Part 19 (1/2)
A giant grasped her thigh and plucked her froerly awaited her Her skirt was ripped from her body and waved in the air above her, while a bellow of pri mob A wo her breasts with blackened fingernails A hurtling stone grazed her head
Tananda saw a stone clutched in a hand, whose owner sought to reach her in the press to brain her Daggers glinted Only the hindering nu her to death A roar went up: ”To the temple of Jullah!”
An instant claed along by the surging s Blows aimed at her in the crush were blocked or diverted by thestaggered, as a horseman on a powerful steed crashed full into the press Men, screa hoofs Tananda caught a gli, of a dark, scarred face under a steel hel crimson splashes But, fro the steed It screaed, and went down
The rider, however, landed on his feet, slanced from his helmet or from the shi+eld on his left arm, while his broadsword cleft flesh and bone, split skulls, and spilled entrails into the bloody dust
Flesh and blood could not stand it Clearing a space, the stranger stooped and caught up the terrified girl Covering her with his shi+eld, he fell back, cutting a ruthless path until he had backed into the angle of a wall Pushi+ng her behind hi onslaught
Then there was a clatter of hoofs A co the rioters before the in sudden panic, fled into the side streets, leaving a score of bodies littering the square The captain of the guard-a giant Negro, resplendent in criold-worked harness-approached and dis,” said Tananda, who had risen and regained her poise
The captain turned ashy Before he couldboth hands, one of them drove his spear between his captain's shoulders with such force that the point started out from his breast The officer sank to his knees, and thrusts from a half-dozen , black, disheveled hair and faced her rescuer
She was bleeding from a score of scratches and as naked as a newborn babe, but she stared at the ave back her stare, his expression betraying a frank ad and the ripeness of her brown limbs and voluptuously molded torso
”Who are you?” she derunted
”Cimmerian?” She had never heard of his far country, which lay hundreds of leagues to the north She frowned ”You wear Stygian ian of sorin ”I got the arian, but I had to kill the fool first”
”What do you, then, in Meroe?”
”I am a wanderer,” he said simply, ”with a sword for hire I came here to seek my fortune” He did not think it wise to tell her of his previous career as a corsair on the Black Coast, or of his chieftainshi+p of one of the jungle tribes to the south
The queen's eyes ran appraisingly over Conan's giant for the breadth of his shoulders and the depth of his chest ”I will hire your sword,” she said at last ”What is your price?”
”What price do you offer?” he countered, with a rueful glance at the carcass of his horse ”I am a penniless wanderer and now, alas, afoot”
She shook her head ”No, by Set! You are penniless no longer, but captain of the royal guard Will a hundred pieces of gold a lanced casually at the sprawling figure of the forht did not dirin
”I think so,” said Conan
4 The Golden Slave
The days passed, and theby the lower castes was put down by Conan with an iron hand
Shubba, Tuth to Tuthmes in his chamber, where lion skins carpeted the marble floor, he said, ”I have found the woirl, captured froos I paid the Sheold for her”
”Let me see her,” commanded Tuthmes
Shubba left the rooirl by the wrist She was supple, and her white body for contrast to the brown and black bodies to which Tutholden stream over her white shoulders She was clad only in a tattered shi+ft This Shubba re in complete nudity
Impersonally, Tuthaht be teht her Kushi+te, as I coians and later, daily, on the caravan trail, I taught her After the She with a slipper Her name is Diana”
Tuthirl should sit cross-legged on the floor at his feet This she did