Conan: Road of Kings (12 page)

Again the lancing agony within his skull as the pressure of the depths closed upon him. Conan judged that only a skilled diver would be capable of reaching this fissure except at low tide. That the Stygian had been able to locate the submerged cave was an achievement that earned Conan’s grudging respect—albeit, what game the sorcerer played remained an enigma to him.

Callidios swam slowly above the dark opening in the side of the underwater ridge. Although the forest of seaweed obscured the bottom, from the position of the stone ruins Conan decided that the Stygian had spoken the truth: that the earthquake coupled with the action of the sea had broken open a barrow whose hidden tomb must have been of royal magnitude.

Swimming closer to the mouth of the passage, Conan glanced at the statues that stood within, half-buried in debris and seaweed. They were life-size figures of warriors, bearing weapons and armor of archaic and unfamiliar pattern, cunningly sculpted with careful attention to detail from some glossy black stone that had resisted the cerements of barnacles and sea-growths that encrusted the stone ruins. There were half a dozen or more of them arrayed near the tunnel mouth, and others dimly visible farther within. The craftsmanship was exquisite, and assuming they could be raised, they would doubtless fetch a good price in Kordava. This then: the army of Callidios’ jest. Fantastic riches might indeed lie within the drowned barrow, but these were safe from any thief who lacked gills. No wonder Callidios had sought help in despoiling this tomb he had discovered.

Sandokazi swam past him for a better look at the Stygian’s discovery. Her tanned legs thrust powerfully as she reached the mouth of the passage and hovered close to the foremost of the stone warriors.

The statue’s arm shot out. An onyx fist closed upon her shift.

Sandokazi had started for the surface. She glanced down to see what her shift had caught upon. A scream stole a torrent of bubbles from her mouth.

Holding Sandokazi fast, the statue lifted a stone mace in its other hand, dragged the struggling girl toward itself. Scarcely slowed by the enveloping sea, the mace swept down for her head in a killing blow.

Not losing time to seek to comprehend, Conan drew his knife and lunged downward for the writhing figure of the girl. Catching her by the shoulder, he jerked her body aside just as the mace slashed past them.

From the corner of his eye, Conan saw that another of the black stone figures was turning toward them. Seamuck churned from half-buried legs as it shuddered forth from the passage—onyx sword raised to strike.

The trail of bubbles from Sandokazi’s mouth ceased, as her limbs thrashed in helpless frenzy. Conan’s knife stabbed against the black arm that pinioned her—its steel blade skidded harmlessly against adamantine stone. The mace smashed toward him. Conan doubled up, evaded the blow—kicking savagely against the stone shoulder in an effort to drag free.

The girl’s cotton shift tore apart in the struggle, freeing her abruptly. Under the impetus of his thrust, Conan flung away from the stone warrior—clutching Sandokazi’s naked form.

Holding the half-drowned girl in his arms, Conan kicked frantically toward the surface. He risked one quick glance downward. The stone warrior glared upward at them from the tunnel mouth, mace upraised and a rag of Sandokazi’s shift in the other black fist—proof that his had not been some nightmarish delusion of the depths.

Conan broke water. Sandokazi retched and fought for breath, still struggling in mindless panic.

“Callidios, you treacherous bastard!” Conan snarled. “You knew those things were alive! Why didn’t you warn us!”

“I knew they’d start to move when you approached them,” the Stygian defended himself. “But they’re far too heavy to swim up to us, after all, and I never thought you’d be careless enough to swim within their reach.”

Callidios smiled maliciously. “Where’s that sneering condescension now, my friends? So! Am I a mad lotus-dreamer? You thought me nothing more than that a moment ago. Why waste my wisdom on a doubting barbarian lout and a supercilious trull? I told you I could summon an army through my secret knowledge; you doubted and demanded proof of my claim. I have shown you proof as required, and if the demonstration was not without certain dangers, I shared them with you.”

“Oh, leave him alone, Conan,” Sandokazi urged between coughs. “He’s right. We wouldn’t have believed him, if we hadn’t seen for ourselves. I wanted to see what stone they were carved from, or I wouldn’t have blundered into the thing’s reach.”

Conan cursed him fervently, but the sorcerer kept his distance, and Sandokazi was still too shaken to swim without Conan’s help. Vowing to settle the account at another time, the Cimmerian made for the skiff.

