Conan The Indomitable (18 page)

Urging the worm raft to its utmost speed, Chuntha scanned the banks of the
Sunless
Sea
, searching for signs of her
elusive quarry. She knew not how far the waterway extended, never having
followed it to its end in all the years she had resided below the ground. She
often thought of the sunlit world above, and how happy she had been there,
plundering the bodies of willing men for their carnal spirits. Unfortunately,
she could not run around naked up there any longer, civilization having
curtailed that option, and worse, too many bodies aroused suspicion. More than
once she had fled from a city or a village with the local folk chasing her, hot
for her death.

The underground had disadvantages, to be sure, but once she managed to wrest
total control of it from the wizard, she could arrange to have a steadier
supply of bedmates than before. Few men would risk the caves to retrieve a lost
traveler, and Chuntha knew she could snag the odd one now and again without
arousing much suspicion. After all, dangerous animals lived up there, and
brigands, too; one had to expect that they would take their toll…

A dark opening appeared on the cave wall to her right, just ahead. Since her
quarry now traveled on foot, such an exit might well appeal to them. The
problem was that she could not explore every tunnel along the way; there were
far too many of them. Fortunately, Chuntha had exactly the thing she needed.

From her supplies she took a tall, black jar and a pair of tweezers. She
opened the jar’s lid and with the tweezers removed a speck of red the size of a
pin’s head. She quickly closed the jar and set the red speck upon the deck of
her living raft. Uttering a few mystical phrases, Chuntha waved her hands at
the speck. In a twinkling it expanded into a red hornet the size of a sparrow.
The creature fluttered its wings, buzzing.

“Go,” Chuntha commanded. “Explore that tunnel and return to
me if you find any human within.”

Obediently the giant hornet rose from the raft and jetted away, zipping
toward the tunnel in an arrow-straight line. The magicked hornets were of
limited value, but useful within those limits. They could be directed for
simple tasks such as an in-and-out search of a tunnel. More complex things were
beyond their capacity; still, if her beautiful barbarian were in that tunnel,
the insect would find him and return to tell the tale.

She had dozens of the creatures within her jar, and she would dispatch as
many as it took to locate her quarry. She had obtained the magical beasts after
a liaison with a self-styled wizard who had, in bed, sought to match her powers
of Sensha. He lost, naturally, and those magics of his she could operate became
hers by default. It had been a long time ago, but Chuntha still remembered the
man fondly. He had lasted the better part of an hour before dying.

Being that the escapees were on foot, they could not have gone far. They
were either in a tunnel close to the place where the wizard had lost them or
not far ahead and still fleeing onshore. Either way, Chuntha should be able to
find them soon.

She smiled at that thought. She had planned to take the captives back to her
chamber, to enjoy them at her leisure, but perhaps not. Perhaps she would take
them to the nearest flat spot and have them there.

The thought of it warmed her loins. Yes. Why wait? Better to enjoy them
before that stupid wizard perhaps mucked things up again. Afterward her powers
would be increased, and she would deal with the hapless Rey.

The worm raft continued along, Chuntha smiling upon its back as she moved
over the waters.

Katamay Rey sat in his sedan chair, borne at a fast trot by his
cyclopes
. He had yet to catch sight of Conan and the others
but, he reflected, it should be only a short while before he did so. Of course
they could have easily darted into one of the myriad openings along the way.
Quite probably they had done so, had they any sense, but that did not worry
him. The wizard was not without certain spells to ascertain such things…

From his pack of magical impedimenta, Rey withdrew a leather bottle of no small
age. He shook the bottle, and a faint buzzing began within. He removed the cork
from the narrow-necked vessel and shook it again.
A small
insect, gnat-sized, emerged from the bottle, which the wizard quickly recorked.
Rey spoke a tongue-twisting phrase in a gutteral language and the gnat-sized
creature blossomed into a blue wasp the size of a small bird. The giant insect
buzzed back and forth, awaiting Rey’s command, which was not long in coming.

