Conan the Rebel (4 page)

'I will do that for you, beloved, if I must,' Aliel vowed to his wife. 'Now come!'

They fled onward. Young, hardy, they could have distanced their mail-burdened pursuers. But no mortal goes faster than a lead ball from a sling. Abruptly there came a shattering sound, and Aliel went down. The back of his skull was no more. The kindly grain rustled to and fro to hide that sight from Bêlit.

She held Kedron in her left arm. Her right hand gripped the spear. She ran.

Anguish exploded in her left thigh. A second ball had struck. She stumbled, recovered, tried to go on, and knew she was lamed. With great care, she dropped her weapon, uncovered a milk-heavy breast, brought her son close and gave him that gift for a moment. Then she laid him on the ground, took the spear again, and gave him freedom.

Thereafter she waited at bay.

'I killed one of them, and wounded two more,' Bêlit told Conan. 'A mistake. I should have done as my mother did. They overcame me.'

He held her to him.

'No need of relating what happened next,' she went on in a while. She had not wept. 'They did leave me alone on the voyage

kick to Stygia, and let me heal in flesh if not spirit. After all, I was now valuable merchandise. So were Jehanan and such of our friends as they had caught, but I was kept apart and saw little of them. I heard that no few took sick and died in the foul hold where they were chained.'

Her voice was dry. 'It turned out that this was a one-time venture. A Stygian aristocrat and enterpriser named Ramwas had warned enough about the Suba and our post that he decided a raid would be worthwhile, for plunder as well as slaves. It would acquire special equipment, though, to break our defence'

Conan frowned. No matter pity for Bêlit, his barbarian practicality had come to the fore. 'Why is that mist of sleep not seen in war?' he asked.

'It is too costly, in too short a supply,' she answered. 'Certain swamp-dwellers in Zembabwei brew it from a poisonous fruit found nowhere else. The agents of Ramwas could only collect enough for this single task, at a price to make it worthwhile, because it chanced they had wormed out a shameful secret from the chiefs past and threatened to spread it abroad. At that, the preparation of such an amount took months.'

'How do you know this?'

'Ramwas told me once, when he was in his cups and boastful,' she sighed. 'He put most of the captives on the auction block, but Jehanan and me he kept for himself. Jehanan was to be a plantation labourer We hugged each other, in a single heartbeat, before we were parted. I – Ramwas had me brought to his harem.

'First – he did not want inconveniences – he gave me into the hands of a witch, who cast a spell that made me barren. What was done left no mark on my skin, but – Oh, Conan, the pain of that day I can put behind me, but never the pain that I cannot bear your child!'

Muscles bunched in the Cimmerian's jaws. He wanted to smash something. Instead, he held Bêlit very gently to him, though he shivered.

She laughed a little, as a she-wolf might yelp. 'He got small joy of me,' she said. 'I almost raked his eyeballs out. He barely escaped, yammering. Since whips leave scars, he – well, he had the juice of

purple lotus forced between my lips, which paralyses the body for hours. But not often.'

'And in hope, I think,' Conan whispered. 'You are so lovely.'

Bêlit shrugged. 'Perhaps. Be that as it may, I began to see that I did wrong to yearn for death. What revenge can the poor dead take? No, I must use my wits, so that Hoiakim, Shaaphi, Aliel, and Kedron may have many slaves to attend them.'

A flaw of wind made the ship lurch and the sail crack.

'Ramwas had business in Khemi,' Bêlit said. 'I never pretended aught but hatred for him. I could not bring myself to anything else. I could, though, I could be mild enough about it that he brought me along. For Khemi is a seaport -'

The new moon sank in a greenish west, the glimmer of the old in her arms. Silence brimmed the street beneath ogive windows through which coolness entered. Their grill-work filled with violet and the even star

In a chamber of red velvet, Bêlit left the couch where she had been waiting. Nearby stood a glass vase full of lilies. She ripped the blossoms out and cast them on the floor. A blow against the tabletop shattered the bowl of the vase. Jagged neck in her fist, she glided to the door.

Her other fist smote the panel, again and again. 'Open!' she moaned. 'Open, let me out, send for a physician, I perish!'

The bolt clicked, the barrier swung wide. Lamplight in the corridor beyond revealed, gigantic, the guardian eunuch. He touched his sword, but his face was suspicions as he asked, 'What do you want, woman?'

