Part 6 (2/2)

(FRAGMENT)

1

The battlefield stretched silent, cri to reflect the lurid red-strearass; birds of prey dropped down on ers of Fate a wavering line of herons flapped sloay toward the reed-grown banks of the river No rumble of chariot wheel or peal of tru stillness The silence of death followed the thundering of battle

Yet one figure ainst the vast dully criiant with a black h-strapped sandals were splashed with blood The great sword he trailed in his right hand was stained to the cross-piece There was a ghastly wound in his thigh, which caused him to li the dead, li wrathfully as he did so Others had been before hier, or silver breastplate rewarded his search He was a ho had lingered too long at the blood-letting while jackals stripped the prey

Glaring out across the littered plains, he saw no body un-stripped orThe knives of theup frolanced uncertainly afar off across the deepening plain, to where the towers of the city gleamed faintly in the sunset

Then he turned quickly as a low tortured cry reached his ears That , therefore presu to the edge of the plain, parted the first straggling reeds and glared down at the figure which writhed feebly at his feet

It was a girl that lay there She was naked, her white li dark hair There was unseeing agony in her dark eyes and shedown at her, and his eyes were momentarily clouded by ould have been an expression of pity in another irl out of her ain like a child in pain The great sword halted in midair, and the Cimmerian stood for an instant like a bronze statue Then sheathing the blade with sudden decision, he bent and lifted the girl in hisher carefully, he limped toward the reed-masked river-bank soht came on, the people barred s and bolted doors, and sat behind their barriers shuddering, with candles burning before their household Gods until dawn etched the minarets No watchmen walked the streets, no painted wenches beckoned fro alleys Rogues, like honest people, shunned the shadoays, gathering in foul-shted taverns From dusk to dawn Yaralet was a city of silence, her streets empty and desolate

Exactly what they feared, the people did not know But they had ample evidence that it was no eainst Men whispered of slinking shadows, gli shapes alien to hu in the night, and the cries and shrieks of hunificant silence; and they told of the rising sun etching broken doors that swung in empty houses, whose occupants were seen no er, they told of the swift ru the empty streets in the darkness before dahen those who heard dared not look forth One child looked forth, once, but he was instantly strickenwhat he sahen he peered froht, then, while the people of Yaralet shi+vered in their bolted houses, a strange conclave was taking place in the shted chamber of Atalis, whoue Atalis was a slender ht, with a splendid head and the features of a shrewd merchant He was clad in a plain robe of rich fabric, and his head was shaven to denote devotion to study and the arts As he talked he unconsciously gestured with his left hand His right arle From time to time a spasht foot, hidden under the long robe, would twist back excruciatingly upon his ankle

He was talking to one whom the city of Yaralet knew, and praised, as Prince Than The prince was a tall litheand undeniably handsome The firrey eyes belied the slightly effeestion of his curled black locks, and feathered velvet cap

THE FROST-GIANT'S DAUGHTER

The clangor of the swords had died away, the shouting of the slaughter was hushed; silence lay on the red-stained snow The bleak pale sun that glittered so blindingly from the ice-fields and the snow-covered plains struck sheens of silver from rent corselet and broken blade, where the dead lay as they had fallen The nerveless hand yet gripped the broken hilt; helmeted heads, back-drawn in trie death throes, tilted red beards and golden beards griiant, God of a warrior-race

Across the red drifts and lared at each other In that utter desolation only they moved The frosty sky was over them, the white illimitable plain around theh the corpses they cah the sha silence they stood face to face

Both were tall one, their corselets battered and dented Blood dried on their mail; their swords were stained red Their horned helmets showed the marks of fierce strokes One was beardless and black-maned The locks and beard of the other were red as the blood on the sunlit snow

'Man,' said he, 'tell me your name, so that my brothers in Vanaheim may knoas the last of Wulfhere's band to fall before the sword of Heirowled the black-haired warrior, 'but in Valhalla will you tell your brothers that you met Conan of Cimmeria'

Heimdul roared and leaped, and his sword flashed in a deathly arc Conan staggered and his vision was filled with red sparks as the singing blade crashed on his hel into bits of blue fire But as he reeled he thrust with all the power of his broad shoulders behind the huh brass scales and bones and heart, and the red-haired warrior died at Conan's feet

The Ci his sword, a sudden sick weariness assailing hilare of the sun on the snow cut his eyes like a knife and the sky seeely apart He turned away from the trampled expanses where yellow-bearded warriors lay locked with red-haired slayers in the elare of the snow-fields was suddenly diulfed hi hi to shake the blindness out of his eyes as a lion h his dizziness, and his sight cleared slowly He looked up; there was a strangeness about all the landscape that he could not place or define - an unfa of this Before hi in the wind, stood a woman Her body was like ivory to his dazed eyes, and save for a light veil of gossamer, she was naked as the day Her slender bare feet hiter than the snow they spurned She laughed down at the bewildered warrior Her laughter eeter than the rippling of silvery fountains, and poisonous with cruel mockery

'Who are you?' asked the Cimmerian 'Whence come you?'

