Conan the Marauder by John Maddox Roberts Read Free Book Online

strokes without difficulty and dropped one of them with a blow of the flat of the blade to the side of his head. The other cursed and cut, but Conan batted his sword aside and kicked him in the belly. As the man doubled forward, Conan smote him on the back of the neck with the base of his fist.
    He turned to see Rustuf lustily engaging another two Hyrkanians and rushed to join him. Conan took charge of one, and the ring of steel on steel continued for a few moments longer before a band of horsemen surrounded them.
    "Hold!" shouted the head slave master The combatants stepped back and lowered their arms. Conan saw that a dozen arrows were trained on them, the bows at full draw.
    "Drop your weapons!" the slave master ordered. Sullenly, they complied. The slave master came closer. "So, you two are fond of fighting? Then we must find something better for you than mere slave work." He turned to the bowmen. "Take them to the Great Enclosure."
    They were herded toward the centre of the camp. There a large area had been enclosed by a huge curtain that kept out the cutting, dust-laden winds of the plains. The curtain was fifteen feet high and covered with barbaric decorations. Towering above it were the equally barbaric standards of the Hyrkanian chieftains: poles topped with horns, horses' tails and the skulls of beasts.
    The slave master arrived on his mount and led them within the windbreak. There were perhaps twenty large tents inside, each with a standard before its entrance. Beside the largest of the tents stood the highest pole. From the spreading yak horns topping it there dangled nine white horses' tails. This, Conan thought, must be the tent of Bartatua.
    Well away from the tents, near the windbreak, was a small area enclosed by a folding lattice-fence. Within were a number of thick stakes buried deep in the ground. From a ring at the top of each stake hung a six-foot chain ending in an iron neck ring. Conan counted twenty-five men already chained to these stakes, and there were several neck rings still awaiting an occupant.
    "It is good that you have so fine an urge to fight," the slave master said. "Our chief holds a great banquet this night, and he also enjoys close combat. Get in there."
    The two did as they were told, having little choice. The bowmen still followed, and their strings were still taut. Only when Conan and Rustuf were firmly locked in the neck rings did the guards relax their weapons and leave.
    "We have been successful thus far," Rustuf said. "Although a chain and a neck ring are no more comfortable than the slave pit."
    Conan stood and gripped the chain. He tugged on it, but the stake would not budge. He stood directly over the stake and tried with all his might to pull it up. It did not move. He knew then that not only was the stake buried many feet deep, but that its base was fastened to a crosspiece. Even his strength would not be sufficient to uproot it,
    "The company seems to be no better here, either," said Rustuf.
    Conan studied their neighbours. They were a hard-
    bitten lot, scarred and burly, with the look common to soldiers, bandits and pirates: an air of truculence that expressed belief in their own strength and very little else.
    Nearest him was a huge man whose features were eastern but who belonged to no people that Conan knew. "Who are you?" Conan asked in the tongue of the nomads.
    "I am the one who will kill you at this evening's fights, dog."
    The man was grim but he did not bluster. He meant every word, and Conan did not seek to draw him out further. Instead, sat down and leaned against the stake, conserving his strength against the evening's work.
     

    IV
     
    Khondemir gazed into his scrying glass and saw there visions that only a wizard could interpret. Vague, inhuman faces appeared and spoke to him, although no sound was heard. At last he waved a hand over the glass in a gesture of dismissal. The glass cleared and he replaced it in its chest.
    From a tower nearby came the call of