Part 30 (2/2)

For in the lean hand of Tolkelowed a knob of cri aside as he thrust it out like a spear, and a bearanate ItValeria's ankles was in the way It s sound and the ray of fire flashed fro of blue sparks The wo like a mummy even as she fell

Valeria rolled from the altar on the other side, and started for the opposite wall on all fours For hell had burst loose in the throneroom of dead Olmec

The man who had held Valeria's hands was the next to die He turned to run, but before he had taken half a dozen steps, Tolke in such a frame, bounded around to a position that placed the ain the red fire-beam flashed and the Tecuhltli rolled lifeless to the floor, as the beaainst the altar

Then began slaughter Screa fro the death They could not escape by the doors; for apparently the metal of the portals served like the metal-veined stone altar to complete the circuit for whatever hellish power flashed like thunderbolts froht a man or a woman between him and a door or the altar, that one died instantly He chose no special victi about his wildly gyrating li the roo leaves about the altar and at the doors One warrior in desperation rushed at hier, only to fall before he could strike But the rest were like crazed cattle, 263

with no thought for resistance, and no chance of escape

The last Tecuhltli except Tascela had fallen when the princess reached the Cie beside hin upon it Instantly the iron jaws released the bleeding limb and sank back into the floor

”Slay him if you can!” she panted, and pressed a heavy knife into his hand ”I have nobefore the wo-lust Tolke toward hileaaet the barbarian between hiht to avoid this and drive ho their breath

There was no sound except the rustle and scrape of quick-shi+fting feet Tolkea and fleeing In the elemental blaze of the barbarian's eyes he read an intent deadly as his own Back and forth they weaved, and when one ether But all the ti closer and closer to his ene to flex for a spring, when Valeria cried out For a fleeting instant a bronze door was in line with Conan'sConan's flank as he twisted aside, and even as he shi+fted he hurled the knife Old Tolke on his breast

TASCELA sprang not toward Conan, but toward the here it shi+ on the floor But as she leaped, so did Valeria, with a dagger snatched from a dead man, and the blade, driven with all the power of the pirate's muscles, impaled the princess of Tecuhltli so that the point stood out between her breasts Tascela screamed once and fell dead, and Valeria spurned the body with her heel as it fell

”I had to do thatConan across the lirunted ”It's been a hell of a night! Where did these people keep their food? I'” Valeria ripped a length of silk fro and knotted it about her waist, then tore off some smaller strips which she bound efficiently about the barbarian's lacerated limb

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”I can walk on it,” he assured her ”Let's begone It's dawn, outside this infernal city I've had enough of Xuchotl It's well the breed exterminated itself I don't want any of their accursed jewels They h clean loot in the world for you andto stand tall and splendid before him

The old blaze came back in his eyes, and this tiht her fiercely in his ar way to the coast,” she said presently, withdrawing her lips fro we can't conquer We'll have our feet on a shi+p's deck before the Stygians open their ports for the trading season And then we'll show the world what plundering means!”

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Miscellanea 266

Untitled Notes The Westermarck: located between the Bossonian marches and the Pictish wilderness

Provinces: Thandara, Conawaga, Oriskonie, Schohira Political situation: Oriskonie, Conawaga, and Schohira were ruled by royal patent Each was under the jurisdiction of a baron of the western marches, which lie just east of the Bossonianof Aquilonia Theoretically they owned the land, and received a certain percentage of the gain In return they supplied troops to protect the frontier against the Picts, built fortresses and towns, and appointed judges and other officials Actually their poas not nearly so absolute as it seeest town of Conawaga, Scanaga, presided over by a judge appointed directly by the king of Aquilonia, and it was a defendent's privilege, under certain circumstances, to appeal to this court Thandara was the southernmost province, Oriskonie the northerna lay south of Oriskonie, and south of Conawaga lay lay Schohira, the sest, richest and most thickly settled, and the only one in which landed patricians had settled to any extent Thandara was the inally it had only been a fortress by that na of Aquilonia, and commanded by royal troops After the conquest of the province of Conajohara by the Picts, the settlers from that province moved southward and settled the country in the vicinity of the fortress They held their land by force of arms, and neither received nor needed any patent They acknowledged no baron as overlord Their governor wasthe always sub of Aquilonia as a matter of form No troops were ever sent to Thandara They built forts, or rather block-houses, and manned them theers They were incessantly at warfare with the Picts When the word ca torn by civil war, and that the Ci for the crown, Thandara instantly declared for Conan, renounced their allegiance to King Naovernor, which the Cied the commander of a fort in the Bossonian e Thandara But the frontierse defeat, after which there was no attempt to meddle with Thandara But the province was isolated, separated from Schohira by a stretched of uninhabited wilderness, and behind them lay the Bossonian country, where most of the people were loyalists The baron of Schohira declared for Conan, and marched to join his army, but asked no levies of Schohira where indeed every a were a rode in person into Scandaga and demanded that the people supply hi Naa, and the baron planned to crush all other provinces and overnor of theovernor appointed by their baron and were savagely fighting such loyalists as skulked a them

