Conan the Hunter Part 30

"The beasts tore her into a thousand pieces and scattered the bits about. G.o.ds, what a sight! They came for me next. I could barely raise my sword to defend myself. One beast I slew by luck and a well-placed sword-thrust. The next tore my leg off like the wing of a fly!" He thumped the wooden stump with a finger. "While he devoured it, I stuck my blade down his maw. He turned to stone like the other, but my sword was stuck. Then the third gargoyle suddenly turned-as if being summoned-and went out, back down the stairs.

"I dragged myself to the burning bowl that the accursed priestess had brought into the room and sealed my leg wound with its hot coals. Then I blacked out from the pain. When I woke up, the fortress was shaking and trembling. Stone cracked around me, and a hole gaped in the outer wall of the room. I pulled myself to it, narrowly avoiding the slabs of rock that fell from the ceiling. I threw myself through the gap and rolled down the side of the fortress. Its sides leaned crazily, and I slid for dozens of feet before I hit the sand. By Mitra, I know not how my bones held together!"

"Kezankians are made of strong stuff," a grinning Malgoresh commented, nodding sagely.

"Aye, but not as strong as the stuff of Cimmerians! I would have died in the desert had Kaletos not intervened."

Kailash pointed to the man who sat next to him. Conan had forgotten about him in the excitement of seeing the hillman. Kaletos? The name was familiar... Madesus's mentor! Conan stared at him curiously. Kaletos looked like a much older version of Madesus. He had only a few strands of white hair left, but his bright green eyes were strangely youthful.

Conan's gaze was drawn to the amulet around Kaletos's neck, reminding him of the amulet he had recovered from the fortress. Conan removed the talisman from its wrappings and handed it to the ancient priest, who accepted it with a look of sorrow.

"How did you find Kailash? Did you follow us through the desert?" Conan asked, mystified.

"Nay," the pale-lipped Kaletos answered in his strange Corinthian accent. "My young friend Madesus bid me to help thee. When he fell to the a.s.sa.s.sin's blade, I sensed his demise." He raised the amulet that Conan had handed to him. "It was this I followed," he said.

"Did you have horses? Swiftly you traveled, to reach the inn before me!"

"Thy friend will tell thee the tale," the priest said with a wry smile.

As Conan watched, Kaletos's white robes began to s.h.i.+mmer. They gave off an unbearably bright light. Conan blocked the light with his hands and squinted through his fingers, hoping for a glimpse of the priest.

What the Cimmerian saw next, he kept to himself for the rest of his life. Through the dazzling white light, Kaletos's ancient face was changing. The lines of age vanished, though the piercing, wide-set eyes looked the same. A long, patriarchal beard had appeared on his face, and his hair was long and flowing. It was the visage of Mitra, Lord of Light. Before Conan shut his eyes and bowed his head in the overpowering presence, he saw something else.

Beside the white-robed ent.i.ty, another had appeared. It grasped the amulet and stood smiling for a moment, looking straight at Conan. Then Madesus was whispering to him. "We thank you, Conan. Grieve not for me, for I am now at peace, my worldly tasks done."

Following that, the two vanished in the blink of an eye.

The remaining men stood gaping at each other, speechless. After a few moments of stunned silence, they began talking. No one else in the taproom had seen the white glow, or anything else that the three men had witnessed.

Kailash shook his head. "I remember Kaletos finding me in the desert, feverish and near dead. We had horses, or so I thought, and he took me to a temple, where priests tended to my leg. When I was ready to ride, we made for the inn here."

"Aye, you arrived only this morning!" added Malgoresh.

"On horses?" Conan asked.

"Yes..." Kailash paused, as if his memory were troubling him." We tied them outside."

"When I entered, I saw no horses outside," Conan said solemnly.

The Kezankian's face paled. He brooded for a while before speaking again. "A wise man meddles not in the affairs of priests and wizards."

Then he reached for his tankard of ale, smiling.

Lifting his own tankard, Conan nodded in agreement.