Conan: Road of Kings by Karl Edward Wagner Read Free Book Online Page B

Santiddio and Avvinti must eventually exhaust their repartee.”
    “If I were this Avvinti, I wouldn’t want Sandokazi behind my back if it came to swordplay,” Conan mused. “She showed no remorse this morning when she rode over the trampled bodies on the Dancing Floor. That rescue must have cost the lives of as many bystanders as combatants.”
    “None of the Esanti blood ever let very much stand in the way of what they desired. You know, it was her idea to create a diversion with burning haywagons.” He examined the slash on Conan’s jaw. “I’ve cut myself worse shaving.”
    “The Esanti blood?” Conan queried, thinking Mordermi’s tone was edged with disappointment.
    “Yes, Santiddio and Sandokazi are of the Esanti line—very high born, didn’t you know? But I forget you are new to Kordava. The Esantis were one of the finest houses of Zingara. All that’s gone now, of course, and only the three of them remain.”
    He added: “You’ll want a dagger as well. See if any you find here will suit you.”
    Conan eagerly looked over the row of knives that Mordermi indicated, thinking that there were weapons and armor here to equip a small army, should Santiddio’s comrades decide to back their words with steel. “You say there are three of them left of their house. Does the one hold title, while Santiddio and Sandokazi live as outcasts?”
    “There is no title, no estate any longer. Only Santiddio and his sisters—they’re triplets, did you know that? They were little more than children when their father offended King Rimanendo. I’m still not sure whether it was because the count was withholding more than his share of the royal taxes he collected from his tenants—as Rimanendo charged—or because he refused to levy the full burden of Rimanendo’s taxes upon his people—as Santiddio claims. Little matter. He was beheaded, his lands and wealth given over to another of Rimanendo’s henchmen. I forget what happened to the rest of the household—it wasn’t anything to dwell upon.
    “But a triple birth is a rare thing; I know of none other in our lifetime in Zingara. Three is a sacred number, and they were spared if for no better reason than the awe of the common folk; a plain soldier is slower to defile the handiwork of his gods than is the officer who commands him. Through sympathizers of their father, they lived. Santiddio and Sandokazi eventually found their way to the Pit, as have so many. Loyal friends kept them in enough money to eke out an existence; Sandokazi dances, Santiddio draws from a portion of the funds collected by the White Rose.”
    Conan found a heavy-bladed kidney dagger to his liking. “And the third one?”
    “That’s Destandasi. She … well, she fell in with a different crowd, so to speak. She too was sickened by the corrupt tyranny of Rimanendo’s rule, but while Santiddio and Sandokazi turned their energies toward social reform, Destandasi turned her back upon modern society. She entered the mysteries of Jhebbal Sag. I believe she is priestess in a grove sacred to Jhebbal Sag, somewhere beyond the Black River. There has been little or no communication obviously over the years. A sorceress—particularly one of that ancient cult—has little concern with the social and political upheavals of the modern world, for all that her brother and sister have been swept up in its tide.”
    “Destandasi,” Conan wondered, fitting the dagger to his belt. “She is the twin of Sandokazi?”
    “And of Santiddio,” laughed Mordermi. “Very aloof is Destandasi.”

Five

Night Visitors
    At the first whisper of sound, Conan was fully awake. His eyes slitted in the darkness of his chamber, and his fist closed upon the hilt of his dagger.
    Mordermi had given over to him one of the rooms of the mansion. Conan had made up a pallet amidst the bales and piles of plundered goods from whence he could watch the door. It was the soft snick of the well-oiled bolt that had awakened him after only