path, to the iron-bound door in the outerwall. With one hand he lifted the bolt and threw the door open,disclosing the three shadowy figures which waited like black vulturesoutside. Into their eager arms Conan thrust the innkeeper.
A horrible, blood-choked scream rose from the Zamboulan's throat, butthere was no response from the silent tavern. The people there were usedto screams outside the wall. Aram Baksh fought like a wild man, hisdistended eyes turned frantically on the Cimmerian's face. He found nomercy there. Conan was thinking of the scores of wretches who owed theirbloody doom to this man's greed.
In glee the negroes dragged him down the road, mocking his frenziedgibberings. How could they recognize Aram Baksh in this half-naked,bloodstained figure, with the grotesquely shorn beard and unintelligiblebabblings? The sounds of the struggle came back to Conan, standingbeside the gate, even after the clump of figures had vanished among thepalms.
Closing the door behind him, Conan returned to his horse, mounted andturned westward, toward the open desert, swinging wide to skirt thesinister belt of palm groves. As he rode, he drew from his belt a ringin which gleamed a jewel that snared the starlight in a shimmeringiridescence. He held it up to admire it, turning it this way and that.The compact bag of gold pieces clinked gently at his saddle-bow, like apromise of the greater riches to come.
'I wonder what she'd say if she knew I recognized her as Nafertari andhim as Jungir Khan the instant I saw them,' he mused. 'I knew the Starof Khorala, too. There'll be a fine scene if she ever guesses that Islipped it off his finger while I was tying him with his sword-belt. Butthey'll never catch me, with the start I'm getting.'
He glanced back at the shadowy palm groves, among which a red glare wasmounting. A chanting rose to the night, vibrating with savageexultation. And another sound mingled with it, a mad, incoherentscreaming, a frenzied gibbering in which no words could bedistinguished. The noise followed Conan as he rode westward beneath thepaling stars.
Shadows in Zamboula Page 9