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Wolves Beyond the Border Draft A

CHAPTER 1

It was the st the brush where I had taken refuge, straining my ears to locate it, for such sounds are illusive in the deep forest In the dense woods about led vines and brambles bent close to forlooreat trees Not a star shone through that leafy vault Low-hanging clouds seemed to press down upon the very tree-tops There was no ht was dark as a witch's hate

The better for me If I could not see my enemies, neither could they see ht: thrurisly secrets I could not mistake the sound Only one dru, sullen thunder: the war-drues who haunt the Wilderness beyond the borders of the Westermarck

And I was beyond that border, alone, and concealed in a brareat forest where those naked fiends have reigned since Time's earliest dawns

Now I located the sound; the dru southard of irt my belt closer, settled war-axe and knife in their beaded sheaths, strung my heavy bow and saw that roping with ers in the utter darkness and then I crawled from the thicket and arily in the direction of the drum

That it personally concerned me I did not believe If the forest-men had discovered me, their discovery would have been announced by a sudden knife inin the distance But the throb of a war-drunore Its sullen pulsing was a warning and a threat, a promise of doom for those white-skinned invaders whose lonely cabins and axe-s menaced the immemorial solitude of the wilderness Itlike falling stars through the h skulls of h the blackness of the nighted forest I went, feelingon hands and knees, and now and then my heart inhand For there are huge serpents in that 268

forest which soh above and so snare their prey

But the beings I sought were rew louder I went as cautiously as if I treaded on naked swords And presently I gli the trees, and heard awith the snarl of the dru place yonder under the black trees, it was likely that they had outposts scattered about the place, and I kne silent andwith the natural forest-growth even in dih his victi with one such grim sentry in the darkness, and I drew my knife and held it extended before me But I knew that not even a Pict could see led forest-roof and cloud-ht danced and flickered and revealed itself as a fire before which silhouettes crossed and re-crossed, like black devils against the red fires of hell And presently I crouched close in a dense thicket of alders and braures that moved therein

There were forty or fifty Picts, naked but for loin-cloths, and hideously painted, who squatted in a wide se the fire, with their backs to me By the hawk feathers in their thick black a In the h stones heaped togather, and at the sight of this I shuddered

For I had seen these Pictish altars before, all charred with fire and stained with blood, in elades, but none knew exactly for what they were used, not even the oldest frontiersmen But now I instinctively knew that I was about to witness confirmation of the horrible tales told about them and the feathered sha between the fire and the altar a slow, shuffling dance that caused his plu of his features, in the uncertain light of the fla warriors stood a man who differed from the others so much that it was evident he was not a Pict For he was tall as I, and they are a squat race, and his skin was light in the play of the fire But he was clad in doe-skin loin-clout and moccasins, and there was a hawk-feather in his hair, so I knew he es ell in senerally at ith the Picts, but sometimes at peace The Picts are a white race too, in that they are not black nor brown nor yellow, but they are black-eyed and black-haired and dark of skin, and neither they nor the Socandagas are spoken of as ”white” by the people of Westernate thus a man of Hyborian blood

Now as I watched, I saw three Picts drag a ht another Pict, naked and blood-stained, whom they cast down upon the altar, bound hand and foot

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Then the sha intricate patterns about the altar and the ht himself into a frenzy, and presently, down froreat serpents of which I spoke The firelight glistened on its scales as it writhed toward the altar, its beady eyes glittered and its forked tongue darted in and out, but the warriors showed no fear, though it passed within a few feet of soe, for ordinarily these serpents are the only things a Pict fears

The monster reared its head up on arched neck above the altar and it and the sha body of the prisoner The sha his feet, and as he danced, the great serpent danced, weaving and swaying, as thoughitself about the altar and thefolds, and only his head was visible, and the great head of the serpent swaying close above it

Then the shareat green cloud of smoke billowed up and rolled about the altar, so that it hid the pair upon it But in theand for a moment I could not tell which was the serpent and which the h swept over the assehted branches

Then the smoke cleared and ht both were dead But the shaed them from the stones and let thes that bound the an to dance and chant above them

And presently the man moved But he did not rise His head swayed froain And, Mitra, he began to wriggle away froreat snake crawls, on his belly!

And the serpent was suddenly shaken with convulsions and arched its neck and reared up alain, horribly like adeprived of his liht I was sick where I crouched ae to retch I had heard tales of this ghastly ceremony The shaman had transferred the soul of a captured enemy into a serpent, so that his foe should dwell in the body of a serpent throughout his next reincarnation

And so they writhed and agonized side by side, the man and the serpent, until a sword flashed in the hand of the shaether and Gods, it was the serpent's trunk which but quivered and jerked and then lay still, and the man's body which rolled and knotted 270