Part 65 (1/2)

followed gave Conan and the girl an opportunity to escape368

Untitled Synopsis (The Scarlet Citadel)

The story begins with the conclusion of a battle in which king Conan of Aquilonia has been defeated by the ar of Ophir sent word to Conan that Strabonus, king of Koth, is ravaging his doed Conan to aid him Conan marched with five thousand horsemen, no archers or infantry, and on the plains of Ophir was hts, archers and slingers, to which was added an Ophirian army of fifteen thousand men Conan's small army was riddled with arrows, and cut to pieces Conan himself, the sole survivor, is captured by Strabonus, or rather by his ician, Tsothalanti, an evil mysterious ancient who is the real power in Koth Tsoth scratches Conan with a stylus dipped in poison extracted from the purple lotus, which induces muscular paralysis Conan is carried to Khorshemish, Strabonus' capital, where an effort is made to persuade him to abdicate in favor of prince Arpello, an Aquilonian noble secretly in league with Strabonus He profanely refuses, and is borne into a subterranean tunnel below Tsotha's citadel, chained to the wall and left to his fate In these tunnels Tsotha works his ht about Conan, and soon a gigantic serpent, eighty feet long, glides out of the darkness, rears itself above Conan, and a drop of its poison falls on his naked thigh, e black man enters, says that Conan, when a pirate on the coasts of Cush, slew his brother He prepares to behead Conan, but the serpent glides out of the dark again and seizes him The keys fall at Conan's feet, and he frees himself He seeks to escape, but a soldier locks the door froh the bars He finds a rival wizard ie bird or dragon, on which Conan rides back to Aquilonia, raises an army, and defeats the Kothians

369

Untitled Synopsis (Black Colossus)

Shevatas, a Zamorian thief, caian desert Once a river ran through it, a tributary to that river which the Stygians call the Styx, the Kothians the Stygus, and the Nemedians the Nilas But for many centuries the river bed had been dry, and the ruins of Kuthchemes stood up dim and shattered in the ra Khotan, high priest of Set the Old Serpent, and his toold-worked marble crest above the ruins A curse rested on that ancient land, but Shevatas, lusting for the treasure reputed hidden in the toreat door fro with a sword poisoned in its own venouarded the sepulcher As he entered the gloom-shadowed vault, he screamed as a shadowy shape moved and stirred and heaved up in the darkness he screamed, and then silence fell over the ruins of Kuthchemes

At that tido ruler, count Khossa, had defied his king and set up a kingdom of his own The population was partly Kothian, partly Shemite, ruled over by an aristocratic caste of pure Hyborians At the ti between accepting a ranso of Koth

Khoraspar, meanwhile, was ruled by the princess Yasmela Then came word of invasion fro the noician who called himself Natohk the Veiled, as he alore a veil This prophet worked black ian prince, brother of the king, who had been defeated and driven into the desert The allies were preparing to ainst the Hyborian peoples, and the first country in their path was Khoraspar

Ya unnatural eyes, which stood in the shadows of her chamber, while her maids slept, and whispered hideous threats and oscenities to her Terrified and unnerved, she sought an ancient oracle in a subterranean chamber of the palace She stripped heron the altar, but did not have courage or cruelty to sacrifice her But a strange voice whispered out of the air, and bade her select the first , bribed by the king of Koth, or terrified by the reports of the veiled ician The princess went out into the street veiled, and the first man she met was a captain of thethe deserted street, drunk She doubted the oracle, but brought hiood deal of a at his hands There she revealed herself to him, which startled him He drew his sword to hack his way to freedom, but she reassured him, and put him in command of the remnants of an ariment of Shemite archers, and the mercenaries Gundermen,

370Aquilonians, Hyperboreans and Nemedians

They marched to meet the allies where the hills ran down into the desert A vast fog rolled up from the south, and in it came the thousands of Natohk But a wind blew it away, and in the battle that followed, Conan and his men were triumphant, by the intercession of an old, old Kothian God, and Conan overthrew Natohk, as Thugra Khotan And Conan was triument

The battlefield stretched silent, cri to reflect the lurid red-strearass; birds of prey dropped down on ers of Fate a wavering line of herons flapped sloay toward the reed-grown banks of the river No rumble of chariot-wheel or peal of tru stillness The silence of death followed the thundering of battle

Yet one figure ainst the vast dully criiant with a black h-strapped sandals were splashed with blood The great sword he trailed in his right hand was stained to the cross-piece There was a ghastly wound in his thigh, which caused him to li the dead, li wrathfully as he did so Others had been before hier, or silver breastplate rewarded his search He was a ho had lingered too long at the blood-letting, while jackals stripped the prey

Glaring out across the littered plain, he saw no body unstripped orThe knives of theup frolanced uncertainly afar off across the deepening plain, to where the towers of the city gleamed faintly in the sunset Then he turned quickly as a low tortured cry reached his ears That , therefore presu to the edge of the plain, parted the first straggling reeds and glared down at the figure which writhed feebly at his feet

It was a girl that lay there She was naked, her white li dark hair There was unseeing agony in her dark eyes and shedown at her, and his eyes were momentarily clouded by ould have been an expression of pity in another irl out of her ain like a child in pain The great sword halted in midair, and the Cimmerian stood for an instant like a bronze statue Then sheathing the blade with sudden decision, he bent and lifted the girl in hisher carefully, he limped toward the reed-masked riverbank soht came on, the people barred s and bolted doors, and

372sat behind their barriers shuddering, with candles burning before their household Gods until dawn etched the minarets No watchmen walked the streets, no painted wenches beckoned fro alleys Rogues, like honest people, shunned the shadoays, gathering in foul-shted taverns

From dusk to dawn Yaralet was a city of silence, her streets empty and desolate

Exactly what they feared, the people did not know But they had ample evidence that it was no eainst Men whispered of slinking shadows, gli shapes alien to hu in the night, and the cries and shrieks of hunificant silence; and they told of the rising sun etching broken doors that swung in empty houses, whose occupants were seen no er, they told of the swift ru the empty streets in the darkness before dahen those who heard dared not look forth One child looked forth, once, but he was instantly strickenwhat he sahen he peered froht, then, while the people of Yaralet shi+vered in their bolted houses, a strange conclave was taking place in the shted chamber of Atalis, whoue Atalis was a slender ht, with a splendid head and the features of a shrewd merchant He was clad in a plain robe of rich fabric, and his head was shaven to denote devotion to study and the arts As he talked he unconsciously gestured with his left hand His right arle From time to time a spasht foot, hidden under the long robe, would twist back excrucriatingly upon his ankle

He was talking to one whom the city of Yaralet knew, and praised, as Prince Than The prince was a tall litheand undeniably handsome The firrey eyes belied the slightly effeestion of his curled black locks, and feathered velvet cap

373

Untitled Synopsis

The setting: The city of Shuia, in the vast grass lands It was the capital of Kush, the population of which was composed of black people, brutal and warlike, known as Gallahs; they were ruled by a caste of dusky aristocrats, known as Chagas, who claio wandered southward and set up a kingdom, of which Kush was the remnant There were only a few hundred of these, but they ue and ferocity