Part 25 (2/2)

As he cla, until he thrust his head back into sight to curse therasped the oars and sent the tiny craft shooting over the waves more swiftly than its owner had ever propelled it

17

'He Has Slain the Sacred Son of Set!'

The harbor of Khe points of land that ran into the ocean He rounded the southern point, where the great black castles rose like a man-made hill, and entered the harbor just at dusk, when there was still enough light for the watchers to recognize the fishernition of betraying details Unchallenged he threaded his way ahted at anchor, and drew up to a flight of wide stone steps which e There heset in the stone, as nue in a fisher his boat there None but a fisherman could find a use for such a craft, and they did not steal frolance as hethe torches that flared at intervals above the lapping black water He see after a fruitless day along the coast If one had observed hiht have seey and sure, his carriage somewhat too erect and confident for a lowly fisher in the shadows, and the coiven to analysis than were the commoners of the less exotic races

In build he was not unlike the warrior casts of the Stygians, ere a tall, muscular race Bronzed by the sun, he was nearly as dark as many of them His black hair, square-cut and confined by a copper band, increased the resemblance The characteristics which set him apart from them were the subtle difference in his walk, and his alien features and blue eyes

But the uise, and he kept asaway his head when a native passed hia keep up the deception Khemi was not like the sea-ports of the Hyborians, where types of every race swarro and Shemite slaves; and he reseians theia; tolerated only when they came as ambassadors or licensed traders But even then the latter were not allowed ashore after dark And now there were no Hyborian shi+ps in the harbor at all A strange restlessness ran through the city, a stirring of ancient a none could define except those hispered This Conan felt rather than knew, his whetted pri unrest about hihastly They would slay hinized as Amra, the corsair chief who had swept their coasts with steel and flame--an involuntary shudder twitched Conan's broad shoulders Human foes he did not fear, nor any death by steel or fire But this was a black land of sorcery and nao from the Hyborian races, yet lurked in the shadows of the cryptic tehted shrines

He had draay fro down to the water, and was entering the long shadowy streets of the main part of the city There was no such scene as was offered by any Hyborian city--no blaze of la along the pave their wares

Here the stalls were closed at dusk The only lights along the streets were torches, flaring s the streets were co, and their numbers decreased with the lateness of the hour Conan found the scene gloomy and unreal; the silence of the people, their furtive haste, the great black stone walls that rose on each side of the streets There was a griian architecture that was overpowering and oppressive

Few lights showed anywhere except in the upper parts of the buildings

Conan knew thatthe palardens under the stars There was a murmur of weird music fro the flags, and there was a brief glimpse of a tall, hawk-faced noble, with a silk cloak wrapped about hi serpent-head e his black ainst the straining of the fierce Stygian horses

But the people who yet traversed the streets on foot were commoners, slaves, tradesressed He wastoward the temple of Set, where he kneould be likely to find the priest he sought He believed he would know Thutothlance had been in the semi-darkness of the Messantian alley That the man he had seen there had been the priest he was certain Only occultists high in thepossessed the power of the black hand that dealt death by its touch; and only such a man would dare defy Thoth-Aure of terror and myth

The street broadened, and Conan are that he was getting into the part of the city dedicated to the teainst the di in the flare of the few torches And suddenly he heard a low scream from a woman on the other side of the street and so the tall pluainst the wall, staring across at so he could not yet see At her cry the few people on the street halted suddenly as if frozen At the sa ahead of hi he was approaching poked a hideous, wedge-shaped head, and after it flowed coil after coil of rippling, darkly glistening trunk

The Ci tales he had heard--serpents were sacred to Set, God of Stygia, who men said was himself a serpent

Monsters such as this were kept in the teered, were allowed to crawl forth into the streets to take what prey they wished Their ghastly feasts were considered a sacrifice to the scaly God

The Stygians within Conan's sight fell to their knees, reat serpent would select, would lap in scaly coils, crush to a red pulp and s as a rat-snake ss a mouse The others would live That was the will of the Gods

But it was not Conan's will The python glided toward him, its attention probably attracted by the fact that he was the only hureat knife under his mantle, Conan hoped the slimy brute would pass him by But it halted before hiht, its forked tongue flickering in and out, its cold eyes glittering with the ancient cruelty of the serpent-folk Its neck arched, but before it could dart, Conan whipped his knife fro The broad blade split that wedge-shaped head and sheared deep into the thick neck

Conan wrenched his knife free and sprang clear as the great body knotted and looped and whipped terrifically in its death throes In thein morbid fascination, the only sound was the thud and swish of the snake's tail against the stones

Then from the shocked votaries burst a terrible cry: 'Blasphemer! He has slain the sacred son of Set! Slay him! Slay! Slay!'

Stones whizzed about hi hysterically, while froed from their houses and took up the cry With a curse Conan wheeled and darted into the black mouth of an alley He heard the patter of bare feet on the flags behind hiht, and the walls resounded to the vengeful yells of the pursuers Then his left hand found a break in the wall, and he turned sharply into another, narrower alley On both sides rose sheer black stone walls High above hiiant walls, he kneere the walls of temples He heard, behind him, the pack sweep past the dark rew distant, faded away They had ht on in the blackness He too kept straight ahead, though the thought of encountering another of Set's 'sons' in the darkness brought a shudder from him