Conan had been with more than a few women in his young life, but none who had ever called to him quite like this. His mouth was dry as he started for the bed.
Came the mindspeech: Come and enjoy total pleasure, big man, and give me your strength. It will be your finest thrill, and your last.
Conan paused at that. His last?
"Why do you keep me waiting? Am I not desirable?"
Spend your manly essence within me, and with it your life force. Hurry, I hunger for it!
Conan continued to move toward the woman―she was no less beautiful and enticing than before―but a note of caution sounded within him. This mindspeech was the truth, not the words she spoke, and he realized that to consummate his lust with this creature―who was, after all, a witch―would be his death knell. But what was he to do? She desired him, and were he to thwart that desire, there was no foretelling what she might turn to next. An ordinary woman scorned was dangerous; what evil might a witch refused do him?
What was it she had said? She wanted his essence? Well, if he could somehow manage to avoid doing what she wanted, then perhaps he had a chance to survive.
How to manage that was another matter altogether. Death was an expensive price to pay for a few moments of pleasure. Crom would hardly welcome a man who would make such a foolish trade. This manner of combat was scarcely comparable to dying in battle with a sword in hand.
Conan searched for memories of ice and snow, and wading through freezing water.
Such thoughts helped but little.
"You are quite lovely," Rey told Elashi. The desert woman stood next to Tull and Lalo. The wizard had taken their weapons, and they all were now inside his personal chamber. A pair of cyclopes waited just outside the door.
"I have had no need for women for some years," Rey continued, "but I might rekindle the old fires for one such as you."
"I would rather be boiled in oil than suffer your attentions," Elashi said.
"What?"
"Are your ears stuffed with mold?" Lalo asked. "The lady finds you repellent, a feeling in which I concur wholeheartedly."
"Cannot you two keep silent?" Tull said, his voice low. "You do not want to make him angry. He is very powerful."
"Wise," Rey said. "You will have a quick death for that. These other two will suffer a bit longer, after they have told me the whereabouts of whatever his name is… Conan?"
"I expect Conan is long gone from these caves and safe from either you or the witch," Elashi said.
"Would that it were so," Rey said, "for he is dangerous; still, I cannot take the chance that he might yet be free down here. You will aid me in his capture, like it or not. I am not a man to be trifled with, as you shall learn."
Tull, Elashi, and Lalo looked at each other. This did not bode well. Elashi was most worried about Conan. She feared he was in dire straits indeed.
* * *
Twenty-two
W-w-will th-the b-bats and Wh-whites d-do i-it?" Reluctantly Wikkell turned to face Deek. They were in the cave in which the cyclopes regularly bathed. A small cataract spilled from a high ledge upon which Deek and Wikkell perched, splashing into the shallow pond below. The sound of the water covered their voices from the female cyclopes who were cavorting below them in the pond. An attractive lot, Wikkell noted, and he would certainly rather be down there with them than up here with Deek. "W-Wikkell?"
"What? Oh, sorry, Deek. Yes, I think they will do it. I doubt that the plants will be of much use to us, but given the weight of numbers, I do not believe they will oppose us either. I expect the initial charge of the Whites and the bats might prove costly to them, but if they want to continue to live in the caves, I feel it is only right that they share the risks of our endeavor."
"O-o-one c-c-cannot m-make m-m-mushroom w-wine w-without c-c-crushing a f-few t-t-toadstools."
"Well put, Deek. The time must be soon for our strike, are we to keep our intent secret."
Wikkell glanced back down at the female cyclopes. One of them saw him and waved. He waved back.
"S-s-someone y-you kn-know w-w-well?"
"Not yet. If we survive the upcoming confrontation, though, I hope to get to know her much better."
"A-as o-one-eyes g-go, s-she s-s-seems qu-quite l-lovely."
"I always knew you were a worm of good taste. You must introduce me to your nestmates when this is done."
"Wh-when i-it is d-d-done."
