“Many have said as much,” the Khitan replied, “yet the Kshatriyas still rule here. Forgive my unseemly haste, but Hordo has told us you sought Prince Kandar’s palace last night. You could not find my niece? Or Lady Vyndra?”
“I could not reach them,” Conan said grimly. “But I will before I am done.”
Kang Hou?
?s face did not change expression, and all he said was, “Hasan says the pigeons must be taken from the fire. He suggests they be eaten before they grow cold.”
“The man must have a heart like stone,” Hordo muttered as the other two smugglers followed the Khitan out.
“He is a tough man for a merchant,” Conan agreed. He tugged the silk-wrapped weapon from his belt and handed it to his friend. “What do you make of this?”
Hordo gasped as the cloth fell away, revealing the faintly glowing silvery metal. “Sorcery! As soon as I heard there was a wizard in this, I should have turned my horse around.” His eye squinted as he peered at the weapon. “This design makes no sense, Cimmerian. A two-handed hilt on a short-sword?”
“It slew a man, or a thing, that my sword did not slow,” Conan said.
The one-eyed man winced and hastily rebundled the silk about the weapon. “I do not want to know about it. Here. Take it.” He chewed at nothing as the Cimmerian returned the weapon to its place tucked behind his sword-belt, then said, “There has been no sign of Ghurran. How did you pass the night without his potion?”
“Without missing the foul thing,” Conan grunted. “Come. I could eat a dozen of those pigeons. Let us get to them before they are gone.”
There were two large windowless rooms at the back of the temple, one without a roof. In that room was the fire; the other was used as a stable. Enam and Shamil squatted by the fire, wolfing down pigeon. The Khitan ate more delicately, while Hasan sat against a wall, clasping his knees and scowling at the world.
“Where is Kuie Hsi?” Conan wanted to know.
“She left before first light,” Hordo told him around mouthfuls of roast pigeon, “to see what she could discover.”
“I have returned,” the Khitan woman said from the door, “again learning much and little. I was slow in returning because the mood of the city is ugly. Angry crowds roam the streets and ruffians take advantage. A woman alone, I was twice almost assaulted.”
“You have a light step,” Conan complimented her. He would wager that the men who had “almost” assaulted her rued the incident if they still lived. “What is this much and little you have learned?”
Still in her Vendhyan garb, Kuie Hsi looked hesitantly at Kang Hou, who merely wiped his lips with a cloth and waited. “At dawn,” she began slowly, “Karim Singh entered the city. The wizard, Naipal, was with him, and Prince Kandar. They took soldiers from the fortress, increasing the number of their escort to perhaps one thousand lances, and left the city, heading west. I heard a soldier say they rode to the Forests of Ghelai. The chests in which you are so interested went with them on mules.”
For an instant Conan teetered on the horns of decision. Karim Singh and Naipal might escape him. There was no way to tell how much time he had left before the poison overtook him completely. Yet he knew there was only one way to decide. “If they took so many soldiers,” he said, “few can remain at Kandar’s palace to guard Vyndra and Chin Kou.”
Kuie Hsi let her eyes drop to the floor, and her voice became a whisper. “There were two women with them, veiled but unclothed, and bound to their saddles. One was Chin Kou, the other the Vendhyan woman. Forgive me, uncle. I could see her but could do nothing.”
“There is nothing to forgive,” Kang Hou said, “for you have in no way failed. Any failure is mine alone.”
“Perhaps it is,” Conan said quietly, “but I cannot feel but that neither woman would be where she is except for me. And that means it is on me to see them safe. I will not ask any of you to accompany me. Beyond the matter of a thousand soldiers, you know there is a wizard involved, and he will be where I am going.”
“Be not a fool,” Hordo growled, and Enam added, “The Brotherhood of the Coast does not desert its own. Prytanis never understood that but I do.”
“He has Chin Kou,” Hasan burst out. “Do you expect me to sit here while he does Mitra alone knows what to her?” He seemed ready to fight Conan if need be.
“As for me,” Kang Hou said with an amused smile for Hasan, “she is only my niece, of course.” The young Turanian’s face colored. “This is a matter of family honor.”
Shamil gave a shaky laugh. “Well, I’ll not be the only one to stay here. I wanted adventure, and none can say this is not it.”
“Then let us ride,” Conan said, “before they escape us.”
“Patience,” Kang Hou counseled. “The Forests of Ghelai are ten leagues distant, and a thousand men ride more slowly than six may. Let us not fail for a lack of preparation. There are stinging flies in the forests, but I know of an ointment that may abate their attack.”
“Flies?” Hordo muttered. “Stinging flies? Wizards are not enough, Cimmerian? When we are out of this, you will owe me for the flies.”
“And returning to Gwandiakan may not be wise,” Kuie Hsi offered. “Soon there may be riots. A league this side of the forests there is said to be a well, thought to be a stopping place for caravans in ancient times but long abandoned. There I will await you with food and clothing for Chin Kou and Vyndra. And word if the city is safe. I will draw maps.”
Conan knew they were right. How many times in his days as a thief had he sneered at others for their lack of preparation and the lack of success that went with it? But now he could only grind his teeth with the frustration of waiting an instant. Time and the knowledge of the poison in his veins pressed heavily on him. But he would see Vyndra and Chin Kou free—and Karim Singh and Naipal dead—before he died.
By Crom, he vowed it.