As quickly as they could, the three swimmers reached the rowboat and clambered on board.

“You still could have warned us,” Conan repeated angrily. His blue eyes smouldered dangerously as he hauled in the anchor.

Sandokazi, still coughing up sea water, cast an uneasy glance over the side. Maybe the stone warriors couldn’t swim, but she wished Conan would forget Callidios and start rowing. She was shivering, although the sun was hot.

“What are those things?” she wondered.

“They were called the Final Guard,” Callidios answered. “One thousand of the finest warriors in all Kalenius’ empire—fanatics who swore loyalty to their king through oaths that not even death might cancel.”

“Those were no human warriors!” Conan protested. “The arm I struck turned my dagger blade as if its flesh were stone.”

“Once it was living flesh,” Callidios told him. “But Kalenius knew that no mortal flesh could guard his tomb throughout the ages. Hidden chambers must ultimately yield their secrets to the patient; subtle pitfalls betray themselves even as they strike; deadly spells may be countered by more potent sorceries: these Kalenius knew would be insufficient to defend his eternal palace from thieves and interlopers.

“His archimages created the Final Guard. In order that Kalenius’ tomb should remain guarded throughout the ages, one thousand of his elite warriors were transformed into deathless creatures of living stone. For millennia have they kept their watch beneath the earth, while continents reeled and sank, and Kalenius and his empire passed into legend and faded from memory. As you have seen, they are still at their post.”

“How could any man have chosen such a fate!” Sandokazi shuddered, struggling into her clothes as the sun dried her skin.

“History doesn’t record whether they were given their choice in the matter,” Callidios shrugged. “It is not uncommon that a great monarch should ordain that his household be entombed with him—either living or slain. The Final Guard was an elite regiment comprised of fanatics who considered it an honor to be chosen. And, after all, while other rulers allow their soldiers to die for them, Kalenius bestowed instead a certain immortality upon the warriors of the Final Guard.”

“You call living death an honor?” Conan snorted, pulling vigorously at the oars.

“But you’ll have to agree they’ve performed their duty without fail,” Callidios said. “The hand of time may have reduced Kalenius’ eternal palace to a drowned ruin, but his tomb has never been despoiled by any human thieves. How can any man prevail against guardians such as these? Steel cannot slay them; gold cannot corrupt them. Only Kalenius can command them, and Kalenius is dead. Kalenius commanded them to defend his eternal palace, and the Final Guard will obey that command until time itself comes to an end.”

Conan stopped rowing. “So you have brought us out here to show us an army of devils that no man can control, and a royal tomb that no man can plunder. Mordermi will not thank you for this.”

“Mordermi will indeed thank me when I accomplish both of these things,” Callidios said confidently.

“Conan!” Sandokazi broke in. “There’s a fire on the waterfront!”

Conan turned to see where she pointed. A plume of dark smoke had begun to climb into the cloudless sky. Then, elsewhere along the waterfront, other tendrils of gray suddenly crawled up from squalid buildings there. Conan shaded his eyes with his hand and peered intently. The sun and rising flames glinted from the tiny figures that milled about the distant streets.

“It’s Korst!” Conan said grimly. “He’s attacking the Pit!”

Nine

No Road Back

Korst’s attack was a move born of desperation.

Following Mordermi’s raid, King Rimanendo had summoned his general to his presence. Rimanendo had expressed his royal will with unwonted terseness: “If, in three days, these thieves are not hanged, you will be.”

That Mordermi was the mastermind behind the outrage was a discovery that would have yielded to a spy network far less capable than that which General Korst employed. Heretofore the daring outlaw had been little more than an annoyance to Korst—Mordermi’s depredations were a matter for the city guard, and not the army’s concern. The raid on the king’s pavilion changed all that. Rimanendo’s honor had been insulted, and the participation of the White Rose betokened open insurrection. Recovery of the loot was secondary; Mordermi and his band must be annihilated at any cost.

And Korst knew full well that that cost would be high. The Pit was a city within Kordava—a realm where Zingara’s laws were of no more consequence than those of Khitai or Vendhya. To move against the Pit was to invade a foreign land, and the citizens of the Pit were certain to make a bloody resistance to Rimanendo’s authority.

