Part 19 (1/2)

Mists swirled in the sphere, resolving theures rushed unrecognizably; steel glinted like lightning in thedistinctness; it was as if the wide eyes gazed up at Saloash in the skull-like head, the skin was gray with sweat-runneled dust The lips parted, writhing; to other ears than Salome's it would have seemed that the face in the crystal contorted silently But sound to her came as plainly from those ashen lips as if the priest had been in the sa into the smaller crystal Only the Gods of darkness knehat unseen,spheres

'Salome! shrieked the bloody head 'Salooes the battle?'

'Doom is upon us!' screamed the skull-like apparition 'Khauran is lost! Aie,aroundlike flies, in their silveredand tell me what happened!' she cried harshly

'We rode at the desert-dogs and they came on to meet us!' yowled the priest 'Arrows flew in clouds between the hosts, and the noe In even ranks we thundered upon theht and left, and through the cleft rushed three thousand Hyborian horsemen whose presence we had not even suspected Men of Khauran,e of steel they smote us like a thunderbolt They split our ranks asunder before we kneas upon us, and then the desert-men swarmed on us from either flank

'They have ripped our ranks apart, broken and scattered us! It is a trick of that devil Conan! The siege engines are false - mere frames of palm trunks and painted silk, that fooled our scouts who saw them from afar A trick to draw us out to our dooash is down - Conan slew hih ourmasses like blood-mad lions, and the desert-men feather us with arrows I - ahh!'

There was a flicker as of lightning, or trenchant steel, a burst of bright blood - then abruptly the i into an empty crystal ball that mirrored only her own furious features

She stood perfectly still for a fewinto space Then she clapped her hands and another skull-like priest entered, as silent and immobile as the first

'Constantius is beaten,' she said swiftly 'We are dooates within the hour If he catches me, I have no illusions as to what I can expect But first I a to ain Followa feast'

As she descended the stairs and galleries of the palace, she heard a faint rising echo froun to realize that the battle was going against Constantius Through the dust cloudstoward the city

Palace and prison were connected by a long closed gallery, whose vaulted roof rose on gloo this, the false queen and her slave passed through a heavy door at the other end that let theed into a wide, arched corridor at a point near where a stone stair descended into the darkness Saloloom of the hall lay a motionless form - a Shemitish jailer, his short beard tilted toward the roof as his head hung on a half-severed neck As panting voices froirl's ears, she shrank back into the black shadow of an arch, pushi+ng the priest behind her, her hand groping in her girdle

6 THE VULTURE'S WINGS

It was the sht of a torch which roused Taraht forgetfulness Lifting herself on her hand she raked back her tangled hair and blinked up, expecting to n with new torments Instead a cry of pity and horror reached her ears

'Tarae to her ears that she thought she was still drealint of steel, then five countenances bent toward her, not swarthy and hook-nosed, but lean, aquiline faces, browned by the sun She crouched in her tatters, staring wildly

One of the figures sprang forward and fell on one knee before her, arly toward her

'Oh, Taramis! Thank Ishtar we have found you! Do you not remember me, Valerius? Once with your own lips you praised me, after the battle of Korveka!'

'Valerius!' she stammered Suddenly tears welled into her eyes 'Oh, I dreaic of Salo with exultation 'It is your own true vassals cohts in the plain against Conan, who has brought the Zuagirs across the river, but three hundred Shemites yet hold the city We slew the jailer and took his keys, and have seen no other guards But we ave way, not from weakness but from the reaction Valerius lifted her like a child, and with the torch-bearer hurrying before theeon and went up a slimy stone stair It seeed into a corridor

They were passing a dark arch when the torch was suddenly struck out, and the bearer cried out in fierce, brief agony A burst of blue fire glared in the dark corridor, in which the furious face of Salo beside her - then the eyes of the watchers were blinded by that blaze

Valerius tried to stagger along the corridor with the queen; dazedly he heard the sound of asps of death and a bestial grunting Then the queen was torn brutally froe blow on his helmet dashed hi his head in an effort to rid himself of the blue flame which seeht cleared, he found himself alone in the corridor - alone except for the dead His four coashed Blinded and dazed in that hell-born glare, they had died without an opportunity of defending theone

With a bitter curse Valerius caught up his sword, tearing his cleft hels; blood ran down his cheek fro, frantic with indecision, he heard a voice calling his naered in the direction of the voice, and rounded a corner just in tiure which flung itself frantically at hia! Are you mad!'

