Part 38 (2/2)

He picked up his sword and turned toward his companions Cheen and Hok had been joined by Tair, and they finished off the last selkie guard as he watched

The monster, meanwhile, shoved the door open and stepped inside the cha was rewarded for this action by a blast of light and a fierce heat Conan could feel even where he stood All the Ci's hindquarters, but it was apparent that the- no more Smoke rose from its carcass

Conan moved to where the three Tree Folk stood

”The Seed is in there,” Cheen said

”Aye You see what the h that door?” Conan said

”We have come too far to realize defeat now,” Tair said He started for the door

Conan sighed Aye, that they had He made after the se was nearly done with his spell A feords e of happiness build within hi forth, at least until he could say the last line of the spell Eight words more, six, four

”There it is!” a woman yelled

Dimma mispronounced the second to last word of the spell that would have made him whole

He screamed ”Is there no end to this!”

He turned his attention to the four people who had invaded his cha toward one of his talis here, voiding his atteestfellow replete with thickthe blade in a manner that would have cleaved the wizard in half, had he been other than h hi

The swordsman looked puzzled, and tried a second cut, to the saed

The blast of ical force Dimma had directed at the unfortunate Ranafrosch had almost completely depleted his personal powers; otherwise he would have swept the four froht with the same kind of infernal rays As it was, his ire so disrupted his thoughts that he could only co spell He spoke aloud three words and ns and the four people froze into i one with the sword raised for a third strike The fool would die in that pose, as soon as Dimma was finished with his important business

To assure his privacy, Dimma floated to the shattered door and peered into the hall There were a nun of anyone else alive to disturb his conjuration Thank all the base Gods for that!

Dian his spell for what he hoped would be the final tih he were bound in an invisible net; he was unable to move more than a hair before he met the unseen resistance He strained his powerful muscles to their utmost, to no avail The wizard had laid so at the moment, Conan felt certain that it would not serve him and his coe floated with his back to theh the body of the wizard as the man-was he a man?-droned out some doubtlessly evil incantation

Butwhat could he do? He was trapped and even if free, he had seen that his weapon was useless against the ician

The breath of doom cooled his spine

Dimma unwound the final words carefully, all his concentration upon the would interrupt hi!