"Th-that p-p-puts it m-mildly."

"Nor can I return to my own caves, since the wizard himself had to come and fetch those I was sent after. He has no use for failure."

"Wh-what a-are w-we to d-do, th-then? Live as o-o-outcasts?"

"Well, better outcasts than not at all, but I confess that scrounging a living on our own has little appeal for me."

"I-I a-agree."

Wikkell nodded, and the idea that had been nebulously floating about in his head took on more solidity.

"Ever wonder how much better off we would all be had not the witch and the wizard ever come to reside here in the caves?"

"M-m-more th-than o-once."

"Or, since that is wishful thinking, were they to leave, or perhaps destroy each other?"

"M-more w-w-wishful th-th-thinking."

"Perhaps not. Neither of us can go home again while those cursed two inhabit the caves. Our lives are practically worthless. As such, might not we try and spend them in a manner that might benefit both our peoples?" "A-a-are y-you s-suggesting r-r-revolution?"

"I am indeed. What have we to lose?"

Deek considered this. Wikkell's idea, which would have seemed hopelessly absurd only a few days past, did not now sound quite so insane. Not when the only other choice was to spend the remainder of one's allotted time slithering from shadow to shadow against the day when either Chuntha or Katamay Rey would discover and thus put a quick end to them.

"Not to put too fine an edge on it, Deek, but... it is either them or us, and given my current thoughts on the matter, I would rather it be them."

"I-I a-agree," Deek said. And why not?

"Well, then, let us see what we can do to gather help."

Every so often Conan tensed his muscles and tried to break free of the two cyclopes holding him, but he mightas well be trying to fly by flapping his arms for all the good it did. They had a grip like iron, and he was in no position to kick them where it would hurt the most.

Elashi and Tull fared no better, and Conan's smiles did not seem to particularly rea.s.sure them. The future did not shine brightly at the moment. Then again, the Cimmerian had been in difficulties at least this bad before and had survived to live another day. Who could say? There was little point in worry since it would not help, and he would better spend his energies preparing to seize any opportunity to better their situation. Even free and with his blade, defeating these giant one-eyed beings, not to mention the wizard, might not be the easiest thing he had ever done, but one had to a.s.sume that anything was possible.

Chuntha watched from concealment as the wizard and his troop went past. The time was not yet ripe, but it would happen before Rey reached the safety of his own caves. She would make it happen.

The Harskeel and its entourage of Bloodbats reached the mouth of the tunnel that led to the Sunless Sea in time to observe Katamay Rey and his prisoners departing the scene. Red identified the wizard and indicated that irritating the same would be paid with dire consequences.

The Harskeel thought it would explode from the anger within it. Fortunately, it managed to keep its temper. Why did the G.o.ds thwart it so? Was that a part of the curse, somehow kept secret from it?

"Very well, we shall follow them and seek an opportunity."

"An opportunity to dowhat ?" Red asked.

"Never mind. Just get the boat into the water."

As the Harskeel and the bats entered the water and started after the wizard, Deek and Wikkell watched from within their small cave.

"I wonder how this strange-looking man figures into all this. Doubtless you recall him or her or it, whatever it is, from the encounter in the bat cave?"

"I-I-I r-recall. A-a p-p-puzzle."

For his part, Katamay Rey was feeling very pleased with himself. He had captured the three with more ease than he had antic.i.p.ated, given Wikkell's failure to do so. He looked forward to inspecting and questioning them at his leisure once in his own chambers, and doubtless that would provide him with many hours of amus.e.m.e.nt. The big one, especially, should last quite a while before he gave up the spirit.

Then the ceiling of the cave just ahead rumbled and dropped several large rocks into the water, splashing the dock-walkers. Almost immediately, a screaming apparition fell from the hole opened high above, coming right at them!

Rey's surprise was such that even the most basic defensive spells escaped him. He barely had time to make a warding-off motion with his hands. It was sufficient to change the path of the shrieking monster slightly, so that it missed the dock and hit the adjacent water. Still, the attack was enough to startle all those who beheld it. These included the cyclopes attending to the prisoners.

Rey's attention to the attack from above slowed his gaze at the prisoners for a single beat too long.

