A thrill of horror coursed through Conan. There was a light of intelligence in those auric globes. But if the brain behind them could reason, it was a form of reasoning too inhuman for the mind of man to know it. It did not see the beautiful woman as other than prey. The spike-toothed mouth opened, and Jondra was drawn closer.

Conan's spear came up. "Crom!" he bellowed, and his heels thudded his fear-ridden mount into a charge. His spearpoint held steady on one leathery bulge. He clamped his knees tightly on the animal against the shock he had seen throw others to the ground, but even so the force of the blow rocked through him, staggering his horse to its knees.

With sinuous grace and blinding speed the glittering beast twisted, smashing Conan with the leg from which Jondra dangled. Breath rushed from the big Cimmerian as he was lifted and hurled through the air. Stony ground rushed up to slam what little air remained from his chest. Desperately he fought to breathe, forced numbed muscles to move, rolled to hands and knees, staggered to his feet. Jondra lay on her back near him, writhing, bare b.r.e.a.s.t.s heaving as she struggled for air.

The beast turned its attention to the Cimmerian, Jondra's jerkin still tangled in its claws. What remained of his horse lay quivering beneath the creature; gobbets of flesh fell from its fanged jaws.

In what he knew was a futile gesture Conan drew his ancient broadsword.

Steel made no mark on those infragile scales. He could not move quickly enough to escape the creature's attack unburdened, much less carrying Jondra, and he could not leave her behind. Yet he would not die without fighting.

"Ho, Conan!" Swaying in his saddle, Telades rode toward the beast from behind. The mail over his chest was rent, and blood drenched him, but he gripped his spear firmly. "Get her away, northlander!" Pounding his boots into his horse's flanks, he forced it forward.

Iridescent scales flashed as the creature spun.

"No!" Conan shouted.

Flame engulfed the shaven-headed hunter, and the beast leaped to tear at smouldering flesh.

The Cimmerian would not waste Telades' sacrifice. Sheathing his blade,he scooped Jondra from the ground and darted into a narrow cleft, pursued by the sounds of crunching bone.

As the terrible grinding faded behind him, Jondra stirred in his arms.

"I did not mean for them to die," she whispered. Her eyes were horror-laden pools.

"You wanted to hunt the beast," he said, not slowing his steady stride.

Under other circ.u.mstances he would have searched for survivors. Now he thought only of getting Jondra far from that charnel scene, back to the relative safety of the camp.

Jondra pressed herself more firmly against his broad chest as if sheltering from storm winds in the safety of a huge boulder. "Telades gave his life for me," she murmured, shivering. "Truly, I did not wish it to be. Oh, Conan, what can I do?"

Conan stopped dead, and she huddled in his arms as though hiding from his icy blue gaze. "Leave these mountains," he said harshly. "Go back to Shadizar. Forget this beast, and always remember the men who died for your foolishness and pride."

Anger and arrogance flared across her face. Her fist rose, then abruptly fell limp. Tears leaked down her cheeks. "I will," she wept. "Before all the G.o.ds, I swear it."

"It will not repay Telades' sacrifice," he said, "but it will at least mean that you value what he did."

Gently she touched Conan's cheek. "Never have I wanted a man to guide me, but you almost make me. ..." Small white teeth bit her full underlip, and she dropped her eyes. "Will you come back to Shadizar with me?" she said softly, shifting in his grasp again so that her full, round b.r.e.a.s.t.s were exposed to his gaze.

"Perhaps," he replied gruffly, and began walking once more, with his full concentration on the twists of the cleft and the stony ground beneath his feet. Only a fool would refuse a woman like the one he held. And only a fool would disregard the advice he had given. But Telades had become a friend, and the man had died for him as well as for her.

A part of the Cimmerian's code demanded that Telades' death, offered in place of his own, should be repaid, just as another part of that code demanded that he see Jondra and Tamira to safety. At the moment the second seemed much more easily accomplished than the first! How, he thought, could he slay a beast that steel could not harm? If he took no notice of the charms Jondra displayed in his arms, it was no wonder.

