Conan The Freebooter

by L. Sprague De Camp

  "I walk not the streets by choice, lord," she answered. "My master has been slain, and I fled from his murderers."

  The stranger bent his hooded head and stood statue-like. Rufia watched him nervously. There was something gloomy and portentous about him. He seemed less like a man pondering the tale of a chance-met slave-girl than a somber prophet weighing the doom of a sinful people. At last he lifted his head.

  "Come," said he. "I will find a place for you."

  Without pausing to see if she obeyed, he stalked away up the street. Rufia hurried after him. She could not walk the streets all night, for any officer of the king would strike off her head for violating the edict of King Akhirom. This stranger might be leading her into worse slavery, but she had no choice.

  Several times she tried to speak, but his grim silence struck her silent in turn. His unnatural aloofness fright­ened her. Once she was startled to see furtive forms steal­ing after them,

  "Men follow us!" she exclaimed.

  "Heed them not," answered the man in his weird voice.

  Nothing was said until they reached a small arched gate in a lofty wall. The stranger halted and called out. He was answered from within. The gate opened, revealing a black mute holding a torch. In its light, the height of the robed stranger was inhumanly exaggerated.

  "But this—this is a gate of the Great Palace!" stam­mered Rufia.

  For answer, the man threw back his hood, revealing a long pale oval of a face, in which burned those strange, luminous eyes.

  Rufia screamed and fell to her knees. "King Akhirom!"

  "Aye, King Akhirom, O faithless and sinful one!" The hollow voice rolled out like a bell. "Vain and foolish woman, who ignores the command of the Great King, the King of Kings, the King of the World, which is the word of the gods! Who treads the street in sin, and sets aside the mandates of the Good King! Seize her!"

  The following shadows closed in, becoming a squad of Negro mutes. As their fingers seized her flesh, Rufia fainted.

  The Ophirean regained consciousness in a windowless chamber whose arched doors were bolted with bars of gold. She stared wildly about for her captor and shrank down to see him standing above her, stroking his pointed, graying beard while his terrible eyes burned into her soul.

  "O Lion of Shem!" she gasped, struggling to her knees. "Mercy!"

  As she spoke, she knew the futility of the plea. She was crouching before the man whose name was a curse in the mouths of the Pelishtim; who, claiming divine guidance, had ordered all dogs killed, all vines cut down, all grapes and honey dumped into the river; who had banned all wine, beer, and games of chance; who believed that to disobey his most trivial command was the blackest sin conceivable. He roamed the streets at night in disguise to see that his orders were obeyed. Rufia's flesh crawled as he stared at her with.unblinking eyes.

  "Blasphemer!" he whispered. "Daughter of evil! O Pteor!" he cried, flinging up his arms. "What punishment shall be devised for this demon? What agony terrible enough, what degradation vile enough to render justice? The gods grant me wisdom!"

  Rufia rose to her knees and pointed at Akhirom's face. "Why call on the gods?" she shrieked. "Call on Akhirom! You are a god!"

  He stopped, reeled, and cried out incoherently. Then he straightened and looked down at her. Her face was white, her eyes staring. To her natural acting ability was added the terror of her position.

  "What do you see, woman?" he asked.

  "A god has revealed himself to me! In your face, shin­ing like the sun! I bum, I die in the blaze of thy glory!"

  She sank her face in her hands and crouched trembling. Akhirom passed a shaking hand over his brow and bald pate.

  "Aye," he whispered. "I am a god! I have guessed it; I have dreamed it. I alone possess the wisdom of the in­finite. Now a mortal has seen it also. I see the truth at last—no mere mouthpiece and servant of the gods, but the God of gods himself! Akhirom is the god of Pe-lishtia; of the earth. The false demon Pteor shall be cast down from his place and his statues melted up . . ."

  Bending his gaze downward, he ordered: "Rise, woman, and look upon thy god!"

  She did so, shrinking before his awful gaze. A change clouded Akhirom's eyes as he seemed to see her clearly for the first time.

  'Tour sin is pardoned," he intoned. "Because you were the first to hail your god, you shall henceforth serve me in honor and splendor."

  She prostrated herself, kissing the carpet before his feet. He Clapped his hands. A eunuch entered and bowed.

