Part 6 (2/2)
The giants answered with roars like the grinding of icebergs on a frozen shore They heaved up their axes, shi+ning in the starlight, as the maddened Cimmerian hurled himself upon the hiave back a terrible stroke that sheared through his foe's leg at the knee
With a groan, the victim fell, and at the same instant Conan was dashed into the snow, his left shoulder nu blow of the survivor's ax, from which the Cimmerian's iant looainst the coldly glowing sky The ax fell-to sink through the snow and deep into the frozen earth as Conan hurled hiiant roared and wrenched his ax free; but, even as he did, Conan's sword sang down The giant's knees bent, and he sank slowly into the snohich turned criushed froirl standing a short distance away, staring at hione from her face He cried out fiercely, and drops of blood flew from his sword as his hand shook in the intensity of his passion
”Call the rest of your brothers!” he cried ”I'll give their hearts to the wolves! You cannot escape ht, she turned and ran fleetly She did not laugh now, nor mock him over her white shoulder She ran as for her life
Although he strained every nerve and thew, until his teaze, she dreay fro in the witch-fire of the skies until she was a figure no bigger than a child, then a dancing white fla his teeth until the blood started frorow to a dancing white fla as a child; and then she was running less than a hundred paces ahead of him Slowly, foot by foot, the space narrowed
She was running with effort now, her golden locks blowing free; he heard the quick panting of her breath and saw the flash of fear in the look she cast over her white shoulder The grim endurance of the barbarian served his; she reeled in her gait In Conan's untamed soul leaped up the fires of hell she had so well fanned With an inhuman roar, he closed in on her, just as she wheeled with a haunting cry and flung out her arms to fend him off
His sword fell into the snow as he crushed her to hiht with desperate frenzy in his iron ar hi in his ers sank deep into her smooth flesh-flesh as cold as ice It was as if he embraced, not a wo ice She writhed her golden head aside, striving to avoid the fierce kisses that bruised her red lips
”You are as cold as the snows,” he mumbled dazedly ”I'll warm you with the fire of my own blood”
With a screa her single gossaolden locks in wild disarray, her white boso with terror For an instant he stood frozen, awed by her terrible beauty as she stood naked against the snows
And in that instant she flung her arlowed in the skies and cried out, in a voice that would ring in Conan's ears forever after : ”Y forward, ar of a irl's ivory body was suddenly enveloped in a cold, blue fla that the Cimmerian threw up his hands to shi+eld his eyes fro instant, skies and snowy hills were bathed in crackling white flaht, and frozen criirl was gone The glowing snow lay ehts played in a frosty sky gonethe distant blue antic war chariot, rushi+ng behind steeds whose frantic hoofs struck lightning from the snows and echoes from the sides
Then the aurora, the snow-clad hills, and the blazing heavens reeled drunkenly to Conan's sight Thousands of fireballs burst with showers of sparks, and the sky itself became a titanic wheel, which rained stars as it spun Under his feet the snowy hills heaved up like a wave, and the Cimmerian crumpled into the snows to lie motionless
In a cold dark universe, whose sun was extinguished eons ago, Conan felt the uessed An earthquake had hi hi his hands and feet until he yelled in pain and fury and groped for his sword
”He's co to, Horsa,” said a voice ”Hasten-we must rub the frost out of his liain”
”He won't open his left hand,” growled another ”He's clutching so-”
Conan opened his eyes and stared into the bearded faces that bent over hiolden-haired warriors in mail and furs
”Conan!” said one ”You live!”
”By Croasped the Cimmerian ”Am I alive, or are we all dead and in Valhalla?”
”We live,” grunted the As, busy over Conan's half-frozen feet ”We had to fight our way through an ambush, or we had come up with you before the battle was joined The corpses were scarce cold e ca the dead, so we followed your spoor In Ymir's name, Conan, why did you wander off into the wastes of the North? We have followed your tracks in the snow for hours Had a blizzard come up and hidden them, we had never found you, by Ymir!”
”Swear not so often by Y at the distant ends say the God bides a yonder peaks”
”I saoi's ht I alone lived I was dizzy and faint The land lay like a dreas seem natural and familiar The woman came and taunted e ot all else in the world I followed her Did you not find her tracks? Or the giants in icy mail I slew?”
Niord shook his head ”We found only your tracks in the snow, Conan”
”Then it may be that I am mad,” said Conan dazedly ”Yet you yourself are no olden-locked wench who fled naked across the snows before me Yet from under my very hands she vanished in icy flame”