Part 13 (1/2)

He was not too soon On either ridge Shupras's hillmen, mad with anticipation of defeat, rained down their shafts desperately Men died like flies in the valley and along the slopes - and with a roar and an irresistible upward surge the Stygians crashed against thesteel, the lines twisted and swayed It ar-bred noble against professional soldier

shi+elds crashed against shi+elds, and between thehty form of prince Kutamun across the sea of swords, but the press held hiasped and slashed Behind the Stygians the assburi were surging and yelling

On either hand the norips with their es the co ferocity Tooth and nail, frothing mad with fanaticism and ancient feuds, the tribes, the naked Kushi+tes ran howling into the fray

It seemed to Conan that his sweat-blinded eyes looked down into a rising ocean of steel that seethed and eddied, filling the valley froht was at a bloody deadlock The hill their dipping pikes, bracing their feet in the bloody earth, held the Pass Superior position and ar nu faces and flashi+ng spears surged up the slope, the assburi filling the gaps in the Stygian ranks

Conan looked to see Ae, but they did not coan to reel back under the shocks And Conan abandoned all hope of victory and of life Yelling a co captains, he broke away and raced across the plateau to the Khoraja reserves who stood trelance toward Yasht was the wild beast instinct to slay before he died

'This day you beco sword toward the hillmen's horses, herded nearby 'Mount and follow me to hell!'

The hill steed reared wildly under the unfah rose above the din as he led thee branched away froer sons, black sheep - on half-wild She an are before!

Past the battle-choked mouth of the Pass they thundered, out onto the corpse-littered ridge Down the steep slope they rushed, and a score lost their footing and rolled under the hoofs of their comrades Below the charge ripped through theh the close-packed throngs the Khorajis hurtled, leaving a crushed-down carpet of dead

And then, as the horde writhed and coiled upon itself, Ah a cordon of horsemen encountered in the outer valley, swept around the extree and s it asunder His attack carried all the dazing de themselves flanked by a superior force and frenzied at the fear of being cut off fro havoc in the ranks of their ered and the horsehters wavered, and the hill them down the slopes

Stunned by surprize, the horde broke before they had time to see it was but a handful which assailed theician could weld such a horde again Across the sea of heads and spears Conan's h the rout, to the rise and fall of axes and maces, and a mad joy of victory exalted eachtheir feet in the ing sea of blood whose crimson waves lapped about their ankles, the pikely against the ians held, but behind them the press of the assburi melted; and over the bodies of the nobles of the South who died in their tracks to amass behind

Up on the cliffs old Shupras lay with an arrow through his heart; Ah his h Of Conan's mounted infantry, scarce a hundred and fifty remained in the saddle But the horde was shattered No to their camp where their horses were, and the hillitives in the back, cutting the throats of the wounded

In the swirling red chaos a terrible apparition suddenly appeared before Conan's rearing steed It was prince Kutamun, naked but for a loin-cloth, his harness hacked away, his crested helmet dented, his limbs splashed with blood With a terrible shout he hurled his broken hilt full into Conan's face, and leaping, seized the stallion's bridle The Cimmerian reeled in his saddle, half stunned, and with awful strengdi the dark-skinned giant forced the screa and crashed into thebodies

Conan sprang clear as the horse fell, and with a roar Kutahtmare of battle, the barbarian never exactly kne he killed his ian's hand crashed again and again on his basinet, filling his sight with flashi+ng sparks, as Conan drove his dagger again and again into his foe's body, without apparent effect on the prince's terrible vitality The world iht, ith a convulsive shudder the fraainst his stiffened and then went li down his face frolared dizzily at the profusion of destruction which spread before him From crest to crest the dead lay strewn, a red carpet that choked the valley It was like a red sea, with each wave a straggling line of corpses They choked the neck of the Pass, they littered the slopes And down in the desert the slaughter continued, where the survivors of the horde had reached their horses and streamed out across the waste, pursued by the weary victors - and Conan stood appalled as he noted ho of diese were left to pursue

Then an awful screa nodiing of the heaped corpses No horses drew it, but a great black creature dial was like a caripping the reins and lashi+ng like ht have been awind the chariot swept up the corpse-littered slope, straight toward the pavilion where Yasuards in the frenzy of pursuit Conan, standing frozen, heard her frenzied screa arrisly steed wheeled and ca back down the valley, and no man dared speed arrow or spear lest he strike Yasmela, ridied in Natohk s arht up his fallen sword and leaped into the path of the hurtling horror But even as his sent up, the forefeet of the black beast s a score feet away, dazed and bruised Yasly to his stunned ears as the chariot roared by

A yell that had nodiing of the hu from his lips as Conan rebounded from the bloody earth and seized the rein of a riderless horse that raced past hier to a halt Withchariot He struck the levels flying, and passed like a ind through the She clu desert horseh his horse began to reel beneadi him Now the open desert lay all about them, badied in the lurid desolate splendor of sunset Before him rose up the ancient ruins, and with a shriek that froze the blood in Conan's veins, the unhuirl froaze, the chariot and its steed altered awfully Great wings spread from a black horror that in no way rese in its wake a shape of blinding flahasdy triumph So quickly it passed, that it was like the rush of a night up, cast a swift look at his gri hard, with sword swinging low and spattering red drops; and the sorcerer caught up the fainting girl and ran with her into the ruins

Conan leaped froloith unholy radiance, though outside the dusk was falling swiftly On a black jade altar lay Yasht Her garments lay strewn on the floor, as if ripped from her in brutal haste Natohk faced the Cireen silk He tossed back his veil, and Conan looked into the features he had seen depicted on the Zugite coin

'Aye, blench, dog!' The voice was like the hiss of a giant serpent 'I a the day of awakening and release The arts which saved o likewise imprisoned me, but I knew one would come in time - and he came, to fulfill his destiny, and to die as no man has died in three thousand years!

