Part 21 (1/2)
he had al to catch his breath, he exerted all his strength in a net where it clung Another instant and he had pushed open the door fro down a long straight corridor, lined with ivory doors The other end was masked by a rich velvet curtain, and from beyond that curtain came the devilish strains of such htmares It led with it was the panting, hysterical sobbing of a wolided down the corridor
IV
A SWORD-THRUST THROUGH THEM CURTAIN
When Zabibi was jerked headfirst through the aperture which opened in the wall behind the idol, her first, dizzy, disconnected thought was that her time had come She instinctively shut her eyes and waited for the blow to fall But instead she felt herself dumped unceremoniously onto the s her eyes she stared fearfully around her, just as a muffled iiant in a loin-cloth standing over her, and, across the chamber into which she had come, a man sat on a divan, with his back to a rich black velvet curtain, a broad, fleshy man, with fat white hands and snaky eyes And her flesh crawled, for this man was Totrasmek, the priest of Hanuhout the city of Zah the wall,” said Totrasirl saw that a heavy golden bolt had been shot across the hidden door, which was plainly discernible from this side of the wall The bolt and its sockets would have resisted the charge of an elephant
”Go open one of the doors for him, Baal-pteor,” ordered Totrasmek ”Slay him in the square chamber at the other end of the corridor”
The Kosalan salaamed and departed by the way of a door in the side wall of the cha fearfully at the priest, whose eyes ran avidly over her splendid figure To this she was indifferent A dancer of Zamboula was accustomed to nakedness But the cruelty in his eyes started her liain you come to me in my retreat, beautiful one,” he purred with cynical hypocrisy ”It is an unexpected honor You seemed to enjoy your former visit so little, that I dared not hope for 186
you to repeat it Yet I did all inexperience”
For a Zamboula dancer to blush would be an iled with the fear in Zabibi's dilated eyes
”Fat pig! You know I did not cohed Totrasht with a stupid barbarian to cut my throat! Why should you seekthe futility of trying to dissehed ”The fact that you are here seeking ave you Well, did you not ask for it? And did I not send what you asked for, out of the love I bear you?”
”I asked you for a drug that would make him slumber harmlessly for a few hours,” she said bitterly ”And you you sent your servant with a drug that drove hiht have known your protestations of friendshi+p were lies, to disguise your hate and spite”
”Why did you wish your lover to sleep?” he retorted ”So you could steal fro with the jewel men call the Star of Khorala the star stolen froold for its return He would not give it to you willingly, because he knew that it holds a ic which, when properly controlled, will enslave the hearts of any of the opposite sex You wished to steal it froicians would discover the key to that et you in his conquests of the queens of the world You would sell it back to the queen of Ophir, who understands its power and would use it to enslave men, as she did before it was stolen”
”And why did you want it?” she demanded sulkily
”I understand its powers It would increase the power of my arts”
”Well,” she snapped, ”you have it now!”
”I have the Star of Khorala? Nay, you err”
”Why bother to lie?” she retorted bitterly ”He had it on his finger when he drove ain Your servantthe house, and have taken it from him, after I escaped him To the devil with it! I want ; you have punished us both Why do you not restore his mind to him? Can you?”
”I could,” he assured her, in evident enjoy his robes ”This contains the juice of the golden lotus If your lover drank it he would be sane again Yes, I will be merciful You have both thwarted and flouted me, not once but many times; he has constantly opposed my wishes But I will be merciful Come and take the phial froerness to seize it, but fearing it was but some cruel jest She advanced tihed heartlessly and drew back out of her reach Even as her lips parted to curse him, soilded ceiling four jade-hued vessels were falling She dodged, but they did not strike her They crashed to the floor about her, for the four corners of a square And she screaain For out of each ruin reared the hooded head of a cobra, and one struck at her bare leg Her convulsive ht her within reach of the one on the other side and again she had to shi+ft like lightning to avoid the flash of its hideous head
She was caught in a frightful trap All four serpents were swaying and striking at foot, ankle, calf, knee, thigh, hip, whatever portion of her voluptuous body chanced to be nearest to the over them or pass between the aside and twist her body to avoid the strokes, and each tiht her within range of another, so that she had to keep shi+fting with the speed of light She could move only a short space in any direction, and the fearful hooded crests wereher every second Only a dancer of Zarisly square
She beca motion The heads missed her by hair's breadths, but theyli speed of the scaly monsters her enemy had conjured out of thin air
So with the hissing of the serpents, like an evil nightwind blowing through the eent haste she realized that the darting of the serpents was no longer at rando of the eery music They struck with a horrible rhyth body attuned itself to their rhythm Her frantic motions melted into the measures of a dance compared to which the most obscene tarantella of Zamora would have seemed sane and restrained Sick with shame and terror Zabibi heard the hateful mirth of her merciless torhed Totrasmek ”So o but never with such beauty and suppleness Dance, girl, 188
dance! How long can you avoid the fangs of the Poison People? Minutes? Hours? You eary at last Your swift, sure feet will stus falter, your hips slow in their rotations Then the fangs will begin to sink deep into your ivory flesh ”
Behind hiust of wind, and Totrasht convulsively at the length of bright steel which jutted suddenly froirl swayed dizzily in her dance, crying out in dreadful anticipation of the flickering fangs and then only four wisps of harmless blue smoke curled up fro fro his broad blade Looking through the hangings he had seen the girl dancing desperately between four swaying spirals of suessed that their appearance was very different to her He knew he had killed Totras, but even as Conan started toward her, she staggered up again, though her legs treasped ”The phial!”
Totras hand Ruthlessly she tore it froan frantically to ransack his gar for?” Conan de he stole it from Alafdhal He h the streets Set's devils!”
She had convinced herself that it was not on the person of Totras up divan covers and hangings, and upsetting vessels
She paused and raked a daot Baal-pteor!”
”He's in hell with his neck broken,” Conan assured her
She expressed vindictive gratification at the news, but an instant later swore expressively
”We can't stay here It's not many hours until dawn Lesser priests are likely to visit the teht, and if we're discovered here with his corpse, the people will tear us to pieces The Turanians could not save us”
She lifted the bolt on the secret door, and a fewaway froe-old shrine of Hanu street a short distance away Conan halted and checked his companion with a heavy hand on her naked shoulder
”Don't forget there was a price ”
”I have not forgotten!” She twisted free ”But we o to to Alafdhal first!”
A few h the wicket door The young Turanian lay upon the divan, his ars bound with heavy velvet ropes His eyes were open, but they were like those of a , and foam was thick on his lips Zabibi shuddered
”Force his jaws open!” she coers accomplished the task
Zabibi eullet The effect was like lare faded froirl in a puzzled way, but with recognition and intelligence Then he fell into a normal slumber
”When he awakes he will be quite sane,” she whispered, ave into her hands a s, and drew about her shoulders a silken cloak Her ed when she beckoned Conan to follow her out of the chamber
In an arch that opened on the street, she turned to hiality