Chapter 17.

Tamira was the first person Conan saw when he strode into the camp with his arms full of half-naked n.o.blewoman and the sun a b.l.o.o.d.y ball balanced on jagged peaks. The slender young thief regarded him with fists on hips and a jaundiced eye for the way Jondra clung to him. Then Jondra looked around dazedly, revealing her tear-stained face. Tamira's jaw dropped, and she dashed into the red-walled tent to return with a cloak.

As Conan stood Jondra upright, the smaller woman enfolded her in soft blue wool. When he released his hold on her, the n.o.blewoman sank to her knees.

Tamira knelt beside her, drawing Jondra's head to her shoulder and glaring up at the big Cimmerian.

"What happened?" she demanded hotly.

"We found the beast she hunts. Hunted. Have any of the others returned?"

Dark eyes widening with sudden fear, Tamira shook her head. "None. They . . . they could not all be dead?"

"Of course not," Conan said. He would be very surprised ever to see another of them alive, but there was no point in terrifying the wench more than she already was. Better to find work to occupy her mind. "See to her," he told Tamira. "She never stopped crying for a hundred paces together all theway back here."

"And no wonder," Tamira replied hotly, "with no better care than you've taken of her." She bundled the unresisting n.o.blewoman off to her tent, leaving Conan standing open-mouthed.

He would never understand women, he decided. Never. Then he became aware of the remaining hunters gathered around him, looking at him worriedly.

Looking to him for commands, he realized with some surprise. Firmly he put all thoughts of women from his mind.

"At dawn," he told them, "we leave for Shadizar. But first we must survive until then. No man sleeps tonight, unless he wants to risk waking with his throat cut. And no fires. Break open the supply packs."

With as much haste as Conan could manage, the hunters prepared themselves. All of the arrows were shared out, three quivers per man, and each man had an extra spear, as well as a waterbag and a pouch of dried meat. A coward or two might flee, with the means at hand, but he would not condemn the others to death if flight was required.

An a.s.sault from hillmen might come at any time, from any quarter save the cliff that backed Jondra's tent. Even if the first thrust were beaten off, they could not afford to be there when daylight came, pinned like bugs beneath a butcher bird's claws. They would attempt to retreat after an attack, or during, if it could not be driven back. And if they were on the point of being overwhelmed, every man would have to see to his own survival as best he could.

Worst of all would be an attack by the beast. As he moved through the darkening twilight from man to man, Conan left each with same final words. "Do not try to fight the beast. If it comes, run, and hope your G.o.ds feel kindly toward you."

Not far from Jondra's tent Conan settled into a flat-footed squat. Did the worst come, the others had only themselves to think of. He would need to be close to the women if he was to get them away.

A crunch of stone underfoot announced Tamira's approach, and he shifted his pair of spears to make a s.p.a.ce for her.

"She's asleep," the slender woman sighed as she dropped to the ground beside him. "She wore herself out with tears. And who's to question it, after what she saw?"

"It happened by her command," Conan said quietly, "and for her pride.

That Brythunian told her of the beast, and I told her what I had discovered of it."

"You are a hard man, Cimmerian. As hard as these mountains."

"I am a man," he told her simply.

For a time Tamira was silent. Finally she said, "Jondra says you are returning to Shadizar with her."

Conan gave a sour grunt. "It seems she talked a lot for a woman on the point of exhaustion."

"She plans to have apartments constructed for you in her palace."

"Ridiculous."

"She intends to dress you all in silk, with wristlets and armbands of gold to show off your muscles."

"What?" He thought he heard a giggle beside him in the deepening dark, and glared at her. "Enjoy your jokes, girl," he growled. "I, myself, do not find them funny."

