She opened her eyes, to see the stranger turning away from a gory
travesty that only vaguely resembled a human being. The man’s breast
heaved with exhaustion or passion; his brow was beaded with sweat; his
right hand was splashed with blood.

He did not speak to her, or even glance toward her. She saw him stride
through the reeds that grew at the water’s edge, stoop, and tug at
something. A boat wallowed out of its hiding-place among the stalks.
Then she divined his intention, and was galvanized into action.

‘Oh, wait!’ she wailed, staggering up and running toward him. ‘Do not
leave me! Take me with you!’

He wheeled and stared at her. There was a difference in his bearing. His
bloodshot eyes were sane. It was as if the blood he had just shed had
quenched the fire of his frenzy.

‘Who are you?’ he demanded.

‘I am called Olivia. I was _his_ captive. I ran away. He followed me.
That’s why he came here. Oh, do not leave me here! His warriors are not
far behind him. They will find his corpse–they will find me near
it–oh!’ She moaned in her terror and wrung her white hands.

He stared at her in perplexity.

‘Would you be better off with me?’ he demanded. ‘I am a barbarian, and I
know from your looks that you fear me.’

‘Yes, I fear you,’ she replied, too distracted to dissemble. ‘My flesh
crawls at the horror of your aspect. But I fear the Hyrkanians more. Oh,
let me go with you! They will put me to the torture if they find me
beside their dead lord.’

‘Come, then.’ He drew aside, and she stepped quickly into the boat,
shrinking from contact with him. She seated herself in the bow, and he
stepped into the boat, pushed off with an oar, and using it as a paddle,
worked his way tortuously among the tall stalks until they glided out
into open water. Then he set to work with both oars, rowing with great,
smooth, even strokes, the heavy muscles of arms and shoulders and back
rippling in rhythm to his exertions.

There was silence for some time, the girl crouching in the bows, the man
tugging at the oars. She watched him with timorous fascination. It was
evident that he was not an Hyrkanian, and he did not resemble the
Hyborian races. There was a wolfish hardness about him that marked the
barbarian. His features, allowing for the strains and stains of battle
and his hiding in the marshes, reflected that same untamed wildness, but
they were neither evil nor degenerate.

‘Who are you?’ she asked. ‘Shah Amurath called you a _kozak_; were you
of that band?’

‘I am Conan, of Cimmeria,’ he grunted. ‘I was with the _kozaki_, as the
Hyrkanian dogs called us.’

She knew vaguely that the land he named lay far to the northwest, beyond
the farthest boundaries of the different kingdoms of her race.

‘I am a daughter of the King of Ophir,’ she said. ‘My father sold me to
a Shemite chief, because I would not marry a prince of Koth.’

The Cimmerian grunted in surprize.

Her lips twisted in a bitter smile. ‘Aye, civilized men sell their
children as slaves to savages, sometimes. They call your race barbaric,
Conan of Cimmeria.’

‘We do not sell our children,’ he growled, his chin jutting truculently.

‘Well–I was sold. But the desert man did not misuse me. He wished to
buy the good will of Shah Amurath, and I was among the gifts he brought
to Akif of the purple gardens. Then–‘ She shuddered and hid her face in
her hands.

‘I should be lost to all shame,’ she said presently. ‘Yet each memory
stings me like a slaver’s whip. I abode in Shah Amurath’s palace, until
some weeks agone he rode out with his hosts to do battle with a band of
invaders who were ravaging the borders of Turan. Yesterday he returned
in triumph, and a great fete was made to honor him. In the drunkenness
and rejoicing, I found an opportunity to steal out of the city on a
stolen horse. I had thought to escape–but he followed, and about midday
came up with me. I outran his vassals, but him I could not escape. Then
you came.’

‘I was lying hid in the reeds,’ grunted the barbarian. ‘I was one of
those dissolute rogues, the Free Companions, who burned and looted along
the borders. There were five thousand of us, from a score of races and
tribes. We had been serving as mercenaries for a rebel prince in eastern
Koth, most of us, and when he made peace with his cursed sovereign, we
were out of employment; so we took to plundering the outlying dominions
of Koth, Zamora and Turan impartially. A week ago Shah Amurath trapped
us near the banks of Ilbars with fifteen thousand men. Mitra! The skies
were black with vultures. When the lines broke, after a whole day of
fighting, some tried to break through to the north, some to the west. I
doubt if any escaped. The steppes were covered with horsemen riding down
the fugitives. I broke for the east, and finally reached the edge of the
marshes that border this part of Vilayet.

‘I’ve been hiding in the morasses ever since. Only the day before
yesterday the riders ceased beating up the reed-brakes, searching for
just such fugitives as I. I’ve squirmed and burrowed and hidden like a
snake, feasting on musk-rats I caught and ate raw, for lack of fire to
cook them. This dawn I found this boat hidden among the reeds. I hadn’t
intended going out on the sea until night, but after I killed Shah
Amurath, I knew his mailed dogs would be close at hand.’

‘And what now?’

‘We shall doubtless be pursued. If they fail to see the marks left by
the boat, which I covered as well as I could, they’ll guess anyway that
we took to sea, after they fail to find us among the marshes. But we
have a start, and I’m going to haul at these oars until we reach a safe
place.’

‘Where shall we find that?’ she asked hopelessly. ‘Vilayet is an
Hyrkanian pond.’

‘Some folk don’t think so,’ grinned Conan grimly; ‘notably the slaves
that have escaped from galleys and become pirates.’

‘But what are your plans?’