Conan The Freebooter

by L. Sprague De Camp

  Even with this advantage, the weak Yildiz could not have conquered his aggressive brother Teyaspa had it not been for his mother, a Kothian woman named Khushia. This formidable old dame, the real ruler of Turan, pre­ferred Yildiz because he was more docile, and Teyaspa was driven into exile. He sought refuge in Iranistan but discovered that the king of that land was corresponding with Yildiz in regard to poisoning him. In an attempt to reach Vendhya, he was captured by a nomadic Hyrka-nian tribe, who recognized him and sold him to the Tu­ranians. Teyaspa thought his fate was sealed, but his mother intervened and stopped Yildiz from having his brother strangled.

  Instead, Teyaspa was confined in the castle of Gleg the Zaporoskan, a fierce semibandit chief who had come into the valley of the Akrim many years before and set himself up as a feudal lord over the primitive Yuetshi, preying on them but not protecting them. Teyaspa was furnished with all luxuries and forms of dissipation calculated to soften his fiber.

  Roxana explained that she was one of the dancing girls sent to entertain him. She had fallen violently in love with the handsome prince and, instead of seeking to ruin him, had striven to lift him back to manhood.

  "But," she concluded, "Prince Teyaspa has sunk into apathy. One would not know him for the young eagle who led his horsemen into the teeth of the Brythunian knights and the Shemitic asshuri. Imprisonment and wine and the juice of the black lotus have drugged his senses. He sits entranced on his cushions, rousing only when I sing or dance for him. But he has the blood of conquerors in him. He is a lion who but sleeps.

  "When the Hyrkanians rode into the valley, I slipped out of the castle and went looking for Kurush Khan, in hope of finding a man bold enough to aid Teyaspa. But I saw Kurush Khan slain, and then the Hyrkanians be­came like mad dogs. I hid from them, but they dragged me out. O my lord, help us! What if you have but a hand­ful? Kingdoms have been built on less! When it is known that the prince is free, men will flock to us! Yildiz is a fumbling mediocrity, and the people fear his son Yezdi-gerd, a fierce, cruel, and gloomy youth.

  "The nearest Turanian garrison is three days' ride from here. Akrim is isolated, known to few but wandering no­mads and the wretched Yuetshi. Here an empire can be plotted unmolested. You too are an outlaw; let us band together to free Teyaspa and place him on his throne! If he were king, all wealth and honor were yours, while . Yildiz offers you naught but a bowstring!"

  She was on her knees, gripping his cloak, her dark eyes ablaze with passion. Artaban stood silently, then sud­denly laughed a gusty laugh.

  "We shall need the Hyrkanians," he said, and the girl clapped her hands with a cry of joy.

  "Hold up!" Conan the Cimmerian halted and glanced about, craning his massive neck. Behind him, his comrades shifted with a clank of weapons. They were in a narrow canyon, flanked on either hand by steep slopes grown with stunted firs. Before them, a small spring welled up among straggling trees and trickled away down a moss-green channel.

  "Water here at least," grunted Conan. "Drink." The previous evening, a quick march had brought them to Artaban's ship in its hiding place in the creek before dark. Conan had left four of his most seriously wounded men here, to work at patching up the vessel, while he pushed on with the rest. Believing that the Turanians were only a short distance ahead, Conan had pressed reck­lessly on in hope of corning up with them and avenging the massacre on the Zaporoska. But then, with the setting of the young moon, they had lost the trail in a maze of gullies and wandered blindly. Now at dawn they had found water but were lost and worn cut The only sign of human life they had seen since leaving the coast was a huddle of huts among the crags, housing nondescript skin-clad creatures who fled howling at their approach. Some­where in the hills a lion roared.

  Of the twenty-six, Conan was the only one whose mus­cles retained their spring. "Get some sleep," he growled. "Ivanos, pick two men to take the first watch with you. When the sun's over that fir, wake three others. I'm going to scout up this gorge."

  He strode up the canyon and was soon lost among the straggling growth. The slopes changed to towering cliffs that rose sheer from the sloping, rock-littered floor. Then, with heart-stopping suddenness, a wild, shaggy figure sprang up from a tangle of bushes and confronted the pirate. Conan's breath hissed through his teeth as his sword flashed. Then he checked the stroke, seeing that the apparition was weaponless.

