ing, blood oozing from wounds on his thickly-muscled arms and thighs.
"You are the Devi again,” he said, grinning fiercely at the gold-clasped gossamer robe she had donned over her hill-girl attire, and awed not at all by the imposing array of chivalry about him. "I have you to thank for the lives of some three hundred and fifty of my rogues, who are at least convinced that I didn’t betray them. You have put my hands on the reins of conquest again.”
"I still owe you my ransom,” she said, her dark eyes glowing as they swept over him. "Ten thousand pieces of gold I will pay you”
He made a savage, impatient gesture, shook the blood from his knife and thrust it back in its scabbard, wiping his hands on his mail.
"I will collect your ransom in my own way, at my own time,” he said. "I will collect it in your palace at Ayodhya, and I will come with fifty thousand men to see that the scales are fair.”
She laughed, gathering her reins into her hands. "And I will meet you on the shores of the Jhumda with a hundred thousand!”
His eyes shone with fierce appreciation and admiration, and stepping back, he lifted his hand with a gesture that was like the assumption of kingship, indicating that her road was clear before her.
[ THE END ]
"Feigman's Beard" by AUGUST W. DERLETH (© Copyright Renewed: August Derleth (A); 8Nov61; R284659.)
