Part 32 (1/2)
”A strange stone to find on an uninhabited island,” growled Conan
Olivia's lovely eyes dilated in wonder The stone was a symmetrical block, indisputably cut
185and shaped by huly rasped it with both hands, and with legs braced and theknots, he heaved it above his head and cast it fro every ounce of nerve and sinew It fell a few feet in front of hi could throw that rock across this glade It's a task for siege engines Yet here there are no onels or ballistas”
”Perhaps it was thrown by soested
He shook his head ”It didn't fall fros are broken? It was thrown as a ht throw a pebble But who? What? Come!”
She hesitantly followed hi of leafy brush, the undergroas less dense Utter silence brooded over all The springy sward gave no sign of footprint Yet from this mysterious thicket had hurtled that boulder, swift and deadly Conan bent closer to the sward, where the grass was crushed down here and there He shook his head angrily Even to his keen eyes it gave no clue as to what had stood or trodden there His gaze roved to the green roof above their heads, a solid ceiling of thick leaves and interwoven arches
And he froze suddenly
Then rising, sword in hand, he began to back away, thrusting Olivia behind hiealed the girl's blood
”What is it? What do you see?”
”Nothing,” he answered guardedly, not halting his wary retreat
”But what is it, then? What lurks in this thicket?”
”Death!” he answered, his gaze still fixed on the brooding jade arches that shut out the sky
Once out of the thicket, he took her hand and led her swiftly through the thinning trees, until they ed upon a low plateau, where the grass grew taller and the trees were few and scattered And in thegreenish stone
They gazed in wonder No legends na on any island of Vilayet They approached it warily, seeing that aped to the sky On all sides lay bits and shards ofthe is rose there, perhaps a whole town But now only the long hall-like structure rose against the sky, and its walls leaned drunkenly auarded its portals had long rotted away Conan and his coht strea the interior a di his sword fir panther, sunken head and noiseless feet
Olivia tiptoed after hirunted in surprize, and Olivia stifled a scream
”Look! Oh, look!”
”I see,” he answered ”Nothing to fear They are statues”
”But how life-like and how evil!” she whispered, drawing close to hireat hall, whose floor was of polished stone, littered with dust and broken stones, which had fallen fro between the stones, masked the apertures The lofty roof, flat and undo in ron the sides of the walls And in each space between these coluure
They were statues, apparently of iron, black and shi+ning as if continually polished They were life-size, depicting tall, lithely powerful men, with cruel hawk-like faces They were naked, and every swell, depression and contour of joint and sineas represented with incredible realism
But the most life-like feature was their proud, intolerant faces These features were not cast in the same mold Each face possessed its own individual characteristics, though there was a tribal likeness between them all There was none of the monotonous uniformity of decorative art, in the faces at least
”They seeirl uneasily
Conan rang his hilt against one of the ies
”Iron,” he pronounced ”But Crom! in what ed his lanced tirown stones, the tendril- clasped pillars, with the dark figures brooding between theone, but the ie fascination for her companion