"Howard, Robert E - Conan - Snout in the Dark, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Howard Robert E)

Tananda shook back her long black disheveled hair and faced her rescuer. She was bleeding from a score of scratches on her breasts and thighs, her locks fell in confusion down her back, and she was as naked as the day she was born; but she stared at him without perturbation or uncertainty, and he gave back her stare, frank admiration in his expression of her cool bearing, and the ripeness of her brown limbs.
"Who are you?" she demanded.
"Conan, a Cimmerian," he answered.
"What are you doing in Shumballa?"
"I came here to seek my fortune. I was formerly a corsair."
"Oh!" New interest shone in her dark eyes; she gathered her hair back in her hands. "We have heard tales of you, whom men call Amra the Lion. But if you are no longer a corsair, what are you now?"
"A penniless wanderer."
She shook her head. "No, by Set! You are captain of the royal guard."
He glanced casually at the sprawling figure in silk and steel, and the sight did not alter the zest of his sudden grin.
Shubba returned to Shumballa, and coming to Tuthmes in his chamber where leopard skins carpeted the marble floor, he said: "I have found the woman you desired. A Nemedian girl, captured from a trading vessel of Argos. I paid the Shemitish slave-trader many broad gold pieces."
"Let me see her," commanded Tuthmes, and Shubba left the room, returning a moment later leading a girl by the wrist. She was supple, her white skin almost dazzling in contrast with the brown and black bodies to which Tuthmes was accustomed. Her hair fell in a curly rippling gold stream over her white shoulders. She was clad only in a tattered shift. This Shubba removed, leaving her shrinking in complete nudity.
Tuthmes nodded, impersonally.
"She is a fine bit of merchandise. If I were not gambling for a throne, I might be tempted to keep her for myself. Have you taught her Kushite, as I commanded?"
"Aye; in the city of the Shemites, and later daily on the caravan trail, I taught her, and impressed upon her the need of learning by means of a slipper, after the Shemite fashion. Her name is Diana."
Tuthmes seated himself on a couch, and indicated that the girl should sit cross-legged on the floor at his feet, which she did.
"I am going to give you to the king of Kush as a present," he said. "You will nominally be his slave, but actually you will belong to me. You will receive your orders regularly, and you will not fail to carry them out. The king is degenerate, slothful, dissipated. It should not be hard for you to achieve complete dominance over him. But lest you might be tempted to disobey, when you fancy yourself out of my reach in the palace of the king, I will demonstrate my power to you."
He took her hand and led her through a corridor, down a flight of stone stairs and into a long chamber, dimly lighted. The chamber was divided in equal halves by a wall of crystal, clear as water though some three feet in thickness and of such strength as to have resisted the lunge of a bull elephant. He led her to this wall and made her stand, facing it, while he stepped back. Abruptly the light went out. She stood there in darkness, her slender limbs trembling with an unreasoning panic, then light began to float in the darkness. She saw a hideous malformed head grow out of the blackness; she saw a bestial snout, chisel-like teeth, bristles - turned and ran, frantic with fear, and forgetful of the sheet of crystal that kept the brute from her. She ran full into the arms of Tuthmes in the darkness, and heard his hiss in her ear: "You have seen my servant; do not fail me, for if you do he will search you out wherever you may be, and you cannot hide from him." And when he hissed something else into the quivering ear of the Nemedian girl, she promptly fainted.
Tuthmes carried her up the stairs and gave her into the hands of a black wench with instructions to revive her, to see that she had food and wine, and to bathe, comb, perfume and dress her for her presentation to the king.

End