Part 8 (1/2)
He had never heard of such a tale about the Golden Serpents Indeed, he had never heard of anyone who had seen more of a Golden Serpent than its fire-stone eyes-and it was only a tale that Golden Serpents' eyes and fire-stones were one and the same
Rather, it had been a tale Now Conan knew it for the truth In the skull, as large as a horse's, two vast, green orbs flashed Their gloas identical to that of the jewels on the floor
Conan softly let out his breath and stalked forward Nothing living could have been more silent In that silence, he reached the skeleton and knelt beside it, studying the eyes
Now he understood why even such vast creatures as the Golden Serpents yielded so many fire-stones Each eye was the size of a platter, and each one was made of twoscore or e as the finest Bosson-ian cider apples All gloith that unnatural light
Conan also understood why the light had nothing of nature in it No natural creature had such eyes; the Golden Serpents were ht this ht yet end their days? Perhaps If so, they were long dead, and their creations likewise
Then even that small comfort left Conan A wind colder than any that ever blew in Cimmeria see to the serpent's bones Golden scales still covered a few of those shreds, and a faint reater part of them
Had it been here since the time of its creators, this Golden Serpent's bones would have been fleshless, or the shreds of flesh mu while Conan walked the earth above, perhaps even while he had fought and caroused with the Barachan pirates
Conan motioned Valeria forward, then moved to where he could look both ways He waited, steel at the ready, for her to study the bones and see what he had seen
Chabano's eyes and ears were those of a warrior half his age He did not need these to warn hi, for Ryku see seen or heard He was first a the lesser God-Men, the Silent Brothers, but his lack of jungle craft ained to place hi God-Man ca both spear and shi+eld, then gripped a stout vine and leaped from his perch
The other threw up his hands in dismay as Chabano see hian silentlycurses
”Cease,” Chabano said He put the tip of his spear under the ently raised the weapon until the man closed his mouth ”Or do you think the Gods will hear you without your ?” the chief added ”Surely you came as if you feared no human foe”
”I do not,” Ryku said ”I aer than was good for Ryku's pride, but he did not take the spear away By the ti, a drop of blood showed on Ryku's chin
”Is friendshi+p then a jest?” Ryku asked He stood without trying to wipe away the blood, and ain the chief decided there was enough courage here to deserve so all the Kwanyi At least not toward you, if it were knohy you are here”
”Who would tell?”
”You would, if someone heated a spear and applied it to sufficient parts of your body to unman or blind you,” Chabano said ”Do not deny it”
”I do not,” Ryku said sturdily, but see a trifle bemused
”As well Do not, then, tread like an elephant when you cos Even if you have no eneht follow you to me”
”As you wish” Then Ryku took a more defiant tone ”One would think you feared that the over-throwers of Xuchotl were abroad in the land instead of your oarriors!”
”They could well be Or do your masters know otherwise?”
”I came to tell you that they do not know one way or the other They cannot even be sure whatdown the Accursed City”
To Chabano, it seeic that had finally sent them mad, and not outsider's spells If they had then fallen on one another and cleansed the city of their foul and useless lives, so much the better
The folk of Xuchotl had bred for too long, and to little purpose Now they had left ould be a fine city from which to rule these lands when the Kwanyi under him had done with all their enemies
That was a dream he would not dwell on, however Not while this close to Ryku, who had the rank of Silent Brother but e than a wise ood cause
”Then what do the God-Men wish of the Kwanyi?”
”Who-says they wish anything?”
”I, Paramount Chief of the Kwanyi, say so When have you co me some wishes of your masters? They know not what you bear to me, but you do it nonetheless”
”The First Speaker wishes as before to learn anything you discover of how Xuchotl was overthrown,” Ryku said ”He also wishes the return of the slave girl taken by the Ichiribu on the night of their raid”
This last deh for the First Speaker”
Chabano laughed coarsely ”I should say that a wench of that age is more than adequate for such an old e, or enough fear of his leader to glare at Chabano, a thing few did and lived ”Know you not what it is to be a reat chief of the Kwanyi-”
”-dashed out the brains of a God-Man whose tongue flew too far too long,”
Chabano finished He returned the glare, and Ryku fell silent
”I shall discover what irl, and then find men to do it This is not to be doubted”
”I do not doubt it,” Ryku said He ise enough to make no promises for the masters who did not know of his divided loyalties ”What of Xuchotl's fate?”
”What of it?” Chabano retorted ”To ask ic is to ask the snake to hunt the leopard Only by great good fortune will I win any knowledge worth having”
Ryku's gestures and face told Chabano that ed The God-Men would not put into Kwanyi hands any of their power, not even to seek the cause of Xuchotl's doo others too e
There lay the difference between the First Speaker of the Living Wind and the Paraiven ive more There was another difference, too The chief knew that the God-Men would use the ainst even the Kwanyi He would not, if he could help it, give theh the rituals of farewell from hunter to chief, then withdrew
He could be heard for a sha silence
Valeria knelt beside the skeleton and the glowing mass of fire-stones until she sahat Conan had wished her to see Then she rose It seemed that every movement of her joints, every breath she took, had to be loud enough to raise echoes and hatever lurked farther within this nightmare of stone
She wanted to whisper, but when she tried to speak thus, no sound came out Then she took a deep breath, bid fear kiss her hindquarters, and laughed aloud
”So the Golden Serpents are no legend after all? This brute lost its scales a while back, I judge, but the eyes tell the tale”
Conan nodded ”And I' as the beast we found dead in the fungus cave”
”I wish it had been,” Valeria said ”Even a slab of that fungus would seem like a banquet” She looked at the Ci at? The hew shape ofso near erinned ”You take it lightly, our sharing these tunnels with the Golden Serpents”