Part 59 (1/2)

”Be not so sure!” the fiendish hatred of the Stygian glittered for an instant redly in his eyes

”Soain, and when I do, by the serpent-fangs of Set, you shall pay ”

The hot-tempered Aquilonian struck him heavily across thefrorowled the outlaw ”Have a care; I am still your master If you have served me, I have protected you Go upon the house-tops and shout that Ascalante is in the city plotting against the king if you dare”

”I dare not,”the blood from his lips

328

”No, you do not dare,” Ascalante grinned bleakly ”For if I die by your stealth or treachery, a hermit priest in the southern desert will know of it, and will break the seal to a manuscript I left in his hands And when he reads what I wrote thereon, a ill be whispered in Stygia, and a ill creep up froht And where will you hide your head, Thothamon?”The slave shuddered and his dusky face went ashen

”Enough!” Ascalante changed his tone peremptorily ”I have work for you I do not trust Dion

Ride after him, and if you do not overtake him on the road, proceed to his country estate and remain with hiht He is ht even rush to Conan in a panic and reveal the whole plot, hoping to thus save his own hide Go!”

The slave bowed, hiding the hate in his eyes, and did as he was bidden Ascalante turned again to his wineCHAPTER 2When I was a fighting-old-dust before , the people hound ers at e and ornate, with rich tapestries on the polished-panelled walls, deep carpets on the tiled floor, and with the lofty ceiling adorned with intricate carvings and scrollwork

Behind a gold-chased writing table sat a man whose broad shoulders and sun-browned skin sees He seeh places of the outlands His slightestmuscles knit to a keen brain with the co-ordination of a born fighting- deliberate or measured about his movements Either he was perfectly at rest still as a bronze statue or else he was in motion, not with the jerky quickness of over-tense nerves, but with a cat-like speed that blurred the sight which tried to follow hiars or ornaments, and his

329square-cut black mane was confined merely by a cloth-of-silver band about his head

Now he laid down the golden stylus hich he had been laboriously scrawling on papyrus, rested his chin on his fist, and fixed his s blue eyes enviously on the man who stood before him This person was occupied in his affairs at the old-chased ar a rather unconventional perfor

”Prospero,” said the man at the table, ”theseI have done never did”

”All part of the ga you ht ride with you to Nees since I had a horse between my knees but Publius says that affairs in the city require my presence Curse him!

”When I overthrew the old dynasty,” he continued, speaking with the easy familiarity which existed only between hih it see back now over the wild path I followed, all those days of toil, intrigue, slaughter and tribulation seeh, Prospero When King Nuory head and set it on my own, I had reached the ultimate border of my dreams I prepared myself to take the crown, not to hold it In the old free days all I wanted was a sharp sword and a straight path to ht and my sword is useless

”When I overthrew Numedides, then I was the Liberator now they spit at my shadow They have put a statue of Nuo and wail before it, hailing him as a saintly monarch as done to death by a red-handed barbarian when I led her armies to victory as a ner now she can not forgive me

”Now in the temple of Mitra, there coeons, whose wives and daughters were dragged into his seraglio The fickle fools!”

”Rinaldo is largely responsible,” answered Prospero, drawing up his sword belt another notch

”He sings songs that hest tower in the

330city Let him make rhymes for the vultures”