  It was a Yuetshi: a wizened, gnomelike man in sheep­skins, with long arms, short legs, and a flat, yellow, slant-eyed face seamed with many small wrinkles.

  "Khosatral!" exclaimed the vagabond. "What does one of the Free Brotherhood in this Hyrkanian-haunted land?" The man spoke the Turanian dialect of Hyrka-nian, but with a strong accent.

  "Who are you?" grunted Conan.

  "I was a chief of the Yuetshi," answered the other with a wild laugh. "I was called Vinashko. What do you here?"

  "What lies beyond this canyon?" Conan countered.

  "Over yonder ridge lies a tangle of gullies and crags. If you thread your way among them, you will come out over­looking the broad valley of the Akrim, which until yes­terday was the home of my tribe, and which today holds their charred bones,"

  "Is there food there?"

  "Aye—and death. A horde of Hyrkanian nomads holds the valley."

  As Conan ruminated this, a step brought him about, to see Ivanos approaching.

  "Hah!" Conan scowled. "I told you to watch while the men slept!"

  "They are too hungry to sleep," retorted the Corin­thian, suspiciously eyeing the Yuetshi.

  "Crom!" growled the Cimmerian. "I cannot conjure food out of the air. They must gnaw their thumbs until we find a village to loot—"

  "I can lead you to enough food to feed an army," inter­rupted Vinashko.

  Conan said, his voice heavy with menace: "Don't mock me, my friend! You just said the Hyrkanians—"

  "Nay! There's a place near here, unknown to them, where we stored food. I was going thither when I saw you."

  Conan hefted his sword, a broad, straight, double-edged blade over four feet long, in a land where curved blades were more the rule. "Then lead on, Yuetshi, but at the first false move, off goes your head!"

  Again the Yuetshi laughed that wild, scornful laugh, and motioned them to follow. He made for the nearer cliff, groped among the brittle bushes, and disclosed a crack in the wall. Beckoning, he bent and crawled inside.

  "Into that wolf's den?" said Ivanos. "What are you afraid of?" said Conan, "Mice?"

  He bent and squeezed through the opening, and the other followed him. Conan found himself, not in a cave, but in a narrow cleft of the cliff. Overhead a narrow, crooked ribbon of blue morning sky appeared between the steep walls, which got higher with every step. They advanced through the gloom for a hundred paces and came out into a wide circular space surrounded by tower­ing walls of what looked at first glance like a monstrous honeycomb. A low roaring came from the center of the space, where a small circular curbing surrounded a hole in the floor, from which issued a pallid flame as tall as a man, casting a wan illumination about the cavity.

  Conan looked curiously about him. It was like being at the bottom of a gigantic well. The floor was of solid rock, worn smooth as if by the feet of ten thousand genera­tions. The walls, too regularly circular to be altogether natural, were pierced by hundreds of black square depres­sions a hand's breadth deep and arranged in regular rows and tiers. The wall rose stupendously, ending in a small circle of blue sky, where a vulture hung like a dot. A spiral stairway cut in the black rock started up from ground level, made half a complete circle as it rose, and ended with a platform in front of a larger black hole in the wall, the entrance to a tunnel.

  Vinashko explained: "Those holes are the tombs of an ancient people who lived here even before my ancestors came to the Sea of Vilayet There are a few dim legends about these people; it is said they were not human, but preyed upon my ancestors until a priest of the Yuetshi by a great spell confined them to their holes in the wall and lit that fire to h
old them there. No doubt their bones have all long since crumbled to dust. A few of my people have tried to chip away the slabs of stone that block these tombs, but the rock defied their efforts." He pointed to heaps of stuff at one side of the amphitheater. "My peo­ple stored food here against times of famine. Take your fill; there are no more Yuetshi to eat it"

  Conan repressed a shudder of superstitious fear. "Your people should have dwelt in these caves. One man could hold that outer cleft against a horde."

  The Yuetshi shrugged. "Here there is no water. Be­sides, when the Hyrkanians swooped down there was no time. My people were not warlike; they only wished to till the soil."

  Conan shook his head, unable to understand such na­tures. Vinashko was pulling out leather bags of grain, rice, moldy cheese, and dried meat, and skins of sour wine,

  "Go bring some of the men to help carry the stuff, Ivanos," said Conan, staring upward. "I'll stay here."

