Part 35 (1/2)
Eside, pulling herself half out of the water Drops sparkled in her hair, sleeked down frolowed on her shoulders and breasts
Her countenance took away any thoughts of her beauty, however
”Come and see for yourselves,” she said ”Be warned You will not like what you find”
”My life's been full of unpleasing sights and it's not over yet,” Conan said He swung his legs over the side of the canoe, slipped into the water, then held the craft steady while Valeria dove over the side
”Stay close to me,” Emwaya ordered when Valeria surfaced ”It is my intent to protect you from what lies down there”
Conan could not help but feel that he would rather be sure of more than her intent But Eic-wielders: she would not proed under the surface, Emwaya behind hith belohen Conan sahat E through a vast globe of liquid crystal The water was utterly transparent, utterly without color, all the way to the bottoed, had to be twice the height of a shi+p's mainmast below them No wonder the anchor had not found purchase
Indeed, he could see the anchor stone dangling uselessly from its line, well clear of the botto lived, either-not the smallest fish, not even a scrap of the weeds that choked some portions of the lake Conan looked down at the bottom
It, too, was bare of life But it was not featureless Across the Cimmerian's field of vision ran what looked like a deep trench Into that trench had tuns of huh above, Conan saw that ht that he saw carved on so serpent-shape he had seen rather too often in the tunnels
That was as s told him that it was time to seek air He kicked toward the surface, and Emwaya and Valeria followed
When Conan broke into the sunlight, Valeria was there before he had finished taking his first deep breath Es, he began to think of diving back down to find her
”Valeria, if Emwaya's in trouble-”
”She'll need us both even h I was thinking more of the need for one of us to reach the island and tell of what happened”
Valeria looked less out of temper and seemed about to climb into the canoe when Emwaya broke the surface Her ar was a desperate rasp Conan and Valeria each gripped an arm and upheld her with her head clear of the water
The panic left her eyes as breath filled her lungs again She lay back in the water, trusting her friends, and her gasping turned to steady breathing At last she slipped out of their grasp and climbed into the canoe
”What is it, Emwaya?” Conan asked
”My father would knoould say it-better But under the lake bottom is one of those tunnels”
”That's the trench that collapsed?”
”Yes But-in the tunnel-so”
”A flooded tunnel, I'd wager”
The jest seehtly of such matters, Conan I-it seems to me that what is there lives”
”How can that be?” Valeria asked She had finally caught the sense of the conversation ”Everything else in the water for a good thousand paces seems to be dead Worse, driven away”