Conan's guards had relaxed their hold enough for him to free one arm. The second guard had a firmer grip, but unfortunately for him, Conan was able to twist about and bring his booted foot into contact with the most sensitive part of males of virtually all upright species. The cyclops, for all his size and power, gave voice to an almost girlish screech at the strike and suddenly found better uses for his hands than holding on to Conan. The cyclops clutched at himself, doubled over, and moaned.

Conan was already moving. He leaped at the single cyclops holding Elashi and repeated the strike that had worked so well before. This cyclops was faster, but in order to protect his ability to sire children, he let go of Elashi to block Conan's foot. That was all the Cimmerian needed, and at the last moment he pulled the kick and threw his weight instead into a shove. Big as the cyclops was, he was too close to the edge of the dock to withstand Conan's full weight. The hapless cyclops teetered on the edge of the dock and then fell into the water.

Elashi, meanwhile, went for the weapons. In the confusion following the attack from above, the desert woman managed to collect the swords and Tull's knife. She tossed Conan his blade, and the brawny Cimmerian began whipping it back and forth at the Cyclopes holding Tull. Said guards wanted no part of Conan's sword, and they hastily released their charge.

"Into the water!" Conan yelled.

Tull and Elashi obeyed, the latter despite her inability to swim.

Despite the noise and surprise, they stood little chance of escaping since the wizard was beginning torecover his wits, and there was, after all, no place for the three to go. Conan surfaced, towing Elashi with his sword held over her chest, and paddled furiously for the nearest sh.o.r.e. He expected a bolt of magical energy to sear him into ash at any moment, but he kept moving.

Chuntha saw her chance. Something had dropped from above, coming down almost on top of the Wizard, and while he and his troops milled about in confusion, the gorgeous man and the other two managed to free themselves and leap into the water. Good! She could give Rey something else to keep his attention while the three attained the sh.o.r.e; she could then collect them later.

The witch increased the speed of her worm raft and churned toward the magical dock just ahead. She removed from her bags a cork-and-wax-stop-pered ceramic jar containing a fog spell. She smiled as she saw the wizard catch sight of her.

"It's the witch! I knew this was her doing!"

The wizard raised his hands to cast a spell, but Chuntha beat him to it. She jerked the stopper from the jar and the fog boiled out explosively. She quickly recorked the jar, but in an instant the area around both worm raft and dock was enshrouded in thick, wet grayness, effectively rendering both wizard and witch invisible to each other.

"Set curse you, b.i.t.c.h!"

"And you, you b.a.s.t.a.r.d!"

A magical lightning flashed as Rey tried to wipe away the fog, but Chuntha countered with another blast of fog from the jar. Between those actions and the forces needed to maintain the dock and her boat, the available magic in the immediate area dropped rapidly. n.o.body was going to be doing any heavy spellwork for a while, not here.

Time to depart, Chuntha, she told herself. Go and find that big, fine-looking man...

Scurrying along the sh.o.r.e of the waterway, the Harskeel saw the fog in the distance. Now what? it wondered. Where was that cursed bat when it needed him? It quickened its pace.

Conan swam to a shallow ledge upon which he could stand, Elashi in tow. He set the woman upon her feet. Tull arrived a moment later. "What happened?" he asked.

"I know not," Conan replied, "nor do I care. Let us find a path away from here."

"Aye," Elashi said.

From the fog-shrouded water just behind them came a voice: "A good idea from a man who probably has less brain than a turnip."

Conan spun about, his sword pointing into the fog. That voice... he knew it from somewhere... Elashi recognized it first. "Lalo!"

Indeed. As he watched, Conan saw the cursed man they had met at the inn only a few days past emerge from the fog and wade toward them. Had it only been a few days? It seemed half a lifetime.

"What are you doing here?" Elashi asked.

"I thought I would drop in and surprise you," Lalo said, "although I am certain almost everything surprises your apelike companion there. What is going on here?" He grinned his perpetual grin, and even Conan had to return a smile.

"I shall explain and introduce you to Tull later," Conan said. "At the moment I think it best we leave before the fog clears."

"Come, come, Conan, does the fog ever clear for you?"

Elashi laughed, and that surprised Conan not in the least. These two should marry. She would be more than a match for the straw-haired fellow.