Korst did not intend to stand in Mordermi’s stead upon the Dancing Floor.

By the time Conan reached the waterfront, Korst’s attack was well underway. The burgundy and gold of the Royal Zingaran Army seemed to flow through the streets. Buildings above the area of the Pit leaked smoke and flame, while tight knots of men bottlenecked at the chief entrances to the sunken city.

“You’re not going into that?” Callidios asked.

“Mordermi is my friend,” Conan stated simply. To the Cimmerian his course of action was unalterable.

“Mordermi is caught in a trap,” Callidios said. “You’ll have to battle through Korst’s lines for the dubious privilege of joining your friends in a last stand.”

“I’d be with them now, if you hadn’t led us on a pointless chase,” Conan growled. “If Mordermi can hold out long enough to stall Korst’s attack, there’s a chance for us. Korst won’t dare lay waste to half of Kordava just to smoke us out.”

He added: “Sandokazi, you’d be better off clear of this. You and Callidios take the skiff once I’ve reached shore, and try to…”

“If you think I’m going to run out, you’re as mad as Callidios,” Sandokazi broke in. “This is my fight more than it is yours, Conan.”

“As you wish,” Conan shrugged. Cimmerian women were never ones to shy from bloodshed, although he had observed that the civilized races demanded a certain timidity of their women.

“Callidios,” he went on, “as soon as we touch shore, you can row back to Stygia for all I care.”

The sorcerer had pulled on his garments and was buckling on his rapier. “I told Mordermi I’d make him a king,” he grinned. “It’s unfortunate that General Korst has stolen a march on us, but there’s no question of turning back now—for any of us, it seems. You and your friends have talked about a revolution. Well, you’ve started one now, and for rebels there is no quarter. If we’re to be hailed as liberators and not hanged as traitors, we must trust to our swords now—and to our wits.”

Which made Callidios’ chances just about nil, Conan judged. The Stygian renegade was a puzzle to him. Was there truly courage behind those sardonic eyes, or had the fumes of the yellow lotus made him oblivious to physical danger? Conan gave the matter up, and looked to his broadsword.

Sandokazi had a thought. “Callidios, you were able to spirit yourself into our headquarters last night. Can you work your magic now to get us through Korst’s cordon?”

“Get the three of us through this melee in broad daylight?” the Stygian protested. “The situation is entirely different. Would you also expect a master of thimbelrig to be able to turn base metals into gold? If I had such powers, I wouldn’t be here now.”

“I think we at last hear a true confession of this sorcerer’s boasted powers,” Conan sneered.

“What do you know of sorcery, Cimmerian?” Callidios bristled. “If a warrior is a master archer, does it follow that he is equally skilled with the sword? I have followed certain paths, and others I have not followed—yet there is no lord of the Black Ring who has delved farther along the paths I have chosen.”

“Tell that to the first of Korst’s Strikers who asks your business here,” Conan suggested. “We’ll try to reach Mordermi through the tunnel we used after the raid. Korst can’t have men watching every rathole.”

In this much Conan was right. It was a dilemma that General Korst fully appreciated. Instead, Korst had thrown a street-level cordon about the approximate boundaries of the Pit, then had dispatched three companies of the Royal Zingaran Army into the subterranean city. With King Rimanendo giving him a free hand to deal with Mordermi’s band, Korst intended to treat the Pit as an enemy stronghold. Those who made no resistance would be taken prisoner—to be released or arrested pending subsequent investigation. Those who resisted were in open defiance of martial law and of the king’s will; they were to be crushed without mercy.

If all went well, Korst would have Mordermi bottled up in his lair, would overpower his men almost before the outlaws realized they were under attack. Korst was realist enough to know that the odds were against so easy a victory; that more likely he would have all the citizens of the Pit in arms against the king’s soldiers. No matter. Korst was prepared to use any amount of force necessary to capture Mordermi, and the lives of the rabble meant no more to Korst than to his royal master.

The tunnel from the waterfront had escaped Korst’s attention and passed them beneath his cordon. How long it might remain undiscovered, Conan couldn’t guess—but he knew better than to count on it as an avenue to escape. With Sandokazi and Callidios in tow, the Cimmerian forced his way through the press, hoping to reach Mordermi’s stronghold before Korst’s soldiers overran the Pit.