Conan and the Manhunters

by John Maddox Roberts

  'The third one since sunrise!' Auda said, fighting hare against his enthusiasm. 'By Mitra, but this is tempting! Witt just a few of the men, we could ride down there, slay those useless hirelings and be away with the treasure.'

  'I want no little part of this treasure,' Conan said. 'I wad it all.' With predatory eyes they watched the escorted wagon as it made its leisurely way up the road and finally disappeared through the open gates of the city. The battlements of Shahpur were draped with bright cloth and flowers. Its tall slender towers were hung with long, colourful banners proclaiming the great festival. The gilded domes crowning the towers gleamed brilliantly in the sunlight.

  'How will we move it?' Auda asked. 'If that one wagon is so overloaded, many such must be even more so.'

  'He is right,' said Osman glumly. 'Best we take just the lightest, most valuable things, such as we can escape with quickly.'

  'I want it all!' Conan insisted. It was not merely the wealth he craved. He wanted revenge. To rob the king of the whole district's revenues would bring about Torgut Khan's utter disgrace. He had conceived a burning hatred for the man 'Come, we've seen enough.'

  The men crawled backward like reptiles until they were well below the crest of the hill. Then they rose and trekked to a small gully where they had picketed their horses and re mounted. This small range of hills to the south of the city lacked springs or other sources of water, so it was uncultivated. Even the shepherds grazed their flocks among these hills for but a few weeks after the brief rainy season. Thus, for men who did not wish to be seen, the terrain formed a natural approach route to the town.

  The bandits had shifted their camp to a spot a bare four miles south of the city. Such propinquity was not without risk, but they would make their strike soon and they needed to be near their prey. Besides this, the concentration of the guards in the city made the location somewhat safer. There had been no roving patrols in days.

  The new hideout was an old caravansary, abandoned a hundred or more years ago when certain wells in the deep desert between Turan and Punt had dried up, forcing caravaneers to forgo a route employed for centuries. The serai still had a low confining wall, but its inn had no roof save such temporary shelter as occasional occupants saw fit to improvise from branches and palm fronds. It had a good well, accessible with a rope and a hide bucket.

  The three men rode into the enclosure, dismounted and unsaddled their horses. The rest of the bandits were in the old inn, which at least gave shelter from the wind.

  'Gather round, you lazy rogues,' said Conan, striding through the doorway. 'We have some plotting to do.'

  The men grinned wolfishly as they learned of the heavy-laden carts entering the city. They looked sorely vexed when the problem of the great weight was presented.

  'We are not pirates,' said one-eyed Ubo. 'We cannot load this treasure on a ship and sail away.'

  'We could easily round up wagons in the city,' said another. 'But then we would have to travel by road, and would be readily caught by cavalry.'

  'If we had many, many camels,' said Auda, 'we could disappear into the desert, where men on horseback could not follow.'

  Conan considered that. 'It would take a long time to load so many beasts, and half our number would have to tend them, and could not fight. We'll need every man's sword on that day.'

  'We cannot fly it out,' Osman said.

  There was a long silence, then: 'Well, there is Volvolicus.'

  'Be still, Osman,' said Ubo.

  'Who is Volvolicus?' Conan demanded.

  'No one you want to deal with,' Ubo assured him.

  'Let me be the judge of that. Speak, Osman.'

  The smaller man cleared his throat. 'Well, he is a man who lives in the desert no more than half a day's ride from here. He is a wizard, they say, and able to do many wondrous things.'

  'I want nothing to do with wizards!' Ubo said heatedly.

  'Stay, my friend,' Conan cautioned. 'Osman, why do you mention this mage?'

  'In truth, I have heard that he is learned in the art of moving great burdens, such as huge stones and masses of earth. Might he not sell us a spell that can move this great mass of gold, at least beyond easy pursuit, where we may divide it and carry it off at our leisure?'

  'I do not like wizards either,' Conan said, unstopping a wineskin and upending it over his mouth.

  'It is not necessary to like this thaumaturge,' Osman pointed out, 'merely to do business with him. Auda, can you guide us to him?'

  'Aye, the way is not hard.'

  'Do not seek him out,' Ubo urged.

