Part 21 (1/2)

”I have not stolen, cheated, lied and fought host out of my past,” muttered Publio, and the sinister darkness of his countenance at that moment would have surprized the wealthy nobles and ladies who bought their silks and pearls from his many stalls But when he returned to Conan a short ti in his own hands a platter of fruit and uest

Conan still stood at the case down into the harbor at the purple and crialleons and carracks and galleys and droalley, if I', low, sli apart from the others, anchored off the low broad sandy beach that curved round to the distant headland ”Is there peace, then, between Stygia and Argos?”

”The sa the platter on the table with a sigh of relief, for it was heavily laden; he knew his guest of old ”Stygian ports are temporarily open to our shi+ps, as ours to theirs But ht of land! That galley crept into the bay last night What its ht nor sold I distrust those dark-skinned devils Treachery had its birth in that dusky land”

”I'vefroalley manned by black corsairs I crept to the very bastions of the sea-washed castles of black-walled Khealleons anchored there And speaking of treachery, mine host, suppose you taste these viands and sip a bit of this wine, just to show ht side”

Publio complied so readily that Conan's suspicions were lulled, and without further hesitation he sat down and devoured enough for three h the aran who had a jewel to sell or who sought for a shi+p to carry hiaunt man with a scar on his temple sat with his elbows on a wine-stained table in a squalid cellar with a brass lantern hanging from a smoke-blackened beam overhead, and held converse 181

with ten desperate rogues whose sinister countenances and ragged garments proclaimed their profession

And as the first stars blinked out, they shone on a strange band spurring theirthe white road that led to Messantia froaunt, clad in black, hooded robes, and they did not speak They forced their steeds aunt as the travel and far wandering

XIV

THE BLACK HAND OF SET

Conan woke from a sound sleep as quickly and instantly as a cat And like a cat he was on his feet with his sword out before the man who had touched him could so much as draw back

”What word, Publio?” deold lalow over the thick tapestries and the rich coverings of the couch whereon he had been reposing

Publio, recovering frouest, replied: ”The Zingaran has been located He arrived yesterday, at dawn Only a few hours ago he sought to sell a huge, strange jewel to a Sheht to do with it Men say he turned pale beneath his black beard at the sight of it, and closing his stall, fled as fro accursed”

”Itthe pulse in his teerness ”Where is he now?”

”He sleeps in the house of Servio”

”I know that dive of old,” grunted Conan ”I'd better hasten before some of these waterfront thieves cut his throat for the jewel”

He took up his cloak and flung it over his shoulders, then donned a helmet Publio had procured for him

”Have my steed saddled and ready in the court,” said he ”I ht's work, Publio”

A fewat a sure 182

receding down the shadowy street

”Farewell to you, corsair,” muttered the ht by a dom I wish I had told my knaves to let hi et As with him be lost in the dust of the past In the alley behind the house of Servio that is where Conan will cease to be a peril to y, ill-fa the waterfront

It was a sha narrow alley wandered up alongside it Conanthe alley, and as he approached the house he had an uneasy feeling that he was being spied upon He stared hard into the shadows of the squalid buildings, but saw nothing, though once he caught the faint rasp of cloth or leather against flesh But that was nothing unusual Thieves and beggars prowled these alleys all night, and they were not likely to attack him, after one look at his size and harness

But suddenly a door opened in the wall ahead of hied fro the alley, not furtively, but with a natural noiselessness like that of a jungle beast Enough starlight filtered into the alley to silhouette the man's profile dier was a Stygian There was no ht, nor the mantle over the broad shoulders He passed on down the alley in the direction of the beach, and once Conan thought he ht a flash of laht, just as the er as he noticed that the door through which he had e by theServio to show hiet into the house without attracting anyone's attention, so ht him to the door, and as his hand fell on the lock he stifled an involuntary grunt His practised fingers, skilled ao, told him that the lock had been forced, apparently by some terrific pressure from the outside that had twisted and bent the heavy iron bolts, tearing the very sockets loose froht so violently without awakening everyone in the neighborhood Conan could not iht A broken lock, if discovered, would not go unhborhood of thieves and cutthroats

