Part 7 (1/2)
”He is delirious,” whispered a warrior
”Not so!” cried an older hter of Yiant! To fields of the dead she co! Myself when a boy I saw her, when I lay half slain on the bloody field of Wolfraven I saw her walk a like ivory and her golden hair unbearably bright in thebecause I could not crawl after her She lures men from stricken fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers, the ice giants, who layon Yiant's daughter!”
”Bah!” grunted Horsa ”Old Gorm's mind was touched in his youth by a sword cut on the head Conan was delirious from the fury of the battle; look how his helht have addled his brain It was a hallucination he followed into the wastes He is from the South; what does he know of Atali?”
”You speak truth, perhaps,” e and weird-by Croled froaped silently at the veil he held up-a wisp of gossamer that was never spun by human distaff
The Lair of the Ice Worm ------------------------
Haunted by Atali's icy beauty and bored with the sies, Conan rides south toward the civilized real to find a ready market for his sword as a condottiere in the service of various Hyborian princelings At this time, Conan is about twenty-three
Chapter One
All day, the lone rider had breasted the slopes of the Eiglophian Mountains, which strode frohty wall of snow and ice, sundering the northlands of Vanaheidoms In the depth of winter, , however, they opened, to afford bands of fierce, light-haired northern barbarians routes by which they could raid the warmer lands to the south
This rider was alone At the top of the pass that led southward into the Border Kingdo at the fantastic scene before hiolden vapors, darkening from the zenith to the eastern horizon with the purple of onco day still painted the white crests of therosy radiance It threw shadows of deep lavender across the frozen surface of a titanic glacier, which wound like an icy serpent froher peaks, down and down until it curved in front of the pass and then away again to the left, to dwindle in the foothills and turn into a flowing streah the pass had to pick his way cautiously past thethat he would neither fall into one of its hidden crevasses nor be overwhel sun turned the glacier into a glittering expanse of crilacier's flanks were dotted with a thin scattering of gnarled, dwarfish trees
This, the rider kneas Snow Devil Glacier, also known as the River of Death Ice He had heard of it, although his years of wandering had never before chanced to take hiuarded pass was shadowed by a nameless fear His own Cimmerian fellow-tribesmen, in their bleak hills to the west, spoke of the Snow Devil in terh no one knehy Often he had wondered at the legends that clustered about the glacier, endowing it with the vague aura of ancient evil Whole parties had vanished there, ain
The Cimmerian youth named Conan iht, theskill and had carelessly strayed out on one of the bridges of thin snow that often iven way, plunging thelacier Such things happened often enough, Cro Cimmerian had perished thus But this was no reason to refer to the Snow Devil with shudders, dark hints, and sidelong glances
Conan was eager to descend the pass into the low hills of the Border Kingdoun to find the si His ill-fated adventure with a band of golden-haired AEsir on a raid into Vanaheiht him hard knocks and no profit It had also left hi hter, who had nearly lured hiether, he had had all he wanted of the bleak northlands He burned to get back to the hot lands of the South, to taste again the joys of silken raiolden wine, fine victuals, and soft feht, of the dull round of village life and the Spartan austerities of camp and field!
His horse picked its way to the place where the glacier thrust itself across the direct route to the lowlands Conan slid off histhe narrow pathway between the glacier on his left and the lofty, snow-covered slope on his right His huge bearskin cloak exaggerated even his hulking size It hid the coat of chain mail and the heavy broadsword at his hip
His eyes of volcanic blue glowered out from under the brim of a horned helmet, while a scarf ound around the lower part of his face to protect his lungs frohts He carried a slender lance in his free hand Where the path erly, thrusting the point of the lance into the snohere he suspected that itfrom his saddle
He neared the end of the narrow path between the glacier and the hillside, where the glacier swung away to the left and the path continued down over a broad, sloping surface, lightly covered with spring snow and broken by boulders and hummocks Then a scream of terror made him whip around and jerk up his hellacier leveled off before beginning its final descent, a group of shaggy, hulking creatures ringed a diirl in white furs Even at this distance, in the clear mountain air, Conan could discern the warlossy brown hair that escaped from under her white hood She was a real beauty
Without waiting to ponder thehis lance as a pole, vaulted into the saddle He gathered up the reins and drove his spurs into the horse's ribs As the startled beast reared a little in the haste hich it bounded forward, Conan opened his mouth to utter the weird and terrible Cier man he would have uttered this shout to hearten hiht hi the girl's attackers of his co any sooner than he h, however Although the snow le of his mail and the creak of his saddle and harness caused one of thehbor's arm, so that in a few seconds all had turned to see Conan's approach and set themselves to meet it
There were about a dozen of the mountain men, armed with crude wooden clubs and with stone-headed spears and axes They were short-liy furs S brows and sloping foreheads; thick lips drew back to reveal large yellow teeth They were like leftovers froe of human evolution, about which Conan had once heard philosophers argue in the courtyards of Nemedian teuiding his horse and ai his lance to spare such ht Then he crashed a them like a thunderbolt