  'Wherefore?' Osman asked.

  The Turanian had the look of one who feared his very words endangered him. 'He traffics with demons!'

  'What wizard does not?' Osman snorted. 'We do not propose to sell ourselves to him, but rather to purchase some trifling services. Wizards stay alive by keeping their demons under a tight rein. Perhaps he can whistle us up some demons with strong backs or wings or whatever to fetch our treasure to a safe spot. What say you, Conan?'

  The Cimmerian glowered. 'I like it not.' He brooded a while longer. 'But I see no other way. Let us go and find this

  Volvolicus.' Osman clapped his hands and rubbed his palms together.

  'Done, then! Who goes?'

  'A moment,' said Chamik, a pot-bellied Corinthian. 'If this is to be done, where should the treasure be transported?'

  'Our old hideout near the desert will be good enough,' Conan said. 'It has three fine escape routes, plenty of water, and it is hard to find if one knows not the path. We can round up many camels, divide up the loot, and each man can take his share where he will. Best to make up several small caravans and take different roads.' 'Break up the band?' said Ubo.

  'Why not?' Osman cried. 'Are we a family, that must stay together? Nay, we are a pack of rogues looking for easy wealth! With such a haul, each man of us may go some place where he is not wanted for a hanging and set himself up as a rich lord, or spend it all on women, drink and gambling if

  it so suit him!'

  'Aye,' Chamik said. 'My tribe knows nothing of my life here. I can go home and be a wealthy horse-breeder.'

  'I was once in wicked Shadizar, in Zamora,' Ubo said, 'and I liked the place. Perhaps I'll set up there as a banker and be respectable. That way, a man may be a robber and the judges kiss his hand for it.'

  All hooted in derision at the thought of the one-eyed Turanian turning respectable. Each man babbled his dreams of quick, unearned wealth.

  'What of you, Conan?' Osman asked.

  'I've a yen to see Iranistan,' the Cimmerian said. 'I may

  fare thither.'

  'And what will you do with your share?' Osman pressed.

  Conan shrugged. 'Live fully and carouse for a while, scout out the land. With much gold, I can recruit and pay my own

  mercenary band.' Ubo looked at him as if he were demented. 'You mean to

  pay your rogues?'

  'That h how it s done,' Conan said. 'Mercenaries expect to be paid. But with a stout band, they can earn their captain many times their keep. They can enhance their pay with! loot, and when the war is over, no one will seek to hang them for it.'

  Chamik shrugged. 'You have been a soldier, Conan. We are all just simple bandits here. Spend your share how you will.'

  'Conan, you must seek out this magician,' Osman said 'And Auda must be the guide. Who else goes?' The rest all found something else to absorb their attention. 'Well, I am not a coward! I'll go with our captain.'

  'So you shall,' Conan said, lurching to his feet. 'As for the rest of you lazy louts, you can make yourselves busy as well. Go steal us all the camels you can find and take then' to our old hideout. And none of you think to shirk the fighting by staying with the beasts—they'll not stray far from the water and grass. As soon as that is done, we all meet back here. The great festival commences in five days, with the dedication of this new temple. Auda, Osman, let us be off!' As always, having determined upon a course of action, the Ci
mmerian did not waste time.

  The three mounted and rode south, into the desert, with Auda in the lead. The scrubby hills gave way to rolling, stony land where the brushy clumps grew ever farther apart. Toward evening, Auda led them to a tiny water hole and they gave their horses drink, then continued. The sun dipped below the western mountain range, the sky turned vivid violet and the first stars appeared. Then they were riding beneath a bowl of deepest black, the stars in their countless millions forming ethereal veils and hard, bright points of brilliance overhead. In time, the moon rose, casting a ghostly luminescence that to desert-trained eyes was almost as good as sunlight.

  All around them was silence. Night time was when the creatures of the desert left their dens to hunt, feed and mate, but they did these things quietly, for the most part. To make a sound was to reveal their location to enemies. Likewise, the men rode in near silence, keeping to the softer ground where their horses' hooves made little sound, their weapons and harness wrapped in cloth or leather to give forth no betraying clink, speaking little, and then only in whispers.

