Part 56 (2/2)

Then as he wheeled he stopped short, all the blood in hi on a heap of silk cushi+ons, golden hair strea over her naked shoulders, eyes blank with terror, was the woot the horror at his heels until a splintering crash behind hi for the opposite door She was too helpless with fright either to resist or to aid him

A faint whimper was the only sound of which she see the door A shattering stroke of his sih to the stair that loomed beyond it, he saw the head and shoulders of Khosatral crash through the other door The colossus was splintering the massive panels as if they were of cardboard

Conan raced up the stair, carrying the big girl over one shoulder as easily as if she had been a child Where he was going he had no idea, but the stair ended at the door of a round, do up the stair behind them, silently as a wind of death, and as swiftly

The chamber's walls were of solid steel, and so was the door Conan shut it and dropped in place the great bars hich it was furnished The thought struck him that this was Khosatral's chamber, where he locked himself in to sleep securely fro

Hardly were the bolts in place when the great door shook and treed his shoulders This was the end of the trail There was no other door in the chaht, evidently cae of his simitar, quite cool now that he was at bay He had done his volcanic best to escape; when the giant cah that door he would explode in another savage onslaught with his useless sword, not because he expected it to do any good, but because it was his nature to die fighting For the moment there was no course of action to take, and his calaze he turned on his fair co and intense as if he had a hundred

315years to live He had dumped her unceremoniously on the floor when he turned to close the door, and she had risen to her knees, arloith approval as they devoured her thick golden hair, her clear wide eyes, her milky skin, sleek with exuberant health, the firm swell of her breasts, the contours of her splendid hips

A low cry escaped her as the door shook and a bolt gave ith a groan

Conan did not look around He knew the door would hold a little while longer

”They told me you had escaped,” he said ”A Yuetshi+ fisher toldhere

What is your naasped ht at hihtmare is this? The people the dark-skinned people one of thehtHe told lanced at the door which bulged inward as if fro-ra way Strange that a devil has to break down a door like a coth itself is a diabolis”

Conan was too honest to lie to her ”If a mortal man could kill him, he'd be dead now,” he answered ”I nicked my blade on his belly”

Her eyes dulled ”Then you must die, and I ht her hands, fearing that she would har to do to me!” she panted ”Kill me! Kill me with your sword before he bursts the door!”

Conan looked at her, and shook his head

”I'll do what I can,” he said ”That won't be et past him down the stair Then run for the cliffs I have a boat tied at the foot of the steps If you can get out of the palace you may escape him yet The people of this city are all asleep”

She dropped her head in her hands Conan took up his si door One watching hi for a death he regarded as inevitable His eyes smoldered more vividly; his muscular hand knotted harder on

316his hilt; that was all

The hinges had given under the giant's terrible assault and the door rocked crazily, held only by the bolts And these solid steel bars were buckling, bending, bulging out of their sockets

Conan watched in an al thethe bombardment ceased In the stillness Conan heard other noises on the landing outside the beat of wings, and a h ht branches Then presently there was silence, but there was a new feel in the air Only the whetted instincts of barbaris or hearing hier stood outside the door

He glared through a crack that had been started in the steel of the portal The landing was empty He drew the warped bolts and cautiously pulled aside the sagging door Khosatral was not on the stair, but far below he heard the clang of anew deviltries or had been su voice, but he wasted no time in conjectures