Conan the Indomitable Part 5

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 creva.s.se 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-cham-ber?"

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 sc.r.a.pe or cut, they'll be on you like flies on offal-no offense, lady-and there'll be h.e.l.l 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, theyhad not realized the pa.s.sageway 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 antic.i.p.ated. 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 orsomething 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 h.e.l.lish purpose.

As the bats began to swoop down, screeching in high-pitched voices, the Blind Whites s.n.a.t.c.hed 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 one-eyed creature much heed.

A bat flew at Conan, and the Cimmerian slashed with his blade, hacking one wing off. The bat spi-raled 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 sc.r.a.ped 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 ma.s.sive 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 a.s.sumed 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.

Conan cut another bat from the air, slinging its hot blood into Elashi's face. "Watch what you are doing!"

she yelled.

Tull said, "Here!"

Conan and the desert woman hurried through the sudden clearing of antagonists to the tunnel in which Tull stood, urging them to him. In another moment they had made their exit.

Running down the tunnel, Conan asked, "Where are we going?"

"Does it matter?" Elashi said. "Away from that place!"

"This tunnel has a number of twists and branches," Tull called out, a wheeze in his voice. "We can lose any pursuit here."

"Perhaps they will not pursue us at all."

"I think that might be wishful thinking, la.s.s. It strikes me that all of 'em are after you and the big 'un here."

"Wonderful," Elashi muttered. "Just wonderful."

The Harskeel was willing to allow all of its men to, die could it but attain its prey, but there was no point in permitting them to be slaughtered without achieving that goal. The tunnel into which Conan and the girl-and that old man, who was he?-had fled was all the way across a cavern full of strange creatures bent upon destruction. Best to retreat and gather his energies for a later pursuit, the Harskeel told itself.

"To me!" it called.

Only four pikemen were able to respond, and the Harskeel, b.l.o.o.d.y sword in hand, led them to the nearest exit. On the way, they gathered up one of the wounded bats. Could it talk, they would question it later.

Wikkell stood glaring down at the giant worm, his breath still coming fast from his exertions. "Call off your bats!" he ordered the coiled creature.

Deek uncoiled slightly and sc.r.a.ped part of himself over the rock beneath his body. "H-h-have y-your W-whites c-c-cease t-their d-d-destruction!"

Cyclops and worm glared at each other.

"You have allowed them to get away!"

"I-I h-have a-allowed it? I-it is y-y-you w-who a-allowed it!" Behind Wikkell, one of the Whites screamed, struggling with three bats who had stuck their feeding tubes into him.

"While we stand here arguing, they move further into the tunnels. Perhaps we can strike a bargain? We can work together. There are three of them, after all; we can divide them up when we catch them. They all look alike... who is to know?"

Deek considered this for a moment. Aye, better to have One Eye where he could be seen, and there was some merit in the plan, not that he intended to share anything once the men were collected.

"A-a-agreed!"

Wikkell held his smile in check. Once they caught the humans, he could smash the worm with a big rock and that would be the end of it. In the meantime, it would be better to have the witch's thrall where he could keep his eye watching it.

"Let us go, then," Wikkell said.

"W-wh-what of y-your W-w-whites?"

Wikkell turned to look. Most of the Whites were down; a few still hurled rocks at the swooping fliers.

"Let the bats have them; thus far they have only gotten in my way."

"A-as h-have the b-b-bats. C-c-come."