Conan entered stealthily, poniard in hand, wondering hoas to find the cha in total darkness he halted suddenly He sensed death in that roo hi freshly slain In the 183

darkness his foot hit and recoiled froroped along the wall until he found the shelf that supported the brass lamp, with its flint, steel and tinder beside it A few seconds later a flickering, uncertain light sprang up, and he stared narrowly about hih stone wall, a bare table and a bench cos of the squalid chamber An inner door stood closed and bolted And on the hard-beaten dirt floor lay Beloso On his back he lay, with his head drawn back between his shoulders so that he seelassy eyes at the sooty bea His lips were drawn back froony His sword lay near him, still in its scabbard His shi+rt was torn open, and on his brown, muscular breast was the print of a black hand, thulared in silence, feeling the short hairs bristle at the back of his neck

”Crom!” he muttered ”The black hand of Set!”

He had seen that riia And suddenly he re froed from this chamber

”The Heart, by Cro it under his ic, and slew Beloso He was a priest of Set”

A quick investigation confirmed at least part of his suspicions The jeas not on the Zingaran's body An uneasy feeling rose in Conan that this had not happened by chance, or without design; a conviction that the alley had come into the harbor of Messantia on a definite mission How could the priests of Set know that the Heart had coht was no more fantastic than the necromancy that could slay an armed man by the touch of an open, eht hiuished the lamp and drew his sword His ears told hi in on the doorway As his eyes became accustoing the entrance He could not guess their identity, but as always he took the initiative leaping suddenly forth fro the attack

His unexpected movement took the skulkers by surprize He sensed and heard ht before hi away down the alley before the slower-thinking and slower-acting attackers 184

could intercept him

As he ran he heard, soot thehis teeth he increased his speed, but before he reached the beach he heard the rasp and creak of ropes, and the grind of the great sweep in its socket

Thick clouds, rolling up from the sea, obscured the stars In thick darkness Conan ca his eyes out across the black restless water So, low, black shape that receded in the darkness, gathering momentum as it went

To his ears caround his teeth in helpless fury It was the Stygian galley and she was racing out to sea, bearing with her the jewel that e curse he took a step toward the waves that lapped against the sands, catching at his hauberk and intending to rip it off and swi shi+p Then the crunch of a heel in the sand brought hiures closed in on hih the sands The first went down beneath the Ci sword, but the others did not falter Blades whickered dimly about him in the darkness or rasped on his mail Blood and entrails spilled over his hand and someone screamed as he ripped murderously upward A muttered voice spurred on the attack, and that voice sounded vaguely fa shapes toward the voice A faint light glea clouds showed hireat livid scar on his teh a ripeblindly in the dark, crashed on the king's basinet, filling his eyes with sparks of fire He lurched and lunged, felt his sword sink deep and heard a shriek of agony

Then he stueon knocked the dented helmet from his head; the next instant the club fell full on his unprotected skull

The king of Aquilonia cruures panted in the gloom

”Strike off his head,” runted another ”Help me tie up my wounds before I bleed to death The tide ash hie His skull's split; no man could live after such blows”

185

”Help ed another ”His harness will fetch a few pieces of silver And haste

Tiberio is dead, and I hear seaone”

There followed hurried activity in the darkness, and then the sound of quickly receding footsteps The tipsy singing of the sea back and forth before athat overlooked the shadowed bay, whirled suddenly, his nerves tingling To the best of his knowledge the door had been bolted from within; but now it stood open and four ht of thes Publio had seen in his lifetiaunt, black-robed, and their faces were dim yellow ovals in the shadows of their coifs He could not tell lad that he could not Each bore a long, curiously mottled staff