Part 14 (2/2)

'They will anchor here - search the island for us!' she cried in quick panic

'I doubt it They co for us They may stop for some other reason, in which case we'll have to hide as best we can But I believe it's either pirate, or an Hyrkanian galley returning from some northern raid In the latter case they are not likely to anchor here But we can't put to sea until they've gone out of sight, for they're coo Doubtless they'll pass the island tonight, and at dae can go on our way'

'Then we ht here?' she shi+vered

'It's safest'

'Then let us sleep here, on the crags,' she urged

He shook his head, glancing at the stunted trees, at the reenup the sides of the cliffs

'Here are too many trees We'll sleep in the ruins'

She cried out in protest

'Nothing will harm you there,' he soothed 'Whatever threw the stone at us did not follow us out of the woods There was nothing to show that any wild thing lairs in the ruins Besides, you are soft-skinned, and used to shelter and dainties I could sleep naked in the snow and feel no discoive you cramps, e to sleep in the open'

Olivia helplessly acquiesced, and they descended the cliffs, crossed the plateau and once e-haunted ruins By this ti below the plateau rim They had found fruit in the trees near the cliffs, and these forht swept down quickly, littering the dark blue sky with great white stars, and Conan entered the shadowy ruins, drawing the reluctant Olivia after hiht of those tense black shadows in their niches along the walls In the darkness that the starlight only faintly touched, she could not make out their outlines; she could only sense their attitude of waiting - waiting as they had waited for untold centuries

Conan had brought a great armful of tender branches, well leafed These he heaped to make a couch for her, and she lay upon it, with a curious sensation as of one lying down to sleep in a serpent's lair

Whatever her forebodings, Conan did not share theainst a pillar, his sword across his knees His eyes gleairl,' said he 'My slu can enter this hall without awaking me'

Olivia did not reply Froure, indistinct in the soft darkness How strange, to move in fellowshi+p with a barbarian, to be cared for and protected by one of a race, tales of which had frightened her as a child! He carim and ferocious His kinshi+p to the as apparent in his every action; it burned in his s eyes Yet he had not harmed her, and her worst oppressor had been a uor stole over her relaxing limbs and she sank into foaht was a drowsy recollection of the firers on her soft flesh

Olivia drea evil, like a black serpent writhing through flower gardens Her dreamentary and colorful, exotic shards of a broken, unknown pattern, until they crystalized into a scene of horror and round of cyclopean stones and pillars

She saw a great hall, whose lofty ceiling was upheld by stone colu these pillars fluttered great green and scarlet parrots, and the hall was thronged with black-skinned, hawk-faced warriors They were not negroes Neither they nor their gar of the world the drea about one bound to a pillar: a slender white-skinned youth, with a cluster of golden curls about his alabaster brow His beauty was not altogether hu hed at hiue The lithe naked form writhed beneath their cruel hands Blood trickled down the ivory thighs to spatter on the polished floor The screa his head toward the ceiling and the skies beyond, he cried out a naer in an ebon hand cut short his cry, and the golden head rolled on the ivory breast

As if in answer to that desperate cry, there was a rolling thunder as of celestial chariot-wheels, and a figure stood before the slayers, as if materialized out of empty air The form was of a man, but no mortal man ever wore such an aspect of inhuman beauty There was an unmistakable resemblance between him and the youth who dropped lifeless in his chains, but the alloy of hu in the features of the stranger, awful and immobile in their beauty

The blacks shrank back before hi a hand, he spoke, and his tones echoed through the silent halls in deep rich waves of sound Like men in a trance the black warriors fell back until they were ranged along the walls in regular lines Then fro a terrible invocation and cokoolanyok tha, xuthallaf At the blast of that awful cry, the black figures stiffened and froze Over their liidity, an unnatural petrification The stranger touched the limp body of the youth, and the chains fell away from it He lifted the corpse in his arain over the silent rows of ebony figures, and he pointed to the h the case statues that had beenup on her couch of branches, a cold sweat beading her skin Her heart pounded loud in the silence She glanced wildly about Conan slept against his pillar, his head fallen upon his massive breast The silvery radiance of the latewhite lines along the dusty floor She could see the i hysteria, she saw the htly on the pillars and the shapes between

What was that? A treht fell A paralysis of horror gripped her, for where there should have been the i, a flexing and writhing of ebon limbs - an awful scream burst from her lips as she broke the bonds that held her lea, sword lifted

'The statues! The statues! - Ohto life!

And with the cry she sprang through a crevice in the wall, burstvines, and ran, ran, ran -blind, screaht her up short and she shrieked and fought against the arht her, until a familiar voice penetrated the mists of her terror, and she saw Conan's face, a ht

'What in Croht gasp she threw her ar in panting catches

'Where are they? Did they follow us?'

'nobody followed us,' he answered

She sat up, still clinging to hiht had carried her to the southern edge of the plateau Just below them was the slope, its foot masked in the thick shadows of the woods Behind the , lifting their hands, their eyes glaring in the shadows?'

'I saw nothing,' answered the barbarian uneasily 'I sleptsince I have slu could have entered the hall without waking h of hysteria escaped her 'It was so the their bed in the sha about?' he demanded 'I woke at your cry, but before I had tih the crack in the wall I pursued you, lest you cohtmare'

'So I did!' she shi+vered 'But the reality was risly than the dream 'Listen!' And she narrated all that she had dreaht to see

Conan listened attentively The natural skepticisy contained ghouls, goblins, and necromancers After she had finished, he sat silent, absently toying with his sword

'The youth they tortured was like the tall man who came?' he asked at last

'As like as son to father,' she answered, and hesitantly: 'If theof a union of divinity with humanity, it would picture that youth The Gods of old tiends tell us'

'What Gods?' he otten ones Who knows? They have gone back into the still waters of the lakes, the quiet hearts of the hills, the gulfs beyond the stars Gods are no more stable than men'

'But if these shapes were es by some God or devil, how can they come to life?'

'There is witchcraft in the moon,' she shuddered 'He pointed at the moon; while the moon shi+nes on them, they live So I believe'

'But ere not pursued,' ht have dreamed they moved I am of ahim desperately 'Perhaps the spell upon theo back! They will rend you lio into our boat and flee this awful island! Surely the Hyrkanian shi+p has passed us now! Let us go!'

So frantic was her pleading that Conan was ies was balanced by his superstition Foes of flesh and blood he did not fear, however great the odds, but any hint of the supernatural roused all the die of the barbarian

He took the girl's hand and they went down the slope and plunged into the dense woods, where the leaves whispered, and naht-birds murmured drowsily Under the trees the shadows clustered thick, and Conan swerved to avoid the denser patches His eyes roved continuously from side to side, and often flitted into the branches above theirl's waist so strongly that she felt as if she were being carried rather than guided Neither spoke The only sound was the girl's quick nervous panting, the rustle of her sh the trees to the edge of the water, shi+ht

'We should have brought fruit for food,' muttered Conan; 'but doubtless we'll find other islands As well leave now as later; it's but a few hours till dawn-'

His voice trailed away The painter was stillroot But at the other end was only a sed in the shalloater

A stifled cry escaped Olivia Conan wheeled and faced the dense shadows, a crouching iht-birds was suddenly silent A brooding stillness reigned over the woods No breeze moved the branches, yet soreat cat Conan caught up Olivia and ran Through the shadows he raced like a phantom, while so a the leaves, that iht burst full upon their faces, and they were speeding up the slope of the plateau