Part 36 (1/2)
”Black last night against thewith the abysainst the sun this dawn I like not that city”
But they went on, and as they went Conan pointed out the fact that no road ran to the city from the west
”No cattle have trae,” said he ”No plough has touched the earth for years maybe centuries No track shows in the dust But look once this plain was cultivated”
Valeria saw the ancient irrigation ditches and the long dried stream-bed On each side of the city the plain stretched to the forest edge thatVision did not extend beyond that ring
The sun was high in the eastern sky when they stood before the great gate in the western wall, in the shadow of the lofty rampart The city lay silent as the forest they had escaped Rust flecked the iron bracings of the heavy bronze gate Spider webs glistened thickly on hinge and sill and bolted panel
”It has not been opened for years,” exclai silence of the place
”A dead city,” grunted 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? There are deserted, mysterious cities scattered about in desert spots of the world Maybe a roving tribe of Stygians built it long ago Maybe not It doesn't look like Stygian architecture ue exterminated the dust and cobwebs there,” suggested Valeria, the acquisitive instincts of her profession waking her, prodded too by feo in and explore a bit”
Conan eyed the heavy portal dubiously, but placed his ainst it and thrust with all the power of hisscreech of rusty hinges the gate moved inward and Conan instinctively drew his sword and peered in Valeria crowded him to stare over his shoulder They both expressed surprize
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They were not looking into an open street or court as one would have expected The opened gate gave directly into a long, broad hall that ran away and away until its vista was rendered indistinct by distance It must have been a hundred and fifty feet broad, and froreater distance The floor was of a curious dull red stone that seemed to smolder as if with the reflection of flareen substance
”Jade, or I'm a Shemite!” swore Conan
”Not in such quantities!” protested Valeria
”I've looted enough fro about,” he asserted
The ceiling was vaulted and of soreen stones that shone with a poisonous radiance
”Green fire stones,” growled Conan ”That's what the people of Punt call them They're supposed to be the petrified eyes of the Golden Serpents They glow like a cat's eyes in the dark This hall would be lighted by thehostly illumination Let's look about Wethe door ajar Valeria wondered how ht of outer day had filtered into that great hall
But light was coh so the side walls which stood open In the splotches of shadoeen, the green jeinked like the eyes of angry cats Beneath their feet the lurid floor s hues and colors of fla the floors of hell with evil stars blinking overhead
”I believe this hallway goes clean through the city to the eastern gate,” grunted Conan ”I seeed her white shoulders
”Your eyes are better thanthe sea-rovers”
They turned into an open door at random, and traversed a series of ereen jade walls or walls of old or silver freize-work adorned the walls In soreen-fire stones were set; in so Tables and seats of hout the chambers, but nowhere did they find any s, or doors that opened into streets or courts Each door merely opened into another chahter than others, through a systes opaque but translucent sheets of some crystalline substance
”Why don't we corumbled Valeria ”This palace or whatever we're inof Turan”
”Theyupon the mystery of the empty city ”Othere'd find skeletons Maybe the city becaot up and left Maybe ”
”Maybe, hell!” broke in Valeria ”We'll never know Look at these freizes They portray men”
Conan scanned them and shook his head
”I never saw people like them But there's the smack of the East about the in Kosala?” she asked,her keen interest in derision
”No But I was a war-chief of the Afghulis ell in the Himelian ht have been Kosalans But why the hell should Kosalans be building a city this far to the West?”
The freizes portrayed slender, dark-skinned men and wo robes and many jeweled ornaments Their complection, cleverly reproduced, was olive
”Easterners, all right,” grunted Conan ”But from where I don't know Let's climb that stair”
The stair he mentioned was an ivory spiral that wound up fro They er chaht let in a vague radiance
”hell!” Valeria sat down disgustedly on a jade bench ”The people who lived in this citytired of wandering around here at randoh that door over there,” suggested Conan
”You have a look,” advised Valeria ”I' to sit here and rest h the door, and Valeria leaned back with her hands clasped behind her head, and thrust her booted legs out in front of her These rooreen clusters of orna to depress her She wished they could find their way out of the e into a street She idly wondered howfloors in past centuries, how eht her out of her reflections She was on her feet with her sword in her hand before she realized what it was that had disturbed her Conan had not returned, and she kneas not him she had heard
The sound had come from somewhere beyond a door that stood opposite froone Soundlessly on her soft leather footgear she glided to the door and looked through It opened on a gallery that ran along a wall above a hall She crept to the heavy balustrades and peered between the the hall