Part 6 (1/2)

Chapter V

The night streets of Ianthe were dark and empty, yet near the palace of Baron Tiure pressed itself to the thickly-ornahtly tilted above high cheekbones, surveyed the guardsthe thick, fluted coluuards, but would he who lay sleeping within remember his own thief's tricks?

The cloak was discarded, revealing a wo breeches of buttery leather, with soft red boots on her feet

Moonlight shi+mmered on titian hair tied back from her face with a cord

Quickly she undid her sword belt and refastened it with her Turanian sci down her back, then checked the leather sack hanging at her side Strong, slender fingers tested the niveouslike a monkey

Below the edge of the flat roof she paused Boots grated on slate tiles He remembered Yet for all the reputation this Free-Co in the country, they were yet soldiers Those on the roof walked regular paths, as sentries in a camp The

As agile as a panther, she was onto the roof, running on silent feet, losing herself in the shadows of two score chiarden around which the entire palace was arranged, she fell to her belly and peered down There were the s of his sleeping chamber They were dark So he did sleep She would have expected hi line of all too willing wenches It was one of the things she remembered most about hie had been easily come by Not even bribes had been necessary

All that had been required was for her to pretend to be a serving woiven her lush beauty; serving maids with curves like hers soon found themselves promoted to the master's bed-and chat to the woer to tell about the great house in which they served, about their fatparade of women, about the hard-eyed warriors who had hired themselves to hi to talk, giggling and teasing each other about returning fro the back of a robe and stolen arden

She would have wagered there were guards in that garden as well as on the roof, but those did not worry her From the leather sack she produced a rope woven of black-dyed silk, to the end of which was fastened a padded grapnel The e; the rope fell invisibly into the darkness below

It was just long enough to reach theshe sought

A short climb doard, and she was inside the rooer found its way into her handand she stopped dead What if there were some error in her inforher own foolishness, she felt in the darkness for a table, for a las She puffed softly on the coal till it glowed, held it to the wick Light blooasped at the apparition on the table beside the brass laure, yet she sensed evil in the thing, and primeval instinct deep within her told her that evil was directed at woed so much as to keep such ht!

Heart pounding, she spun, dagger raised He still slept, a young giant sprawled in his slumber Conan of Cimmeria Soft-footed she crept closer to his bed, her eyes drinking him in, the planes of his face, the breadth of his shoulders, the massive arms that had

Stop, she coainst her? She had lived on the plains of Zamora and Turan with the freedoht with hiands For his stupid male honor and the matter of a silly oath she had er, he had allowed her to be sold into slavery, into a zenana in Sultanapur

Every time the switch had kissed her buttocks, every time she had been forced to dance naked for the pleasure of the fat merchant who had been her master and his friends, all these could be laid at Conan's feet

When at last she had escaped and fled to Nelers of that country, he had appeared again And before he was done she must needs pack her hard-acquired wealth on suain

She had escaped him, then, but she could not escape hisfires in her, fires that she came to crave like the smoker of the yellow lotus craved his pipe Thatand excesses that shocked even the jaded court of Aquilonia Only when all her gold was gone had she known freedo by her wits and her sword She had sought a new country, Ophir, and raised a new band of rogues

How e northerner whose Free-Co had she tried to convince herself that it was not the saht ruin to her? Once more she found herself within the same borders as he, but this time she would not flee She would be free of hiht it down

A strange sound penetrated Conan's dreaht him awake He had just tier, and then he was rolling aside

The dagger slashed into the mattress where his chest had been, and the force of the ht his attacker down on top of him

Instantly he seized the shape-the back of his brain noted a curious softness-and hurled it across the room In the same motion he leaped from the bed, seized the worn leather-wrapped hilt of his broadsword and slung the scabbard aside It was then that he saw his assailant clearly for the first time

”Karela!” he exclai warily from the floor near the wall snarled at him ”Yes, Derketo blast your eyes! And would she had aze went to the dagger thrust into his mattress, and his eyebrows raised But all he said was, ”I thought you went to Aquilonia to live the life of a lady”

”I ah to put an end to you once and for all!” Her hand went to her shoulder, and suddenly she, was rushi+ng at hi three feet of curved razor-sharp steel

Anger blazed in Conan's icy blue eves, and he swung his sword to meet hers with a crash Shock appeared on Karela's face, heropen with incredulity as her blade was nearly wrenched frorasp

She took a step back, and froe He did not force her back, but every pace backwards she took, he followed And she could not but , desperate to attack yet with no slightest opportunity If he made certain that his sword struck only hers, he also th behind it, rocking her to her heels The cool smile on his face, calm even as he battled her, struck to her heart Itmore deeply than ever steel could ”Derketo take you, you over- her scimitar was hurled from her For a breath she froze, then dove for the fallen blade