Conan The Indomitable (23 page)

Tull and Elashi glanced at each other, and Tull shook his head. A knife and
a sword would be of little use against these, and Lalo’s wrestling less so.
They were captured. Conan was gone. Things did not look good.

Wikkell’s people seemed at first a bit more skeptical than had Deek’s;
still, the presence of the giant worm added to their interest.

“Talk is cheap, brother,” one of the Cyclopes said.

“Indeed,” Wikkell replied. He lifted the web device and pointed it
at the doubting cyclops. The thin spray shot forth.

“Hey!”

In a moment the doubting one was so entangled he could not move, save to
squirm.

“Help me!”

When half a dozen others moved to do so, Wikkell turned the floor into perfect
smoothness, and the six slipped and fell and slid hither and yon.

“W-w-we s-seem to h-have g-gotten their a-attention.”

“Yes, we have, haven’t we?”

Several hours later the discussions came to their conclusion. Yes, the
cyclopes
would join the worms in overthrowing the witch and
the wizard. What exactly was the plan? How was it to be instigated?

Wikkell drew himself up and said, “Deek and I have that all arranged.
First you are to choose a war council, with leaders. The worms shall do the
same, and the two of us will then present our plan to the leaders of both sides
at once, to save repetition. Naturally, Deek and I intend to be commanders of
our respective troops.”

With that, Wikkell marched away, Deek following. The murmur of the
cyclopes
as they began to vie for position trailed the two
down the corridor.

At a distance at which they would not be overheard, Deek found a patch of
speech rock. “
Wh
what p-p-plan? Th-this i-is
th-
the f-f-first I-I have h-heard o-of s-s-such a
p-p-plan!”

“I had to say something, did I not? Frankly, I felt all along that our
chances of ever getting this far were remote at best. I never really believed
that we should actually have to mount a war against the witch and the
wizard.”

“W-w-well, w-we h-h-have c-come t-to i-it.
N-n-now
wh-
what a-are w-we t-to d-d-do?”

“Devise a plan of attack, it would seem. Got any ideas?”

“I-I a-am b-beginning t-t-to r-regret I w-was e-ever h-h-hatched,”
Deek said. If it is possible for the body of a worm scraping over rock to
intone regret, the voice thus produced indeed sounded regretful.

“Cheer up, Deek old slug. We are no worse off than we were before. Who
knows? We might even win.”

“I-I sh-shall n-not w-w-wager m-my n-n-nest o-on
th-
that
p-p-possibility.”

The witch proceeded to a large bed that lay in the center of the room. She
climbed onto the bed, crawled to the middle on her hands and knees, then turned
and lay upon her back. She smiled at Conan. “Come here, my beautiful
barbarian man. I would feel your warmth next to me.”

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.

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-toad-stools.”

“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 trying 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
your 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.”