Free Conan The Indomitable by Steve Perry

Lands for ten thousand years making you regret it, I swear.”
    Conan considered that thought and found it as unpleasant as any he had ever,
had. To be tormented by a woman’s bitter tongue for eternity, aye, now there
was a truly hellish thing. Surely Crom would not punish any man so?
    “Look there,” Tull said. He pointed.
    Conan looked. A wide ripple seemed to be approaching them. “I see no
fish.”
    “But you see the water of its passage. It will have to come closer to
the surface as it approaches. In a moment… ah, there!”
    Something thin and spined broke the surface.
    “Its dorsal fin!” Tull cried. “Make
ready, lad!” To Elashi he said, “I’ll pull you up when it gets close
enough.”
    “You had better!” Elashi said.
    “By Mitra, it’s a big ‘un,” Tull said. “You could feed a
whole village for an entire moon on it!”
    “Should not you pull me up now?”
    “A moment more. Conan?”
    “I am ready.” The Cimmerian took a deep breath, allowed it to
escape, and tightened his reverse grip on the sword’s handle. Here it came,
closer, it was getting closer and closer…
    “Up we go, lass!” Tull started tugging on the twin ropes of cloth
holding Elashi. She came up half a span—
    —then the strap on the left broke. The wet
pop
! of the cloth was joined by the woman’s scream as she clutched the remaining
support, nearly jerking Tull from his perch.
    “Mitra’s ass!” Tull hollered. He began to
pull Elashi upward again. Too slow. The fish would be
there in another instant and—
    Elashi scrambled up the cloth strand like a monkey, continued past the end
Tull held and clambered over him onto his back just as the fish reached the
spot where she had dangled.
    Screaming a wordless sound, Conan leaped from the spire, landed wide-legged
upon the back of the fish, and drove the point of his sword downward with all
of his strength. His chest and stomach and shoulders contracted, his arms
flexed with power, and the blue iron sank to the hilt in rubbery flesh. He even
managed a grin. Why, this was simple.
    The fish thrashed, tossing the outlander from its back as a maddened horse
would throw a legless rider. Conan hit the water and was battered by sudden
waves. The fish’s tail slapped the surface next to him as he came up, barely
missing him, and the force of the thrashing tail sent the man tumbling through
the water like a wood chip in a storm-swollen ditch.
    Despite the roiling water, the Cimmerian man aged to orient himself and
start swimming for the shore. He attained the base of the spire and climbed
rapidly, joining Elashi and Tull within a moment.
    Beneath the trio, the fish’s struggles lessened. Conan’s strike had been
true. After a few moments the great breast stopped moving on its own. Slowly
the dead fish rose to the surface, bobbing up on its side, water streaming
downward from scales the size of platters.
    Conan grinned at Elashi. “ Behold, our
boat.”
    Elashi wrinkled her nose. “It has a loathesome stench already. In a few
days it will stink to the ends of the world.”
    Conan and Tull looked at each other. Some people could find fault
everywhere. Give them a chest of gold and they would complain of the weight
they must carry.
    ----

Eight
    W-we h-h-have th-them!” Deek said. He and
Wikkell had paused so that the worm could speak: moving and talking at the same
time was all but impossible for Deek’s kind.
    “How so? I see no one here but us.”
    “Th- this t-t-tunnel l-leads to the S-s-sunless
S-sea.”
    “Ah.” Even though Wikkell had spent very little time in this
region of the vast Black Cave system, he could not help but know of the sprawling underground lake.
“Then they are trapped.”
    “S-s-so it w-w-would s-s-seem.”
    “Then let us proceed apace. I feel certain that the two of us can
capture and hold a mere three humans.”
    “W-w-without a d-doubt,” Deek agreed.
     
    There were limits to Rey’s communication spell. Wikkell was either beyond
the