Part 12 (2/2)
Julia, however, was not finished ”Scratch or not,” she said firrow ill Fetchover her shoulder, as she attempted to press Conan toward the bed ”Clean, mind you!” To everyone's surprise two of the mercenaries rushed off at her co to herself she fussed over getting his metal-scaled leather tunic off Gently she palped the flesh about the long, shallow gash, a thoughtful frown on her face She seeers
”It seems you are ahead oncethem alone
”What did he mean by that?” she asked absently ”Don't talk Let the wound lie still There are no ribs broken, and I will not have to sew it, but after it is bandaged you must take care not to exert yourself
Perhaps if you lie-” She broke off with a gasp ”Mitra protect us, what is that evil thing?”
Conan followed her suddenly frightened gaze to the bronze figure, lying on the bed and now out of the sack ”Just so it up She backed away fro is but dead hted,” Boros said fro de I can feel the waves of it from here”
”And I,” Julia said shakily ”It ely ”Aye, a woman would be sensitive to such The rites of Al'Kiir were heinous Scores ofto the death while the priestesses chanted, with the heart of the survivor to be ripped fro body Rites of torture, with the victi on the altar for days But theof women as sacrifices Or as worse than sacrifices”
”What could be worse than being sacrificed?” Julia asked faintly
”Being given to the living God whose i for all eternity Such iven to Al'Kiir”
Julia swayed, and Conan snapped, ”Enough, old hten her I remember now that you mentioned this Al'Kiir once before, when you were drunk Are you drunk now? Have you dredged all this froray-bearded man replied, ”and I wish I were pickled in wine like a corpse For that is not only an ie of Al'Kiir, Cimmerian It is a necessary, a vital part of the worshi+p of that horrible God I thought all such had been destroyed centuries ago
Soain to this world, and did they have that unholy iht well succeed I, for one, would not care to be alive if they do”
Conan stared at the bronze gripped in his big hand Twoto take it from him in the shop Three more perished in the second attack, and that that had been for the saer doubted Before he hiht of hisback this God knew the Cie they needed In a way he was relieved He had had stray thoughts that so the one just done, were Karela's work
The es entered the rooned the others to silence until they were gone
When the three were alone again, Julia spoke ”I'll tend your wound, but not if you again re Even there I can sense it”
”I'll leave it where it is,” the young Cimmerian said, and she knelt beside hi his wound ”Go on with your telling, Boros,” he continued ”How is it this God cannot find his oay to the world of reatly, for all his horns”
”You rumbled, ”but there is no humor in this To tell you of Al'Kiir I must speak of the distant past You know that Ophir is thein the world, yet few s I know a little
Before even Ophir was, this land was the center of the worshi+p of Al'Kiir The strongest and handsomest of ht froht iine, there were those who opposed the worshi+p of Al'Kiir, and foremost of these were the ht-Hand Path”
”Can you not be shorter about it?” Conan said ”There's no need to dress the tale like a story-teller in the marketplace”
Boros snorted ”Do you wish brevity, or the facts? Listen The Circle of the Right-Hand Path was led by a man named Avanrakash, perhaps the ic who has ever lived”
”I did not know there was such a thing as white ic,” Conan said
”Never have I seen a sorcerer who did not reek of blackness and evil as a dunghill reeks of filth”
This tinored him ”These men made contact with the very Gods, 'tis said, and concluded a pact No God would stand against Al'Kiir openly, for they feared that in a war between Gods all that is ht be destroyed, even themselves Some-Set, supposedly, was one-declared theranted those of the Right-Hand Path an increase in powers, enough so that they in concert could ive so le man, for that would h to all of them that they could not be vanquished easily by as few as two of the Gods in concert”
Despite hi intently Julia, heropen in wonderotten as she followed Boros' words