Part 16 (2/2)

So Conan knew this While his body slept on, his ka observed movements on the astral plane and watched the vas about his sleeping head and slashed with i throat But for all their voiceless frenzy, they could harm him not Bound by the spell, he slept on

After an indefinite tie took place in the ruddy lu together into a shapeless h they were, hunger drove thehost possessed a sy that went toward bodily led its sliy with that of its shadowy brethren

Gradually, a terrible shape, fed by the life force of ten thousand ghosts, began to loom of the blackcloud of shadowy particles

And Conan slept on

6 The Hundred Heads

Thunder crashed deafeningly; lightning blazed with sulfurous fires above the darkened plain, whence the ain The thick-piled storrassy swales with a torrential downpour

The Stygian slave raiders had ridden all night, pressing southward toward the forests beyond Kush Their expedition had thus far been fruitless; not one black of the no tribes of the savanna had fallen into their hands Whether war or pestilence had swept the land bare of hu of the slavers, had fled beyond reach, they did not know

In any case, it seeles of the South The forest Negroes dwelt in peres, which the slavers could surround and take by surprise with a quick dawn rush, catching the inhabitants like fish in a net Villagers too old, too young, or too sickly to endure the trek back to Stygia they would slay out of hand Then they would drive the reether to forians, well-mounted warriors in helms and chain-mail hauberks They were tall, swarthy, hawk-faced h, shrewd, fearless, and ian than nat

Now the first downpour of the storm swept their column Winds whipped their woolen cloaks and linen robes and blew their horses' htning dazzled the above the grasslands, for the blazing lightning uttural co blackbastions with a clatter of hoofs, a creaking of leather, and a jingle of ht, the abnorians were eager to get under shelter before they were soaked

They ca the water froloomy silence of the ruin was broken with a claathered; flint and steel were struck Soon a s fire leaped up in the midst of the cracked e

The s, stripped off wet burnooses, and spread theled out of their coats of s They opened their saddlebags and sank strong white teeth into round loaves of hard, stale bread

Outside, the storm bellowed and flashed Streaaps in the ians heeded them not

On the balcony above, Conan stood silently, awake but tre with shudders that wracked his powerful body With the cloudburst, the spell that held hilared about for the shadowy conclave of ghosts that he had seen forlimpsed a dark, amorphous foro closer to investigate

While he pondered the proble in reach of the Thing, the Stygians ca in They were hardly an ihosts Given half a chance, they would be delighted to capture hith and skill at arht forty well-armed foes at once Unless he instantly cut his way out and escaped, they would bring hiroaning drudgery in a Stygian slave pen He was not sure which he preferred

If the Stygians distracted Conan's attention from the phantoms, they likewise distracted the attention of the phantonored the Ciians encalut their phantasmal lusts thrice over Like autumn leaves, they drifted over the balustrade and down froians sprawled around their fire, passing a bottle of wine froh Conan knew only a feords of Stygian, froestures he could follow the course of the arguiant, as tall as the Cimmerian-swore that he would not venture into the downpour on such a night They would await the dawn in this cru rain At least, the roof seemed to be still sound in places, and a man could lie here out of the drip

When several ians, noarm and dry, composed themselves for sleep The fire burned low, for the brushhich they fed it could not long sustain a strong blaze

The leader pointed to one of his men and spoke a harsh sentence The uroan and pulled on his coat of mail He, Conan realized, had been chosen to stand the first watch

Presently, with sword in hand and shi+eld on arin of the light of the dying fire

Froth of the hall, pausing to peer into the winding corridors or out through the front doors, where the storm was in retreat

While the sentry stood in the rirely out of wavering clouds of insubstantial shadows The coradually took shape was s It becae bulk that sprouted countless s supported its risly fruit, sprouted scores of heads: soy hair and brows; others mere lued at randoht of the hundred-headed h to freeze the blood of the stoutest with terror Conan felt his nape hairs rise and his skin craith revulsion as he stared down upon the scene

The thing lurched across the floor Leaning unsteadily down, it clutched one of the Stygians with half a dozen grasping claws As thetore its victi fragments of the man