At least several hours had elapsed, although to Conan the passage of time felt more like days; finally the witch fell into what the Cimmerian hoped would be an exhausted―and long―slumber.
He had felt better himself, he thought, as he hurriedly gathered his clothes. His belt pouch fell with a thump .that seemed terribly loud, and Conan froze at the sound. Several of the jewels rattled from the purse and onto the hard floor. Conan ignored them, even though one of them was the large gem than Elashi had given him.
Chuntha did not stir from her torpid pose, and the Cimmerian finished collecting his garb and quickly moved toward the cave's exit.
Conan considered the problem of the guard worms as he finished dressing. His sword lay back in the cave where he and his friends had fought the bats. A bare-handed struggle against the worms held little appeal. How was he to bypass the pair? True, they were set to guard the cave from intruders, not from one leaving. Utilizing surprise, he could most likely dart past them before they could gather their wits. By the time they recovered enough to pursue him, he would be well ahead, and he knew from his earlier experience that he could outrun the slithering beasts.
On the other hand, while such an action might gain him an immediate lead on the worms, they also might not bother to pursue him at all. The guards could just as easily enter the cave and rouse Chuntha, and Conan had considerable doubt about his ability to outrun the monstrous flying reptile into which the witch could transform herself. A dilemma.
In the end he decided that the key lay in boldness. He had recognized the speech produced by the worms and could speak a fair portion of it. He took a deep breath and stepped out through the chambers' entrance.
"Ho, guards," he said in the tongue the worm had spoken earlier.
The two worms spun around, coiling as might serpents preparing to strike.
"Chuntha slumbers and wishes to be undisturbed," Conan said. "I am being sent to fetch a thing for her. Move aside."
Conan gambled that the worms would assume his apparent nonchalance meant what he said was true. The Cimmerian doubted that many, if any, of Chuntha's guests had ever left at all, much less without her express permission, and reckoned that the guards would know this and fear to question her orders.
The two worms seemed to look at each other, though whatever organs they used that passed for eyes were not apparent to Conan. The Cimmerian suffered a long and tense moment…
Then, with a slight rotation that Conan took to be a shrug, the pair relaxed back into their earlier poses.
Striving to look as if he owned every inch, of the caves, Conan strolled away at a leisurely pace, never looking back.
When he was around the first turning in the corridor, Conan picked up his pace considerably. He had escaped from the carnal clutches of the witch, but he still had to find his friends. He began to run, planning to put a goodly distance between himself and the witch as soon as possible.
He had been at the sprint but for a few moments when he rounded a corner and ran smack into a tangled nest of sticky webbing. He tried to back away from the clinging threads, but he could neither escape nor break free of them. The more he struggled, the more enmeshed he became. Even his powerful muscles were no match for the strength of the fibers. He was still try fruitlessly to break free when he saw a cyclops standing next to a giant worm, watching him. What now? he thought.
"I-I-I a-am n-not s-sure a-ab-about th-this." Deek watched the man struggle against the grip of the magical webbing.
Next to Deek, Wikkell nodded as if in agreement but said, "I understand you
r reluctance. Still, somehow, this one is at the root of all this. Both my master and your mistress―"
"E-e-ex-m-m-master a-and m-m-mistess," Deek broke in and corrected.
"Yes, yes, to be sure. Our ex-master and mistress seemed to think this man was of some import. As we have seen, he certainly is resourceful. He has managed to escape from both wizard and witch on his own, no small task."
"B-b-but c-can w-we t-t-trust him?"
"I would rather have him on our side than against us. Certainly he has no more love for Rey and Chuntha than do we. And we do have something to offer, do we not?"
"Y-y-yes."
"Then let us go and speak with him."
In the wizard's chambers, Rey questioned Elashi. He had a pair of his Cyclopes holding her tightly as he stood sharpening a somewhat rusted knife with a stone. The sound of the blade being whetted made cold, scraping noises in the quiet room. Tull and Lalo stood against a nearby wall, manacled to the rock. While the chains and wrist clamps were covered with thick scales of red-brown rust flakes, the iron had lost none of its core strength.