  As Ivanos swaggered off, Vinashko tugged at Conan's arm. "Now do you believe I'm honest?"

  "Aye, by Crom," answered Conan gnawing a handful of dried figs. "Any man that leads me to food must be a friend. But how did you and your tribe get here from the valley of the Akrim? It m"«t be a long steep road."

  Vinashko's eyes gleamed like those of a hungry wolf. "That is our secret. I will show you, if you trust me."

  "When my belly's full," said Conan with his mouth full of figs. "We're following that black devil, Artaban of Shahpur, who is somewhere in these mountains."

  "He is your enemy?"

  "Enemy! If I catch him, I'll make a pair of boots of his hide."

  "Artaban of Shahpur is but three hours' ride from here."

  "Ha!" Conan started up, feeling for his sword, his blue eyes ablaze. "Lead me to him!"

  "Take care!" cried Vinashko. "He has forty armored Turanians and has been joined by Dayuki and a hundred and fifty Hyrkanians. How many warriors have you, lord?"

  Conan munched silently, scowling. With such a dis­parity of numbers, he could not afford to give Artaban any advantages. In the months since he had become a pirate captain, he had beaten and bullied his crew into an effective force, but it was still an instrument that had to be used with care. By themselves they were reckless and improvident; well led, they could do much, but without wise leadership they would throw away their lives on a whim.

  Vinashko said: "If you will come with me, kozak, I will show you what no man save a Yuetshi has seen for a thousand years!"

  "What's that?"

  "A road of death for our enemies!"

  Conan took a step, then halted. "Wait; here come the red brothers. Hear the dogs swear!"

  "Send them back with the food," whispered Vinashko as half a dozen pirates swaggered out of the cleft to gape at the cavern. Conan faced them with a grand gesture.

  "Lug this stuff back to the spring," he said. "I told you I should find food."

  "And what of you?" demanded Ivanos.

  "Don't fret about me! I have words with Vinashko. Go back to camp and gorge yourselves, may the fiends bite you!"

  As the pirates' footsteps faded away down the cleft, Conan gave Vinashko a clap on the back that staggered him. "Let's go," he said.

  The Yuetshi led the way up the circular stairway carved in the rock wall. Above the last tier of tombs, it ended at the tunnel's mouth. Conan found that he could stand upright in the tunnel.

  "If you follow this tunnel," said Vinashko, "you will come out behind the castle of the Zaporoskan, Gleg, that . overlooks Akrim."

  "What good will that do?" grunted Conan, feeling his way behind the Yuetshi.

  "Yesterd?.y when the slaying began, I strove for a while against the Hyrkanian dogs. When my comrades had all been cut down I fled the valley, running up to the Gorge of Diva. I had run into the gorge when I found myself among strange warriors, who knocked me down and bound me, wishing to ask me what went on in the valley. They were sailors of the king's Vilayet squadron and called their leader Artaban.

  "While they questioned me, a girl came riding like mad with the Hyrkanians after her. When she sprang from her horse and begged aid of Artaban, I recognized her as the Zamorian dancing girl who dwells in Gleg's castle. A volley of arrows scattered the Hyrkanians, and then Artaban talked with the girl, forgetting about me. For three years Gleg has held a captive. I know, because I have taken grain and sheep to the castle, to be paid in the Zaporos-kan fashion, with curses and blows. Kozak, the prisoner is Teyaspa, brother of King Yildiz!"

  Conan grunted in surprise.

  "The girl, Roxana, disclosed this to Artaban, and he swore to aid her in freeing the prince. As they talked, the Hyrkanians returned and halted at a distance, vengeful but cautious. Artaban hailed them and had speech with Dayuki, the new chief since Kurush Khan was slain. At last the Hyrkanian came over the wall of rocks and shared bread and salt with Artaban. And the three plotted to rescue Prince Teyaspa and put him on the throne.

  "Roxana had discovered the secret way to the castle. Today, just before sunset, the Hyrkanians are to attack the castle from the front. While they thus attract the at­tention of the Zaporoskans, Artaban and his men are to come to the castle by a secret way. Roxana will open the door for them, and they will take the prince and flee into the hills, to recruit warriors. As they talked, night fell, and I gnawed through my cords and slipped away.

