Part 24 (1/2)
With the first mile between them and the woods, Valeria breathed ain The sun had set and darkness was gathering over the plain, lightened a little by the stars that rowths
”No cattle, no plowed fields,” muttered Conan ”How do these people live?”
”Perhaps the cattle are in pens for the night,” suggested Valeria, ”and the fields and grazing- pastures are on the other side of the city”
”Maybe,” he grunted ”I didn't see any froh”
Thewalls and towers blackly in the yello
Valeria shi+vered Black against the e city had a so of the salanced about hiates in the night They probably wouldn't let us in Besides, we need rest, and we don't kno they'll receive us A few hours' sleep will put us in better shape to fight or run”
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He led the way to a bed of cactus which grew in a circle a phenomenon common to the southern desert With his sword he chopped an opening, and motioned Valeria to enter
”We'll be safe frolanced fearfully back toward the black line that indicated the forest soon comes out of the woods?”
”We'll keep watch,” he answered, though he estion as to what they would do in such an event He was staring at the city, a few reat black ainst the moonlit sky
”Lie down and sleep I'll keep the first watch”
She hesitated, glancing at hi, facing toward the plain, his sword across his knees, his back to her Without further comment she lay down on the sand inside the spiky circle
”Wake me when the moon is at its zenith,” she directed
He did not reply nor look toward her Her last iure, iainst the low-hanging stars
II
BY THE BLAZE OF THE FIRE JEWELS
VALERIA aith a start, to the realization that a gray daas stealing over the plain
She sat up, rubbing her eyes Conan squatted beside the cactus, cutting off the thick pears and dexterously twitching out the spikes
”You didn't awake ht!”
”You were tired,” he answered ”Your posteriorride
You pirates aren't used to horseback”
”What about yourself?” she retorted
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”I was a kozak before I was a pirate,” he answered ”They live in the saddle I snatch naps like a panther watching beside the trail for a deer to come by My ears keep watch while iant barbarian seeht on a golden bed Having reh skin, he handed the girl a thick, juicy cactus leaf
”Skin your teeth in that pear It's food and drink to a desert irs once desertthe caravans”
”Is there anything you haven't been?” inquired the girl, half in derision and half in fascination
”I've never been king of an Hyborian kingdo an enor even that I may be too, some day Why shouldn't I?”
She shook her head in wonder at his cal her pear She found it not unpleasing to the palate, and full of cool and thirst-satisfying juice Finishi+ng his ers through his thick black o If the people in that city are going to cut our throats they ins”
His griht be prophetic She too hitched her sword-belt as she rose Her terrors of the night were past The roaring dragons of the distant forest were like a dier in her stride as she moved off beside the Cimmerian Whatever perils lay ahead of them, their foes would be men And Valeria of the Red Brotherhood had never seen the face of the lanced down at her as she strode along beside hi stride that matched his own
”You walk more like a hillman than a sailor,” he said ”You must be an Aquilonian The suns of Darfar never burnt your white skin brown Many a princess would envy you”
”I aer irritated her His evident admiration pleased her For another ered her; she had always fiercely resented anyto shi+eld or protect her because of her sex But she found a secret pleasure in the fact that this e of her fright and the weakness resulting from it After all, she reflected, her companion was no co the towers to a sinister crirunted Conan, his eyes clouding with the abysmal superstition of the barbarian ”Blood-red as a threat of blood against the sun this dawn I do not like this city”
But they went on, and as they went Conan pointed out the fact that no road ran to the city from the north
”No cattle have trampled the plain on this side of the city,” said he ”No plowshare has touched the earth for years, maybe centuries But look: once this plain was cultivated”
Valeria saw the ancient irrigation ditches he indicated, half filled in places, and overgroith cactus She froith perplexity as her eyes swept over the plain that stretched on all sides of the city to the forest edge, whichVision did not extend beyond that ring
She looked uneasily at the city No hellea from the towers A silence as absolute as that of the forest brooded over the walls and h above the eastern horizon when they stood before the great gate in the northern wall, in the shadow of the lofty rahty bronze portal Spiderwebs glistened thickly on hinge and sill and bolted panel
”It hasn't been opened for years!” exclairunted Conan ”That's why the ditches were broken and the plain untouched”
”But who built it? Who dwelt here? Where did they go? Why did they abandon it?”
”Who can say? Maybe an exiled clan of Stygians built it Maybe not It doesn't look like Stygian architecture Maybe the people iped out by eneue exterminated the dust and cobwebs in there,” suggested Valeria, the acquisitive instincts of her profession waking in her; prodded, too, by feo in and explore a bit”
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