Rey finished working on the knife. He touched the edge with one thumb; apparently it was done to his satisfaction. He moved toward Elashi, grinning wickedly in the green light, and waved the knife gently back and forth as he drew nearer to the desert woman.
The two cyclopes had firm grips on both of Elashi's arms; unfortunately for Rey, both of the woman's slender but strong legs remained unencumbered. When the wizard was within her range, Elashi managed to launch a stiff kick.
"Ah!" The wizard grunted, expelling most of his air. He stumbled back to the accompaniment of congratulatory noises from Tull and Lalo for Elashi's action.
It was but a short diversion, however, and the effect of Elashi's resistance did nothing to improve Rey's mood.
"Hold her feet!" the wizard ordered when his breath had returned.
Though Elashi kicked and struggled, it was but a moment's work for the cyclopes to each capture one leg. Firmly gripped now at the upper arm and ankle, Elashi found herself held stretched horizonally between her two captors much like a blanket among players of the childhood game of "Toss the Man High and Catch Him."
Rey moved in and inserted the sharpened blade under Elashi's belt. A single jerk of his wrist sliced the leather strap, and the belt fell away. The wizard moved to the hem of her heavy fabric skirt and gripped it with one hand, cutting the material to her crotch. The skirt gaped, revealing the smooth skin of her legs all the way to her underclothes.
Two more passes with the knife and Elashi lay stretched between the cyclopes naked save for her boots. The wizard stepped between her spread legs and laid the flat of the blade knife upon her belly. "Ready to tell me where Conan is?"
"Rot in the deepest hell!" Elashi said. Her voice quivered, but she tried to keep her face impassive.
Rey turned the knife so that it was edge down. He started to press the edge into her flesh…
"Wait!" Lalo yelled. "I shall tell you!"
"Lalo! Say nothing!" Elashi said.
The wizard turned away from the woman. "Yes?"
Lalo's grin looked pained, and his insult when it came was weak: "Wicked fool, spare her and I shall tell you Conan's location."
"I spare no one. But I can make her death quick."
Lalo nodded. "Very well. Conan hides in a small grotto some distance away. Tull here has used it for his residence for some years."
Tull and Elashi managed to stare at Lalo with amazement and disbelief; the wizard undoubtedly thought this due to Lalo's treachery.
"Explain to me the location and you shall live until my cyclopes return with the barbarian."
Tull and Elashi caught on to Lalo's ploy.
Tull said, "Tell him nothing, you traitor!"
"I hate you!" Elashi said.
Ever-smiling, Lalo took a deep breath and began to tell the wizard how to get to Tull's grotto.
Seemingly satisfied, the wizard had Elashi chained next to the two men. She drew her tattered clothes about her as best she could and settled down upon the rocky floor, shaking from nervous reaction.
Rey swept out of the chamber to instruct his thralls in the retrieval of Conan. It was only when the wizard appeared to be well out of earshot that the three captives spoke to each other, and then in quiet whispers.
"Why did you tell him Conan was in my grotto?" Tull asked. "When last we saw him―"
"―some monster had captured the awkward oaf," Lalo finished. "Aye, and since the flying creature did not come from Rey, then we may be almost certain it was dispatched by the witch. We could have hardly told him that, now could we? 'Conan? Why, the witch has him.' That would have sealed our doom instantly, would it not?"
"Lalo is right," Elashi whispered. "At least this way we have purchased a bit more time."
"Besides," Lalo said, "I had to say something. I could not allow him to harm you."
Although Lalo's smile was perpetual with him, it seemed to soften somewhat when he said this, and Elashi grinned at him in return. "I thank you for that."
"Even as stupid and worthless as you are, you have more uses alive than dead," Lalo said. From him, this was practically a raging compliment, and Elashi shook her head from the wonder of it.
"All this is beginning to get on my nerves," Tull said. He got no argument from either of the others on that point.
