Part 7 (1/2)

Conan wheeled, to see the girl standing a short distance away, staring at hione from her face He cried out fiercely and the blood-drops flew from his sword as his hand shook in the intensity of his passion

'Call the rest of your brothers!' he cried 'I'll give their hearts to the wolves! You cannot escape ht she turned and ran fleetly She did not laugh now, nor mock hih he strained every nerve and thew until his teaze, she dreay fro in the witch-fire of the skies, until she was a figure no bigger than a child, then a dancing white fla his teeth until the blood started frorow to a dancing white fla as a child; and then she was running less than a hundred paces ahead of him, and slowly the space narrowed, foot by foot

She was running with effort now, her golden locks blowing free; he heard the quick panting of her breath, and saw a flash of fear in the look she cast over her white shoulder The grim endurance of the barbarian had served his; she reeled in her gait In his untamed soul leaped up the fires of hell she had fanned so well With an inhuman roar he closed in on her, just as she wheeled with a haunting cry and flung out her arms to fend him off

His sword fell into the snow as he crushed her to hiht with desperate frenzy in his iron ar hi in his ers sank deep into her smooth flesh; and that flesh was cold as ice It was as if he embraced not a wo ice She writhed her golden head aside, striving to avoid the fierce kisses that bruised her red lips

'You are cold as the snows,' he mumbled dazedly 'I arm you with the fire in my own blood-'

With a screa her single gossaolden locks in wild disarray, her white boso with terror For an instant he stood frozen, awed by her terrible beauty as she posed naked against the snows

And in that instant she flung her arlowed in the skies above her and cried out in a voice that rang in Conan's ears forever after: 'Y forward, ar of an ice irl's ivory body was suddenly enveloped in a cold blue fla that the Cimmerian threw up his hands to shi+eld his eyes fro instant, sky and snowy hills were bathed in crackling white flaht, and frozen crione The glowing snow lay ehts flashed and played in a frosty sky gonethe distant blue antic war-chariot rushi+ng behind steeds whose frantic hoofs struck lightning from the snows and echoes from the skies

Then suddenly the borealis, the snow-clad hills and the blazing heavens reeled drunkenly to Conan's sight; thousands of fire-balls burst with showers of sparks, and the sky itself became a titanic wheel which rained stars as it spun Under his feet the snowy hills heaved up like a wave, and the Cimmerian crumpled into the snows to lie motionless

In a cold dark universe, whose sun was extinguished eons ago, Conan felt the uessed An earthquake had hi hi his hands and feet until he yelled in pain and fury and groped for his sword

'He's co to, Horsa,' said a voice 'Haste - we must rub the frost out of his liain'

'He won't open his left hand,' growled another 'He's clutching so-'

Conan opened his eyes and stared into the bearded faces that bent over hiolden-haired warriors in mail and furs

'Conan! You live!'

'By Croasped the Cimmerian 'Am I alive, or are we all dead and in Valhalla?'

'We live,' grunted the Msir, busy over Conan's half-frozen feet 'We had to fight our way through an ambush, or we had come up with you before the battle was joined The corpses were scarce cold e ca the dead, so we followed your spoor In Ymir's name, Conan, why did you wander off into the wastes of the north? We have followed your tracks in the snow for hours Had a blizzard come up and hidden them, we had never found you, by Ymir!'

'Swear not so often by Y at the distantyonder ends say'

'I saoi's ht I alone lived I was dizzy and faint The land lay like a dreas seem natural and familiar The woman came and taunted e ot all else in the world I followed her Did you not find her tracks? Or the giants in icy mail I slew?'

Niord shook his head

'We found only your tracks in the snow, Conan'

'Then it may be I am mad,' said Conan dazedly 'Yet you yourself are no olden-locked witch who fled naked across the snows before me Yet from under my very hands she vanished in icy flame'

'He is delirious,' whispered a warrior

'Not so!' cried the older hter of Yiant! To fields of the dead she co! Myself when a boy I saw her, when I lay half-slain on the bloody field of Wolraven I saw her walk a like ivory and her golden hair unbearably bright in thebecause I could not crawl after her She lures men from stricken fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers the ice-giants, who layon Yiant's daughter'

'Bah!' grunted Horsa 'Old Gorm's mind was touched in his youth by a sword cut on the head Conan was delirious from the fury of battle - look how his helht have addled his brain It was an hallucination he followed into the wastes He is from the south; what does he know of Atali?'

'You speak truth, perhaps,' e and weird - by Croled froaped silently at the veil he held up - a wisp of gossamer that was never spun by human distaff

QUEEN OF THE BLACK COAST

1 CONAN JOINS THE PIRATES

Believe green buds awaken in the spring, That autumn paints the leaves with somber fire; Believe I held my heart inviolate To lavish on oneof Belit Hoofs drummed down the street that sloped to the wharfs The folk that yelled and scattered had only a fleeting gliure on a black stallion, a wide scarlet cloak flowing out on the wind Far up the street came the shout and clatter of pursuit, but the horseman did not look back He swept out onto the wharfs and jerked the plunging stallion back on its haunches at the very lip of the pier Seaaped up at hih-prowed, broad-waisted galley Theher away frorily as the horse leap landed squarely on the mid-deck

'Who invited you aboard?'

'Get under way!' roared the intruder with a fierce gesture that spattered red drops from his broadsword

'But we're bound for the coasts of Kush!+' expostulated the master

'Then I'm for Kush!+ Push off, I tell you!' The other cast a quick glance up the street, along which a squad of horseroup of archers, crossbows on their shoulders

'Can you pay for your passage?' demanded the master

'I paythe great sword that glittered bluely in the sun 'By Croalley in the blood of its crew!'

The shi+plance at the dark scarred face of the swordsman, hardened with passion, and he shouted a quick order, thrusting strongly against the piles The galley ed out into clear water, the oars began to clack rhyth sail, the light shi+p heeled to the gust, then took her course like a swan, gathering headway as she ski their swords and shouting threats and co for the bowe

'Let therinned the swordsman hardily 'Do you keep her on her course, master steersman'

The master descended from the small deck between the bows, made his way between the rows of oarser stood there with his back to the mast, eyes narrowed alertly, sword ready The shi+pman eyed hi knife in his belt He saw a tall powerfully built figure in a black scale-reaves and a blue-steel helhly polished Fro in the sea-wind A broad shagreen belt with a golden buckle held the scabbard of the broadsword he bore Under the horned hel blue eyes

'If we ether,' said the master, 'we may as well be at peace with each other My naos I aar and brass-hiked swords to the black kings for ivory, copra, copper ore, slaves and pearls'

The swordsures still gesticulated helplessly, evidently having trouble in finding a boat swift enough to overhaul the fast-sailing galley