“Go and explore the first tunnel you find that is large enough to admit
a man. Finding any men, return and report it to me immediately.”

The blue wasp buzzed and took off, heading toward the shore. Rey smiled at
its departure. He had once had another investigatory insect species, a jar of
magical red hornets, but he had traded them to a cocks-wizard above ground long
ago. The hornets and wasps were antipathetical, and it was possible to use one
or the other, but not both simultaneously. The red and the blue insects hated
each other and would fight to the death upon meeting. Rey had thought it an
unnecessary duplication to have both.

Of course the witch was somewhere in the vicinity, and she would have to be
dealt with in the not-too-distant future. He would be better prepared the next
time, and she would rue the day she had sought to challenge Katamay Rey!

The Cyclopes trotted along the never-ending dock, oblivious to their
master’s contemplations. For his part, the wizard felt that his quest would be
ended shortly. It could not happen soon enough to suit him, either.

Conan’s plan was simple, and he saw no need to complicate it. They would
travel to the witch’s quarters, bypass or dispatch any guards left there, and
load their purses and pouches with loot. Having done that, they would depart
rapidly and find a place where the roof of some cavern was accessible from
below. Here they would dig their way through the roof, which should prove to be
the ground above, clamber out, and be gone.

Naturally Elashi had her doubts, and she voiced them quickly, as was her
wont. “First, what makes you think we can dispatch any guards so easily?
What if this witch has left one or more of those giant worms standing ready to
intercept would-be visitors?”

“Recall the giant fish?” Conan said. “If my blade could slay
him, it can slay a much smaller legless grub.”

“All right, assuming this is so,
then
there is
the matter of our escape. Do you think it so easy to simply dig through the
roof and depart these caves? Tull here has been underground for five years.
Think you not that he has tried such a maneuver before?”

Conan looked at Tull. “Have you, then?”

“Sort of,” Tull answered. “The places where the roof is
reachable are few, and while I tried digging in a couple, I could never finish
before either a worm or a cyclops came along. Spotting holes, they usually
patch ‘em, save the ones they make themselves for trapping travelers. Those are
always too high to reach, or guarded.”

Conan turned back to Elashi. “There are four of us; we can dig much
faster than one. Besides, the odd worm or cyclops happening by will pose less
of a threat to four.”

“You have all the answers, do you?” Elashi was angry.

Conan nodded. As a matter of fact, he did.“Aye, leastways the ones we
need,
save one: how much farther is our objective,
Tull?”

“A few hours’ walk.”

“Then let us save our breath for walking instead of spending it
talking,” Conan said.

Elashi frowned at this; Lalo’s face kept its perpetual smile, and he said
nothing.

Through rocky chambers they traveled, passing under great pointed
stalagtites that dripped tiny drops of mineralized water, past walls so thickly
covered with glowing fungus that the bright green light generated gave them
views clearer than the shining of the full moon.

Once the four passed within a few spans of a solitary
Webspinner Plant.
Conan heard the seductive but faint call of the
carnivorous plant:
Mighty warrior! Come to me and be pleasured beyond
belief
! But his earlier experiences made him immune to its beckonings, as
were Tull and Elashi.

They warned Lalo but need not have bothered. Lalo paused and appeared to
listen for a moment, then answered the mindspeech of the plant aloud:

“I have seen better leaves on overripe turnips,” he said. “If
ever there was an uglier bit of flora, doubtless men would be struck blind upon
viewing it.”

Lalo’s insults sparked an angry response from the Webspinner, and its
siren’s song became one of outrage:
I shall eat your liver, foul one
!

Apparently no one under Lalo’s particular curse had passed this way before.
Conan suspected that should the plant be so foolish as to snare Lalo, likely it
would choke upon him.

Tull’s years of experience in the caverns had given him some knowledge of
little-used passages, and the four kept to these, avoiding contact with any of
the giant worms. Once they spotted one of the creatures passing by in a cross
tunnel, but it did not appear to notice them, intent as it seemed on some
destination of its own.

