Part 11 (1/2)
”There is life beyond death, I know, and I know this, too, Conan of Ciht hier than any death! I have lain in your ar with the violence of our love; you have held and crushed and conqueredkisses My heart is welded to your heart, my soul is part of your soul! Were I still in death and you fighting for life, I would come back from the abyss to aid you-aye, whether my spirit floated from the purple sails on the crystal sea of paradise, or writhed in the molten flames of hell! I am yours, and all the Gods and all their eternities shall not sever us!”
A screa Belit aside, Conan bounded up, his sword a long silver glitter in theat what he saw The black warrior dangled above the deck, supported by what see over the rail Then he realized that it was a gigantic serpent, which had writhed its glistening length up the side of the bow and gripped the luckless warrior in its jaws Its dripping scales shone leprously in the h above the deck, while the stricken s of a python Conan rushed into the bows and, swinging his great sword, hewed nearly through the giant truck, which was thicker than aits victi the water to bloody foaether
Thereafter Conan kept the lookout watch hi up frole, he sighted the black fangs of towers jutting up a the trees He called Belit, who slept on the deck, wrapped in his scarlet cloak; and she sprang to his side, eyes blazing Her lips were parted to call orders to her warriors to take up bows and spears; then her lovely eyes widened
It was but the ghost of a city on which they looked when they cleared a jutting, jungle-clad point and swung in toward the incurving shore
Weeds and rank river grass greeen the stones of broken piers and shattered paves that had once been streets and spacious plazas and broad courts Frole crept in, reen Here and there buckling towers reeled drunkenly against thewalls In the center space, a marble pyramid was spired by a sli that Conan supposed to be an ireat bird,” said one of the warriors, standing in the bows
”It is a monster bat,” insisted another
”It is an ape,” said Belit
Just then the creature spread broad wings and flapped off into the jungle
”A winged ape,” said old N'Yaga uneasily ”Better we had cut our throats than come to this place It is haunted”
Belit alley run inshore and tied to the cru ashore, closely followed by Conan, and after the in thedubiously at the surrounding jungle
Over all brooded a silence as sinister as that of a sleeping serpent
Belit posed picturesquely aure contrasting strangely with the desolation and decay about her The sun fla the toith a dull gold that left shadows lurking beneath the tottering walls Belit pointed to a sli base A broad expanse of cracked, grass-grown slabs led up to it, flanked by fallen columns, and before it stood athe ancient floor and stood before it
”This was the temple of the old ones,” she said ”Look -you can see the channels for the blood along the sides of the altar, and the rains of ten thousand years have not washed the dark stains from them The walls have all fallen away, but this stone block defies time and the elements”
”But ere these old ones?” demanded Conan
She spread her sliendry is this city mentioned But look at the hand-holes at either end of the altar!
Priests often conceal their treasures beneath their altars Four of you lay hold and see if you can lift it”
She stepped back toup at the tohich looripped the handholds cut into the stone-curiously unsuited to hu back with a sharp cry They froze in their places, and Conan, bending to aid therass,” she said, backing away ”Come and slay it; the rest of you bend your backs to the stone”
Conan ca his place As he iiant blacks braced their feet, grunted and heaved with their hugeunder their ebon skin The altar did not coround, but it revolved suddenly on its side And si ru the four black men with broken masonry
A cry of horror rose fro into Conan's arm muscles ”There was no serpent,” she whispered ”It was but a ruse to call you away I feared; the old ones guarded their treasure well Let us clear away the stones”
With herculean labor they did so and lifted out the led bodies of the four men And under them, stained with their blood, the pirates found a crypt carved in the solid stone The altar, hinged curiously with stone rods and sockets on one side, had served as its lid And at first glance the crypt seeht with afacets Undrea pirates: diamonds, rubies, bloodstones, sapphires, turquoises, ems that shone like the eyes of evil woht stones that thesun struck into la the bloodstained rubble on the brink and thrust her white arms shoulder-deep into that pool of splendor She withdrew theht another cry to her lips-a long string of cri on a thick gold wire In their glow the golden sunlight changed to bloody haze
Belit's eyes were like a woht drunkenness in riches and ht have shaken the soul of a sated es!” her voice was shrill with her emotions
”Look!” A ress, and Belit wheeled, her crimson lips asnarl, as if she expected to see a rival corsair sweeping in to despoil her of her plunder But fro away over the jungle
”The devil-ape has been investigating the shi+p,” muttered the blacks uneasily