'I had to come!' she sobbed 'I followed you - hid in an arch of the outer court A e with a brute who carried a woman in his arms I kneas Taramis, and that you had failed! Oh, you are hurt!'

'A scratch!' He put aside her clinging hands 'Quick, Ivga, tell me which way they went!'

'They fled across the square toward the teive Taraa! Run to the south here the people watch the battle! Tell them that their real queen has been found - that the i, the girl sped away, her light sandals pattering on the cobblestones, and Valerius raced across the court, plunged into the street, dashed into the square upon which it debouched, and raced for the great structure that rose on the opposite side

His flying feet spurned the h the pillared portico Evidently their prisoner had given the the dooainst it with all the strength of her splendid young body Once she had broken away froain

The group was halfway down the broad nave, at the other end of which stood the grireat one, but froed Taraarle She writhed in the grasp of her apish captor like a white, naked nyh i toward the carven door, and fro the lofty walls the obscene Gods and gargoyles leered down, as if i with fury, Valerius rushed down the great hall, sword in hand At a sharp cry from Salome, the skull-faced priest looked up, then released Taramis, drew a heavy knife, already s Khaurani

But cutting down men blinded by the devil's-fla Hyborian afire with hate and rage

Up went the dripping knife, but before it could fall Valerius's keen narrow blade slashed through the air, and the fist that held the knife jumped from its wrist in a shower of blood Valerius, berserk, slashed again and yet again before the cruh flesh and bone The skull-like head fell one way, the half-sundered torso the other

Valerius whirled on his toes, quick and fierce as a jungle-cat, glaring about for Salome She must have exhausted her fire-dust in the prison She was bending over Tara her sister's black locks in one hand, in the other lifting a dagger Then with a fierce cry Valerius's sas sheathed in her breast with such fury that the point sprang out between her shoulders With an awful shriek the witch sank dorithing in convulsions, grasping at the naked blade as it ithdrawn, s Her eyes were inhu to the life that ebbed through the wound that split the criroveled on the floor, clawing and biting at the naked stones in her agony

Sickened at the sight, Valerius stooped and lifted the half-fainting queen Turning his back on the twisting figure on the floor, he ran toward the door, stuered out upon the portico, halted at the head of the steps The square thronged with people Soa's incoherent cries; others had deserted the walls in fear of the onsweeping hordes out of the desert, fleeing unreasoningly toward the centre of the city Du seethed andAbout the road there sounded so of stone and tiuards of the northern gates, hurrying toward the south gate to reinforce their coht of the youth on the steps, holding the li turned toward the teaped, a neilder confusion

'Here is your queen!' yelled Valerius, straining to ave back a bewildered roar They did not understand, and Valerius sought in vain to lift his voice above their bedla a way through the croith their spears

Then a new, grisly elelooure, laced with cri the woht their queen; yet there in the teure, like a reflection of the other Their brains reeled Valerius felt his blood congeal as he stared at the swaying witch-girl His sword had transfixed her, sundered her heart She should be dead; by all laws of nature she should be dead Yet there she swayed, on her feet, clinging horribly to life

'Thaug!' she screahtful invocation there boo of wood and metal

'That is the queen!' roared the captain of the She his bow 'Shoot down the -pack rose frouessed the truth at last, understood Valerius's frenzied appeals, knew that the girl who hung li yell they surged on the She with tooth and nail and naked hands, with the desperation of hard-pent fury loosed at last Above them Salome swayed and tumbled down the marble stairs, dead at last

Arrows flickered about him as Valerius ran back between the pillars of the portico, shi+elding the body of the queen with his own Shooting and slashi+ng ruthlessly, thetheir oith the maddened crowd Valerius darted to the te out in horror and despair