Conan picked up a flagon of wine and gulped down half of it. "Oh, Kobad Shah is mad with suspicion," he said. "Now it"s our friend Balash. The chiefs enemies have poisoned the king against him; but then, Balash is stubborn. He won"t come in and surrender as Kobad demands, saying Kobad means to stick his head on a pike. So Kobad ordered me to take the kozaki into the Ilbars Mountains and bring back Balash-all of him if possible, but his head in any case."
"And?"
"I refused."
"You did?" said the Shemite in an awed whisper.
"Of course! What do you think I am? I told Kobad Shah how Balash and his tribe saved us when we got lost in the Ilbars in the middle of winter, on our ride south from the Vilayet Sea. Most hillmen would have wiped us out. But the fool wouldn"t listen. He began shouting about his divine right and the insolence of low-born barbarians and such stuff.
One more word and I"d have stuffed his imperial turban down his throat."
"You did not strike the king?" said the Shemite.
"Nay, though I felt like it Crom! I can"t understand the way you civilized men crawl on your bellies before any copper-riveted a.s.s who happens to sit on a jeweled chair with a bauble on his head."
"Because these a.s.ses can have us flayed or impaled at a nod. Now, we must flee from Iranistan to escape the king"s wrath."
Conan finished the wine and smacked his lips. "I think not; h.e.l.l get over it He knows his army is not what it was in his grandsire"s time, and we"re the only light horse he can count on. But that still leaves our friend Balash. I"m tempted to ride north to warn him."
"Alone, Conan?"
"Why not? You can give it out that I"m sleeping off a debauch for a few days until-"
A light knock on the door made Conan cut off his sentence. He glanced at the Shemite, stepped to the door, and growled:
"Who"s there?"
"It is I, Nanaia," said a woman"s voice.
Conan stared at his companion. "Do you know any Nanaia, Tubal?"
"Not I. It must be some trick."
"Let me in," said the voice.
"We shall see," muttered Conan, his eyes blazing a volcanic blue in the lamplight. He drew his scimitar and laid a hand on the bolt, while Tubal, knife drawn, took his place on the other side of the door.
Conan snapped the bolt and whipped open the door. A veiled figure stepped across the threshold, then gave a little shriek and shrank back at the sight of the gleaming blades poised on muscular arms.
Conan"s blade darted out so that its tip touched the back of the visitor. "Enter, my lady," he rambled in barbarously accented Iranistani.
The woman stepped forward. Conan slammed the door and shot home the bolt "Is anybody with you?"
"N-nay, I came alone..."
Conan"s left arm shot out with the speed of a serpent"s strike and ripped the veil from the woman"s face. She was tall, lithe, young, and dark, with black hair and finely-chiseled features.
"Now, Nanaia, what is this all about?" he said.
"I am a girl from the king"s seraglio-"
Tubal gave a long whistle. "Now we are in for it."
"Go on, Nanaia," said Conan.
"Well, I have often seen you through the lattice behind the throne, when you were closeted with Kobad. It is the king"s pleasure to let his women watch him at his royal business. We are supposed to be shut out of this gallery when weighty matters are discussed, but tonight Xathrita the eunuch was drunk and failed to lock the door between the gallery and the women"s apartments. I stole back and heard your bitter speech with the king.
"When you had gone, Kobad was very angry. He called in Hakhamani the informer and bade him quietly murder you. Hakhamani was to make it look like an accident."
"If I catch Hakhamani, I"ll make him look like an accident," gritted Conan. "But why all this delicacy? Kobad is no more backward than most kings about shortening or lengthening the necks of people he likes not."
"Because the king wants to keep the services of your kozaki, and if they knew he had slain you they would revolt or ride away."
"And why did you bring me this news?"
She looked at him from large dark melting eyes. "I perish in the harem from boredom. With hundreds of women, the king has no time for me. I have admired you through the screen ever since you took service here and hope you will take me with you. Anything is better than the suffocating monotony of this gilded prison, with its everlasting gossip and intrigue. I am the daughter of Kujala, chief of the Gwadiri. We are a tribe of fishermen and mariners, far to the south among the Islands of Pearl. I have steered my own ship through a typhoon, and such indolence drives me mad."
"How did you get out of the palace?"
"A rope and an unguarded old window with the bars broken away... But that is not important. Will you take me?"
"Send her back," said Tubal in the lingua franca of the kozaki: a mixture of Zaporoskan, Hyrkanian, and other tongues. "Or better yet, cut her throat and bury her in the garden. He might let us go unharmed, but he"d never let us get away with the wench. Let him find that you have run off with one of his concubines and he"ll overturn every stone in Iranistan to find you."
The girl evidently did not understand the words but quailed at the menace of the tone.
Conan grinned wolfishly. "On the contrary. The thought of slinking out of the country with my tail between my legs makes my guts ache. But if I can take something like this along for a trophy-well, so long as we must leave anyway..." He turned to Nanaia. "You understand that the pace will be fast, the going rough, and the company not so polite as you"re used to?"
"I understand."
"And furthermore," he said with narrowed eyes, "that I command absolutely?"
"Aye."
"Good. Wake the dog-brothers, Tubal; we ride as soon as they can stow their gear and saddle up."
Muttering his forebodings, the Shemite strode into an inner chamber and shook a man sleeping on a heap of carpets. "Awaken, son of a long line of thieves. We ride northward."
Hattusas, a slight, dark Zamorian, sat up yawning. "Whither?"
"To Kushaf in the Ilbars Mountains, where we wintered, and where the rebel dog Balash will doubtless cut all our throats," growled Tubal.
Hattusas grinned as he rose. "You have no love for the Kushafi, but he is Conan"s sworn friend."
Tubal scowled as he stalked out into the courtyard and through the door that led to the adjacent barrack. Groans and curses came from the barrack as the men were shaken awake.
Two hours later, the shadowy figures that lurked about Conan"s house shrank back into the shadows as the gate of the stable yard swung open and the three hundred Free Companions clattered out in double file, leading pack mules and spare horses. They were men of all nations, the remnants of the band of kozaki whom Conan had led south from the steppes around the Vilayet Sea when King Yezdigerd of Turan had gathered a mighty army and broken the outlaw confederacy in an all-day battle. They had arrived in Anshan ragged and half-starved. Now they were gaudy in silken pantaloons and spired helmets of Iranistani pattern, and loaded down with weapons.
Meanwhile in the palace, the king of Iranistan brooded on his throne.
Suspicion had eaten into his troubled soul until he saw enemies everywhere, within and without For a time he had counted on the support of Conan, the leader of the squadron of mercenary light horse. The northern savage might lack the suave manners of the cultivated Iranistani court, but he did seem to have his own barbarian code of honor. Now, however, he had flatly refused to carry out Kobad Shah"s order to seize the traitor Balash...