  "Go quickly to the house of Abdashtarth, the high priest of Pteor," he said, looking over the servant's head. "Say to him: 'This is the word of Akhirom, who is the one true god of the Pelishtim, and shall soon be the god of all the peoples of the earth: that on the morrow shall be the beginning of beginnings. The idols of the false Pteor shall be destroyed, and statues of the true god shall be erected in their stead. The true religion shall be pro­claimed, and a sacrifice of one hundred of the noblest children of the Pelishtim shall celebrate it . . .'"

  Before the temple of Pteor stood Mattenbaal, the first assistant to Abdashtarth. The venerable Abdash-tarth, his hands tied, stood quietly in the grip of a pair of brawny Anaki soldiers. His long white beard moved as he prayed. Behind him, other soldiers stoked the fire in the base of the huge, bull-headed idol of Pteor, with his ob­scenely exaggerated male characteristics. In the back­ground towered the great seven-storied zikkurat of As-galun, from which the priests read the will of the gods in the stars.

  When the brazen sides of the idol glowed with the heat within, Mattenbaal stepped forward, raised a piece of papyrus, and read:

  "For that your divine king, Akhirom, is of the seed of Yakin-Ya, who was descended from the gods when they walked the earth, so is a god this day among ye! And now I command ye, all loyal Pelishtim, to recognize and bow down to and worship the greatest of all gods, the God of gods, the Creator of the Universe, the Incarnation of Divine Wisdom, the king of gods, who is Akhirom the son of Azurnelek, king of Pelishtia! And inasmuch as the wicked and perverse Abdashtarth, in the hardness of his heart, has rejected this revelation and has refused to bow down before his true god, let him be cast into the fire of the idol of the false Pteor!"

  A soldier tugged open the brazen door in the belly of the statue. Abdashtarth cried:

  "He lies! This king is no god, but a mortal madman! Slay the blasphemers against the true god of the Pelish­tim, the mighty Pteor, lest the all-wise one turn his back upon his people—"

  At this point, four Anakim picked up Abdashtarth as if he had been a log of wood and hurled him feet-first through the opening. His shriek was cut off by the clang of the closing door, through which these same soldiers had, in times past, tossed hundreds of the children of the Pelishtim in times of crisis under the direction of this same Abdashtarth. Smoke poured from the vents in the statue's ears, while a look of smug satisfaction spread over the face of Mattenbaal.

  A great shudder rippled across the throng. Then a frenzied yell broke the stillness. A wild-haired figure ran forward, a half-naked shepherd. With a shriek of "Blas­phemer!" he hurled a stone. The missile struck the new high priest in the mouth, breaking his teeth. Mattenbaal staggered, blood streaming down his beard. With a roar, the mob surged forward. High taxes, starvation, tyranny, rapine, and massacre—all these the Pelishtim had en­dured from their mad king, but this tampering with their religion was the last straw. Staid merchants became mad­men; cringing beggars turned into hot-eyed fiends.

  Stones flew like hail, and louder rose the roar of the mob. Hands were clutching at the garments of the dazed Mattenbaal when the armored Anakim closed in around him, beat the mob back with bowstaves and spear shafts, and hustled the priest away.

  With a clanking of weapons and a jingling of bridle chains, a troop of Kushite horse, resplendent in head­dresses of ostrich feathers and lions' manes and corselets of silvered scales, galloped out of one of the streets lead­ing into the great Square of Pteor. Their white teeth shone in t
heir dark faces. The stones of the mob bounced off their bucklers of rhinoceros hide. They urged their horses into the press, slashing with curved blades and thrusting long knees through the bodies of the Asgalunim. Men rolled howling under the stamping hooves. The rioters gave way, fleeing wildly into shops and alleys, leaving the square littered with writhing bodies.

  The black riders leaped from their saddles and began crashing in the doors of shops and dwellings and heap­ing their arms with plunder. Screams of women sounded from within the houses. A crash of latticework, and a white-clad body struck the street with bone-crushing impact. Another horseman, laughing, passed his lance through the body as it lay.

  The giant Imbalayo, in flaming silk and polished steel, rode roaring among his men, beating them into order with a heavy leaded ship. They mounted and swung into line behind him. In a canter they swept off down the street, gory human heads bobbing on their lances as an object lesson to the maddened Asgalunim who crouched in their coverts, panting with hate.

  The breathless eunuch who brought news of the upris­ing to King Akhirom was swiftly followed by another, who prostrated himself and cried: "O divine king, the general Othbaal is dead! His servants found him murdered in his palace, and beside him the ring of Keluka the Sworder. Wherefore the Anakim cry out that he was murdered by the order of the general Imbalayo. They search for Keluka in the Kushites' quarter and fight with the KushitesI"

  Rufia, listening behind a curtain, stifled a cry. Akhi-rom's faraway gaze did not alter. Wrapped in aloofness he replied:

  "Let the Hyrkanians separate them. Shall private quar­rels interfere with the destiny of a god? Othbaal is dead, but Akhirom lives forever. Another man shall lead my Anakim. Let the Kushites handle the mob until they real­ize the sin of their atheism. My destiny is to reveal myself to the world in blood and fire, until all the tribes of the earth know me and bow down before me! You may go."

  Night was falling on a tense city as Conan, his head wound now healed, strode through the streets adjoining the quarter of the Kushites. In that section, occupied mostly by soldiers, lights shone and stalls were open by tacit agreement. All day, revolt had rumbled in the quar­ters. The mob was like a thousand-headed serpent; stamp it out here and it broke out there. The hooves of the Kushites had clattered from one end of the city to the other, spattering blood.

  Only armed men now traversed the streets. The great iron-bound wooden gates of the quarters were locked as in times of civil war. Through the lowering arch of the great gate of Simura canned troops of black horsemen, the torchlight crimsoning their naked scimitars. Their silken cloaks flowed in the wind, and their black arms gleamed like polished ebony.

  Conan entered a cookshop where girdled warriors gorged and secretly guzzled forbidden wine. Instead of taking the first place open he stood, head up, his smolder­ing eyes roaming the place. His gaze came to rest on a far corner where a plainly-dressed man with a kaffia pulled well down over his face sat cross-legged on the floor in a dim alcove. A low table of food stood on the floor in front of the man.

  Conan strode across, swerving around the other tables. He kicked a cushion into the alcove opposite the seated man and dropped down upon it.

  "Greetings, Farouz!" he rumbled. "Or should I say Gen­eral Mazdak?"

  The Hyikanian started. "What's that?"

  Conan grinned wolfishly. "I knew you when we en­tered the house of Othbaal. No one but the master of the house could know its secrets so well, and that house had once belonged to Mazdak the Hyrkanian."

  "Not so loud, friend! How did you pick me out when my own men don't know me in this Zuagir's headcloth?"

  "I used my eyes. Well, now that our first venture has paid us so well, what shall we do next?"

  "I know not. I should be able to do something with one 36

  of your brawn and force. But you know how it is with the dog-brothers."

  "Aye," snarled Conan. "I tried to get mercenary serv­ice, but your three rival armies hate each other so and strive so fiercely for the rule of the state that none will have me. Each thinks I'm a spy for one of the other two." He paused to order a joint of beef.

  "What a restless dog you are!" said Mazdak. "Will you then go back to Akkharia?"

  Conan spat. "Nay. It's small, even for one of these little Shemitish fly-specks of a state, and has no great wealth. And the people are as crazily touchy about their racial and national pride as you all are here, so I couldn't hope to rise very high. Perhaps I'd do better under one of the Hyborian rulers to the north, if I could find one who'd pick men for fighting ability only. But look you, Mazdak, why don't you seize the rule of this nation for yourself? Now that Othbaal's gone, you have only to find an ex­cuse for putting a blade into Imbalayo's guts, and . . ."

  "Tarim! I'm as ambitious as the next man, but not so headlong as that! Know that Imbalayo, having gotten the confidence of our mad monarch, dwells in the Great Pal­ace, surrounded by his black swordsmen. Not that one could not kill him by a sudden stab during some public function—if one did not mind being cut to bits instantly afterward. And then where's ambition?"

  "We should be able to think up something," said Co-nan, eyes narrowed.

  "We, eh? I suppose you'd expect a reward for your part?"

  "Of course. What sort of fool do you think me?"

  "No more foolish than the next. I see no immediate prospect of such an enterprise, but I'll bear your words in mind. And fear not but that you'd be well repaid. Now fare you well, for I must go back into the toils of politics."

  Conan's joint arrived as Mazdak left. Conan dug his 37

  teeth into the meat with even more than his usual gusto, for the success of his vengeance had made his spirits soar. While devouring a mass that would have satisfied a lion, he listened to the talk around him.

  "Where are the Anakim?" demanded a mustached Hyr-kanian, cramming his jaws with almond cakes.

  "They sulk in their quarter," answered another. "They swear the Kushites slew Othbaal and show Keluka's ring to prove it. Keluka has disappeared, and Imbalayo swears he knows naught of it. But there's the ring, and a dozen had been slain in brawls when the king ordered us to beat them apart. By Asura, this has been a day of days!"

  "Akhirom's madness brought it on," declared another In a lowered voice. "How soon before this lunatic dooms us all by some crazy antic?"

  "Careful," cautioned his mate. "Our swords are his as long as Mazdak orders. But if revolt breaks out again, the Anakim are more likely to fight against the Kushites than with them. Men say Akhirom has taken Othbaal's concu­bine Rufia into his harem. That angers the Anakim the more, for they suspect that Othbaal was slain by the king's orders, or at least with his consent. But their anger is naught beside that of Zeriti, whom the king has put aside. The rage of the witch, they say, makes the sand­storm of the desert seem like a spring breeze.",

  Conan's moody blue eyes blazed as he digested this news. The memory of the red-haired wench had stuck in his mind during the last few days. The thought of stealing her out from under the nose of the mad king, and keeping her out of sight of her former owner Mazdak, gave spice to life. And, if he had to leave Asgalun, she would make a pleasant companion on the long road to Koth. In Asgalun there was one person who could best help him in this en­terprise: Zeriti the Stygian, and if he could guess human motives she would be glad to do so.

  He left the shop and headed towards the wall of the inner city. Zeriti's house, he knew, was in this part of Asgalun. To get to it he would have to pass the great wall, and the only way he knew of doing this without discovery was through the tunnel that Mazdak had shown him.

  Accordingly, he approached the canal and made his way to the grove of palms near the shore. Groping in the dark-ness among the marble ruins, he found and lifted the skb. Again he advanced through blackness and dripping water, stumbled on the other stair, and mounted it. He found the catch and emerged into the corridor, now dark. The house was silent, but the reflection of lights elsewhere showed that it was still oc
cupied, doubtless by the slain general's servants and women.

  Uncertain as to which way led to the outer stair, he set off at random, passed through a curtained archway—and confronted six black slaves who sprang up glaring. Before he could retreat, he heard a shout and a rush of feet be­hind him. Cursing his luck, he ran straight at the blacks. A whirl of steel and he was through, leaving a writhing form on the floor behind him, and dashed through a door­way on the other side of the room. Curved blades sought his back as he slammed the door behind him. Steel rang on the wood and glittering points showed through the panels. He shot the bolt and whirled, glaring about for an exit. His gaze found a gold-barred window.

  With a headlong rush, he launched himself full at the window. The soft bars tore out with a crash, taking half the casement with them, before the impact of his hurtling body. He shot through space as the door crashed inward and howling figures flooded into the room.

  In the Great East Palace, where slave-girls and eunuchs glided on bare feet, no echo reverberated of the hell that seethed outside the walls. In a chamber whose dome was of gold-filagreed ivory, King Akhirom, clad in a white silken robe that made him look even more ghostly, sat cross-legged on a couch of gemmed ivory and stared at Rufia kneeling before him.

  Rufia wore a robe of crimson silk and a girdle of satin sewn with pearls. But amidst all this splendor, the Ophi-rean's eyes were shadowed. She had inspired Akhirom's latest madness, but she had not mastered him. Now he seemed withdrawn, with an expression in his cold eyes that made her shudder. Abruptly he spoke:

  "It is not meet for a god to mate with mortals."

  Rufia started, opened her mouth, then feared to speak.

  "Love is a human weakness," he continued. "I will cast it from me. Gods are beyond love. Weakness assails me when I lie in your arms."

  "What do you mean, my lord?" she ventured.

  "Even the gods must sacrifice, and therefore I give you up, lest my divinity weaken." He clapped his hands, and a eunuch entered on all fours. "Send in the general Im-balayo," ordered Akhirom, and the eunuch banged his head against the floor and crawled out backwards. These were the most recently instituted customs of the court.