Part 17 (2/2)

He was as tall as Conan, though not so heavy-liure was hard as steel and whalebone A short black beard did not altogether ray eyes cold and piercing as a sword glea his restless steed with a quick, sure hand, this man spoke: 'By Mitra, I should know this ir 'It is the Ciuard!'

'Sheoff all her old favorites,' ht it of Queen Tara, bloody war It would have given us desert folk a chance to plunder As it is we've colanced at a fine gelding led by one of the no' Conan lifted his bloody head

'If I could co out of you, you Zaporoskan thief!' he rasped through blackened lips

'Mitra, the knave knows me!' exclaimed the other 'How, knave, do you know me?'

'There's only one of your breed in these parts,' erd Vladislav, the outlaw chief'

'Aye! and once a hetuessed Would you like to live?' 'Only a fool would ask that question,' panted Conan 'I ahness is the only quality I respect in aafter all, fit only to lie here and die'

'If we cut him doe may be seen froerd shook his head

'The dusk is deep Here, take this ax, Djebal, and cut down the cross at the base'

'If it falls forward it will crush him,' objected Djebal 'I can cut it so it will fall backward, but then the shock of the fall may crack his skull and tear loose all his entrails'

'If he's worthy to ride with erd imperturbably 'If not, then he doesn't deserve to live Cut!'

The first i vibrations sent lances of agony through Conan's swollen feet and hands Again and again the blade fell, and each stroke reverberated on his bruised brain, setting his tortured nerves aquiver But he set his teeth and h, the cross reeled on its splintered base and toppled backward Conan made his whole body a solid knot of iron-hard ainst the wood and held it rigid there The beahtly The iht the rushi+ng tide of blackness, sick and dizzy, but realized that the iron muscles that sheathed his vitals had saved him froh blood oozed from his nostrils and his belly-runt of approval Djebal bent over hiripped the head of the spike hi Conan's right hand, tearing the skin to get a grip on the deeply embedded head The pincers were s and wrestling with the stubborn iron, working it back and forth - in swollen flesh as well as in wood Blood started, oozing over the Ciht have been dead, except for the spasave way, and Djebal held up the blood-stained thing with a grunt of satisfaction, then flung it away and bent over the other

The process was repeated, and then Djebal turned his attention to Conan's skewered feet But the Ci posture, wrenched the pincers fro backith a violent shove Conan's hands were swollen to alers felt like ony that brought blood strea the pincers clued to wrench out first one spike and then the other They were not driven so deeply into the wood as the others had been

He rose stiffly and stood upright on his swollen, lacerated feet, swaying drunkenly, the icy sweat dripping from his face and body Craainst the desire to retch

Olgerd, watching him impersonally, motioned him toward the stolen horse Conan stu hell that flecked his lips with bloody foa hand fell clumsily on the saddle-bow, a bloody foot so up, and he almost fainted in erd struck the horse sharply with his whip The startled beast reared, and the man in the saddle swayed and slumped like a sack of sand, almost unseated Conan had wrapped a rein about each hand, holding it in place with a clath of his knotted biceps, wrenching the horse down; it screamed, its jaw almost dislocated

One of the Sheerd shook his head

'Let hiet to camp It's only tenwithout a drink'

The group rode like swift ghosts toward the river; a them Conan swayed like a drunkenon his blackened lips

3 A LETTER TO NEMEDIA

The savant Astreas, traveling in the East in his never-tiring search for knowledge, wrote a letter to his friend and fellow-philosopher Alcemides, in his native Nee of the Western nations concerning the events of that period in the East, always a hazy, half-ion in the minds of the Western folk

Astreas wrote, in part: 'You can scarcely conceive,in this tiny kingdom since Queen Taramis admitted Constantius and his mercenaries, an event which I briefly described in my last, hurried letter Sevenwhich tih the devil himself had been loosed in this unfortunate realone quite mad; whereas formerly she was famed for her virtue, justice and tranquillity, she is now notorious for qualities precisely opposite to those just enumerated Her private life is a scandal - or perhaps ”private” is not the correct term, since the queen makes no attempt to conceal the debauchery of her court She constantly indulges in the most infamous revelries, in which the unfortunate ladies of the court are forced to join, young ins

'She herself has not bothered to marry her parans as her royal consort, and his officers follow his example, and do not hesitate to debauch any woardless of her rank or station The wretched kingdoroans under exorbitant taxation, the fars which are all that is left theatherers Nay, they are lucky if they escape with a whole skin

'I sense your incredulity, good Alceerate conditions in Khauran Such conditions would be unthinkable in any of the Western countries, admittedly But you must realize the vast difference that exists between West and East, especially this part of the East In the first place, Khauran is a kingdoreat size, one of the many principalities which at one time formed the eastern part of the eained the independence which was theirs at a still earlier age This part of the world is made up of these tiny realdoreat sultanates of the farther East, but important in their control of the caravan routes, and in the wealth concentrated in them

'Khauran is theon the very deserts of eastern Shenitude in the realrasslands frouard the fertile meadows behind it The land is so rich that it yields three and four crops a year, and the plains north and west of the city are dotted with villages To one accustoreat plantations and stock-fare to see these tiny fields and vineyards; yet wealth in grain and fruit pours froriculturists, nothing else Of a inal race, they are unwarlike, unable to protect themselves, and forbidden the possession of arms Dependent wholly upon the soldiers of the city for protection, they are helpless under the present conditions So the savage revolt of the rural sections, which would be a certainty in any Western nation, is here impossible

'They toil supinely under the iron hand of Constantius, and his black-bearded Sheh the fields, hips in their hands, like the slave-drivers of the black serfs who toil in the plantations of southern Zingara

