Part 5 (2/2)

'I did not save you fro's archers to murder you in Belverus,'

answered Xaltotun

'What the devil did you do to me?' demanded Conan

'I blasted your consciousness,' answered Xaltotun 'How, you would not understand Call it black ic, if you will'

Conan had already reached that conclusion, and waselse

'I think I understand why you spared my life,' he rumbled 'Amalric wants to keep me as a check on Valerius, in case the i of Aquilonia It's well known that the baron of Tor is behind this move to seat Valerius on my throne And if I know A urehead, as Tarascus is now'

'A of your capture,' answered Xaltotun 'Neither does Valerius Both think you died at Valkia'

Conan's eyes narrowed as he stared at the man in silence

'I sensed a brain behind all this,' he ht it was Amalric's Are A on your string? Who are you?'

'What does it matter? If I told you, you would not believe ht set you back on the throne of Aquilonia?'

Conan's eyes burned on him like a wolf

'What's your price?'

'Obedience to me'

'Go to hell with your offer!' snarled Conan 'I'urehead I won my croith my sword Besides, it's beyond your power to buy and sell the throne of Aquilonia at your will The kingdom's not conquered; one battle doesn't decide a war'

'You war against more than swords,' answered Xaltotun 'Was it a ht? Nay, it was a child of the dark, a waif of outer space, whose fingers were afire with the frozen coldness of the black gulfs, which froze the blood in your veins and the marrow of your thews Coldness so cold it burned your flesh like white-hot iron!

'Was it chance that led the hts into the defile?--chance that brought the cliffs crashi+ng down upon the a chill along his spine Wizards and sorcerers abounded in his barbaric y, and any fool could tell that this was no co about him that set him apart--an alien aura of Time and space, a sense of tremendous and sinister antiquity But his stubborn spirit refused to flinch

'The fall of the cliffs was chance,' he e into the defile hat any man would have done'

'Not so You would not have led a charge into it You would have suspected a trap You would never have crossed the river in the first place, until you were sure the Neestions would not have invaded your mind, even in the madness of battle, to make you mad, and rush blindly into the trap laid for you, as it did the lesser man who masqueraded as you'

'Then if this was all planned,' Conan grunted skeptically, 'all a plot to trap my host, why did not the ”child of darkness” kill me in my tent?'