Part 2 (1/2)
”You asped, and she felt his whole body turn cold under her arms
”Aye!” she shook hiician! Why will you be a slave, using your powers only to elevate others? Use your arts for yourself!”
”That is forbidden!” He was shaking as if with an ague ”I am not one of the Black Circle Only by the coe they have taught ued passionately ”Do as I beg you! Of course Conan has taken the Devi to hold as hostage against the seven tribesovernor's prison Destroy them, so Chunder Shan can not use theo into the hulis They can not stand against your sorcery with their knives! The treasure of the Vendhyan kings will be ours as ransom and then e have it in our hands, we can trick the of Turan We shall have wealth beyond our maddest dreams! With it we can buy warriors! We will take Khorbhul, oust the Turanians fro and queen of an e like a leaf in her grasp; his face showed grey in the starlight, 23
beaded with great drops of perspiration
”I love you!” she cried fiercely, writhing her body against his, al hi of you! For love of you I betrayed my mistress; for love of me betray your masters! Why fear the Black Seers? By your love for me you have broken one of their laws already! Break the rest! You are strong as they!”
Aheat of her passion and fury With an inarticulate cry he crushed her to hi kisses on her eyes, face and lips
”I'll do it!” His voice was thick with laboring eered like a drunken ht me shall work for me, not for my masters We shall be rulers of the world of the world ”
”Co lithely out of his embrace, she seized his hand and led hiovernor does not exchange those seven Afghulis for the Devi”
He moved like a man in a daze, until they had descended a ladder and she paused in the chamber below Kerim Shah lay on a couch h to shi+eld his sleeping eyes froht of a brass laesture across her own throat Kheed and he dreay
”I have eaten his salt,” he irl through a door that opened on a winding stair After their soft tread had faded into silence, the man on the couch sat up Kerim Shah wiped the sweat from his face A knife thrust he did not dread, but he feared Khemsa as a man fears a poisonous reptile
”People who plot on roofs should remember to lower their voices,” he ainst his masters, and as he was er Fro to his feet he went quickly to a table, drew pen and parchirdle and scribbled a few succinct lines
”To Khosru Khan, governor of Secunderam: the Cies of the Afghulis It is an opportunity to get the Devi into our hands, as the king has so long desired Send three thousand horsemen at once I will uides” And he signed it with a name that was not in the least 24
like Kerie he drew forth a carrier pigeon, to whose leg he made fast the parchold wire Then he went quickly to a caseht It wavered on fluttering wings, balanced, and was gone like a flitting shadow Catching up helmet, sword and cloak, Keri stair
The prison quarters of Peshkhauri were separated from the rest of the city by a le iron-bound door under an arch Over the arch burned a lurid red cresset, and beside the door stood or squatted a warrior with spear and shi+eld
This warrior, leaning on his spear, and yawning from time to tiht he had dozed, but abefore him, a man he had not heard approach The reen turban In the flickering light of the cresset his features were shadowy, but a pair of lalow
”Who co his spear ”Who are you?”
The stranger did not seeh the spear point touched his bosoe intensity
”What are you obliged to do?” he asked, strangely
”To guard the gate!” The warrior spoke thickly and lazing
”You lie! You are obliged to obey er your own Open that door!”
Stiffly, with the wooden features of an iirdle, turned it in theopen the door Then he stood at attention, his unseeing stare straight ahead of hier hand on the mesmerist's arm
”Bid him fetch us horses, Khemsa,” she whispered
”No need of that,” answered the Rakhsha Lifting his voice slightly he spoke to the guardsman
”I have no more use for you Kill yourself!”
25
Like a ainst the base of the wall, and placed the keen head against his body, just below the ribs Then slowly, stolidly, he leaned against it with all his weight, so that it transfixed his body and ca down the shaft he lay still, the spear jutting above hi out of his back
The girl stared down at him in morbid fascination, until Khehted a narrow space between the outer wall and a lower inner one, in which were arched doors at regular intervals A warrior paced this enclosure, and when the gate opened he cae of the prison's strength that he was not suspicious until Kheed from the archway Then it was too late
The Rakhsha did not waste tiirl
The guard lowered his spear threateningly, opening hisout of the guard-rooms at either end of the alley-way Kheht flick a straw, and his right flashed out and back, see And the guard pitched on his face without a sound, his head lolling on a broken neck
Kheht to one of the arched doors and placed his open hand against the heavy bronze lock With a rending shudder the portal buckled inward As the girl followed hi in splinters, the bronze bolts were bent and twisted froes broken and disjointed A thousand pound battering ra it could have shattered the barrier no more completely Khelorying in his iant exercises his theith unnecessary vigor in the exultant pride of his prowess
The broken door let them into a small courtyard, lit by a cresset Opposite the door was a wide grille of iron bars A hairy hand was visible, gripping one of these bars, and in the darkness behind thelimmered the whites of eyes
Khe into the shadows fro intensity Then his hand went into his robe and ca feather of sparkling dust sifted to the flags
Instantly a flare of green fire lighted the enclosure In the brief glare the for motionless behind the bars, were liarments They did not speak, but in their eyes blazed the fear of death, and their hairy fingers gripped the bars
The fire died out but the glow rereen that pulsed and shi+aze of the tribesated; it turned into a lu upward It twisted and writhed like a great shadowy serpent, then broadened and billowed out in shi+ning folds and whorls It grew to a cloud rille Thewith dilated eyes; the bars quivered with the grip of their desperate fingers
Bearded lips parted but no sound careen cloud rolled on the bars and blotted therille and hid the asp, as of a ed suddenly under the surface of water That was all
Kheirl's arm, as she stood with parted lips and dilated eyes Mechanically she turned aith hi back over her shoulder Already the ; close to the bars she saw a pair of sandalled feet, the toes turned upward she glimpsed the indistinct outlines of seven still, prostrate shapes ”And now for a steed swifter than the fastest horse ever bred in a hulistan before dawn”
IV