the Cimmerian spared these men only the briefest glance. His attention was fixed on the man who dominated the scene. This man stood between him and the Magus" divan, with the wide-legged stance of a horseman. He was as tall as Conan, though not so ma.s.sive. His shoulders were broad; his supple figure hard as steel and springy as whalebone. A short black beard failed to hide the aggressive jut of his lean jaw, and grey eyes cold and piercing gleamed under his tall Zaporoskan fur cap. Tight breeches emphasized his leanness. One hand caressed the hilt of his jeweled saber; the other stroked his thin mustache.
Conan knew the game was up. For this was Olgerd Vladislav, a Zaporoskan adventurer, who knew Conan too well to be deceived. He would hardly have forgotten how Conan had forced him out of the leadership of a band of Zuagirs and given him a broken arm as a farewell gift, less than three years previously.
"This man desires to join us," said Virata.
The man they called the Tiger smiled thinly. "It would be safer to bed with a leopard. I know Conan of old. He"ll worm his way into your band, turn the men against you, and run you through when you least expect it."
The eyes fixed on the Cimmerian grew murderous. No more than the Tiger"s word was needed to convince his men.
Conan laughed. He had done what he could with guile and subtlety, and now the game was up. He could drop the mask from the untamed soul of the berserk barbarian and plunge into the bright madness of battle without doubts or regrets.
The Magus made a gesture of repudiation. "I defer to your judgment in these matters, Tiger. Do what you will; he is unarmed."
At the a.s.surance of the helplessness of their prey, wolfish cruelty sharpened the faces of the warriors. Edged steel slid into view. Olgerd said: