Tull's hiding place proved to be a fungoid grotto reached by climbing up a rough wall in a large cave. The narrow entrance to the grotto was covered by a flap of hide that had been covered with crushed stone so that it blended into the wall, rendering it almost invisible from the floor of the cave below.
Inside, the walls were caked thick with the glowing fungus; here the light was concentrated and almost bright. The room contained a small table constructed of various lengths of bone bound with gut strings, upon it rested a cup made from an animal's skull. There was also a pile of furs in one corner, likely used for sleeping. Conan noted that these furs seemed very similar in shape and color to the Blind Whites, as Tull had called them. Also, there were smaller skins, birdlike but rat-colored, in the collection.
"This place is called the Grotterium Negrotus," Tull said. "The Black Caves. I have been here for nearly five years, best as I can figure."
"How did you come to be so?" Elashi asked.
"I fell through a hole In the ground above."
"Sounds familiar," she said.
"Who were those creatures that attacked us?" Conan asked.
"Them's the Blind Whites. Mostly they side with Rey."
"Rey?"
"Aye. There's two rulers down here. One's Katamay Rey, he's a wizard what uses crystals and such for his magic. The other's Chuntha the witch. Her magic, well, it's more involved with, uh―" he glanced at Elashi―"uh, it's more of a personal nature."
"Personal nature?" Elashi asked.
Tull made a sign with his hands, the meaning of which was unmistakable. Conan grinned, and Elashi glared at him.
"Anyways, the two of 'em have been at each other for as long as I been here. According to what I heard, they been fightin' each other for control of the caves for hundreds of years. Got all the natives workin' for 'em. Blind Whites, which you met, Webspinner Plants, Bloodbats, Worms Gigantus, and the hunchbacked cyclopes. They switch sides sometimes."
"Sounds like a wonderful place," Elashi said, her voice full of irony. "Why do you stay here?"
"Can't get out. The worms 'n' the cyclopes, they close up the trap holes after a little while. In five years I ain't found a way out."
Conan stared at Tull. To be trapped here for the rest of one's life? That was an unpleasant thought.
"I get by," Tull continued. "Nobody's found this place, and the taste of the Whites and bats ain't so bad once you get used to it."
"Are there any other people here?"
Tull shook his head. "Now and again somebody drops in through one of the traps. If Rey gets 'em, he kills 'em quick and that's it for 'em. If Chuntha gets 'em, the goin' is more pleasant, judging from what I heard and seen once, but almost as fast. Druther be caught by her 'n' him, but I avoid 'em both."
Conan digested this morsel of information. "I have no intention of spending my days in this pit," he said. "We shall have to find a way out."
"I been lookin' for five years and ain't found it yet.
"Nonetheless, there must be a way."
"You'll want to be careful," Tull said. "If the Whites know, then Rey knows you're down here and likely anything Rey knows, Chuntha will know, too. They'll be lookin' for you."
Conan touched the handle of his sword. "Perhaps they might be sorry if they find me," he said.
Tull glanced at Conan's sword, then at the big Cimmerian's muscular frame. "Aye, perhaps. But likely you'll be sorrier. One cyclops would make two of you, and there's hundreds of 'em. And the big worms can sometimes squeeze the air out of a cyclops, one against one."
Conan and Elashi looked at each other.
"Better we should find a way out," Elashi said.
Conan said nothing, but agreed silently. Witches, wizards, and hellish cavern beasts held no attraction for him whatsoever. The sooner they left this place, the better Conan would like it.
* * *
Six
The size of the cave system impressed the Harskeel while at the same time frightening its men. Their torches cast a fitful yellow glow that blended with the fungal green light emitted from the dank walls. Finding Conan and the woman might prove to be a more difficult task than first the Harskeel had imagined. Well, it made no difference. Conan was the one; the Harskeel grew more convinced of it every moment. Once it had the barbarian's sword, the spell reversing this accursed joining could be intoned. The words had long since been committed to the Harskeel's memory, burned in deeply as if placed there by a red-hot iron brand. Ahead, the tracker uttered a short curse.
"What is it?" the Harskeel asked.
"Lost the sign agin, m'lord. Looks like somethin' passed behind 'em and wiped it away. See?"
The tracker held his torch close to the floor. The encrusted salts and slime had been smoothed over, as if something wide and heavy had been dragged over the surface in a side-to-side manner. There was a kind of pattern to the smoothing, a widened "S" shape.
"Ever see a track like this before?" the Harskeel asked.
The tracker shook his head. "Can't say's I have, m'lord. Not exactly. Once, in the desert, I seen a pattern kinda like it. Serpent track. But there ain't no snakes this size." He gestured at the floor.
You hope, the Harskeel thought. And I hope so too. 'Twould be difficult to utilize Conan and his blade did they have to be extracted from the belly of a monster serpent.
"We shall continue on down this tunnel," the Harskeel said.
The Whites had moved ahead of Wikkell toward the waterfall cavern and so the cyclops was alone when the call came from his master. All of a moment the air to one side of the cave seemed to swirl with purple light; a low humming began and increased in volume to that of a giant winged insect. Wikkell stopped, realizing almost immediately the cause of the phenomenon.
From the purple haze came Rey's voice. "HAVE YOU THE MAN I SEEK?"
Wikkell swallowed dryly and chose his words carefully. "Even now I am on my way to collect him, Master. The Blind Whites have trapped him in a corridor some distance away."
"HOW LONG UNTIL YOU RETURN WITH HIM?"
"Ah, that is difficult to predict, Master. The corridor is some distance away, as I said. And your chambers are considerably farther, as the man is in the opposite direction from them."
"MAKE HASTE, WIKKELL. I HATE TO BE KEPT WAITING."
"I shall return as soon as possible, Master."
The purple blot upon the air swirled and faded, leaving the cyclops alone in the dim green light. He tried to swallow again but found his mouth too dry to accomplish that simple task. He had purchased more time with his lie… well, perhaps not a lie, only an exaggeration. But best he hurry and accomplish that which he had told Rey was imminent. Otherwise…
The image of himself as a steaming puddle of ooze upon the floor thrust itself into the cyclops' thoughts. He increased his speed.
Though he was wide awake, Deek had a dream. In it he lay at the feet of Chuntha, who loomed over him as if she were ten times her normal size. "Where are the people I sent you to fetch?" she demanded.
Deek could feel himself exude the oily flux that passed for sweat among his kind. "I―I h-have n-not yet a-arrived at t-t-their l-location, M-m-mistress. I-it is… ah… s-s-some d-distance a-away."
Chuntha increased in size, towering over Deek. She bent and picked up the worm as if he were no more than a hatching fresh from the egg. She held him in her hands as she sometimes did that wand-bone of hers. With the slightest pressure, she could squeeze him into mush. "Hurry, Deek. I grow impatient. You do not want that."
Without a sounding rock to scrape upon, Deek could not speak, but no, he definitely did not want Chuntha impatient with him. No.
Deek awoke to find himself crawling along as before, the bat, his guide, still flitting back and forth above him. Had he the ability, he would have sighed. In lieu of that, he merely increased his speed.
Conan had listened to Tull's story with interest, but he was not ready to accept the older man's conclusion. And were he to find the way out, best
he begin looking immediately. He said as much.
Once again to his surprise, Elashi failed to contradict him. "Aye," she said. "The sooner we are shut of this place, the better."
Tull shook his head. "I think you're daft, lad, but I'll not see you wandering about in the caves without my assistance. May be that you can do what I could not. You shall have my knife's help."
Conan grinned. This was more like it. Far better to be up and doing something than to sit passively awaiting Fate's bidding. "Good," he said. "Then let us be about it."
With that, the three departed Tull's grotto.
Wikkell stood staring at the waterfall. "Are you certain they went this way?" The Blind Whites affirmed that this was so.
The cyclops brooded for a moment. Well, if they went this way, he could also go thus. He began to wade into the icy water. It deepened quickly, rising as he stepped into it. Three paces and the water level was nearly at his chin. Too deep for the humans to have waded through it. Perhaps near the edge it was shallower…?
