Part 6 (1/2)

The e as it bore down upon him

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As always, the part of Conan'sspeed, cataloguing the thing's strengths and weaknesses

There were alarly few of the latter Its ar castle Its tiny head with the crucial antennae ed between the powerful ar within reach of the pincers The snakelike multiple tails were as yet an unknown quantity All this went through hishis hilt and the moment when his sword point cleared the sheath That left the legs, which were relatively spindly Having ood, Conan charged

At first his path took him directly toward the mon-ster, which reached for hi so precise that few men could have matched it, Conan dove to one side just as a pincer almost touched his cuirass He went into a forward roll and ca his sith both hands The nearest leg gave way be-neath his blow, but it was no easy task The legs looked thin against the monster's bulk, but each was still as thick as the ar man and armored with homy chitin

By striking at the joints he was able to cripple two of the legs before going into another dive and roll He knew that it would be death to stand in one place for le leg before some instinct made him look up, just in ti down at him In the instant that he saw it he also noted its bulbous tip fro soreen, viscous fluid

He dropped aside and rolled away just as the tail passed through the space where he had been standing A cloud of stinking srass where the fluid was splattered

Conan ran, and the thing whirled to chase hi, it was soave hiet a score of paces away and ready hi ti, but he could see no othertwothe tails, but this ti at him, and he was saved from them more by chance than by his own speed The creature had anticipated his tactic this tiinal tactic had worked well, but he dared not try it again

Once ripped in both hands Now it held its pincers wide, expecting hiht in, hacking at the tiny head He felt his sword connect jarringly, then he was beneath the crea-ture, rolling and chopping at its legs, careful to attack the legs on the sa upon Thus, he had to disable only half ason both sides As he rolled fro sent the whole cluster of tails darting at hiround exploded in smoke and steam fro turned and charged hied a bit to the wounded side That was all to the good, but what could he do next? If the thing was capable of learning, then it would 100101be prepared for the tricks he had used ere now and would counter them This was a difficult puzzle, and one he had a terribly short time to solve

There was one way he had not as yet attacked it He could see little way to do it daht buy him a little tirab for hiot one foot atop a pincer, and launched hi's back He made an experimental chop at the backplates, only to confirm that the stuff was as i was treacherous as well The tails were not able to reach so far forward, but he dared not stu to hack at a few legs before running once rass turned beneath his foot, and he went sprawling on his back Before he could rise, one of the tails caainst his breastplate, and his nos-trils were assailed by the che bronze Then he saw another about to strike his face Even his quick reflexes were not swift enough to save hi aside, splattering his face with a fine dehich burned fiercely but was not strong enough to kill Instantly he was on his feet and running, and old Rerin was at his side

They stopped at soain seeood to know your staff is good for so upon, old man,” Conan said

”Get your arh and start on you!”

Conan ignored the buckles and cut the straps of the cuirass with his dagger The once-fine bronze lay s as the venoe to wipe at the spots where the stuff had splashed him The pain was bearable, and it would onlywas bearing down upon them once more

”If it had eyes,” Conan muttered, ”I could reach its brain with a thrust”

”It s,” Rerin said ”But its antennae serve it for eyes and ears If you can disable those, perhaps youwas almost upon them ”Have you a spell to aid me, old man?” Conan asked

”No”

”Ah, well,” said Conan

To get at the antennae he must reach the head He had done that once before, but the thingthe antennae, the little head bore on its botto ate It occurred to Conan that if he could not get close to the head by his own efforts, perhaps he could persuade the beast to convey him thither

This time the creature did not simply bear down upon Conan Instead it halted and reached for hied froht its own rear around, to menace him with the deadly, whiplike tails As it made a pass with its pin-cers he leaped onto the ar it in the ”wrist” just behind the pincer It was a ht raise hie of the 102

103tails, but to his relief it instead brought hie, Conan hacked at the base of the nearest antenna A shudder went through the whole beast, shaking hiain, and the antenna fell away The thing went into a paralytic tremor Conan leaped down frorab at him, but he evaded it easily With both feet braced he hewed off the other antenna with a single chop

As the antenna fell, Conan turned and ran The beast behind hi noises, but Conan did not look back until he was once again with the wizard He was in tis cease as it collapsed upon the sward San to collapse in upon itself, much as had his cuirass as the acid had eaten it away Soon there was littlecreature

”It was not a natural part of this place,” said Rerin ”With its vital principal gone, there is nothing to hold its coether, and ithard, and Conan wasyou did, wizard Had you not knocked that stinger aside with your staff, I would have died over there I thank you There is a warrior's heart inside that with-ered old carcass of yours”

”I accept the compliment,” Rerin said, ”in the spirit which you no doubt intended”

Conan closely exaht daht he found none He sheathed the weapon at his waist and went in search of his other belongings

Sarissa turned excitedly from the mirror ”Was that not wonderful? He is all I had hoped! This is a true hero How may we capture him?”

”There are any nu ”But why bother? Since they are searching for our slave-queen, they must come here Let them come to us I am curious to see hoill try to take her back”

Sarissa s anticipation

105Che Castle of Giants On their fifth day in the demon land they encountered the first of the searchers Conan raised a hand in warn-ing, and old Rerin halted The old wizard could hear nothing amiss, but by now he kne preternatural!y keen were the ears of the barbarian

”So to sneak close to us,” Conan said, ”but they do not kno”

”Huo on two feet, whatever that means in this place There are many of them”

”Too many?”

”That we shall knohen I have tested their met-tle” Conan loosened his sword in its sheath

He chose a little glade as a good place to meet potential foes For the last two days they had been traveling through woods where the trees and shrubs preferred to keep their roots properly in the ground Thiselse

Shadowy foran to materialize at the tree line

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They were ers had tooand pointed Their bodies were gaunt and their movements furtive Conan's shispered froh now,” he cautioned them ”State your business”

”We want the wo human speech, but it was under-standable ”The woman from the world of men Our master wants her If you have her, surrender her to us or die!”

Conan srimly ”We want her too You are the ones who took her How did you lose her?”

The demon who had spoken only hissed in hate Conan could hear Rerin s, but they were not large and did not look strong None of thees-ture and chittered out some formula, which Conan took to be a spell