Part 22 (1/2)
Clurowth liht of the lofty arches for branches The wonificent shoulders, and then cursed
She was tall, full-bosoure reflected an unusual strength, without detracting from the femininity of her appearance She was all woarruous, in view of her present environs Instead of a skirt she wore short, wide-legged silk breeches, which ceased a hand's breadth short of her knees, and were upheld by a wide silken sash worn as a girdle Flaring-topped boots of soft leather came almost to her knees, and a low-necked, wide- collared, wide-sleeved silk shi+rt coht double-edged sword, and on the other a long dirk Her unruly golden hair, cut square at her shoulders, was confined by a band of criround of somber, primitive forest she posed with an unconscious picturesqueness, bizarre and out of place She should have been posed against a background of sea-clouds, painted ulls There was the color of the sea in her wide eyes
And that was as it should have been, because this was Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, whose deeds are celebrated in song and ballad wherever seafarers gather
She strove to pierce the sullen green roof of the arched branches and see the sky which presuave it up with aher horse tied she strode off toward the east, glancing back toward the pool from time to time in order to fix her route in herin the lofty boughs, nor did any rustling in the bushes indicate the presence of any sues she had traveled in a real stillness, broken only by the sounds of her own flight
She had slaked her thirst at the pool, but she felt the gnawings of hunger and began looking about for some of the fruit on which she had sustained herself since exhausting the food she had brought in her saddle-bags
Ahead of her, presently, she saw an outcropping of dark, flint-like rock that sloped upward into what looked like a rugged crag rising a the trees Its su leaves Perhaps its peak rose above the tree-tops, and fro lay beyond but h which she had ridden for so e for After she had ascended some fifty feet she came to the belt of leaves that surrounded the rock The trunks of the trees did not crowd close to the crag, but the ends of their lower branches extended about it, veiling it with their foliage She groped on in leafy obscurity, not able to see either above or below her; but presently she glimpsed blue sky, and a ht and saw the forest roof stretching away under her feet
She was standing on a broad shelf which was about even with the tree-tops, and from it rose a spire-like jut that was the ultiht her attention at thein the litter of blown dead leaves which carpeted the shelf She kicked them aside and looked down on the skeleton of a man
She ran an experienced eye over the bleached fran of violence The h why he should have cliine
SHE scrambled up to the summit of the spire and looked toward the horizons The forest roof which looked like a floor froe-point was just as impenetrable as from below She could not even see the pool by which she had left her horse She glanced northward, in the direction froreen ocean stretching away and aith only a vague blue line in the distance to hint of the hill-range she had crossed days before, to plunge into this leafy waste
West and east the vieas the sa in those directions
But when she turned her eyes southward she stiffened and caught her breath A mile away in that direction the forest thinned out and ceased abruptly, giving way to a cactus-dotted plain
And in the midst of that plain rose the walls and towers of a city Valeria swore in amazement
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This passed belief She would not have been surprized to sight human habitations of another sort the beehive-shaped huts of the black people, or the cliff-dwellings of the ends declared inhabited so experience to co weeks' march from the nearest outposts of any sort of civilization
Her hands tiring fro to the spire-like pinnacle, she let herself down on the shelf, frowning in indecision She had come far from the camp of the rasslands, where desperate adventurers of ainst the raids that coht had been blind, into a country of which she holly ignorant And now she wavered between an urge to ride directly to that city in the plain, and the instinct of caution which proht
Her thoughts were scattered by the rustling of the leaves below her She wheeled cat-like, snatched at her sword; and then she frozewide-eyed at the iant in stature,sarb was similar to hers, except that he wore a broad leather belt instead of a girdle Broadsword and poniard hung from this belt
”Conan, the Ci on rinned hardly, and his fierce blue eyes burned with a light any woure, lingering on the swell of her splendid breasts beneath the light shi+rt, and the clear white flesh displayed between breeches and boot-tops
”Don't you know?” he laughed ”Haven't I made my admiration for you plain ever since I first saw you?”
”A stallion could have made it no plainer,” she answered disdainfully ”But I never expected to encounter you so far from the ale-barrels and meat-pots of Sukhmet Did you really follow ue?”
He laughed at her insolence and flexed his h knaves to whip rinned ”Of course I followed you Lucky thing for you, too, wench! When you knifed that Stygian officer, you forfeited Zarallo's favor and protection, and you outlawed yourself with the Stygians”
”I know it,” she replied sullenly ”But what else could I do? You knohat reed ”If I'd been there, I'd have knifed him myself But if a woman s”
Valeria stamped her booted foot and swore
”Why won't ain his eager eyes devoured her ”But you ise to run away The Stygians would have had you skinned That officer's brother followed you; faster than you thought, I don't doubt He wasn't far behind you when I caught up with hiht you and cut your throat within a few more miles”
”Well?” she demanded
”Well what?” He seeian?”
”Why, what do you suppose?” he returned impatiently ”I killed him, of course, and left his carcass for the vultures That delayed h, and I almost lost your trail when you crossed the rocky spurs of the hills Otherwise I'd have caught up with you long ago”
”And now you think you'll drag me back to Zarallo's carunted ”Coian you knifed, and you know it”
”A penniless vagabond,” she taunted
He laughed at her
”What do you call yourself? You haven't enough money to buy a new seat for your breeches
Your disdain doesn't deceive er shi+ps andpenniless what rover isn't, old in the sea-ports of the world to fill a galleon You know that, too”
”Where are the fine shi+ps and the bold lads you commanded, now?” she sneered
”At the bottoarans sank my last shi+p off 197
the Shemite shore that's why I joined Zarallo's Free Co e marched to the Darfar border The pay was poor and the as sour, and I don't like black women And that's the only kind that cas in their noses and their teeth filed bah! Why did you join Zarallo? Sukh way from salt water”
”Red Ortho wanted to make me his ht and swam ashore ere anchored off the Kushi+te coast Off Zabhela, it was
There a Sheht his Free Couard the Darfar border No better employment offered I joined an east-bound caravan and eventually cae southward as you did,” commented Conan, ”but it ise, too, for Zarallo's patrols never thought to look for you in this direction Only the brother of the man you killed happened to strike your trail”
”And nohat do you intend doing?” she demanded
”Turn west,” he answered ”I've been this far south, but not this far east Many days' traveling to the ill bring us to the open savannas, where the black tribes graze their cattle I have friends aet to the coast and find a shi+p I'le”
”Then be on your way,” she advised ”I have other plans”
”Don't be a fool!” He showed irritation for the first tih this forest”