Part 29 (2/2)

'You know little of his black powers,' answered Orastes grimly 'I have seen the very hills take on an alien and ancient aspect under the spell of his incantations I have glimpsed, like shadows behind the realities, the dim shapes and outlines of valleys, forests, mountains and lakes that are not as they are today, but as they were in that dili like figures of mist in the dusk

'And in the last conclave to which I acco of his sorcery came to me at last, while the drums beat and the beast-like worshi+ppers hoith their heads in the dust I tell you he would restore Acheron by his antic blood-sacrifice such as the world has never seen He would enslave the world, and with a deluge of blood _wash away the present and restore the past_!'

'You are ard stare upon him 'Can any man see what I have seen and remain wholly sane? Yet I speak the truth He plots the return of Acheron, with its towers and wizards and kings and horrors, as it was in the long ago The descendants of Acheron will serve him as a nucleus upon which to build, but it is the blood and the bodies of the people of the world today that will furnish theI cannot tell you how My own brain reels when I try to understand _But I have seen!_ Acheron will be Acheron again, and even the hills, the forests and the rivers will resume their ancient aspect Why not? If I, withto life a reatest wizard of the world bring back to life a kingdom dead three thousand years? Out of the dust shall Acheron arise at his bidding'

'How can art him?' asked Tarascus, impressed

'There is but one way,' answered Orastes 'We an Tarascus involuntarily, then closed his mouth quickly

None had noticed hi

'It is a power that can be used against hiht defy him But how shall we steal it? He has it hidden in soht filch it I cannot learn its hiding-place If he would only sleep again the sleep of the black lotus--but the last time he slept thus was after the battle of the Valkia, when he eary because of the great ic he had perfor silently open and Xaltotun stood before the his patriarchal beard; but the lahts of hell flickered in his eyes

'I have taught you too er like an index of doom at Orastes And before any could move, he had cast a handful of dust on the floor near the feet of the priest, who stood like a man turned to marble It flamed, smoldered; a blue serpentine of smoke rose and swayed upward about Orastes in a slender spiral And when it had risen above his shoulders it curled about his neck with a whipping suddenness like the stroke of a snake Orastes' screale His hands flew to his neck, his eyes were distended, his tongue protruded The smoke was like a blue rope about his neck; then it faded and was gone, and Orastes slumped to the floor a dead ether and twohim--small, repulsively dark, with red, oblique eyes and pointed, rat-like teeth They did not speak Lifting the corpse, they bore it away

Dis the matter with a wave of his hand, Xaltotun seated his

'Why are you in conclave?' he demanded

'The Aquilonians have risen in the west,' answered Arisly jolt the death of Orastes had given hi at the head of a Poitanian ardom If he had reappeared immediately after Valkia, or if a rumor had been circulated that he lived, the central provinces would not have risen under him, they feared your powers so But they have become so desperate under Valerius' misrule that they are ready to follow any ainst us, and prefer sudden death to torture and continual ered stubbornly in the land that Conan was not really slain at Valkia, but not until recently have the masses accepted it But Pallantides is back fro was ill in his tent that day, and that a man-at-arms wore his harness, and a squire who but recently recovered from the stroke of a mace received at Valkia confirms his tale--or pretends to

'An old woman with a pet wolf has wandered up and down the land, proclai Conan yet lives, and will return some day to reclai the sa They claim that word has co to reconquer his domain I cannot catch either her or them This is, of course, a trick of Trocero's My spies tell athering to invade Aquilonia I believe that Trocero will bring forward so Conan'

Tarascus laughed, but there was no conviction in his laughter He surreptitiously felt of a scar beneath his jupon, and reitive; reht back froray wolf, his terrified soldiers said But he also reolden chest while a wizard slept, and he said nothing

And Valerius reasped out a tale of fear, and he remembered four Khitans who disappeared into the ue, for hatred and suspicion of his allies ate at hi so o down locked in the death grip

But Amalric exclaimed: 'It is absurd to dream that Conan lives!'

For answer Xaltotun cast a roll of parchlared at it From his lips burst a furious, incoherent cry He read:

_To Xaltotun, grand fakir of Nedo your hide on a braery!' exclaienuine I have conature on the royal documents on record in the libraries of the court None could imitate that bold scrawl'

'Then if Conan lives,'will not be like the others, for he is the onlywho can unite the Aquilonians

But,' he protested, 'this is not like Conan Why should he put us on our guard with his boasting? One would think that he would strike without warning, after the fashi+on of the barbarians'