Part 33 (2/2)

'Valerius is dead!' cried Hadrathus ringingly 'A fog and a dru of Python, and I dispersed it!

I, with ic!'

'What ht, his eyes blazing, his features convulsed 'Valerius was a fool I do not need him I can crush Conan without human aid!'

'Why have you delayed?' mocked Hadrathus 'Why have you allowed so many of your allies to fall pierced by arrows and spitted on spears?'

'Because blood aids great sorcery!' thundered Xaltotun, in a voice that made the rocks quiver A lurid nimbus played about his awful head

'Because no wizard wastes his strength thoughtlessly Because I would conserve reat days to be, rather than employ them in a hill-country brawl But now, by Set, I shall loose the of Asura, false priest of an outworn God, and see a sight that shall blast your reason for everhed, and hell was in his laughter

'Look, black devil of Python!'

His hand ca that flaolden glohich the flesh of Xaltotun looked like the flesh of a corpse

Xaltotun cried out as if he had been stabbed

'The Heart! The Heart of Ahrireater than your power!'

Xaltotun seerow old Suddenly his beard was shot with snow, his locks flecked with gray

'The Heart!' he ! Thief!'

'Not I! It has been on a long journey far to the southward But now it is in ainst it As it resurrected you, so shall it hurl you back into the night whence it drew you You shall go down the dark road to Acheron, which is the road of silence and the night The dark eend and a black ain And the Heart of Ahrio back into the cavern below the temple of Mitra, to burn as a symbol of the power of Aquilonia for a thousand years!'

Xaltotun screaer lifted; but froreat jewel that blazed in the hand of Hadrathus--shot a jetting beaainst the breast of Xaltotun it flashed, and the hills re-echoed the concussion The wizard of Acheron went down as though struck by a thunderbolt, and before he touched the ground he was fearfully altered Beside the altar-stone lay no fresh-slain corpse, but a shriveleds

So man,' she said 'The Heart lent him a false aspect of life, that deceived even himself I never saw him as other than a irl on the altar, when froe apparition--Xaltotun's chariot drawn by the weird horses Silently they advanced to the altar and halted, with the chariot wheel alrass

Hadrathus lifted the body of the wizard and placed it in the chariot

And without hesitation the uncanny steeds turned and moved off southward, down the hill And Hadrathus and Zelata and the gray atched the road to Acheron which is beyond the ken of men

Down in the valley Amalric had stiffened in his saddle when he saw that wild horse on the slopes while he brandished that blood-stained serpent-banner Then some instinct jerked his head about, toward the hill known as the King's Altar And his lips parted Every ht that towered up froh above the hosts it burst in a blinding blaze that nal!' roared the baron

'No!' shouted Tarascus 'It's a signal to the Aquilonians! Look!'