  Auda rode to the crest of a sandy ridge and held up a hand us he halted. The other two drew even with him and reined their mounts. Below the ridge was a tiny oasis, its long pool surrounded by date palms. A small, low-roofed house stood at one end of the pool. Their horses nickered and grew restless, stimulated by the scent of fresh water.

  Even as they watched, an eerie purple light flooded from the windows and door of the house. The light changed colour, first to a brilliant blue, then to aquamarine. Abruptly, it shifted to orange, then to a bloody red, before fading back to

  darkness.

  Osman cleared his throat. 'It seems to me that the wizard might deem us unmannerly, calling upon him so late at night. Perhaps in the morning, when the sun is high...?'

  'Aye!' Auda said fervently, if a little shakily. 'Among the desert folk, it is deemed a great discourtesy to come upon strangers out of the darkness. Such greetings are often answered with a shower of arrows.'

  ''Twas only light,' Conan said, his voice offhand despite the crawling of his scalp. 'But perhaps it were best not to disturb—-'

  'Come with me.' The woman's voice made them all jump, rise and snatch at steel. The horses reared and plunged, until their panicking was brought under control.

  'Set take it, woman!' Conan said when his mount was silent again. 'Why did you not let us know you were there? We might have swept off your head from pure surprise!'

  She released a tinkling laugh. 'Slain me? You have yet to see me!'

  'Yet we long to,' Osman said, a slight quaver in his words, 'for surely you are as beautiful as your voice.'

  Conan looked around them, chagrined. He prided himself upon his great skills in the wild places, yet this girl for she sounded very young had approached within sword's reach unseen. And, he thought, he still did not see her! 'Show yourself!' the Cimmerian demanded. 'It is you who trespass here,' she said. 'But I will do as you say.' A shape detached itself from a great stone and they saw the outline of a woman, as graceful and delicate as a desert gazelle. Conan could not understand how he had missed seeing her, but he knew that in the uncertain light of the moon, a man's eyes notice movement before shape and do not register colour at all. Often he himself had escaped searchers passing nearby in the moonlight, simply by holding absolutely still. Doubtless the wench had done something of the sort.

  'Gracious lady,' Auda said, bowing low from the saddle, touching his breast and lips, 'we come seeking—'

  'You seek the great mage Volvolicus,' she said, interrupting. 'He is aware of this, and sent me up here an hour ago to bring you to him.'

  'How knew he we were coming?' Osman demanded.

  'But he is a wizard,' said Auda, as if speaking to a simpleton.

  'Let us go,' Conan ordered. 'Lead on, girl.' Despite his apprehension at approaching the mage, Conan had to admire the woman who walked so gracefully before them, her bare feet soundless on the sand, her rounded hips swaying liquidly beneath a robe so sheer that the light of the moon seemed to pass through it, revealing a small but ripe figure. A woman walking the boulevards of a well-policed city in broad daylight could not have been more nonchalant.

  They dismounted by the long pool and let their horses drink. Conan noted that the pool was lined with cut stone, and that the water tumbled musically into one end from a stone artfully carved in the likeness of a grotesque face. There was no visible outlet.

  'Shall we unsaddle?' Osman asked.

  'Nay,' said the Cimmerian. 'Our leave-taking may be in haste. Keep them saddled until we know for certain.'

  Again the woman laughed lightly. 'Come. Volvolicus awaits you.' She led them to the doorway from which now only natural lamplight shone. Hands on hilts, they ducked beneath the low lintel and passed within.

  Inside, the house was illuminated only by a smokeless fire that burned upon a small hearth. The light sufficed to reveal scrolls of many sorts upon shelves lining the walls. From the rafters hung peculiar instruments of metal, crystal, wood and 'lass. Arcane objects of diverse sorts lay upon the long table that was the main room's principal item of furniture. Large, strangely faceted pieces of crystal stood mounted upon pedestals of ivory, gold or intricately carven wood. Some of these crystals seemed to glow faintly.

  'Welcome to my house,' said a man who sat at the far end of the table, little more than a man-shape shrouded in shadow.

  Conan gripped his hilt fitfully, his nerves set on edge by the sorcerous trappings, and Auda muttered native counter-spells under his breath, but Osman answered smoothly.

