The Sword of Skelos Read Online Free PDF Page A

door.’ “
    “Sensible.” Conan started to rise.
    “Do not move, Cimmerian! You can not dodge the crossbow quarrel aimed at your back, and three swords are drawn!”
    The speaker stepped past Conan to face him, smiling, from Khassek’s side of the table. The man was not tall, and he was slim, though his face showed some signs of high living. His glossy brown-black hair was neatly banged, curling slightly under all across his forehead. The large gold pendant on the breast of his gold-broidered blue tunic—which Conan saw was of silk—bore the arms of the King of Zamora, lately a drunk dominated by a sorcerer of Arenjun.
The bastard should be grateful to me for getting rid of Yara
, Conan thought morosely. This man’s perfectly trimmed, thin mustache twitched as he smiled. Conan saw a flash of gold in his mouth. Dental work, by Crom— and the fellow no more than thirty!
    “Conan of Cimmeria, lately of Arenjun, you are my prisoner in the king’s name. You will come quietly?”
    Conan stared at him. Nice pretty blue leggings; polished black boots, tight-fitting. A lovely fancily tooled belt supporting sheaths; from them thrust up the jeweled hilt of a dagger and a sword whose pommel was a lion head—and surely was of silver.
    Conan glanced at Khassek, who sat below the king’s man, just beside him; looking shocked, he was staring at Conan. The Cimmerian glanced around. He saw an inn nearly emptied—and uniforms. Swords, naked. Aye, and the crossbowman, moving slowly in, the tip of his nasty little shaft trained on Conan.
    “You mean—you mean this man is a
criminal
!” Khassek exclaimed. “Oh!”
    The king’s Dragoner looked down at him with a contemptuous lifting of his brows. “You are not his friend?”
    “Hardly! I am here on the queen’s business of Koth.”
    “Koth! You look like one of those… you look as if you came from well to the east, not the
west
!”
    Khassek heaved a great sigh. “It is true. My mother was a slave, from Aghrapur.”
    “Aghrapur!” The king’s dandified agent was astonished anew.
    “Aye,” Khassek sighed sadly. “She was kidnapped in her youth by an armor pedlar of Koth. Carried her back with him, he did. As the gods would have it, he found by the time of their arrival that he loved her. I was born. He had me educated. Now—well now I am here representing the queen herself! As for
this
fellow —he seems clean, and when he walked so boldly into this good inn—this is a good inn, isn’t it, my lord?”
    The Zamoran smiled, nattered. “Aye. There are better, in Shadizar—but there are many worse! Agent for the queen, you say?”
    “Uh—my lord Ferhad—” One of the men of the Watch began.
    The Dragoner jerked his head to give the man a blazing stare. “In time! Do not disturb a man on the King’s Business!”
    “Well, he offered me the ring he wears, saying it was his mother’s,” Khassek said, while Conan wondered at all this elaborate tale, and where it was taking them. “And dropped these gold coins on the table to show that he was not penurious. He gave me this strange sword as good faith, and said he needed two more gold pieces to get to Nemedia—”
    Predictably, Lord Ferhad said, “Nemedia!”
    “So he said. Now… now oh my lord… is’t possible this fellow sought to peddle stolen goods to me, me, the queen’s own buyer of jewels and cosmetics?”
    “Entirely possible,” Ferhad said. “This one is a desperate and lawless man. He is responsible for a great deal of mischief down in Arenjun—and dares fly here, to the very capital, to take refuge!” Ferhad fixed his lionish gaze on Conan again, standing tall with his chin high, looking down his considerable nose and being considerably more officious now, with such a distinguished audience of one; the queen’s own buyer of jewels and cosmetics, of Koth!
    “It is a royal offense to interfere with men of the City Watch anywhere in our kingdom, barbarian! Now rise, slowly, and let us be off