Part 5 (1/2)

Kheardly, his lips working as heht And then with a cry that al toward them, a knife lifted in his hand

One of the Rakhshas stepped forward and stareiftly to a grinding roar Where his foot struck, a crevice opened in the solid rock that widened instantly Then, with a deafening crash, a whole section of the ledge gave way There was a last gli, and then he vanished amidst the roar of the avalanche that thundered down into the abyss

The four looked contee of rock that formed the new rim of the 47

precipice, and then turned suddenly Conan, thrown off his feet by the shudder of theYas He was befogged and stupid He realized that there was desperate need for him to lift the Devi on the black stallion, and ride like the wind, but an unaccountable sluggishness weighted his every thought and action

And now the wizards had turned toward hiht, he saw their outlines fading, di hazy and nebulous, as a crimson smoke billowed around their feet and rose about the cloud and then he realized that he too was enveloped in a blinding crimson mist he heard Yasmina scream and the stallion cried out like a woman in pain The Devi was torn from his arm and as he lashed out with his knife blindly, a terrific blow like a gust of storainst a rock Dazedly he saw a cri up and over the one, and so were the four e with him

VII

ON TO YIMSHA

Aswind, the cobwebs vanished fro curse he leaped into the saddle and the stallion reared neighing beneath hilared up the slopes, hesitated, and then turned down the trail in the direction he had been going when halted by Kheait He shook loose the reins and the stallion went like a thunder-bolt, as if frantic to lose hysteria in violent physical exertion Across the ledge and around the crag and down the narrow trail threading the great steep they plunged at break-neck speed The path followed a fold of rock, winding interminably down from tier to tier of striated escarplihty pile of broken stone and boulders at the foot of a gigantic cliff

The valley floor was still far below hie that led out from the slope like a natural causeway Out upon this he rode, with an almost sheer drop on either hand He could trace ahead of him the trail he had to follow; far ahead it dropped down froreat horseshoe back into the river-bed at his left hand He cursed the necessity of traversing those miles, but it was the only way To try to descend to the lower lap of the trail here would be to atteet to the river-bed with a whole neck

So he urged on the wearying stallion, until a clink of hoofs reached his ears, welling up fro to the lip of the cliff, he stared down into the dry river-bed that wound along the foot of the ridge Along that gorge rode abearded , bristling eapons And Conan shouted suddenly, leaning over the edge of the cliff, three hundred feet above them

At his shout they reined back, and five hundred bearded faces were tilted up toward him; a deep, clamorous roar filled the canyon Conan did not waste words

”I was riding for Ghor!” he roared ”I had not hoped to s can push!+ I' to Yimsha, and ”

”Traitor!” The hoas like a dash of ice water in his face

”What?” He glared down at the up at hi blades

”Traitor!” they roared back, whole-heartedly ”Where are the seven chiefs held captive in Peshkhauri?”

”Why, in the governor's prison, I suppose,” he answered

A blood-thirsty yell fro of weapons and a cla He beat down the din with a bull- like roar, and bellowed: ”What devil's play is this? Let one of you speak, so I can understand what you aunt old chief elected himself to this position, shook his tulwar at Conan as a prea Peshkhauri to rescue our brothers!”

”No, you fools!” roared the exasperated Cimmerian ”Even if you'd breached the wall, which is unlikely, they'd have hanged the prisoners before you could reach theovernor!” yelled the Afghuli, working hi frenzy

”Well?”

”Where are the seven chiefs?” howled the old chief,wheel of steel about his head ”Where are they? Dead!”

”What!” Conan nearly fell off his horse in his surprize

”Aye, dead!” Five hundred blood-thirsty voices assured hiot the floor again ”They were not hanged!” he screeched ”A Wazuli in another cell saw theovernor sent a wizard to slay theovernor would not dare Last night I talked with him ”

The admission was unfortunate A yell of hate and accusation split the skies

”Aye! You went to hih the doors the wizard burst in his entry, and told the tale to our scouts whom he met in the Zhaibar They had been sent forth to search for you, when you did not return When they heard the Wazuli's tale, they returned with all haste to Ghor, and we saddled our steeds and girt our swords!”

”And what do you fools e our brothers!” they howled ”Death to the Kshatriyas! Slay hian to rattle around hi to make hiled of rage, defiance and disgust, he wheeled and galloped back up the trail Behind hie, too furious even to reht whereon he rode was to traverse the river-bed in the other direction,trail up over the ridge When they did remember this, and turned back, their repudiated chief had ale joined the escarpment

At the cliff he did not take the trail by which he had descended, but turned off on another, aa rock-fault, where the stallion scra He had not ridden far when the stallion snorted and shi+ed back fro in the trail Conan stared down on the travesty of a nashed splintered teeth

Only the dark Gods that rule over the gried his shattered body from beneath that awful cairn of fallen rocks and up the steep slope to the trail

Impelled by so down at the ghastly shape, knowing that he itness of a thing ory head and his strange eyes, glazed with agony and approaching death, rested on Conan with recognition

”Where are they?” It was a racking croak not even re a human voice

50

”Gone back to their darunted Conan ”They took the Devi with theo!” muttered the man ”I will follow them! They killed Gitara; I will kill them the acolytes, the Four of the Black Circle, the Master hi histhe rock, but not even his indoer, where the splintered bones hung together only by torn tissue and ruptured fiber

”Follow the a bloody slaver ”Follow!”

”I'hulis, but they've turned onon to Yimsha alone I'll have the Devi back if I have to tear down that daovernor would dare kill my headmen, when I had the Devi, but it seems he did I'll have his head for that She's no use to e, but ”