'What ed harp, but it was edged with cruelty

'Call up your th fail me, they shall not take me alive I see that you are of the Vanir'

'Have I said so?'

His gaze went again to her unruly locks, which at first glance he had thought to be red Now he saw that they were neither red nor yellow, but a glorious coazed spell-bound Her hair was like elfin-gold; the sun struck it so dazzingly that he could scarcely bear to look upon it Her eyes were likewise neither wholly blue nor wholly grey, but of shi+fting colors and dancing lights and clouds of colors he could not define Her full red lips s crown of her billowy hair, her ivory body was as perfect as the dream of a God Conan's pulse hammered in his temples

'I cannot tell,' said he, 'whether you are of Vanaheiard and my friend Far have I wandered, but a woman like you I have never seen Your locks blind htness Never have I seen such hair, not even ahters of the JEsir By Ymir-'

'Who are you to swear by Ymir?' she mocked 'What know you of the Gods of ice and snow, you who have co an alien people?'

'By the dark Gods of olden-haired ysir, none has been more forward in sword-play! This day I have seen four score men fall, and I alone have survived the field where Wulfhere's reavers i Tell me, woman, have you seen the flash ofupon the ice?'

'I have seen the hoar-frost glittering in the sun,' she answered 'I have heard the hispering across the everlasting snows'

He shook his head with a sigh

'Niord should have come up with us before the battle was joined I fear he and his fighting-men have been ambushed Wulfhere and his warriors lie dead

'I had thought there was no village within ues of this spot, for the war carried us far, but you cannot have coreat distance over these snows, naked as you are Lead ard, for I am faint with blows and the weariness of strife'

'My village is further than you can walk, Conan of Ci her ar sensuously, her scintillant eyes half shadowed beneath their long silken lashes 'A naked on the snows,' helike those of a wolf

'Then why do you not rise and followwarrior who falls down beforemockery 'Lie down and die in the snoith the other fools, Conan of the black hair You cannot follohere I would lead'

With an oath the Ci, his dark scarred face contorted Rage shook his soul, but desire for the taunting figure before him hah his veins Passion fierce as physical agony flooded his whole being, so that earth and sky swaaze In the madness that swept upon him, weariness and faintness were swept away

He spoke no word as he drove at her, fingers spread to grip her soft flesh With a shriek of laughter she leaped back and ran, laughing at hirowl Conan followed He had forgotten the fight, forgotten the otten Niord and the reavers who had failed to reach the fight He had thought only for the slender white shape which seemed to float rather than run before hi plain the chase led The traht behind him, but still Conan kept on with the silent tenacity of his race His h the frozen crust; he sank deep in the drifts and forged through theht as a feather floating across a pool; her naked feet barely left their imprint on the hoar-frost that overlaid the crust In spite of the fire in his veins, the cold bit through the warrior's ossah the palardens of Poitain

On and on she led, and Conan followed Black curses drooled through the Cireat veins in his tenashed

'You cannot escape me!' he roared 'Lead me into a trap and I'll pile the heads of your kinsmen at your feet! Hide from me and I'll tear apart the mountains to find you! I'll follow you to hell!'

Her hter floated back to him, and foam flew from the barbarian's lips Further and further into the wastes she led hiave way to low hills, ht a gli mountains, blue with the distance, or white with the eternal snows Above theserays of the borealis They spread fan-wise into the sky, frosty blades of cold fla

Above hileams The snow shone weirdly, now frosty blue, now icy cri icy realedly onward, in a crystallineacross the glittering snow beyond his reach - ever beyond his reach

He did not wonder at the strangeness of it all, not even when two gigantic figures rose up to bar his way The scales of their mail hite with hoar-frost; their helmets and their axes were covered with ice Snow sprinkled their locks; in their beards were spikes of icicles; their eyes were cold as the lights that strea between theht you aon our father's board!'

The giants answered with roars like the grinding of icebergs on a frozen shore and heaved up their shi+ning axes as the maddened Cimmerian hurled himself upon the hiave back a terrible stroke that sheared through his foe's thigh With a groan the victim fell, and at the instant Conan was dashed into the snow, his left shoulder numb from the blow of the survivor, from which the Cimmerian's iant looainst the cold glowing sky The axe fell, to sink through the snow and deep into the frozen earth as Conan hurled hiiant roared and wrenched his axe free, but even as he did, Conan's sword sang down The giant's knees bent and he sank slowly into the snohich turned criushed from his half-severed neck