Part 6 (1/2)

'Because I wished to take you alive It took no wizardry to predict that Pallantides would send another man out in your harness I wanted you alive and unhurt You s There is a vital power about you greater than the craft and cunning of ht ely at the word, and Xaltotun, ignoring his fury, took a crystal globe from a near-by table and placed it before hi, but it hung motionless in midair, as solidly as if it rested on an iron pedestal Conan snorted at this bit of necromancy, but he was nevertheless ioes on in Aquilonia?' he asked

Conan did not reply, but the sudden rigidity of his form betrayed his interest

Xaltotun stared into the cloudy depths, and spoke: 'It is now the evening of the day after the battle of Valkia Last night the main body of the arhts harried the fleeing Aquilonians At dawn the host broke cah the mountains Prospero, with ten thousand Poitanians, wassurvivors in the early dawn He had pushed on all night, hoping to reach the field before the battle joined Unable to rally the remnants of the broken host, he fell back toward Tarantia Riding hard, replacing his wearied horses with steeds seized from the countryside, he approaches Tarantia

'I see his weary knights, their ar as they push their tired horses through the plain I see, also, the streets of Tarantia The city is in turmoil Somehoord has reached the people of the defeat and the death of King Conan Theis dead, and there is none to lead theainst the Nemedians Giant shadows rush on Aquilonia from the east, and the sky is black with vultures'

Conan cursed deeply

'What are these but words? The raggedest beggar in the street lass ball, then you're a liar as well as a knave, of which last there's no doubt!

Prospero will hold Tarantia, and the barons will rally to hido back to their kennels What are fifty thousand Nemedians? Aquilonia will s theain It's not Aquilonia which was conquered at Valkia; it was only Conan'

'Aquilonia is doomed,' answered Xaltotun, unmoved 'Lance and ax and torch shall conquer her; or if they fail, powers froainst her As the cliffs fell at Valkia, so shall walled cities and mountains fall, if the need arise, and rivers roar from their channels to drohole provinces

'Better if steel and bowstring prevail without further aid frohty spells soht rock the universe'

'Fro?'at the man The Ci incredibly ancient, incredibly evil

Xaltotun lifted his head, as if listening to whispers across the void

He seeotten his prisoner Then he shook his head ilanced impersonally at Conan

'What? Why, if I told you, you would not believe me But I a to destroy a walled city than it is to frahts in words a brainless barbarian can understand'

'If my hands were free,' opined Conan, 'I'd soon make a brainless corpse out of you'

'I do not doubt it, if I were fool enough to give you the opportunity,'

answered Xaltotun, clapping his hands

His ed; there was impatience in his tone, and a certain nervousness in his h Conan did not think this attitude was in any way connected with himself

'Consider what I have told you, barbarian,' said Xaltotun 'You will have plenty of leisure I have not yet decided what I shall do with you

It depends on circumstances yet unborn But let this be iame, it will be better to submit without resistance than to suffer s that roes entered Each was clad only in a silken breech-cloth supported by a girdle, froestured i the ers twitched queerly Fro black dust, and placed it in a brazier which stood on a golden tripod at his elbow The crystal globe, which he seeotten, fell suddenly to the floor, as if its invisible support had been removed

Then the blacks had lifted Conan--for so loaded with chains was he that he could not walk--and carried hiold-bound teak door was closed, showed hi back in his throne-like chair, his arms folded, while a thin wisp of smoke curled up froia, that ancient and evil kingdom that lay far to the south, he had seen such black dust before It was the pollen of the black lotus, which creates death-like sleep and risly wizards of the Black Ring, which is the nadir of evil, voluntarily seek the scarlet nightmares of the black lotus, to revive their necro was a fable and a lie to hastly reality, and its grim votaries who practise their abohted dolanced back at the cryptic, gold-bound door, shuddering at what it hid

Whether it was day or night the king could not tell The palace of King Tarascus seehted place, that shunned natural illumination The spirit of darkness and shadow hovered over it, and that spirit, Conan felt, was e along a winding corridor so dihosts bearing a dead man, and down a stone stair that wound endlessly A torch in the hand of one cast the great defor the wall; it was like the descent into hell of a corpse borne by dusky demons