Conan The Destroyer by Robert Jordan Read Free Book Online Page A

shorter route than the one you know.” Thinking of the configuration of stars Taramis had said was necessary for restoring Valeria to life, he touched the golden amulet hanging at his neck and added, “Time is short.”
    Once more Jehnna gave a slight shake of her head. “If what I see before me is the proper way to go, then I … remember it. But I must see it first.” Abruptly she laughed and let herself fall back to stare up at the sky. “Besides, I do not want this journey to end quickly. I wish it could last forever and ever.”
    “It cannot, child,” Bombatta said. “We must be back in Shadizar in six more nights.”
    It was all Conan could do to keep his face expressionless. The configuration would occur in six nights, but Bombatta had no care for Valeria’s return. What else was to occur on that night?
    “Now it is time for you to sleep, girl,” the scarred man went on. “We must travel onward early.” He began preparing her bed, clearing rocks away from a space of ground, then digging at the earth with his dagger.
    “Please, Bombatta,” Jehnna said, “can. I not remain awake a little longer? The stars look so different here than from the palace gardens. It seems I could almost touch them.” Bombatta wordlessly spread blankets over the softened ground. “Oh, very well,” she sighed, then covered a yawn with her hand. “It’s just that I want to experience everything, and there is so much.”
    As she lay down, Bombatta put another blanket over her with surprising gentleness. “I will let you experience as much as I can,” he said softly. “As much as I can, child, but we must be back in Shadizar in six nights more.”
    Pillowing her head on her arms, Jehnna mumbled sleepily.
    A lover, Conan thought, watching the way Bombatta remained bent over the girl. Were Jehnna not so obviously a virgin he would have been sure the other man was her lover.
    Rising to his feet, Bombatta walked to the fire and began to kick dirt over it. “I will take the first watch, thief,” he said. Without another word he returned to Jehnna’s side, drew his sword, and sat crosslegged with the naked blade across his knees.
    Conan’s mouth tightened. The man had placed himself between Jehnna and the Cimmerian, as if it were he who must be guarded against. Not taking his eyes from Bombatta, Conan stretched out on the ground, one hand gripping his own swordhilt. He drew no blanket over himself. He was inured to more cold than the Zamoran plain had to offer, and a blanket would slow him an instant should he need to bring his sword into play. Such could be fatal against a man with steel already in his fist. Yet even through his distrust of Bombatta, he wondered about the new mystery that had been added to the rest. What was to occur in Shadizar in six nights? His mind was still on that when he allowed sleep to overtake him.

    The rufescent sun beat down fiercely on the mounted trio making their way westward across the Zamoran plains, and Jehnna tugged the hood of her snowy cloak lower in a vain attempt to find coolness in its shadow on her face. She knew Bombatta was right when he said the cloak protected her from the sun—she had held a hand out from under the cloak long enough to feel the strength of the sun’s direct rays, and been convinced—but that did not lessen the heat. This was one experience she felt she could do without. Ahead loomed the gray bulk of snow-capped mountains, the Karpash Mountains, promising both cool and wetness. She licked her lips, but they were dry almost as she was done.
    “The mountains, Bombatta,” she said. “We shall reach them soon?”
    He turned toward her, and a thrill of fear shot through her at his scarred, sweaty visage in the ebon helmet. Foolishness, she told herself. To be afraid of Bombatta, whom she had known all of her life? Foolishness indeed.
    “Not soon, child,” he replied. “Tomorrow. In the morning, perhaps.”
    “But they seem so near,” she protested.
    “It is