The hours passed, and eventually the four arrived in the vicinity of the
witch’s personal chambers. Cautiously Conan and Tull crept forward until they
could see the entrance to the main chamber.

From behind the cover of a series of large rocks, the pair viewed the scene.

A quad of giant worms lay just outside the entrance.

Conan and Tull slid back and rejoined Elashi and Lalo. These two whispered
between themselves, stopping when Conan arrived.

“Well?” Elashi and Lalo said together.

“There are four worms guarding the entrance,” Conan said.

“Aha!” Elashi said.

“I foresee no problem,” Conan said, somewhat sharply. “The
solution is simple. Two of us will draw the worms’ attention, allowing the
other two to slip inside and plunder the chamber. Tull tells me the worms
cannot move
so
fast as can a running man. After the
theft, we shall all rejoin at a prearranged place.”

Elashi merely shook her head, while Lalo said, “Conan, you would make
the task of marching into Gehanna and slaying the King of the Demons sound like
a routine visit to the night chamber.”

Elashi found her tongue and managed to get it working. “And who, pray
tell, is to lead the worms upon this merry chase? I played fish bait once; and
I have no intention of repeating such a performance.”

“Tull and I will draw the worms away,” Conan said. “I can
lead the pair of us to our meeting place later, and surely you and Lalo can
manage to pocket a few lightweight stones?”

Lalo chuckled. “I called you a barbarian fool before, but I stand
corrected. You are worse, Conan. You are a politician. You should be a king
somewhere.”

That did not sound much like an insult to Conan, but knowing Lalo, he was
certain it must be. He ignored it.

Tull said, “Aye. Twould best be done quickly, too. Sooner or later the
witch will realize that she has lost our track and turn her attentions this
way. Best we be gone ‘fore she returns.”

Nobody argued with that.

“Let us make ready, then,” Conan said.

The Harskeel was no tracker, but it knew that the bats could fly faster than
either it or its quarry could move on foot, so it dispatched them forward to
search, keeping only Red as a guide.

Red, by this time, chaffed at the Harskeel’s commands, and so the Harskeel
tried to mollify him.

“I begin to wonder if this blood spell is worth all our efforts,”
the Bloodbat said.

“You recall the taste. What more can I say?”

“I had not intended to spend the rest of my life on your quest.”

“Ah. Well, I can understand that. As a token of my esteem for your
assistance, I shall supply you personally with an extra incentive. Naturally I
was only joking about turning you into an insect.”

“Oh, naturally.”
The bat’s voice held
some disbelief.

“I have a small spell you might find amusing. It will make you
irresistible to the females of your species.”

Red made a noise that the Harskeel took for a laugh. “A waste of your
spell,” he said, “for I am already irresistible to all females I
desire.”

The Harskeel suppressed its own laugh.
“Ah, of
course.
But there is an added effect to the magic: it allows the user
to… ah… maintain a certain… potency.
Indefinitely.”

“Indefinitely, you say?”

“Practically.”

Red stared at the Harskeel. “Ah. I see. Well, certainly I have never
had any problems in this regard, but I can see where that might be
useful.”

This time the Harskeel allowed itself to laugh.

Just then one of the other bats returned, jabbering at them in the bat’s
speech.

“What has it said?”

“Apparently your quarry—your pardon,
our
quarry—stands near
the entrance to the witch’s chambers.”

“What are they doing there?”

“Who knows? We are not mind readers. It is sufficient that they
are.”

“How much farther is it?”

“Not far. If we hurry, we can be there within the hour.”

“Then let us hurry!”

Wikkell and Deek had settled upon a plan that, while risky, carried with it
a fair chance of success. They moved along one of the main corridors toward the
chambers of the witch, already implementing their idea. Wikkell had wrapped
around his wrists—rather loosely, but not obviously so—a length of rope that
trailed off into a long leash. The end of this tether lay clamped tightly in
Deek’s mouth, and from external appearances, it seemed that Deek held Wikkell
in thrall.