Part 5 (1/2)

Sassan was pulling at the various ornaments and projections on the portal They heard him cry out in triued to a scream as the door, a ton of bronze, swayed outward and fell crashi+ng, squashi+ng the Iranistani like an insect He was coreat metal slab, froed ”I said he was a fool Ostorioit froes”

One less knife in the back to watch for, thought Conan ”Those hinges are false,” he said, exa back up again!”

The hinges were, as Conan had said, fakes The door was actually mounted on a pair of swivels at the lower corners so that it could fall outward like a drawbridge Froonally up, to disappear into a hole near the upper corner of the door-fra sound, the chains had tautened and had started to pull the door back up into its former position

Conan snatched up the lance that Sassan had dropped Placing the butt in a hollow in the carvings of the inner surface of the door, he wedged the point into the corner of the door fra in a nine-tenths open position

”That was clever, Conan,” said Zyras ”As the God has now had his toll, the way should be open”

He stepped up on to the inner surface of the door and strode into the temple Conan followed They paused on the threshold and peered into the shadowy interior as they ht have peered into a serpent's lair

Silence held the ancient temple, broken only by the soft scuff of their boots

They entered cautiously, blinking in the half-gloolow of a sunset sold crusted with flaer than life size, was in the forreat splay feet on a block of basalt

The statue faced the entrance, and on each side of it stood a great carven chair of dense black wood, inlaid with ge nation

To the left of the statue, a few feet from the base of the pedestal, the floor of the temple was cleft from wall to wall by a chasm some fifteen feet wide At some time, probably before the temple had been built, an earthquake had split the rock Into that black abyss, ages ago, screa victims had doubtless been hurled by hideous priests as sacrifices to the God The walls were lofty and fantastically carved, the roof dim and shadowy above

But the attention of the h a brutish and repellant monstrosity, it represented wealth that made Conan's brain swim

”Crodom with those rubies!”

”Too much to share with a lout of a barbarian,” panted Zyras

These words, spoken half-unconsciously between the Corinthian's clenched teeth, warned Conan He ducked just as Zyras' shistled towards his neck; the blade sliced a fold fro his own carelessness, Conan leaped back and drew his scimitar

Zyras caht before the leering idol, feet scuffing on the rock, blades rasping and ringing Conan was larger than the Corinthian, but Zyras was strong, agile, and experienced, full of deadly tricks Again and again Conan dodged death by a hair's breadth

Then Conan's foot slipped on the smooth floor and his blade wavered

Zyras threw all his strength and speed into a lunge that would have driven his saber through Conan But the Cimmerian was not so off balance as he looked With the suppleness of a panther, he twisted his powerful body aside so that the long blade passed under his right arh his loose khilat For an instant, the blade caught in the cloth Zyras stabbed with the dagger in his left hand

The blade sank into Conan's right arh Zyras' ed between Zyras' ribs Zyras screaled, reeled back, and fell li a strip of cloth froe, to add to those he already wore He bound up the wound, tying knots with fingers and teeth, and glanced at the bloodstained God leering down at hiloat Conan shi+vered as the superstitious fears of the barbarian ran down his spine

Then he braced hiet the thing away? If it were solid it would be much too heavy to move, but a tap of the butt of his knife assured hi about, his head full of sche one of the carven thrones apart toit out of the temple by means of the extra horses and the chains that worked the falling front door, when a voice made him whirl

”Stand where you are!” It was a shout of triumph in the Kezankian dialect of Za at him a heavy double-curved bow of the Hyrkanian type One was tall, lean, and red-bearded

”Keraspa!” said Conan, reaching for the sword and the knife he had dropped

The other man was a powerful felloho seemed familiar

”Stand back!” said the Kezankian chief ”You thought I had run away to ht, with the only one of lance appraised the idol ”Had I known the teo, despite the superstitions of er”