"You were her first man, too, Conan. You cannot know what that means to a woman, but I do. She cares for you. Or perhaps it is for the image of you that she cares. She asked me if there were other men like you. She even compared you with Eldran, that Brythunian. She pretended not to remember his name, but she did."

Something in her voice struck him. "Mitra blind me if you don't pity her." His tone was incredulous.

"She knows less of men than I," the slender thief replied defensively.

"It is a hard thing to be a woman in a world with men."

"It would be harder in a world without them," he said dryly, and shefisted him in the ribs.

"I don't find your jokes," she began, but his hand closed over her mouth.

Intently he listened for the sound he was sure he had heard before.

There. The sc.r.a.pe of a hoof-an unshod hoof-on stone.

"Go to the tent," he whispered, giving her a push in the right direction. "Rouse her, and be ready to flee. Hurry!"

At that instant a cry broke the night. "By the will of the true G.o.ds!"

And hordes of hillmen swarmed through the camp on s.h.a.ggy mountain horses, curved tulwar blades gleaming in the pale moonlight as they rose and fell.

Conan hefted a spear and threw at the nearest target. A turbanned rider, transfixed, screamed and toppled from his galloping horse. Another hillman, calling loudly on his G.o.ds, closed with raised steel. There was no chance for the Cimmerian to throw his second spear. He dropped flat and swung it like a club at the legs of the charging animal. With a sharp crack the haft of the spear struck; horse and rider somersaulted. Before the hillman could rise, Conan put a forearm's length of spear through his chest.

All about the Cimmerian steel clanged against steel. Men shouted battle cries, shouted death rattles. In that deadly, b.l.o.o.d.y tempest an ingrained barbarian sense gave Conan warning. Pulling the spear free, he whirled in time to block a slashing tulwar. Deftly he rotated his spear point against the curved blade, thrust over it into his bearded attacker's throat. Dying, the hillman clutched the weapon that killed him with both hands. His horse ran out from under him, and as he fell he wrenched the spear from Conan's grip.

"Conan!" Tamira's shriek cut through the din to the Cimmerian's ears.

"Conan!"

Desperately the Cimmerian's eyes sought for the slender woman . . . and found her, lifted to a hillman's saddle by a fist in her hair. Grinning broadly through his beard, the tribesman tauntingly lowered his blade toward her throat. With one hand she frantically attempted to fend off the razor edge, while the other clutched at his robes.

Conan's broadsword came into his hand. Two bounds took him to Tamira's side; the hillman's head went back, and his mouth fell open as the Cimmerian's steel slid smoothly between his ribs. Lifeless fingers loosened in Tamira's hair, and Conan caught her as she fell. Trembling arms snaked round his neck; she sobbed limply against his chest.

With a corpse on its back the horse galloped on, and in the s.p.a.ce of a breath Conan had taken in the situation in the camp. The fight went badly. Had gone badly, for there was little of it left. Few of the turbanned warriors remained in the camp, and they were occupied with mutilating the dead.

Murderous cries from the dark told of hillmen spreading in pursuit of hunters.

Jondra's tent was in flames.

A chill went through the big Cimmerian. As he watched, the last of the tent collapsed, sending a shower of sparks into the night. If Jondra was in that, there was no hope for her. He hoped that she had gotten out, but he could not help her now. He had a woman to care for, and no time to spare for another.

Bending to catch Tamira behind the knees, he heaved her onto his shoulder like a sack. A half-formed protest came through her weeping, but the flow of tears did not slow. None of the tribesmen slashing at corpses noticed the muscular youth or his well-curved burden as he faded into the night.

Like a spirit Conan moved from shadow to shadow. Darkness alone, however, was no shield, he knew. From the clouded velvet sky a nacreous moon shed little light, but enough to make movement plain to a discerning eye, and Tamira's short, white robe made matters no better. The night-clad rocks were filled with the clatter of galloping hooves on stone, the shouts of hunting hillmen. They hunted, and, given time, they would find.