Deek and Wikkell proceeded in their silken boat, but more cautiously than before, sculling slowly. They arrived in the vicinity of the confrontation between their respective mistress and master, nay-make that ex-mistress and ex-master-as the final wisps of magical fog began to clear from the water. They were in time to see Chuntha leaving rapidly upon a raft made of what looked like two dozen of Deek's brothers and Rey directing his moving dock toward the nearest sh.o.r.eline.

"I wonder what happened here."

Deek could not speak in the boat, but his curiosity was no less than Wikkell's. He waved his tail in agitation.

"I agree," Wikkell said. "Best we not get too close. They don't see us, and I for one would prefer to keep it that way. Let us find a cove or small bay and lay low."

Wikkell turned the small boat. He glanced over his shoulder. "Not that it matters any longer," he said, "but I do not see the people we were sent to fetch. I wonder if they have escaped? We might still find them."

Deek shook his head in negation.

"You're right. We are committed now. Although perhaps we might induce those three to help us. They seem very lucky, and it would not hurt to have them on our side."

If we happen to run into them, Deek thought.

"If we happen to run into them," Wikkell said.

Odd, Deek thought. They were beginning to think a lot alike. This might well be the start of a beautiful friendship-a.s.suming they lived long enough to enjoy it. Fifteen Tull's immediate reaction upon attaining dry land was to flee back toward the place where they had been captured. Conan was of a different mind.

"The wizard will expect that," he said. "Better we should proceed in the opposite direction."

Lalo agreed. "Despite your appearance to the contrary, that is actually very clever."

Conan shook his head. Lalo's curse could turn even a compliment into an insult.

The four of them moved quickly along the fogged sh.o.r.e, hoping to be well away before the cover evaporated.

Not five minutes later, another series of tunnels branched off to their right. Tull turned to Conan. "What do you think?" he asked.

"You're asking him?" Lalo said to Tull. "There must be more than a bit of slack in your wits, old man."

Tull reached for his knife.

"Wait," Elashi said, catching Tull's arm. "Lalo here is under a geas."

"He'll be under the ground if he does not curb his tongue," Tull said.

"He cannot help insulting you-that is his curse."

Tull considered this. "Really? What a strange thing to inflict upon someone."

"Not to interrupt this discussion," Conan said, "but we are apt to suffer much worse if we stand around and allow ourselves te be retaken by the wizard."

"Aye," Tull said. "So which way?"

"That one," Conan said, pointing at the nearest tunnel. He glanced at Elashi to see if she planned to gainsay that, but for once the woman was silent. She was watching Lalo.

Into the tunnel they fled. After twenty minutes the corridor bifurcated, and they chose the right-hand fork and continued on. Shortly the narrow pipe blossomed out into a wide, low-roofed chamber, the floor of which was littered with large, pillow-shaped stones. The four sat upon one of these stones to catch their breath.

"Perhaps one of you nit brains would be so good as to explain what is going on here," Lalo said.

Elashi looked at Conan. "I think he means you," she said.

"You are so much better with words," Conan told her. "You tell him."

"Very well." Elashi explained their adventures of the last few days. Tull added background materialabout the caves and the ongoing battle between the witch and the wizard. When they were done, Elashi asked Lalo how he had come to be there.

"As it happened, I wore thin my welcome at the village inn. I insulted the owner's ugly daughter once too often and he showed me the door. An old story. So I decided to take the dangerous route, feeling I had not much to lose. I saw evidence of your pa.s.sage-the dead watchbeast and the Hars-keel's men, looking somewhat worse for the local scavengers having been at them. And I pa.s.sed almost entirely through the area without incident... until the ground opened beneath my feet and I fell into the huge lake below. I thought certain my time had come to leave this world for the next. Imagine my surprise when I saw the three of you standing on a dock practically right in my path."

"I can imagine," Conan said. His voice was dry.

"Well, anyway, what has that tiny mind of yours come up with for a way out of here?"

Curse or no curse, if Lalo kept talking that way, Conan doubted if he could maintain his temper much longer. He smiled benignly, though, and said, "At first we merely thought to find a way out, to escape."

"At first?" Elashi and Tull echoed in unison.