Part 2 (2/2)
”What talk is this?” peevishly returned Dion, with only half a mind on the conversation
Thoth-amon's eyes narrowed For all his iron-self-control, he was near bursting with long pent- up shae, ready to take any sort of a desperate chance What he did not reckon on was the fact that Dion saw hi with a brain and a wit, but simply a slave, and as such, a creature beneath notice
”Listen toBut you little know the mind of Ascalante You can not trust him, once Conan is slain I can help you If you will protect me when you coreat sorcerer in the south Men spoke of Thoth-areat honor, casting down the h places to exalt me above thes fro By Set, ht to feel the taloned fingers of a naic with the Serpent Ring of Set, which I found in a nighted tootten before the first man crawled out of the sli and icians rose up to slayin a caravan in the land of Koth, when Ascalante's reavers fell upon us All in the caravan were slain exceptto serve hie!
”To hold me fast, he wrote of ave it into the hands of a hermit ells on the southern borders of Koth I dare not strike a dagger into him while he sleeps, or betray him to his enemies, for then the hermit would open the manuscript and read thus Ascalante instructed hiain Thoth shuddered and an ashen hue tinged his dusky skin
”Men knew ia learn my whereabouts, not the width of half a world between us would suffice to save me from such a doo with castles and hosts of swordse that you make a pact with me I can aid you with my wisdo ”
”Ring? Ring?” Thoth had underesti to the slave's words, so cohts, but the final word stirred a ripple in his self-centeredness
”Ring?” he repeated ”That ood fortune I had it from a Shemitish thief ore he stole it fro h, Mitra knows By the Gods, I need all the luck I can have, ith Vol ”
Thoth sprang up, blooddarkly to his face, while his eyes flamed with the stunned fury of a man who suddenly realizes the full depths of a fool's swinish stupidity Dion never heeded hi a secret lid in the aws of various kinds barbaric charms, bits of bones, pieces of tawdry jewelry luck- pieces and conjures which the man's superstitious nature had prompted him to collect
”Ah, here it is!” He triu of curious make It was of a metal like copper, and was made in the form of a scaled serpent, coiled in three loops, with its tail in its littered balefully Thoth-aaped, his face suddenly bloodless The slave's eyes were blazing, his e dusky hands outstretched like talons
”The Ring! By Set! The Ring!” he shrieked ”My Ring stolen froian's hand and with a heave of his great dusky shoulders he drove the dagger into the baron's fat body Dion's high thin squeal broke in a strangled gurgle and his whole flabby frame collapsed like melted butter A fool to the end, he died inaside the cru in both hands, his dark eyes blazing with a fearful avidness
”My Ring!” he whispered in terrible exultation ”My power!”
How long he crouched over the baleful thing,the evil aura of it into his dark soul, not even the Stygian knew When he shook hihted abysses where it had been questing, theshadows across the sarden-seat, at the foot of which sprawled the darker shadohich had been the lord of Attalus
”No ian, and his eyes burned red as a vaealing blood froish pool in which his victim sprawled, and rubbed it in the copper serpent's eyes until the yellow sparks were covered by a crimson mask
”Blind your eyes,whisper ”Blind your eyes to the ulfs! What do you see, oh serpent of Set? Whoht? Whose shadow falls on the waning Light? Call hi the scales with a peculiar circular ers back to their starting place, his voice sank still lower as he whispered dark naotten the world over save in the griia, where monstrous shapes move in the dusk of the tombs
There was a movement in the air about him, such a swirl as is made in water when so wind blew on him briefly, as if from an opened Door Thoth felt a presence at his back, but he did not look about He kept his eyes fixed on the moonlit space of marble, on which a tenuous shadow hovered As he continued his whispered incantations, this shado in size and clarity, until it stood out distinct and horrific Its outline was not unlike that of a gigantic baboon, but no such baboon ever walked the earth, not even in Stygia Still Thoth did not look, but drawing froirdle a sandal of his ht be able to put it to such use he cast it behind hi!” he exclaimed ”Find him ore it and destroy him! Look into his eyes and blast his soul, before you tear out his throat! Kill him! Aye,” in a blind burst of passion, ”and all with him!”
Etched on the moonlit wall Thoth saw the horror lower its misshapen head and take the scent like sorisly head was thrown back and the thing wheeled and was gone like a wind through the trees The Stygian flung up his arleauard without the walls yelled in startled horror as a great loping black shadoith fla rush of wind But it was gone so swiftly that the bewildered warrior was left wondering whether it had been a drea and ht walked free,
I strove with Set by fire and steel and the juice of the upas-tree;
Now that I sleep in the et ye hiht with the Snake to save the hu-cha Conan sluray h he did not understand it, it seenore it Sword in hand he went through the gray rew more distinct as he proceeded until he understood the word it spoke it was his own naulfs of space or Time