Indeed. As Wikkell sidestepped, the pool!s floor angled upward. In a moment the water was only knee-depth. It was tricky going, with that rushing cascade right next to him. He moved his splayed feet over the slippery bottom with care. The fugitives must have edged along like this until they were past the waterfall.
Wikkell slipped on a protruding bottom stone. He would have fallen into the depths of the pool, but he waved his arms wildly and instead overbalanced toward the flowing waterfall. He fell into it―And through it.
Ho-ho! he thought as he drew himself to his feet and stood erect. The water hid another chamber and tunnel! He turned and stuck his head through the waterfall, now seen to be little more than a thin but wide cascading sheet.
"This way, blind fools," he said. "They went this way."
From a shallow crevasse in the stone floor, Deek watched as One Eye first disappeared into the waterfall, then pushed his head through it and called to the Blind Whites.
When the creatures had all moved through the sheet of rushing water, the bat flitted down and alighted next to Deek.
"D-d-did y-y-ou k-know of t-this?"
The bat affirmed that it did. The other end of the tunnel entered into one of the Bloodbats' breeding chambers, in point of fact.
"I-is t-there a-a-another w-way to the c-c-chamber?"
Certainly, the bat said. You do not think that we fly through that water whenever we wish to leave, do you?
"T-t-take m-me t-t-there."
As you wish, the bat said, seeming bored by it all.
Deek felt a small surge of happiness as he slithered off after the supercilious bat. The prey would not be coming back this way, not with One Eye and the Whites blocking egress. If he could get to the other end in time, he could be there to capture them. With the help of a breeding cave full of bats, it should be easy enough.
"What lies at the ends of this tunnel?" Conan asked.
Tull pointed. "That way is the bat cave, where they breed. The other way you already know about; it's the waterfall."
"Is it possible to slip past the bats?" Elashi asked.
"Aye, lady, if one is careful and quiet. Mostly they sleep, when they ain't breeding."
"Then let us go that way," Conan said. As young as he was, his voice carried a tone of command. It was all well and good to joke with Elashi when they were ambling along a mountain trail, but when real danger threatened, Conan's instincts would not be thwarted by words. He would play her games only as long as it suited him.
Conan took the lead, with Elashi and Tull following.
The journey to the breeding cavern took less than an hour. As they neared their destination, Tull halted them and began to whisper.
"The bats do not see well," Tull said. "But they sense movement. Slow motions hardly register. If you think one sees you, hold still, and like as not it'll drift back to sleep without bothering you."
Conan nodded, noting that Elashi did the same.
"One thing, though," Tull said. "They can smell blood a long way off. If you get a scrape or cut, they'll be on you like flies on offal―no offense, lady―and there'll be hell to pay. Four or five of 'em can drain a White dry in a minute, and there's likely a hundred of 'em hanging from the ceiling in this cave. Take care you don't brush against a sharp rock."
Conan drew his sword.
"That won't do you no good," Tull said. "Not if you face a hundred of 'em."
"Perhaps not," Conan said. "But if they come to drink my blood, they will pay dearly with their own."
Tull chose not to speak to this, and with Conan still in the lead, they moved off.
Wikkell asked, "Do you know where this tunnel leads?" and realized the futility of the question before the chattering Whites could frame a reply. Of course they did not know; until he had shown them, they had not realized the passageway even existed. Well, he would find out soon enough.
"H-h-how l-long?"
Soon, the bat said. Can you not smell the breeding chamber's lovely essence?
Deek did notice a foul, musty odor wafting down the hallway, but fortunately, had not complained of it.
"That smooth track turns and goes this way, m'lord."
The Harskeel nodded. It had a feeling that whatever had made that track would lead them to Conan. "Stay with it," the Harskeel ordered.
The bats were larger than Conan had anticipated. They hung upside down from protrusions on the roof and walls of the chamber, enwrapped in membranous wings so that they looked like giant flat-faced, tailess rats more than anything else. Here and there a pair were joined together, but for the most part, the hanging bats were still and quiet.
