Part 27 (1/2)
He knew many secrets of the city he never told the others Frorisly secrets secrets of ancient kings and wizards, long forgotten by the degenerate Xuchotlans our ancestors slew But all his ht we of Tecuhltli stormed his castle and butchered all his people Tolkemec we tortured forslur, and a far-away look grew in his eyes, as if he looked back over the years to a scene which caused him intense pleasure
”Aye, we kept the life in him until he screa froeon for the rats to gnaw as he died
Froed himself into the catacombs
There without doubt he died, for the only way out of the catacoh Tecuhltli, and he never eed by that way His bones were never found, and the superstitious ahost haunts the crypts to this day, wailing ao we butchered the people of Tolkeed on between Tecuhltli and Xotalanc, as it will rage until the last o that Tecuhltli stole the wife of Xotalanc Half a century the feud has endured I was born in it All in this chamber, except Tascela, were born in it We expect to die in it
”We are a dying race, even as those Xuchotlans our ancestors slew When the feud began there were hundreds in each faction Noe of Tecuhltli nuuard the four doors: forty in all How many Xotalancas there are we do not know, but I doubt if they are much more numerous than we For fifteen years no children have been born to us, and we have seen none a, but before we die ill slay as many of the men of Xotalanc as the Gods per of that grisly feud, fought out in silent chareen fire-jewels, on floors s with the flames of hell and splashed with deeper crieneration had perished Xotalanc was dead, long ago, slain in a grim battle on an ivory stair Tecuhltli was dead, flayed alive by the maddened Xotalancas who had captured hiht in black corridors, of a stairs, and red butcheries With a redder, leam in his deep dark eyes he told of men and women flayed alive,under tortures so ghastly that even the barbarous Cirunted No wonder Techotl had treone forth to slay if he could, driven by hate that was stronger than his fear Olmec spoke further, of dark and ic and wizardry conjured out of the black night of the catacombs, of weird creatures invoked out of darkness for horrible allies In these things the Xotalancas had the advantage, for it was in the eastern catacoreatest wizards of the ancient Xuchotlans, with their immemorial secrets
VALERIA listened with morbid fascination The feud had beco the people of Xuchotl inexorably on to doom and extinction It filled their whole lives
They were born in it, and they expected to die in it They never left their barricaded castle except to steal forth into the Halls of Silence that lay between the opposing fortresses, to slay and be slain Soriht Sometimes they did not return at all, or returned only as severed limbs cast 234
down before the bolted bronze doors It was a ghastly, unreal nightmare existence these people lived, shut off froether like rabid rats in the sa and creeping through the sunless corridors to maim and torture andeyes of Tascela fixed upon her The princess see Her expression, as he narrated victories or defeats, did not e or fiendish exultation that alternated on the faces of the other Tecuhltli The feud that was an obsession to her clansless to her Valeria found her indifferent callousness nant than Olmec's naked ferocity
”And we can never leave the city,” said Olain he checked hions,” he continued, ”ere born and raised in the city would not dare leave it We have never set foot outside the walls We are not accustomed to the open sky and the naked sun No; ere born in Xuchotl, and in Xuchotl we shall die”
”Well,” said Conan, ”with your leave we'll take our chances with the dragons This feud is none of our business If you'll show us to the west gate we'll be on our way”
Tascela's hands clenched, and she started to speak, but Olhtfall If you wander forth into the plain by night, you will certainly fall prey to the dragons”
”We crossed it last night, and slept in the open without seeing any,” returned Conan
Tascela slared at her with instinctive antagonis at him, but at the woman opposite him
”I think they dare,” retorted Olmec ”But look you, Conan and Valeria, the Gods must have sent you to us, to cast victory into the laps of the Tecuhltli! You are professional fighters why not fight for us? We have wealth in abundance precious jewels are as common in Xuchotl as cobblestones are in the cities of the world Soht with them from Kosala Some, like the firestones, they found in the hills to the east Aid us to wipe out the Xotalancas, and ill give you all the jewels you can carry”
”And will you help us destroy the dragons?” asked Valeria ”With bows and poisoned arrows thirty ons in the forest”
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”Aye!” replied Olotten the use of the bow, in years of hand-to- hand fighting, but we can learn again”
”What do you say?” Valeria inquired of Conan
”We're both penniless vagabonds,” he grinned hardily ”I'd as soon kill Xotalancas as anybody”
”Then you agree?” exclaiht
”Aye And now suppose you show us chambers where we can sleep, so we can be fresh to”
Olmec nodded, and waved a hand, and Techotl and a woh a door off to the left of the jade dais A glance back showed Valeria Ol after them His eyes burned with a weird fla to the sullen-faced maid, Yasala, who leaned over her shoulder, her ear to the princess'lips
THE hallas not so broad asPresently the woman halted, opened a door, and drew aside for Valeria to enter
”Wait a rowled Conan ”Where do I sleep?”
Techotl pointed to a chamber across the hallway, but one door farther down Conan hesitated, and seemed inclined to raise an objection, but Valeria smiled spitefully at hi uncoeneral, and strode off down the corridor after Techotl
In the ornate chalanced up at the slot-like skylights Soh to adlass were broken
”Why don't the Xotalancas cohts?” he asked
”They cannot be broken,” answered Techotl ”Besides, the roofs would be hard to claes”
He volunteered more information about the ”castle” of Tecuhltli Like the rest of the city it contained four stories, or tiers of cha up from the roof Each tier was named; indeed, the people of Xuchotl had a name for each chamber, hall and stair in the city, as people of nate streets and quarters In Tecuhltli the floors were naer's Tier and The Serpent's Tier, in the order as enuhest, or fourth, floor
”Who is Tascela?” asked Conan ”Ollanced furtively about hi
”No She is Tascela! She was the wife of Xotalanc the woman Tecuhltli stole, to start the feud”
”What are you talking about?” de Are you trying to tell o?”
”Aye! I swear it! She was a full-grooman when the Tlazitlans journeyed froia desired her for a concubine that Xotalanc and his brother rebelled and fled into the wilderness She is a witch, who possesses the secret of perpetual youth”
”What's that?” asked Conan
Techotl shuddered again
”Ask risly, even for Xuchotl!”
And touching his finger to his lips, he glided from the chamber
IV
SCENT OF BLACK LOTUS
VALERIA unbuckled her sword-belt and laid it with the sheathed weapon on the couch where she meant to sleep She noted that the doors were supplied with bolts, and asked where they led