  'Peace upon this house, venerable Volvolicus, mystic of he desert. We are travellers who seek your storied wisdom in aid of a certain enterprise close to our hearts.'

  'We will speak of this after you have taken refreshment. Layla, attend our guests.' In this he followed the custom of he desert, where it was deemed a great discourtesy to inquire of a stranger's business before the requirements of hospitality had been met. He gestured to a carpet near the hearth, furnished with large cushions. The three men bowed respectfully and seated themselves thereon.

  The woman padded into a room closed off by an arras and emerged moments later with a broad tray laden with seed cakes, thin-sliced cheese, dates, figs, and a steaming pot of heated wine diluted with water and fragrant with herbs. Three cups were neatly arranged around the pot. Conan wondered how the mage had known that he was to receive three guests. But then, one versed in the magical arts might be expected to have such abilities. The Cimmerian was hesitant about partaking, but Auda and Osman' quickly took a ritual sip of wine and a bite of the food. By the ancient law of hospitality, for a man to attack one who had accepted hospitality within his camp or beneath his roof was to incur the wrath of the gods. Whether the mage had respect for such laws remained to be seen, but Conan went ahead and refreshed himself from the tray. To give offence at this juncture would be utmost folly.

  Volvolicus said nothing, nor did he stir from his seat while the three men emptied the pot and the tray. At last they replaced their cups upended, acknowledging their satisfaction, and the woman removed the tray. At last the sorcerer rose from his seat and strode into the circle of light before the hearth.

  He was a tall man, exceedingly spare of build as was so often the case with wizards, many of whom practised severe austerities to purify themselves and strengthen their powers, sacrificing the flesh for the sake of mind and spirit. His hair was brown, confined by a thin silver fillet and falling almost to his shoulders. His narrow face was dominated by very large, intensely black eyes in which gleamed an eerie light.

  'And now, my friends, what would you have of Volvolicus?' His voice was deep and resonant, as if it should have issued from a much larger chest. He was clad in a plain robe of rough brown cloth, girded with a knotted leather cord. He sank to a cross-legged seat upon one of the thick cushions.

  'Our ears have delighted in tales of your puissance, revered Volvolicus,' Osman began. 'Far has your fa
me spread, and great are the—'

  'We hear you can lift heavy weights,' Conan broke in rudely. 'Is it true?'

  The wizard looked faintly amused. 'The mountebanks who form feats of strength at the fairs pride themselves upon lifting heavy weights. I am none such.'

  'Wise Volvolicus,' Osman said, glaring at the Cimmerian, what we had in mind was a bit worthier of your talents than tying a bullock upon your shoulders for the delectation of the mob. Nay, this is to be a glorious feat: to enter the city I Shahpur and remove there from a ponderous great weight of metal, such as no ordinary man, nor even a multitude, and raise in a single burden.'

  'I see,' mused the wizard. 'Could it be that this weighty bounty will consist of gold?'

  'Some substantial part of it will be silver,' Osman said, '.Hid precious gems are a definite likelihood.'

  To their surprise, the wizard laughed heartily. 'I have been approached for my aid in many projects, but this is the first nine thieves have sought my assistance in escaping with their

  loot!'

  'Sir, you wound us,' Osman said, his face and voice radiating false innocence. 'We are students and seekers after virtue! Torgut Khan and his master, the king of Turan, are evil men. The loss of this treasure, and the humiliation they must endure thereby, may go far toward purging their souls of wickedness and bestowing upon them a sheen of righteousness when they must appear for judgement before the throne of Mitra.'

  'A virtuous undertaking, indeed,' said Volvolicus, nodding and stroking his beard. 'And the nature of this treasure?'

  'It will be the year's revenues for this entire district,' Osman said. 'At the time of the festival, all will be concentrated in the city, gathered from a half-score of small treasuries.'

  'Truly? This is an odd practice.'

  'And such an opportunity may never come again!' said Osman. 'Please, great Volvolicus, we implore you to help us in this feat, which is far beyond the power of ordinary mortals. In no other fashion may we get away with our treasure and be safe from pursuit.'