"What will we. do when Rey discovers that Conan is not where we said he would be?" Elashi asked.
"Try to deceive him further," Lalo whispered.
"'Gone? Well, yes, of course. He said that if we did not meet him there soon, he would go to the waterfall where first he met Tull.' And after that, mayhap we can send him yet elsewhere."
"He is certain to catch on after a time or two. It is a decidedly risky plan," Tull said.
"Better than no plan at all," Elashi observed. "Besides, what have we to lose now?"
Another point no one wished to speak to or think overly about… not while chained to a cold wall in the chambers of an evil wizard.
* * *
Twenty-three
Conan saw the two figures approaching, but he was unable to offer a defense or to flee. When the unlikely pair arrived at a distance two spans from him, they stopped.
"We would speak with you," the one-eyed giant said.
The Cimmerian looked down at his trapped limbs. Bound as he was in the sticky webbing, he had no choice save to listen to the cyclops and the worm. "I am listening," he said, as if he had a choice.
"Things are not as we would have them in our realm," the cyclops said. "We intend a change."
"W-w-we n-need y-your h-h-help," the worm said.
They went on to explain what they had in mind.
While his intention was to find his friends and flee this accursed realm as soon as possible, the alternative offered by the pair certainly held merits the Cimmerian had to ponder, especially considering his current state.
"So," the cyclops said, "that is our intent. If you help us achieve it, you and your friends will be free to go on about your own business with our blessings."
"And if I do not agree?"
"W-we c-can l-leave y-y-you h-here t-to r-r-rot," the worm said in that grating speech of his.
It was, Conan had to admit, a most powerful argument.
"Well, then, I agree to aid you. Both witch and wizard have done nothing but cause me grief since I arrived here, I would see them in Gehanna at the earliest opportunity."
The cyclops, who had given his name as Wikkell, nodded and turned to the worm. "See? I told you he would be reasonable."
With that, the giant one-eyed being extended a small wooden device toward Conan and his nest of sticky threads. After a moment the threads began to pull away from Conan's body and the small block of wood somehow sucked the strings into itself. A few seconds later all of the netting in which Conan had been trapped had vanished.
Magic, and no doubt of that. He liked it not at all. Still, it was not a
s if he had been given much in the way of choice. Whatever the reason, he was a man of his word; once his pledge was given, he would not break it.
"Our sources tell us that your friends have been collected by the wizard," Wikkell said.
"Are they well?"
"I have it as likely… for as long as the wizard thinks they might lead him to you."
"Why is it that I am so important to both witch and wizard?"
"Wh-who k-knows?" This from the worm, who called himself Deek.
"I think it perhaps has something to do with some kind of prophesy," Wikkell said. "In some way, the wizard fears you, and likewise, so does the witch."
"I cannot understand why. I have no magic; I am no more than an ordinary man."
"A man, perhaps. Hardly ordinary. To have escaped from the wizard, and then from the witch after sharing her bed, these are things no man has ever done before."
"W-w-were i-it n-n-not f-for y-you, n-n-none o-of th-this w-w-would h-have h-happened."
Conan shrugged. "I think this is all due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time."
"Whatever the original reason," Wikkell said, "it does not matter so much now."
The three started down the corridor. Conan pondered what they had told him. They would aid him in freeing his friends. There was to be an attack, and during it he might be able to take advantage of the confusion. If he should happen to slay the wizard in passing? Well, so much the better.
Deek and Wikkell spoke of their actions over the last days, and Conan filled them in on his own adventures. They seemed impressed, although he told his story in an offhand manner devoid of bragging.
A few moments later several of the Blind Whites came down the rocky hallway toward Conan and the others. Conan tensed, but Wikkell quickly reassured him there was no need to worry. The Whites were now in league with the cyclopes and the worms. The witch and the wizard were about to have a full-scale revolution on their hands.
One of the Whites approached and spoke to Wikkell in a language Conan did not recognize. After a moment another of the Whites was motioned to come closer by the cyclops.
The Conan Compendium Page 87