Part 9 (1/2)

They stood in an ornately furnished chaold-barred , through which he saw trees and shrubbery

'You are strong,' she panted 'If you can tear these bars away, you uards, but the shrubs are thick, and you may avoid them The southern wall is also the outer wall of the city Once over that, you have a chance to get away A horse is hidden for you in a thicket beside the road that runs ard, a few hundred paces to the south of the fountain of Thrallos You knohere it is?'

'Aye! But what of you? I had hted her beautiful face

'Then ! But I will not hamper your escape Burdened with me you would fail Nay, do not fear for ly Go! What you have just said will glorify ht her up in his iron arure to him and kissed her fiercely on eyes, cheeks, throat and lips, until she lay panting in his eusty and te was violent

'I'll go,' he muttered 'But by Croripped the gold bars and tore the over the sill and went doiftly, clinging to the orna androse-bushes and spreading trees The one look he cast back over his shoulder showed hi over the -sill, her arms stretched after hi through the garden, all converging toward the palace, where the clarew louder--tall men in burnished cuirasses and crested hellints fro their everyran far before theh the shrubbery was like the blundering stampede of cattle Some of them passed within a few feet of where he lay flat in a thick cluster of bushes, and never guessed his presence With the palace as their goal, they were oblivious to all else about theh the garden with no more noise than a panther would have made

So quickly he came to the southern wall, and mounted the steps that led to the parapet The asthe battlelanced back at the great palace rearing above the cypresses behind hiures flitting back and forth across therinned hardly, shook his fist in a gesture of farewell and menace, and let himself over the outer rim of the parapet

A low tree, a few yards below the parapet, received Conan's weight, as he dropped noiselessly into the branches An instant later he was racing through the shadoith the swinging hill miles

Gardens and pleasure villas surrounded the walls of Belverus Drowsy slaves, sleeping by their watchure that scaled walls, crossed alleysbranches of trees, and threaded a noiseless way through orchards and vineyards Watchdogs woke and lifted their deep-boo shadow, half scented, half sensed, and then it was gone

In a chamber of the palace Tarascus writhed and cursed on a blood-spattered couch, under the deft, quick fingers of Orastes The palace was thronged ide-eyed, tre lay was eade priest

'Are you sure he still sleeps?' Tarascus deainst the bite of the herb juices hich Orastes was bandaging the long, ragged gash in his shoulder and ribs 'Ishtar, Mitra and Set! That burns like molten pitch of hell!'

'Which you would be experiencing even now, but for your good fortune,'

remarked Orastes 'Whoever wielded that knife struck to kill Yes, I have told you that Xaltotun still sleeps Why are you so urgent upon that point? What has he to do with this?'

'You know nothing of what has passed in the palace tonight?' Tarascus searched the priest's countenance with burning intensity

'Nothing As you know, I have been eesoteric volues into script he can read He ell versed in all the tongues and scripts of his day, but he has not yet learned all the newer languages, and to save time he has e has been discovered since his tiht until he sent for me and told me of the battle Then I returned to my studies, nor did I know that you had returned until the claht me out of ht the king of Aquilonia a captive to this palace?'

Orastes shook his head, without particular surprise

'Xaltotun merely said that Conan would oppose us no more I supposed that he had fallen, but did not ask the details'

'Xaltotun saved his life when I would have slain him,' snarled Tarascus

'I saw his purpose instantly He would hold Conan captive to use as a club against us--against A as Conan lives he is a threat, a unifying factor for Aquilonia, that ht be used to compel us into courses ould not otherwise follow I un to fear him

'I followed him, some hours after he had departed eastward I wished to learn what he intended doing with Conan I found that he had imprisoned him in the pits I intended to see that the barbarian died, in spite of Xaltotun And I accomplished----'

A cautious knock sounded at the door