“Cut his throat!”
“Slit Aberius’ gullet!”
Sweat beaded the man’s narrow face. Hordo stepped forward quickly. “Hold, now! Hold! Can you track these men, Talbor? Alvar? Anyone?” Heads were shaken in reluctant denial. “Then open not your mouth against Aberius.”
“I still say he is afeared,” Talbor muttered. “That is why he cannot find the tracks again.”
“I’m not affrighted of any man,” Aberius said hotly. He licked his lips once more. “Of any man.” There was a peculiar emphasis to the last word.
“Of what, then?” Conan said. For a moment he thought Aberius would refuse to answer, then the man spoke in a rush.
“On the mountain slope, after we four rode forward, I saw a … a thing.” His voice gained fervency as he spoke. “Like a snake, it was, yet like a man, too. It wore armor, and carried a sword, and flame shot from its mouth twice the length of a sword. As I watched it signaled for more of its kind to come forth. Had I not ridden to half-kill my horse, I’d be dead at those creatures’ hands.”
“If it had the flame,” Conan muttered, “what need had it for the sword?” Some of the others began to murmur fearfully, though, and even those who were silent had unease on their faces.
“Why did you not speak of this before?” Hordo demanded.
“There was no need,” Aberius replied. “I knew we would soon leave, since the tracks are lost. We must leave soon. Besides, I thought you would misbelieve me.”
“There are strange things under the sky,” Conan said. “I’ve seen some of them, myself. But I’ve never seen anything that could not be killed with cold steel.” Or at least, very few, he amended to himself. “How many of these things did you actually see, Aberius?”
“Only the one,” Aberius admitted with obvious reluctance. “But it summoned more, and I saw them moving beyond the rocks. There could have been a hundred, a thousand.”
“Yet all in all,” Hordo said, “you saw but one. There cannot be many of them, else we’d have
heard before. A thing like that would be talked of.
“But,” Aberius began.
“But nothing,” Hordo barked. “We’ll keep a wary eye for these creatures of yours, but on the morrow we see if you can tell a horse track from horsemoss.”
“But I told you—”
“Unless you all want to give up the treasure,” the one-eyed bandit went on as if the smaller man had not spoken. Loud objections went up on every side. “Then I’ll talk to the Red Hawk, and at dawn we’ll move. Now go get something into your bellies.”
One by one the bandits drifted away to their fires. Aberius went last of all, casting a dark look at Conan as he went.
XV
While Hordo stumped off to the red-striped pavilion, Conan found a spot where he could sit with his back to a massive boulder and no one could come at him unseen. That look from Aberius had spoken of knives in the back. He got out his honing stone and broadsword and began to smooth the nicks made by hillmen’s chainmail. The sky became purple, and lurid red streamers filled the jagged western horizon. He was putting the finishing touches to his blade’s edge when the one-eyed brigand stormed out of Karela’s tent.
The bearded man stalked to within a few feet of Conan, obviously ill at ease. Hordo rubbed his bulbous nose, muttering under his breath. “A good habit, that,” he said finally. “I’ve seen more than one good man die because an untended notch in his blade left him with a stump the next time it took a good blow.”
Conan laid the broadsword across his thighs. “You didn’t come to talk of swords. What does she say about tomorrow?”
“She wouldn’t even listen to me.” Hordo shook his bearded head. “Me, who’s been with her from the first day, and she wouldn’t listen.”
“No matter. On the morrow, you turn back, and I go on. Perhaps she’s right not to risk these snakemen on top of all else.”
“Mitra! You don’t understand. I never got to speak of the creatures, or of Aberius’ denial he can find the trail again. She paced like a caged lioness, and would not let me say two words together.” He tugged at his beard with both hands. “Too long have I been with her,” he muttered, “to be sent on such an errand. Zandru, man, it’s because you didn’t come when she ordered that she’s ready to bite heads off. And her temper worsens every minute you sit here.”
Conan smiled briefly. “I told her once I was no hand at obedience.”
“Mitra, Zandru, and nine or ten other gods whose names escape me at the moment.” Hordo let out a long sigh and squatted with his thick arms crossed on his knees. “Another time I wouldn’t mind wagering on which of you will win, but not when I might be shortened a head for being in the middle.”
“There’s no talk of winning or losing. I’m in no battle with her.”
The side of the one-eyed man’s mouth that was not drawn into a permanent sneer grimaced. “You’re a man, and she’s a woman. There’s battle enough. Well, what happens, happens. But remember my warning. Harm her, and it’s you will be shorter a head.”