The Cimmerian kept moving, always away from the noise of the hillmen, and his eyes searched for a hiding place. A line of deeper blackness within the dark caught his gaze. He made his way to it and found a horizontalfracture in the face of a cliff. It was wide enough to hold Tamira, deep enough for her to remain hidden from all but someone sticking an arm into it.

Lowering the girl from his shoulder, he thrust her into the crack. "Stay quiet," he told her in low tones, "and do not move. I'll be back as quickly as I can. Listen to me, woman!"

"He . . . he was going to kill me," she sobbed. "He was l-laughing." She clutched at him, but he gently removed her hands from his shoulders.

" 'Tis over, now. You are safe, Tamira."

"Don't leave me."

"I must find Jondra. Remain here till I return, and I will get the three of us out of these mountains." He had thought his voice full of confidence-certainly more confidence than he felt, at the moment-but she drew back from him into the crack in the cliff.

"Go then," she said sullenly. He could not see her, but her tears seemed to dry up suddenly. "Well? Go, if you want to."

He hesitated, but Jondra was still to be found, and whether alive or dead he did not know. Tamira would be safe here until he could return. "I will come back quickly," he said, and slipped away into the night.

Tamira peered from the crevice, but though her night vision was like that of a cat, she could see nothing. Conan had disappeared. She settled back sulkily.

She had nearly been killed, had been taunted with her own death, and he went after her when it should have been clear even to a blind man that she needed the comfort of his arms. But then, were not all men blind? It was not fair that he could affect her so much, while he cared so little. Once she had been able to think calmly and logically about any man. Once-it seemed a hundred years ago-before she allowed the young Cimmerian giant to. ... Even alone in the dark she blushed at the thought.

She would not think of him any more, she decided. Drawing herself to the front of the crack, she tried once more to pierce the darkness. It was futile, like attempting to peer through a raven's wing. A chill wind whined through the mountains, and she pulled her knees up, huddling, painfully aware of how little warmth was to be had from her short tunic.

Where had he gone? To look for Jondra, he claimed, but how did he intend to find her in the night? Was the n.o.blewoman even alive? The tent had been aflame, Tamira remembered. Nothing could have survived in that. Except ... the iron chests containing Jondra's jewels.

Tamira's eyes gleamed with delight, and she bit her lip to suppress a giggle. "Let him search for Jondra," she whispered. "He'll return to find me gone. Gone from the mountains, and the rubies with me."

With the suppleness of a cat she rolled from the crevice, came to her feet in the night. The cold breeze ruffled her white tunic about her thighs.

For an instant she considered the problem of that garment's paleness.

"Well, I cannot go naked," she said finally, then clamped her teeth shut. She could not afford to make a sound, now.

Silently she glided into the dark, moving with all the stealthy skill she possessed. No matter what was said in Shadizar, in the taverns of the Desert, concerning Conan, she was the best thief in the city.

A sound halted her, a grating as of boots on rock, and she wished she had her daggers. Whoever it was, she thought contemptuously, he was clumsy.

Noiselessly she moved away from he-who-stepped-on-rocks . . . and was buried beneath a rush of smelly robes and unwashed flesh.

She kicked at the cursing men who swarmed over her, struck at them until her wrists were caught in a grip like a vise. Hands fumbled at her body. She saw a bearded face, merciless and hard, and a curved dagger raised high. A scream choked in her throat. So many men to kill one woman. It was unfair, she thought dully. Her tunic was grasped at the neck and ripped open to the waist.

"See!" a voice said hoa.r.s.ely. "It is as I said. A woman, and young."The hard face did not change. "A lowland woman! A vessel of l.u.s.t and corruption!"

"Even so," a third man said, "remember the Imalla's commands. And remember Walid's fate before you think to disobey." The hard-faced man blinked at that, and frowned.

"Take me to the Imalla," Tamira gasped. She knew that Imallas were holy men among the hill tribes. Surely a holy man would protect her.