'Nor do the people of the city fare any better Their wealth is stripped frolut the insatiable lust of Constantius and his mercenaries These men are utterly without mercy or compassion, possessed of all the characteristics our arainst the Sheos - inhuman cruelty, lust, and wild-beast ferocity The people of the city are Khauran's ruling caste, predominantly Hyborian, and valorous and war-like But the treachery of their queen delivered them into the hands of their oppressors The Shemites are the only armed force in Khauran, and the most hellish punish weapons A syste Khaurani ely pursued Many have ruthlessly been slaughtered, others sold as slaves to the Turanians Thousands have fled the kingdom and either entered the service of other rulers, or beco the borders

'At present there is some possibility of invasion from the desert, which is inhabited by tribes of Shemitish nomads The mercenaries of Constantius are men from the Shemitish cities of the west, Pelishtiirs and other wandering tribes As you know, good Alcemides, the countries of these barbarians are divided into the western meadowlands which stretch to the distant ocean, and in which rise the cities of the toellers, and the eastern deserts, where the lean nomads hold sway; there is incessant warfare between the dwellers of the cities and the dwellers of the desert

'The Zuagirs have fought with and raided Khauran for centuries, without success, but they resent its conquest by their western kin It is ru fomented by the uard, and who, so the hate of Constantius, who actually had him upon the cross, fled to the nomads He is called Conan, and is hiloomy Cimmerians whose ferocity our soldiers have more than once learned to their bitter cost It is ruerd Vladislav, the kozak adventurer andered down from the northern steppes and irs There are also rumors that this band has increased vastly in the last few erd, incited no doubt by this Ci a raid on Khauran

'It can not be anything e- a city, and it has been proven repeatedly in the past that the nomads in their loose formation, or rather lack of for for the well-disciplined, fully-armed warriors of the Shemitish cities The natives of Khauran would perhaps welcome this conquest, since the nomads could deal with them no more harshly than their present masters, and even total exter they have to endure But they are so cowed and helpless that they could give no aid to the invaders

'Their plight is most wretched Tara She has abolished the worshi+p of Ishtar, and turned the temple into a shrine of idolatry She has destroyed the ivory ie of the Goddess which these eastern Hyborians worshi+p (and which, inferior as it is to the true religion of Mitra which we Western nations recognize, is still superior to the devil-worshi+p of the Shees of every iht, portrayed in all the salacious and perverse poses and with all the revolting characteristics that a degenerate brain could conceive Many of these ies are to be identified as foul deities of the Shemites, the Turanians, the Vendhyans, and the Khitans, but others are reminiscent of a hideous and half-reotten except in the e of theuess

'She has instituted hu with Constantius, no less then five hundred men, women and children have been immolated Some of these have died on the altar she has set up in the teer, but most have met a more horrible doom

'Taramis has placed some sort of monster in a crypt in the temple What it is, and whence it came, none knows But shortly after she had crushed the desperate revolt of her soldiers against Constantius, she spent a night alone in the desecrated temple, alone except for a dozen bound captives, and the shuddering people saw thick, foul-sht the frenetic chanting of the queen, and the agonized cries of her tortured captives; and toward dawn another voicethat froze the blood of all who heard

'In the full dawn Tara with de voice heard But there is a in the te a huain All know that in that gries, which devours the shriek-ig huer think of her as ain her blood-fouled lair aers That the Gods allow her to pursue her awful course unchecked almost shakes my faith in divine justice

'When I compare her present conduct with her deporto, I am confused Mth bewilderment, and almost inclined to the belief held by lany of the people - that a de soldier, Valerius, had another belief He believed that a witch had assumed a form identical with that of Ithauran's adored ruler He believed that Taraht, and confined in so in her place was but a female sorcerer He sVore that he would find the real queen, if she still lived, but I greatly fear that he himself has fallen victim to the cruelty of Qionstantius He was iuards, escaped and re to seek safety abroad, and it was during this time tliat I encountered him and he told me his beliefs

'But he has disappeared, as so many have, whose fate one <tares not=”” conjecture,=”” and=”” i=”” fear=”” he=”” has=”” been=”” apprehended=”” by=”” the=”” s=”” j)ies=”” of=””></tares>< p=””>

'But I must conclude this letter and slip it out of the city by >ieans of a swift carrier-pigeon, which will carry it to the post Whence I purchased it, on the borders of Koth By rider and darnel-train it will eventually come to you I lea silence envelops the city, in which I hear the throb of a sullen drum from the distant te more devilry'

But the savant was incorrect in his conjecture concerning the whereabouts of the woirl whohted only by a flickering torch which played on her features, etching the diabolical cruelty of her beautiful countenance

On the bare stone floor before her crouched a figure whose nakedness was scarcely covered with tattered rags

This figure Saloilded sandal, and smiled vindictively as her victim shrank away

'You do not love my caresses, sweet sister?'

Taras and the imprisonment and abuse of seven weary months She did not reply to her sister's taunts, but bent her head as one grown accustonation did not please Salo the toe of her shoe against the floor as she frowned down at the passive figure Salome was clad in the barbaric splendor of a woilded sandals, on her gold breast-plates and the slender chains that held them in place Gold anklets clashed as she hted her bare arms Her tall coiffure was that of a Sheold hoops in her ears, flashi+ng and sparkling with each iirdle supported a silk shi+rt so transparent that it was in the nature of a cynical mockery of convention

Suspended fro a darkly scarlet cloak, and this was thrown carelessly over the crook of one arm and the bundle that arm supported