Bêlit grinned wide. 'This,' she said, and drove the broken glass past his jowls, into his throat.

She twisted her weapon. He reeled back but could not scream, only gurgle, because she kept after him, thrusting and twisting. He sank to his knees, to his belly. His blood spurted across walls and floor.

'Would you had been Ramwas,' she said when he lay slack. But time was scant. She plucked his Ambulant scimitar from its scabbard and padded off to the stairwell. Lamps flickered in brackets along it; shadows moved monstrous. Bêlit hurried downward.

At the bottom, where a door gave on the world, a second sentinel was posted. He was an entire man, burly, blue-cheeked, in helmet, cuirass, leather kilt, and graves A pike stood in his grasp, a blade was sheathed at his hip. 'Hold!' he exclaimed. The walls of the antechamber flung that word back in echoes.

Bêlit kept the scimitar behind her. She gave him the smile she used to give Aliel. 'Hold?' she murmured. 'Why, yes, in greatest pleasure, if you wish to be held, soldier. A girl grows weary of the harem.'

Half perturbed, half allured, wholly confounded, he retreated from her. She whipped her weapon forward and attacked.

Almost, she killed him. He sprang back, eluded the whistling edge, brought his pike shaft up to block its second cut. Bêlit slewed her blade around and sliced into his thigh.

He yelled for help. She closed in, under his guard, smiting right and left. He dropped the pike. Had he kept his wits, he might have used it well against her – but a woman pressing in on him, laughing, reckless of life, roused terror. Bêlit had learned swordplay from her father; she had killed buffalo and lions in Rush

'Witch, witch!' he screamed, and snatched after his own blade. Bêlit's stroke caught his wrist on the way, and made it useless. He gaped. Bêlit hewed at his neck.

'I went out,' she told Conan. 'What cared I about what might prowl around? Night fell swiftly, to cover me.

'I sought the harbour There I slew a watchman and stole a felucca. By then there was an ebb tide to bear me off.

'Understand, I cherished no hopes, except for revenge. I expected my death in battle, and felt surprised when it came not. Well – I am become a harp that Derketa plays on, to call men to her queendom.

'For a few hours I did let a dream flicker in me, of regaining Dan-marcah. Soon, though, the gods told me otherwise. The current southward is strong; unless granted favourable winds, which I was not, I could never single-hand a boat against it. Yet

ample food and water were aboard – a destiny?

'So I made my way back to the Black Coast, at last to my Suba.

'The survivors among them had returned after the ship departed. Diminished, they were prey for neighbour tribes, who came looting and slave-catching. As the daughter of Bangulu, I helped them regain some strength.

'Yet clear was to see, the Suba would not soon be great again. And I... I had my score yet to pay.

'A vessel from Shem came in on the chance of trade. With what ivory, apes, and peacocks we could muster, I sent back a commission for a war-craft to be built and outfitted. Soon she arrived, this beautiful, vengeful Tigress of mine – of ours, Conan. My Suba fishermen needed but little exercise to learn the use of her. They are warriors as well, and have death-debts of their own. Moreover, the booty they bring home buys their tribe a new beginning.

'I am the daughter of Bangulu. They follow me wherever I lead. Now they will follow you too, Conan.'

The calm that had been upon Bêlit broke. She grabbed the rail harder still, arched her back, and screamed at the sky, 'Stygia, Argos, yes, many in Shem and Rush, what you have done! I curse you, I, Hoiakim's and Shaaphi's daughter, Jehanan's sister, Aliel's wife, Kedron's mother! Fire be upon you forever!'

Conan gathered her to him. 'Beloved,' he said shakenly, 'you are hurt, beloved, and would that my sword had been there to defend you. At least it is here for your revenge.'

Bêlit cast herself against his breast and wept. Later she raised her eyes to his, gold-brown against ice-blue, and said low: 'Conan, I have been with no man since I escaped, until you. In you, my joy and my hope are reborn.'

'And mine in you,' he murmured.

Her fingers ruffled his hair. 'Vengeance, yes. But afterward, Conan, a life together. If the jealous gods allow.'

IV

A Daughter of the Free Folk

Where the Styx, flowing north from unknown sources, bent west on its long journey to the sea, was the north-eastern corner of the Stygian kingdom. South of this rose ever steeper highlands, which finally crested and descended again toward the primitive but powerful realm of Keshan. Those hills and mountains formed the province of Taia.