'Fool, do you think you have conquered because my people are scattered? Because I have been betrayed and deserted by the dera Khotan, who shall rule the world despite your paltry Gods! The desert is filled with , as the reptiles of the earth obey me lust for a wo on her soul, I shall be unconquerable! Back, fool! You have not conquered Thugra Khotan!'

He cast his staff and it fell at the feet of Conan, who recoiled with an involuntary cry For as it fell it altered horribly; its outlinebefore the horrified Cimmerian With a furious oath Conan struck, and his sword sheared the horrid shape in half And there at his feet lay only the two pieces of a severed ebon staff Thugra Khotan laughed awfully, and wheeling, caught up so that crawled loathsomely in the dust of the floor

In his extended hand so alive writhed and slavered No tricks of shadows this tiripped a black scorpion, th, the deadliest creature of the desert, the stroke of whose spiked tail was instant death Thugra Khotan's skull-like countenance split in ahe threw his sword

Caught off guard, Thugra Khotan had no time to avoid the cast The point struck beneath his heart and stood out a foot behind his shoulders He went down, crushi+ng the poisonous rasp as he fell

Conan strode to the altar, lifting Yasmela in his blood-stained arms She threw her white ar hysterically, and would not let hirunted 'Loose me! Fifty thousand men have perished today, and there is work forwith convulsive strength, as barbaric for the instant as he in her fear and passion 'I will not let you go! I am yours, by fire and steel and blood! You areto others - here I ao!'

He hesitated, his own brain reeling with the fierce upsurging of his violent passions The lurid unearthly glow still hovered in the shadowy chara Khotan, which seerin mirthlessly and cavernously at the the oceans of dead,ounds and thirst andThen all ept away by the crimson tide that rode madly in Conan's soul, as he crushed fiercely in his iron arms the slim white body that shi+mmered like a witch-fire of madness before hi of horses through the tall reeds; a heavy fall, a despairing cry Froirl in sandals and girdled tunic Her dark hair fell over her white shoulders, her eyes were those of a trapped anile of reeds that he, nor at the blue waters that lapped the low shore behind her Her wide-eyed gaze was fixed in agonized intensity on the horseh the reedy screen and dismounted before her

He was a tall man, slender, but hard as steel Froht silvered love Froarded her ly

'Stand back!' her voice shrilled with terror 'Touch me not, Shah Amurath, or I will throw hed, and his laughter was like the purr of a sword sliding frohter of confusion, for the e is too shallow, and I can catch you before you can reach the deeps You gave me a merry chase, by the Gods, and all my men are far behind us But there is no horse west of Vilayet that can distance Ireed desert stallion behind hiirl, tears of despair staining her face 'Have I not suffered enough? Is there any huradation you have not heaped onas I find pleasure in your whis,' he answered with a ser 'You are strangely virile, Olivia I wonder if I shall ever weary of you, as I have alearied of women before You are ever fresh and unsullied, in spite of ht

'But co the conqueror of the ed in recapturing a wretched fugitive, a foolish, lovely, idiotic runaway!'

'No!' She recoiled, turning toward the waters lapping bluely aer was like a spark struck from flint With a quickness her tender li it in pure wanton cruelty until she screa you back to Akif at my horse's tail, but I will be merciful and carry you on my saddle-bow, for which favor you shall humbly thank me, while-'

He released her with a startled oath and sprang back, his saber flashi+ng out, as a terrible apparition burst fro an inarticulate cry of hate

Olivia, staring up froe or aon Shah Amurath in an attitude of deadly irdled loin-cloth, which was stained with blood and crusted with dried mire His black mane was matted with mud and clotted blood; there were streaks of dried blood on his chest and liripped in his right hand Frolared like coals of blue fire

'You Hyrkanian dog!' mouthed this apparition in a barbarous accent 'The devils of vengeance have brought you here!'

'Kozakr ejaculated Shah A of you escaped! I thought you all lay stiff on the steppe, by Ilbars River'

'All but me, da as this, while I crawled on h the branawed my flesh, or crouched in the mire up to my mouth - I dreamed, but never hoped it would come to pass Oh, Gods of hell, how I have yearned for this!'

The stranger's bloodthirsty joy was terrible to behold His jaws champed spasmodically, froth appeared on his blackened lips

'Keep back!' ordered Shah A him narrowly

'Ha!' It was like the bark of a tireat Lord of Akif! Oh, daht of you -you, who fed my comrades to the vultures, who tore them betild horses, blinded and !' His voice rose to a ed

In spite of the terror of his wild appearance, Olivia looked to see hie, what could he do, naked, against the mailed chief of Akif?'

There was an instant when the blades fla barely to touch each other and leap apart; then the broadsword flashed past the saber and descended terrifically on Shah Amurath's shoulder Olivia cried out at the fury of that stroke Above the crunch of the rending mail, she distinctly heard the snap of the shoulder-bone The Hyrkanian reeled back, suddenly ashen, blood spurting over the links of his hauberk; his saber slipped froasped