Part 14 (1/2)
”How can you stand there like a duhastly whisper ”Are you but a beast like these others? Ah, Mitra, once I thought there was honor in men Now I know each has his price You-what do you know of honor-or of mercy or decency? You are a barbarian like the others-only your skin is white; your soul is black as theirs You care naught that a s- that I am their slave! Very well”
She fell back fro away her tunic from her ivory breasts ”Am I not fair? Am I not more desirable than these native wenches? A? Is not a fair-skinned virgin a price worth slaying for?
”Kill that black dog Bajujh! Let me see his cursed head roll in the bloody dust! Kill hiony of her intensity ”Then take me and do as you ith me I will be your slave!”
He did not speak for an instant but stood like a giant, brooding figure of slaughter and destruction, fingering his hilt
”You speak as if you were free to give yourself at your pleasure,” he said, ”as if the gift of your body had power to swing kingdoms Why should I kill Bajujh to obtain you? Woness or unwillingness hly If I wanted you, I wouldn't have to fight Bajujh to take you He would rather give you to asped All the fire went out of her, the hut reeled dizzily before her eyes She staggered and sank in a cruareb Dazed bitterness crushed her soul as the realization of her utter helplessness was thrust brutally upon her The hus unconsciously to fas and conditions alien and unrelated to those environs to which such values and ideas are adapted In spite of all Livia had experienced, she had still instinctively supposed a woame as she proposed to play She was stunned by the realization that nothing hinged upon her at all She could not ame; she herself was the helpless pawn
”I see the absurdity of supposing that anyto rules and customs existent in another corner of the world,” she , which was indeed only the vocal fraht which overcame her Stunned by that newest twist of fate, she lay ers closed on her shoulder and lifted her again to her feet
”You said I was a barbarian,” he said harsly, ”and that is true, Cro you instead of soft-gutted civilized weaklings, you would not be the slave of a pig this night I ae
But I a as to leave a woh your kind call ainst her consent Custoh, he can enforce a few of his native custo!
”If you were old and ugly as the devil's pet vulture, I'd take you away fro and beautiful, and I have looked at native sluts until I aame your way, simply because some of your instincts correspond with some of mine Get back to your hut Bajujh's too drank to coht, and I'll see that he's occupied toht it will be Conan's bed you'll warm, not Bajujh's”
”Hoill it be accoled emotions
”Are these all your warriors?”
”They're enough,” he granted ”Bamulas, every one of them, and suckled at the teats of war I came here at Bajujh's request He wants ht we feasted Toh with hi council in hell”
”You will break the truce?”
”Truces in this land are rimly ”He would break his truce with Jihiji And after we'd looted the town together, he'd wipe uard What would be blackest treachery in another land, is wisdoht my way alone to the position of war chief of the Ba all the lessons the black country teaches Now go back to your hut and sleep, knowing that it is not for Bajujh but for Conan that you preserve your beauty!”
Chapter Two
Through the crack in the ba All day, since their late waking, bleary and sodden froht before, the people had prepared the feast for the coht All day Conan the Cimmerian had sat in the hut of Bajujh, and what had passed between theht to hide her excitement froirl who brought her food and drink But that ribald wench had been too groggy froe in her captive's dehted the village, and once 's hut and squatted down in the open space between the huts to feast and hold a final, cere Livia noticed the Ba toward the circle where sat the chiefopposite hi with the giant Aja, Bajujh's war chief
The Cireat beef bone, and as she watched, she saw hinal for which they had been waiting, the Baaze toward their chief Conan rose, still s pot; then quick as a cat he struck Aja a terrible bloith the heavy bone The Bakalah war chief sluhtful yell rent the skies as the Ba pots overturned, scalding the squatting wo bodies, screaht, and over all rose the exultant ”Yee! yee! yee!” of the maddened Balow
Bakalah was a madhouse that reddened into a shambles The action of the invaders paralyzed the luckless villagers by its unexpected suddenness
No thought of attack by their guests had ever entered their heads Most of the spears were stacked in the huts, many of the warriors already half drunk The fall of Aja was a signal that plunged the glea bodies; after that it was massacre
At her peephole, Livia stood frozen, white as a statue, her golden locks drawn back and grasped in a knotted cluster with both hands at her teid The yells of pain and fury s, slashi+ng for distinctness She saw spears sink into writhing black bodies, spilling red She saw clubs swing and descend with brutal force on heads Brands were kicked out of the fires, scattering sparks; hut thatches suish cut through the cries, as living victi structures The scent of scorched flesh began to sicken the air, already rank with reeking sweat and fresh blood
Livia's overwrought nerves gave way She cried out again, shrill screahter She beat her te her cries to ht to keep before her the fact that it was her ene thus horribly-that this was as she had hastly sacrifice was a just repays done her and hers Frantic terror held her in its unreasoning grasp
She are of no pity for the victi spears Her only e fear She saw Conan, his white for with the blacks She saw his sword flash, andknot swept around a fire, and she gli in its h and was hidden froures Fro rose unbearably The press split for an instant, and she had one awful gli blood Then the strong crowded in again, and steel flashed in the h the dusk