"Slayer!" they cried as one. "One of the Sivani is dead, by the deeds of a Sivani!"

Masrok raised its weapons. No particle of the demon's attention remained on Conan. The Cimmerian spun to hasten after the women, and he found them halted before the pa.s.sage entrance, Kandar confronting them with the curved blade of his tulwar.

The Prince's face was pale and sweaty, and his eyes rolled to the tensing obsidian giants with barely controlled terror. "You can keep the Khitan wench," he rasped, "but Vyndra is mine. Decide quickly, barbarian. If we are still here when their battle begins, none of us will survive."

"I have decided already," Conan said, and his broadsword struck. Twice steel rang on steel and then the Vendhyan Prince was falling with a crimson gash where his throat had been. "Run!" Conan commanded the women. He did not look back as they darted into the tunnel. The ground rumbled beneath his feet. The battle of demons was beginning.

Sound pursued them in their flight through the subterranean pa.s.sages.

The crash of lightnings confined and the roar of thunder imprisoned.

The earth heaved, and dirt and rock showered from above.

Sheathing his sword, Conan scooped up the women, one over each shoulder, and redoubled his speed, fleeing from the pool of light into the debris-filled darkness. The flames on distantly s.p.a.ced torches wavered as the walls on which they hung danced.

Then the stairs were before him. He took them three at a time. In the vast-domed temple chamber, ma.s.sive columns shivered and the towering statue swayed. Without slowing, Conan ran past the tall bronze doors and into the night.

Outside, the circle of torches remained, swaying as the ground heaved in swells like the sea, but the soldiers were fled. Trees a hundred and fifty feet high cracked like whips.

Conan ran into the forest until a root caught his foot and sent him sprawling with his burdens. He could not rise again, only cling as the earth shook and rippled in waves, but at last he looked back.

Bolts of lightning burst toward the sky from the temple, hurling great blocks of stone into the air, casting a blue illumination over the frenzied forest. And dome by dome, columned terrace by columned terrace, the huge temple fell, collapsing inward, ever sinking as it leaped like a thing alive. Lightning flashes revealed the ruin no higher then the flailing trees surrounding it, then half their height, then only a mound of rubble.

Abruptly there was no more lightning. The ground gave one final tortured heave and was still.

Conan rose unsteadily to his feet. He could no longer see even the mound. In truth he did not believe it was any longer there. "Swallowed by the earth," he said softly, "and the entrance sealed once more."

His arms filled suddenly with naked, weeping women, but his mind was on other matters. Horses. Whether or not the demons had been buried with the tomb, he did not intend to remain long enough to find out.

Epilogue.

Conan rode through the dawn with his jaw set grimly, wondering if perhaps he could not find just a few Vendhyan soldiers who would try to contest his pa.s.sage or perhaps question the Vendhyan cavalry saddle on his horse. It would be better than the icy daggers of silence being hurled against his back by Vyndra and Chin Kou. Of necessity he gripped the reins of their horses in one hand; the fool women would not have left the forest otherwise.

"You must find us garments," Vyndra said suddenly. "I will not be seen like this."

"It is not seemly," Chin Kou added.

Conan sighed. It was not the first time they had made the demand, though they had no idea as to where he might obtain the clothes. The past hour of silence had come from his retort that they had already been seen by half the populace of Gwandiakan. He twisted in the saddle to look back at them. The two women still wore the veils, if nothing else. He had asked why, since they obviously hated the small squares of silk, but they had babbled incomprehensively at him about not being recognized, and both had gone into such a frenzy that someone might be watching, for all it had been pitch dark in the middle of the forest at the time, that he did not mention it again. They stared at him now with dark, furious eyes peeping over the top of their veils, yet each sat straight in her saddle, seemingly unaware of the nudity of which she complained.

"We are almost to the old well," he told them. "Kuie Hsi should be there with garb for you both."

"The well!" Vyndra exclaimed, suddenly trying to hide behind the high pommel of her saddle. "Oh, no!"

"There might be people!" Chin Kou moaned as she, too, contorted. Before they could slip from the saddles and hide-they had done that once already-Conan kicked his horse to a gallop, pulling theirs along behind, heedless of their wails of protest.

The wall of the old well remained, surrounded by trees much smaller than those of the forest. The well itself had long collapsed. A portion of a stone wall still stood nearby, perhaps once part of a caravansary.

There were people there as well. Conan grinned as he ran his eye over them. Hordo and Enam tossing dice. Hasan and Shamil seated with their backs against the wall. Kang Hou sipping from a tiny cup held delicately in his fingers, while Kuie Hsi crouched by a fire where a kettle steamed. The men looked the worse for wear, sprouting bandages and poultices, but they sprang to their feet with glad shouts at his appearance.

Kuie Hsi did not shout but rather came running with bundles in her arms. The other two women, Conan saw, had slid from the saddles and were hiding behind their horses. He dismounted, leaving them to their flurry of silks, and went to meet the men.

"I thought you were dead for certain this time," the one-eyed man muttered gruffly.

