Part 30 (1/2)

'Why?' he deold thrones, and listen to the plaudits of sain? Listen: I was born in the Cimmerian hills where the people are all barbarians I have been a mercenary soldier, a corsair, a kozak, and a hundred other things What king~has roaht the battles, loved the women, and won the plunder that I have?

'I cadohulis was only a start If I can conciliate the me within a year But if I can't I'll ride back to the steppes and loot the Turanian borders with the kozaki And you'll go with dom; they fended for themselves before you were born'

She lay in his ar at her spirit, a lawless, reckless urge thatBut a thousand generations of sovereignshi+p rode heavy upon her

'I can't! I can't!' she repeated helplessly

'You haven't any choice,' he assured her 'You - what the devil!'

They had left Yie that separated two deep valleys They had just topped a steep crest where they could gaze down into the valley on their right hand And there was a running fight in progress A strong as blowing away fro the sound fro of steel and thunder of hoofs welled up frolint of the sun on lance-tip and spired hel before the and striking like fleeing wolves

'Turanians,' muttered Conan 'Squadrons fro here?'

'Who are the men they pursue?' asked Yasmina 'And why do they fall back so stubbornly? They can not stand against such odds'

'Five hundred ofdown into the vale 'They're in a trap, and they know it'

The valley was indeed a cul-de-sac at that end It narrowed to a high-walled gorge, opening out further into a round bowl, completely rimmed with lofty, unscalable walls

The turbaned riders were being forced into this gorge, because there was nowhere else for theo, and they went reluctantly, in a shower of arrows and a whirl of swords The helmeted riders harried them, but did not press in too rashly They knew the desperate fury of the hill tribes, and they knew too that they had their prey in a trap fronized the hill-hulis, and they wished to hees for the purpose they had in mind

Their emir was a man of decision and initiative When he reached the Gurashah valley, and found neither guides nor e to his own knowledge of the country All the way fro, and tribese He knew there was a good chance that neither he nor any of his helates of Secunderaain, for the tribes would all be up behind him now, but he was determined to carry out his orders - which were to take Yas her captive to Secunderam, or if confronted by impossibility, to strike off her head before he himself died

Of all this, of course, the watchers on the ridge were not aware But Conan fidgeted with nervousness

'Why the devil did they get thee 'I knohat they're doing in these parts - they were huntinginto every valley - and found themselves penned in before they knew it The poor fools! They'reWhen the Turanians have pushed thehter the up from below increased in voluhulis, fighting desperately, were for the tiainst the ainst the his hilt, and -”finally spoke bluntly: 'Devi, I o down to them I'll find a place for you to hide until I codom - well, I don't pretend to look on those hairy devils as my children, but after all, such as they are, they're my henchmen A chief should never desert his followers, even if they desert hi me out - hell, I won't be cast off! I'hulis, and I'll prove it! I can clie'

'But what of me?' she queried 'You carried me away forcibly from my people; noill you leave o down and sacrifice yourself uselessly?'

His veins swelled with the conflict of his eht,' he muttered helplessly 'Crohtly, a curious expression dawning on her beautiful face Then: 'Listen!' she cried 'Listen!'

A distant fanfare of trumpets was borne faintly to their ears They stared into the deep valley on the left, and caught a glint of steel on the farther side A long line of lances and polished helht

'The riders of Vendhya!' she cried exultingly

'There are thousands of the since a Kshatriya host has ridden this far into the hills'

'They are searching for me!' she exclaie is not so precipitous on the left, and I can reach the valley floor I will lead my horsemen into the valley at the upper end and fall upon the Turanians! We will crush them in the vise! Quick, Conan! Will you sacrifice your er of the steppes and the wintry forests glared out of his eyes, but he shook his head and swung off the stallion, placing the reins in her hands

'You win!' he grunted 'Ride like the devil!'

She wheeled away down the left-hand slope and he ran swiftly along the ridge until he reached the long ragged cleft that was the defile in which the fight raged Down the rugged wall he scra to projections and crevices, to fall at last, feet first, into the e Blades hickering and clanging about hi turbans that were stained criold-worked rein, and dodging the sweep of a scih the rider's vitals In another instant he was in the saddle, yelling ferocious orders to the Afghulis They stared at him stupidly for an instant; then as they saw the havoc his steel reaking a hi blades and spurting blood there was no time to ask or answer questions

The riders in their spired hele , and the narrow defile was packed and jammed with horses andwith shortened blades, slashi+nga sword When a , swirling hoofs Weight and sheer strength counted heavily there, and the chief of the Afghulis did the work of ten At such tily, and the warriors, ere used to seeing Conan in their vanguard, were heartened htily, despite their distrust of him

But superior numbers counted too The pressure of the men behind forced the horsee, in the teeth of the nickering tulwars Foot by foot the Afghulis were shoved back, leaving the defile-floor carpeted with dead, on which the riders trampled As he hacked and s doubts -would Yasmina keep her word? She had but to join her warriors, turn southward and leave him and his band to perish

But at last, after what see, in the valley outside there rose another sound above the clash of steel and yells of slaughter And then with a burst of tru thunder of hoofs, five thousand riders of Vendhya smote the hosts of Secunderam

That stroke split the Turanian squadrons asunder, shattered, tore and rent thee had ebbed back out of the gorge; there was a chaotic, confused swirl of fighting, horsely and in clusters, and then the eh his breast, and the riders in their spired hel like h the swarms which had coht, the conquerors scattered in pursuit, and all across the valley floor, and up on the slopes near the itives and the pursuers The Afghulis, those left to ride, rushed out of the gorge and joined in the harrying of their foes, accepting the unexpected alliance as unquestioningly as they had accepted the return of their reputhated chief

The sun was sinking toward the distant crags when Conan, his gar and clotted with blood, his knife dripping and crusted to the hilt, strode over the corpses to where Yas her nobles on the crest of the ridge, near a lofty precipice

'You kept your word, Devi!' he roared 'By Croe - look outl'

Down from the sky swooped a vulture of tres that knockedfro for the Devi's soft neck, but Conan was quicker - a short run, a tigerish leap, the savage thrust of a dripping knife, and the vulture voiced a horribly hu down the cliffs to the rocks and river a thousand feet below As it dropped, its black wings thrashi+ng the air, it took on the semblance, not of a bird, but of a black-robed human body that fell, arms in wide black sleeves thrown abroad

Conan turned to Yasmina, his red knife still in his hand, his blue eyes s frohs

'You are the Devi again,' he said, grinning fiercely at the gold-clasped gossairl attire, and awed not at all by the i array of chivalry about him 'I have you to thank for the lives of soues, who are at least convinced that I didn't betray theain'

'I still owe youas they swept over hiold I will pay you-'

He esture, shook the blood fro his hands on his mail

'I will collect your ransom in my oay, at my own time,' he said 'I will collect it in your palace at Ayodhya, and I will come with fifty thousand athering her reins into her hands 'And I will meet you on the shores of the Jhumda with a hundred thousand!'

His eyes shone with fierce appreciation and adesture that was like the assu that her road was clear before her

THE SLITHERING SHADOW

The desert shi+mmered in the heat waves Conan the Ci desolation and involuntarily drew the back of his powerful hand over his blackened lips He stood like a bronze ie in the sand, apparently iarold-buckled belt fro a saber and a broad-bladed poniard On his clean-cut limbs were evidences of scarcely healed wounds

At his feet rested a girl, one white arainst which her blond head drooped Her white skin contrasted with his hard bronzed liirdled at the waist, eure