Slowly, carefully, the trio moved across the cave. There were rocks strewn all over, which made for dangerous footing, and spires of rock jutted up from the floor like talons waiting to snag an unwary victim.
More than a dozen openings led away from the cave, some of them at floor level, others higher up along the glowing green walls. There were three such exits directly across from where the trio had entered, and it was for the center opening that Conan, Tull, and Elashi made their way. Tull had indicated that this was the longest and largest of the local hallways, with abundant hiding places should someone or something come along.
They were halfway across the large cavern, the bats overhead sleeping peacefully, when trouble arrived. And as trouble was wont to do, it arrived in droves.
Behind them, a gravelly voice said, "There! Get them!"
Conan spun about, sword at the ready. From the tunnel they had recently vacated, eight or ten of the Blind Whites poured forth, chattering. Behind them lumbered a creature unlike anything the Cimmerian had ever seen. Tall it was, half again Conan's own height, with a hunched back and a single pink eye. It shambled forward, as fast as the Whites for all its size, gnarled and muscular arms outstretched, fingers splayed wide as if to gather in Conan and his friends.
The leading Blind White chose that moment to trip upon a loose rock. He fell, and misfortune guided him so that he was impaled upon one of the stalagmite talons, the point of which emerged from the hapless creature's back.
If the sounds of the chattering Whites had not been enough to awaken the bats, the gout of blood from the clumsy one certainly was. Overhead, the bats came to life.
There was more. Behind Conan, Tull swore. Conan spared him a glance and in the background saw a single bat emerge from another tunnel, followed by―Crom!―a ghostly pale worm as big around as a man! The beast slithered across the rocky floor toward the three people, bent on its own hellish purpose.
As the bats began to swoop down, screeching in high-pitched voices, the Blind Whites snatched up rocks from the floor and hurled them at the flying creatures. Though they must have been aiming at the sounds, their throws were none the less accurate than if they had eyes. Bats were struck by the stones and knocked from the air.
"The men, get the men!" the cyclops yelled, its voice a roar. The Whites, however, were too busy to pay the on
e-eyed creature much heed.
A bat flew at Conan, and the Cimmerian slashed with his blade, hacking one wing off. The bat spiraled away, screeching.
"There he is!" came another voice.
Conan looked for the source of this new threat. From the tunnel behind the great white worm came seven or eight men, armed with pikes and carrying torches. Conan recognized them a heartbeat before their leader appeared. The Harskeel!
The bats also noted this new intrusion into their nesting area, and it seemed no more pleasing than the others. Dozens of them swooped down upon the pikemen and the Harskeel. The men jabbed and cut at the flying creatures with their short pikes, but to little effect.
Bats screeched, Whites chittered, the Harskeel and his men screamed, the cyclops roared, and the giant worm scraped across the rock. Pandemonium ruled the cave.
"Best we leave!" Tull shouted as Conan chopped another diving bat from the air.
Conan swung his sword again, barely missing yet another bat. Aye, now there was an idea whose time had come.
* * *
Seven
Departing from the bat-infested cavern was not as easy to do as to say. As Conan slew still another darting bat, something leaped upon his back. He twisted, hurling one of the Blind Whites to the floor. Elashi finished the creature with a thrust of her blade. Blood gouted.
"This way!" Tull yelled.
Moving on a surface made slippery by gore, Conan and Elashi sought to follow the older man.
One of the pikemen managed to slog his way toward them, brandishing his weapon. "Halt!" he called. Then "Urk!" as both a bat and a Blind White fastened themselves to him.
Behind Conan, the giant cyclops roared and used his massive fists like hammers, battering aside men, bats, and Whites foolish enough to get in his way.
To Conan's left, the sluglike worm crawled closer, swatting at the occasional White with the tip of what the Cimmerian assumed to be its tail. That segment of the worm whipped through the air with more speed than the young Cimmerian would have thought possible, smashing the apelike creatures, spinning them away like children's dolls.
The Conan Compendium Page 75
