Part 28 (2/2)
Techotl li afresh, and he had another gash across his ribs
”I will go!”
”No, you won't,” vetoed Conan ”And you're not going either, Valeria In a little while that leg will be getting stiff”
”I will go,” volunteered a warrior, as knotting a bandage about a slashed forearm
”Very well, Yanath Go with the Cimmerian And you, too, Topal” Olht ”But first aid us to lift the badly wounded on these couches where we e their hurts”
This was done quickly As they stooped to pick up a woman who had been stunned by a war- club, Olht the princeto the warrior, but he could not be sure A fewhis colanced back as he went out the door, at that sha floor, blood-stained dark limbs knotted in attitudes of fierce lassy eyes glaring up at the green fire-jehich bathed the ghastly scene in a dusky ein a trance Conan heard Ol The pirate followed the wohtly
WARILY the two Tecuhltli led Conan along the hall beyond the bronze door, and through chareen fire They saw no one, heard no sound After they crossed the Great Hall which bisected the city from north to south, their caution was increased by the realization of their nearness to eneaze, and they ca a broad dile Door of Tecuhltli Gingerly they tried it, and it opened silently under their fingers Awed, they stared into the green-lit chambers beyond For fifty years no Tecuhltli had entered those halls save as a prisoner going to a hideous dooo to Xotalanc had been the ultimate horror that could befall a h their dreams since earliest childhood To Yanath and Topal that bronze door was like the portal of hell
They cringed back, unreasoning horror in their eyes, and Conan pushed past them and strode into Xotalanc
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Timidly they followed hilared wildly about hi disturbed the silence
They had cole Door of Tecuhltli, and, similarly, a hall ran away from it to a broad chamber that was a counterpart of Ollanced down the hall with its rugs and divans and hangings, and stood listening intently He heard no noise, and the rooms had an empty feel He did not believe there were any Xotalancas left alive in Xuchotl
”Come on,” he one far when he are that only Yanath was following hi in an attitude of horror, one ar peril, his distended eyes fixed with hypnotic intensity on so from behind a divan
”What the devil?” Then Conan sahat Topal was staring at, and he felt a faint twitching of the skin between his giant shoulders A monstrous head protruded from behind the divan, a reptilian head, broad as the head of a crocodile, with down-curving fangs that projected over the lower jaw But there was an unnatural lilazed
Conan peered behind the couch It was a great serpent which lay there limp in death, but such a serpent as he had never seen in his wanderings The reek and chill of the deep black earth were about it, and its color was an indeterle froreat wound in the neck shohat had caused its death
”It is the Crawler!” whispered Yanath
”It's the thing I slashed on the stair,” grunted Conan ”After it trailed us to the Eagle Door, it dragged itself here to die How could the Xotalancas control such a brute?”
The Tecuhltli shi+vered and shook their heads
”They brought it up from the black tunnels below the catacombs They discovered secrets unknown to Tecuhltli”
”Well, it's dead, and if they'd had anywhen 247
they came to Tecuhltli Come on”
They crowded close at his heels as he strode down the hall and thrust on the silver-worked door at the other end
”If we don't find anybody on this floor,” he said, ”we'll descend into the lower floors We'll explore Xotalanc from the roof to the catacombs If Xotalanc is like Tecuhltli, all the roohted what the devil!”
They had come into the broad throne-chamber, so similar to that one in Tecuhltli There were the sas on the walls No black, red-scarred coluri the wall behind the dais were rows of glass-covered shelves And on those shelves hundreds of human heads, perfectly preserved, stared at the startled watchers with emotionless eyes, as they had stared for only the Gods kne many months and years
TOPAL rowing in his wide eyes
Conan frowned, knowing that Tlazitlan sanity was hung on a hair-trigger
Suddenly Yanath pointed to the ghastly relics with a twitching finger
”There is my brother's head!” he er brother! And there beyond thean to weep, dry-eyed, with harsh, loud sobs that shook his frarew shriller, changed to frightful, high-pitched laughter, and that in turn beca Yanath was stark mad
Conan laid a hand on his shoulder, and as if the touch had released all the frenzy in his soul, Yanath screa at the Cimmerian with his sword Conan parried the blow, and Topal tried to catch Yanath's ar from his lips, he drove his sword deep into Topal's body Topal sank doith a groan, and Yanath whirled for an instant like a crazy dervish; then he ran at the shelves and began hacking at the glass with his sword, screeching blasphe to catch hied at hi that the warrior was hopelessly insane, the Ci a cut that severed the shoulder-bone and breast, and dropped thevicti that the asp It was useless to seek to stanch the blood gushi+ng frorunted Conan ”Any word you want to send to your people?”
”Bend closer,” gasped Topal, and Conan coht the er
”Crom!” swore Conan ”Are youman ”I know not why As we lifted the wounded upon the couches he whispered tome to slay you as we returned to Tecuhltli ” And with the name of his clan on his lips, Topal died
Conan scowled down at him in puzzlement This whole affair had an aspect of lunacy Was Olmec mad, too? Were all the Tecuhltliof his shoulders he strode down the hall and out of the bronze door, leaving the dead Tecuhltli lying before the staring dead eyes of their kinsh the labyrinth they had traversed His pri the route they had come He traversed it as warily as he had before, his sword in his hand, and his eyes fiercely searching each shadowed nook and corner; for it was his forhosts of the slain Xotalancas
He had crossed the Great Hall and entered the cha ahead of hie, floundering, scra over the flaress left a broad bloody s surface
It was Techotl and his eyes were already glazing; froushed steadily between the fingers of his clutching hand With the other he clawed and hitched hily, ”Conan! Olmec has taken the yellow-haired woman!”
”So that's why he told Topal to killto his knee beside the”Olers plucked at Conan's arether hideous life of the Tecuhltli his admiration and affection for the invaders from the outer world formed a warm, human oasis, constituted a tie that connected hi in his fellohose only ee of sadistic 249
cruelty
”I sought to oppose hi frothily to his lips ”But he struck ht he had slain me, but I crawled away Ah, Set, how far I have crawled in my own blood! Beware, Conan! Olmec may have set an ambush for your return! Slay Olmec!
He is a beast Take Valeria and flee! Fear not to traverse the forest Olons They slew each other years ago, all save the strongest For a dozen years there has been only one dragon If you have slain hiht in the forest to harm you
He was the God Olmec worshi+pped; and Olmec fed hu, bound and hurled from the wall Hasten! Olmec has taken Valeria to the Chamber of the ”
His head slumped down and he was dead before it came to rest on the floor