  "You wish vengeance. I'll show you how to trap Arta-batt. Slay the lot—all but Teyaspa. You can either extort a mighty price from Khushia for her son, or from Yildiz for killing him, or if you prefer you can try to be king­maker yourself."

  "Show me," said Conan, eyes agleam with eagerness.

  The smooth floor of the tunnel, in which three horses might have been ridden abreast, slanted downward. From time to time short flights of steps gave on to lower levels. For a while Conan could not see anything in the darkness. Then a faint glow ahead relieved it. The glow became a silvery sheen, and the sound of falling water filled the tunnel.

  They stood in the mouth of the tunnel, which was masked by a sheet of water rushing over the cliff above. From the pool that foamed at the foot of the falls, a nar­row stream raced away down the gorge. Vinashko pointed out a ledge that ran from the cavern mouth, skirting the pool. Conan followed him. Plunging through the thin edge of the falls, he found himself in a gorge like a knife cut through the hills. Nowhere was it more than fifty paces wide, with sheer cliffs on both sides. No vegetation grew anywhere except for a fringe along the stream. The stream meandered down the canyon floor to plunge through a narrow crack in the opposite cliff.

  Conan followed Vinashko up the twisting gorge. Within three hundred paces, they lost sight of the water­fall. The floor slanted upward. Shortly the Yuetshi drew back, clutching his companion's arm. A stunted tree grew at an angle in the rock wall, and behind this Vinashko crouched, pointing.

  Beyond the angle, the gorge ran on for eighty paces and ended in an impasse. On their left the cliff seemed curiously altered, and Conan stared for an instant before he realized that he was looking at a man-made wall. They were almost behind a castle built in a notch in the cliffs. Its wall rose sheer from the edge of a deep crevice. No bridge spanned this chasm, and the only apparent en­trance in the wall was a heavy, iron-braced door halfway up the wall. Opposite to it, a narrow ledge ran along the opposite side of the gorge, and this had been improved so that it could be reached on foot from where they stood.

  "By this path the girl Roxana escaped," said Vinashko. "This gorge runs almost parallel to the Akrim. It narrows to the west and finally comes into the valley through a narrow notch, where the stream flows through. The Za-poroskans have blocked the entrance with stones so that the path cannot be seen from the outer valley unless one knows of it. They seldom use this road and know nothing of the tunnel behind the waterfall."

  Conan rubbed his shaven chin. He yearned to loot the castle himself but saw no way to come to it. "By Crom, Vinashko, I should like to look on this noted valley."

  The Yuetshi gla
nced at Conan's bulk and shook his head. "There is a way we call the Eagle's Road, but it is not for such as you."

  "Ymir! Is a skin-clad savage a better climber than a Cimmerian hillman? Lead on!"

  Vinashko shrugged and led the way back down the gorge until, within sight of the waterfall, he stopped at what looked like a shallow groove corroded in the. higher cliff-wall. Looking closely, Conan saw a series of shallow handholds notched into the solid rock.

  "I'd have deepened these pockmarks," grumbled Co-nan, but started up nevertheless after Vinashko, clinging to the shallow pits by toes and fingers. At last they reached the top of the ridge forming the southern side of the gorge and sat down with their feet hanging over the edge.

  The gorge twisted like a snake's track beneath them. Conan looked out over the opposite and lower wall of the gorge into the valley of the Akrim.

  On his right, the morning sun stood high over the glit­tering Sea of Vilayet; on his left rose the white-hooded peaks of the Colchians. Behind him he could see down into the tangle of gorges among which he knew his crew to be encamped.

  Smoke still floated lazily up from the blackened patches that had been villages. Down the valley, on the left bank of the river, were pitched a number of tents of hide. Conan saw men swarming like ants around these tents. These were the Hyrkanians, Vinashko said, and pointed up the valley to the mouth of a narrow canyon where the Turanians were encamped. But the castle drew Co-nan's interest

  It was solidly set in a notch in the cliffs between the gorge beneath them and the valley beyond. The. castle faced the valley, entirely surrounded by a massive twenty-foot wall. A ponderous gate flanked by towers pierced with slits for arrows commanded the outer slope. This slope was not too steep to be climbed or even ridden up, but afforded no cover.