Part 15 (1/2)
Gleaht divine
You gained your crowns by heritage, but Blood was the price of mine
The throne that I won by blood and sweat, by Croold, or threat of the Halls of hell!
The Road of Kings
In the citadel, in a cha of carven jet, and the fretted arches of doorways glie conclave caed wounds caking his huge limbs, faced his captors On either side of hi-shafted axes In front of hied Strabonus and A with jewels, naked slave-boys beside thele sapphire In strong contrast stood Conan, grim, blood-stained, naked but for a loin-cloth, shackles on his led black mane which fell over his low broad forehead He do to tinsel the pomp of the conquerors by the sheer vitality of his eles in their pride and splendor were aware of it each in his secret heart, and were not at ease Only Tsotha was not disturbed
”Our desires are quickly spoken, king of Aquilonia,” said Tsotha ”It is our wish to extend our edom,” rasped Conan
”What are you but an adventurer, seizing a crown to which you had nobarbarian?” parried Amalrus ”We are prepared to offer you suitable cohter frohty chest ”The price of infadoold? Ha! How did you co beside you? Your fathers did the fighting and the suffering, and handed their crowns to you on golden platters What you inherited without lifting a finger except to poison a few brothers I fought for
”You sit on satin and guzzle wine the people sweat for, and talk of divine rights of sovereignty
bah! I climbed out of the abyss of naked barbarism to the throne and in that climb I spilt my blood as freely as I spilt that of others If either of us has the right to rule men, by Crom, it is I!
How have you proved yourselveslike you one who traced his genealogy for a thousand years The land was torn with the wars of the barons, and the people cried out under oppression and taxation Today no Aquilonian noble dares maltreat the huhter than anywhere else in the world
”What of you? Your brother, Adom, and defies you
And you, Strabonus, your soldiers are even now besieging castles of a dozen or doms are crushed into the earth by tyrannous taxes and93levies And you would loot mine ha! Free my hands and I'll varnish this floor with your brains!”
Tsotha grinned bleakly to see the rage of his kingly coh it be, is beside the point Our plans are no concern of yours Your responsibility is at an end when you sign this parchment, which is an abdication in favor of Prince Arpello of Pellia We will give you arolden lunas, and escort you to the eastern frontier”
”Setting me adrift where I hen I rode into Aquilonia to take service in her armies, except with the added burden of a traitor's nah was like the deep short bark of a timber wolf ”Arpello, eh? I've had suspicions of that butcher of Pellia Can you not even steal and pillage frankly and honestly, but you must have an excuse, however thin? Arpello claims a trace of royal blood; so you use hih I'll see you in hell first”
”You're a fool!” exclaimed Amalrus ”You are in our hands, and we can take both crown and life at our pleasure!”
Conan's ansas neither kingly nor dignified, but characteristically instinctive in the ed in his adopted culture He spat full in A of Ophir leaped up with a screa it, he rushed at the Cimmerian, but Tsotha intervened
”Wait, your majesty; this man is my prisoner”
”Aside, wizard!” shrieked Alare in the Cimmerian's blue eyes
”Back, I say!” roared Tsotha, roused to awesome wrath His lean hand came from his wide sleeve and cast a shower of dust into the Ophirean's contorted face A at his eyes, the sword falling from his hand He dropped liuards looked on stolidly and King Strabonus hurriedly gulped another goblet of wine, holding it with hands that trembled Amalrus lowered his hands and shook his head violently, intelligence slowly sifting back into his grey eyes
”I went blind,” he growled ”What did you do to esture to convince you as the real master,” snapped Tsotha, thethe naked evil personality of the man ”Strabonus has learned his lesson let you learn yours It was but a dust I found in a Stygian toht again, I will leave you to grope in darkness for the rest of your life”
Aed his shoulders, s his fear and fury A polished diploain his poise Tsotha turned to Conan, who had stood iesture, the blacks laid hold of their prisoner and marched hih an arched doorway into a winding corridor, whose floor was of old tissue and silver chasing, and fro the corridor with dreamy perfumed clouds They turned down a sloomy and awful, which ended at a brass door, over whose arch a hurinned horrifically At this door stood a fat repellent figure, dangling a bunch of keys Tsotha's chief eunuch, Shukeli, of whorisly tales hispered a man hom a bestial lust for torture took the place of normal human passions