"Not I," Conan laughed, "nor any of the rest of us it seems. Our luck has not been so bad after all." The smiles faded from their faces, producing a frown on his. "What has happened?"

"A great deal," Kang Hou replied. "My niece brought much news with her.

For one thing, King Bhandarkar is dead at the hands of the Katari.

Fortunately Prince Jharim Kar managed to rally n.o.bles to Bhandarkar's young son, Bhunda Chand, who has been crowned as the new king, thus restoring order. On the unfortunate side, you, my cheng-li friend, have been condemned to death by Royal Edict, signed by Bhunda Chand, for complicit, in the a.s.sa.s.sination of his father."

Conan could only shake his head in amazement. "How did this madness come about?"

The Khitan merchant explained. "One of Jharim Kar's first moves after the coronation-and that was a hasty affair, it seems-was to ride for Gwandiakan with the young King and all the cavalry he could muster.

Supposedly he found evidence that Karim Singh was a leader of the plot, and thus must be arrested and executed before he could become a rallying point for disaffection. It is rumored, however, that the Prince blames the wazam for an incident involving one of his wives.

Whatever the truth, Bhunda Chand's column met the caravan on which we and the wazam traveled. And one Alyna, a servant of the Lady Vyndra, gave testimony that her mistress and a pale-skinned barbarian called Patil had plotted with Karim Singh and spoken in her presence of slaying Bhandarkar."

A shriek of fury announced that Vyndra had just had the same information from Kuie Hsi. The Vendhyan n.o.ble-woman stormed from behind the horses, clutching half-donned silken robes that fluttered after her. "I will strip her hide! That sow will speak the truth, or I will wear out switches on her!"

"I fear it is too late for any such action on your part," Kang Hou said. "Alyna-perhaps I should say the Lady Alyna-has already been confirmed in your t.i.tles and estates. The Royal Edict concerning you not only strips you of those possessions but gifts her with your life and person."

Vyndra's mouth worked silently for a moment, then she rounded on Conan.

"You are the cause of this! It is all your fault! What are you going to do about it?"

"I am to blame?" Conan growled. "I enslaved Alyna?" Vyndra's eyes almost started from her head in fury and he sighed. "Very well. I will take you to Turan with me."

"Turan!" she cried, throwing up her hands. "It is a pigsty, unfit for a civilized woman! It-" Suddenly it dawned on her that her gesture had bared her to the waist. Shrieking, she s.n.a.t.c.hed the still-sliding silk and dashed for the shelter of the horses.

"A woman whose temper equals her great beauty," Kang Hou said, and whose deviousness and vindictiveness exceed both."

Conan waved the words aside. "What of Gwandiakan? Will it be safe to hide there for a day or two while we recuperate?"

"That will not be possible," Kuie Hsi said, joining them. "The people of Gwandiakan took the earthquake as a sign from the G.o.ds, especially when they discovered that carts had been a.s.sembled to take the children from the city to an unknown destination. A wall of the fortress had collapsed. The people stormed the fortress, freeing the imprisoned children. Soldiers who tried to stop them were torn limb from limb.

Jharim Kar has promised justice in the matter, but in the meanwhile his soldiers patrol the streets heavily. I cannot believe any Western foreigner would long escape their notice."

"I am glad for the children," Conan said, "for all it had nothing to do with me, but this means we must ride for the mountains from here. And the sooner the better, I think. What of you, Kang Hou? Are you, too, proscribed?"

"I am but a humble merchant," the Khitan replied, "and so, no doubt, beneath Alyna's notice. To my good fortune. As for your journey over the mountains, I fear that not all who came with you will return to Turan. You will pardon me." Bowing, he left before Conan could ask what he meant, but Hasan took his place.

"I must speak with you," the young Turanian said. "Alone." Still frowning after Kang Hou, Conan let himself be drawn off from the others. Hasan pressed a folded square of parchment into the Cimmerian's hand. "When you return to Sultanapur, Conan, take that to the House of Perfumed Doves and say it is for Lord Khalid."

"So you are the one who will not return to Turan," Conan said, turning over the square of parchment in his hands. "And what message is it you send to Yildiz's spy master?"

"You know of him?"

"More is known on the streets of Sultanapur than the lords of Turan would believe. But you have not answered my question."

The Turanian drew a deep breath. "I was sent to discover if a connection exists between the Vendhyans and the death of the High Admiral. Not one question have I asked concerning that, yet I know already this land is so full of intrigues within intrigues that no clear answer can ever be found. I say as much in the letter. As well I say that I can find no evidence connecting the 'fishermen' of Sultanapur with the matter, and that the rumors of a northland giant in the pay of Vendhyans is just that. A rumor. Lord Khalid will recognize my hand, and so know it for a true report. It is unsealed. You may read it if you wish."

Conan stuffed the parchment into his belt pouch. There would be time for reading-and for deciding whether to visit the House of Perfumed Doves-later. "Why are you remaining?" he asked. "Chin Kou."

"Yes. Kang Hou has no objections to a foreigner marrying into his family." Hasan snorted a laugh. "After years of avoiding it, it seems I will become a spice merchant after all."