Shuat of Stygia, commanding the governor's militia against rebellious natives, led a detachment up the Helu. That river ran swiftly through its vale, eastward until it joined the Styx, creating a strip more fertile than most of the region. Here the Taians, who elsewhere were mainly herdsmen, dwelt in farming villages; here was the main artery of trade for the province, and of civilization. Or so it had been. Now, at his back, smoke from the thatch of mud huts rose to stain heaven, date palms and orange groves lay hewn down, vultures descended on corpses, lines of captives stumbled in chains on their way to the slave market at Luxur. As yet the right bank was untouched; but its turn would come.

Shuat, a big, hard-faced man, rode at the head of his force. On his left, a standard-bearer held on high the snake pennon of his rank. Immediately behind him, amongst his personal guards, came his chariot. Thereafter, in a cloud of dust, boom of drums, tramp of feet and hooves, creak of wheels, the regiment followed. Ahead of him the riverside road lifted sharply with the terrain, and the valley narrowed into a gorge. Its sides were red rock, vivid against a sky where the sun blazed fierce. There the stream dashed white and loud.

His adjutant trotted up to join the commander on the right, slowed his own horse, and reported, 'Sir, Captain Menemhet requests orders as to where we shall camp for the night.'

'What, when it is scarcely past noon?' Shuat snapped.

The adjutant pointed. 'My lord knows well that that defile is a long one. We cannot get through it, out onto open ground, before dark. May I respectfully suggest that it is no good place for us to be attacked?'

'I hope we shall be.' Noting the officer's surprise, Shuat deigned to speak on: 'Have you considered why we are ravaging the valley, instead of merely garrisoning it as was done in past uprisings? After all, it yielded more taxes than the entire rest of this wretched domain. Well, it has been even more important to the highlanders, both for what it produces and because of what it once meant in their history. Were it left intact, they would get supplies smuggled to them by their kin-folk here, and we might spend years chasing down their last insurgent bands. This way, outrage and a sense of desperation should provoke them to headlong tactics. A troop that has seemingly boxed itself in a ravine can tempt those of them who are nearby into an immediate assault.

'If that happens, fear not. I am not so foolish as to try pushing on. We will repulse them and then make an orderly withdrawal. Our men are well equipped, they are used to fighting in close ranks, they will inflict far heavier casualties than they suffer. That is my objective.'

'It is not for me to question my lord's wisdom,' said the adjutant dubiously.

Shuat gave a dour chuckle. 'Nevertheless you do. I agree, this seems much more expensive in every way than simply wearing the clansmen down as afore-time. But I have my orders. The rebellion must be crushed soon, regardless of price. I have laid my plans accordingly, and Governor Wenamon has approved them. He dared not do otherwise.'

'Sir?'

Shuat grew sombre. 'Those orders came lately from Khemi, countersigned on their way here by the king in Luxur. They were borne in a magical boat which made the journey in some three days. That I know from the date on the document, and from the priest-magician Hakketh who was aboard and now waits at Seyan for my report on this expedition.' He made a sign. 'I did not ask why the matter is so urgent. Before the hierophants of the Great Lord Set, one does not ask for reasons. One prostrates oneself and obeys.'

Despite the heat and brilliance of the day, the adjutant shivered.

Above the gorge, land rolled rugged, immense, to mountains which made a distance-purpled wall on its southern horizon. Save for scattered tamarisks and acacias, it was treeless, begrown with tawny grass and thorny shrubs. The largest of the boulders that lay strewn about had long since been piled into dolmens, where ancient heroes slept. Antelope grazed among those graves. They had drifted back here after folk drove cattle and goats to the safety of higher ground.

They bounded off as a troop of warriors approached. These were Taians, taller, more slender, darker of skin than Stygians. They tended to be handsome, their features broad-nosed, full-lipped, but regular, hair blue-black and straight, beards generally shaved off. Most wore little besides a kilt dyed to show the owner's clan, a part of it draped over the left shoulder; at night it became a blanket rolled around the person. Their chief arms were dirk, spear, sling, bow, axe, though some possessed Stygian short-swords or curved blades from the East. Many bore rectangular hide shields, reaching from knee to chin, and on many of these, the bright paint included a solar disc.