Part 53 (1/2)
Over her hovered the great black shadow, and she saw a tall white figure, with plu toward her
”Conan!” The cry broke involuntarily from her lips With a fierce inarticulate yell, the barbarian sprang into the air, lashi+ng upith his sword that flas rose and fell Livia, dumb with horror, saw the Ci over hily; his feet sta the white blosso iht He was hurled back and forth like a rat in the grip of a hound; blood splashed thickly on the sward,with the white petals that lay strewn like a carpet
And then the girl, watching that devilish battle as in a nighter in s, and the le and vanish aered dizzily, sword poised, legs wide-braced, staring upward stupidly, ahastly battle
An instant later Conan approached the altar, panting, dripping blood at every step Hiswith perspiration Blood ran down his arms in streams from his neck and shoulders As he touched her, the spell on the girl was broken, and she scra fro down at her, where she cowered at his feet
”Men saw you ride out of the village,” he said ”I followed as soon as I could, and picked up your track, though it was no easy task following it by torchlight I tracked you to the place where your horse threw you, and though the torches were exhausted by then, and I could not find the prints of your bare feet on the sward, I felt sure you had descended into the valley My men would not follow me, so I came alone on foot What vale of devils is this? What was that thing?”
”A God,” she whispered ”The black people spoke of it a God froo!”
”A devil fro uncoht which surrounds this world I've heard the wise men of Zamora talk of them Some find their way to Earth, but when they do, they have to take on earthly form and flesh of some sort A man like s and talons, infernal or terrestrial Coe of the valley”
She crouched motionless, unable to find words, while he frowned down at her Then she spoke:
295”I ran away fro to keep ain we made, but I would have escaped from you if I could Punish me as you will”
He shook the sweat and blood frorunted ”It was a foul bargain IBajujh, but you are no wench to be bought and sold The ways of men vary in different lands, but a ht awhile, I saw that to hold you to your bargain would be the sah for this land You are a child of cities, and books, and civilized hich isn't your fault, but you'd die quickly following the life I thrive on A dead woian borders The Stygians will send you home to Ophir”
She stared up at hiht ”Home?” she repeated mechanically
”Home? Ophir? My people? Cities, towers, peace,to her knees, she erunted Conan, e you a favor by kicking you out of this country; haven't I explained that you're not the proper woman for the war-chief of the Bamulas?”
296
The Devil in Iron
The Devil in Iron
The fisheresture was instinctive, for what he feared was nothing a knife could slay, not even the saw-edged crescent blade of the Yuetshi+ that could disembowel a man with an upward stroke Neither man nor beast threatened him in the solitude which brooded over the castellated isle of Xapur
He had clile that bordered them, and now stood surrounded by evidences of a vanished state Broken colu lines of cru walls meandered off into the shadows, and under his feet were broad paves, cracked and bowed by roots growing beneath
The fisherin is lost in the gray dawn of the past, and who have dwelt in their rude fishi+ng-huts along the southern shore of the Sea of Vilayet since ti apish ars His face was broad, his forehead low and retreating, his hair thick and tangled A belt for a knife and a rag for a loin-cloth were all he wore in the way of clothing
That he here he was proved that he was less dully incurious than most of his people Men seldootten, reat inland sea Men called it Xapur, the Fortified, because of its ruins, reotten before the conquering Hyborians had ridden southward None kneho reared those stones, though diibly suggested a connection of immeasurable antiquity between the fishers and the unknown island kingdom
But it had been a thousand years since any Yuetshi+ had understood the iless foribberish framed to their lips by custom