Part 32 (2/2)

Conan saw a yellow-skinned wo at hili from the wall Then the floor dropped from under him, and all his steel-trap coordination could not save hie into the black depths that opened beneath hih it was far enough to have snapped the leg bones of a s and whalebone

He hit cat-like on his feet and one hand, instinctively retaining his grasp on his saber hilt A fa in his ears as he rebounded on his feet as a lynx rebounds with snarling bared fangs So Conan, glaring froure of Natala writhing in the lustful grasp of a black nightmare shape that could have only been bred in the lost pits of hell

The sight of that awful shape alone ht have frozen the Ciht sent a red wave of h Conan's brain In a criirl, wheeling toward its attacker, and the h the air, sheared clear through the black viscous bulk and rang on the stone floor, showering blue sparks Conan went to his knees froe had not encountered the resistance he had expected As he bounded up, the thing was upon hi black cloud It seemed to flow about hiulf hiain and again, his ripping poniard tore and rent it; he was deluged with a sliish blood Yet its fury was nowise abated

He could not tell whether he was slashi+ng off itsits bulk, which knit behind the slicing blade He was tossed to and fro in the violence of that awful battle, and had a dazed feeling that he was fighting not one, but an aggregation of lethal creatures The thing see his and talons rend his flesh; flabby cables that were yet hard as iron encircled his li like a whip of scorpions fell again and again across his shoulders, back and breast, tearing the skin and filling his veins with a poison that was like liquid fire

They had rolled beyond the circle of light, and it was in utter blackness that the Cimmerian battled Once he sank his teeth, beast-like, into the flabby substance of his foe, revolting as the stuff writhed and squir rubber from between his iron jaws

In that hurricane of battle they were rolling over and over, farther and farther down the tunnel Conan's brain reeled with the punishasps between his teeth High above hilow that see cry that was half curse, half gasp of straining agony, he lunged toward it, thrusting with all his waning power Hilt-deep the saber sank, sorisly face, and a convulsive shudder heaved the vast bulk that half enveloped the Cimmerian With a volcanic burst of contraction and expansion, it tu noith frantic haste down the corridor Conan ith it, bruised, battered, invincible, hanging on like a bulldog to the hilt of his saber which he could not withdraw, tearing and ripping at the shuddering bulk with the poniard in his left hand, goring it to ribbons

The thing glowed all over noith a weird phosphorous radiance, and this gloas in Conan's eyes, blinding hiloose and re down into space, and far below hi doard like a reat round well, the edge of which was sli and dwindling until it vanished into a dark shi+ning surface that see witchfire glimmered in those dusky depths; then it disappeared and Conan lay staring down into the blackness of the ulti vainly at the silk cords which cut into her wrists, Natala sought to pierce the darkness beyond the radiant circle Her tongue seemed frozen to the roof of her mouth Into that blackness she had seen Conan vanish, locked in mortal combat with the unknown de ears had been the panting gasps of the barbarian, the ie blows These ceased, and Natala swayed dizzily on her cords, half fainting

A footstep roused her out of her apathy of horror, to see Conan eht she found her Voice in a shriek which echoed down the vaulted tunnel Theto behold At every step he dripped blood His face was skinned and bruised as if he had been beaten with a bludgeon His lips were pulped, and blood oozed down his face frohs, calves and forearreat bruises showed on his liainst the stone floor But his shoulders, back and upper-breast muscles had suffered most The flesh was bruised, swollen and lacerated, the skin hanging in loose strips, as if he had been lashed hips

'Oh, Conan!' she sobbed 'What has happened to you?'

He had no breath for conversation, but his sri with sweat and blood, heaved with his panting Slowly and laboriously he reached up and cut her cords, then fell back against the wall and leaned there, his tres braced wide She scraht hi hysterically

'Oh, Conan, you are wounded unto death! Oh, what shall we do?'

'Well,' he panted, 'you can't fight a devil out of hell and come off with a whole skin!'

'Where is it?' she whispered 'Did you kill it?'

'I don't know It fell into a pit It was hanging in bloody shreds, but whether it can be killed by steel I know not'

'Oh, your poor back!' she wailed, wringing her hands

'It lashedas he moved 'It cut like wire and burned like poison But it was its daot uts are not mashed out of place, I'm much lanced up The trap was closed No sound cah the secret door,' he muttered 'That room is full of dead men, and doubtless warriors keep watch there They h the floor above, or else they dare not follow eropedinto other tunnels We'll follow the first we come to It may lead to another pit, or to the open air We must chance it We can't stay here and rot'

Natala obeyed, and holding the tiny point of light in his left hand and his bloody saber in his right, Conan started down the corridor He went slowly, stiffly, only his anilare in his bloodshot eyes, and Natala saw him involuntarily lick his battered lips frohastly, but with the stoicism of the wilds he ht shone on a black arch, and into this Conan turned Natala cringed at what she ht revealed only a tunnel similar to that they had just left

How far they went she had no idea, before theystair and caolden bolt

She hesitated, glancing at Conan The barbarian aying on his feet, the light in his unsteady hand flinging fantastic shadows back and forth along the wall

'Open the door, girl,' hefor us, and I would not disappoint them By Crom, the city has not seen such a sacrifice as I will make!'

She kneas half delirious No sound caem from his blood-stained hand, she threw the bolt and drew the panel inward The inner side of a cloth-of-gold tapestry h, her heart in herinto an empty chamber in the center of which a silvery fountain tinkled

Conan's hand fell heavily on her naked shoulder

'Stand aside, girl,' heof swords'

'There is no one in the chamber,' she answered 'But there is water-'

'I hear it,' he licked his blackened lips 'We will drink before we die'

He seemed blinded She took his darkly stained hand and led hi a rush of yellow figures through the arches at any instant

'Drink while I keep watch,' he muttered

'No, I am not thirsty Lie down beside the fountain and I will bathe your wounds'

'What of the swords of Xuthal?' He continually raked his arht

'I hear no one All is silent'

He sank down gropingly and plunged his face into the crystal jet, drinking as if he could not get enough When he raised his head there was sanity in his bloodshot eyes and he stretched his massive lih he kept his saber in his hand, and his eyes continually roved toward the archways She bathed his torn flesh and bandaged the deeper wounds with strips torn fro She shuddered at the appearance of his back; the flesh was discolored, mottled and spotted black and blue and a sickly yellohere it was not raw As she worked she sought frantically for a solution to their problem If they stayed where they were, they would eventually be discovered Whether thethe palaces for them, or had returned to their dreams, she could not know

As she finished her task, she froze Under the hanging that partly concealed an alcove, she saw a hand's breadth of yellow flesh

Saying nothing to Conan, she rose and crossed the cha his poniard Her heart pounded suffocatingly as she cautiously drew aside the hanging On the dais lay a young yellooman, naked and apparently lifeless At her hand stood a jade jar nearly full of peculiar golden-colored liquid Natala believed it to be the elixir described by Thalis, which lent vigor and vitality to the degenerate Xuthal She leaned across the supine forirl's bosom The latter did not wake

With the jar in her possession, Natala hesitated, realizing it would be the safer course to put the sleeping girl beyond the power of waking and raising an alare the Cimmerian poniard into that still boso and returned to Conan, who lay where she had left hily only partly conscious

She bent and placed the jar to his lips He drank, mechanically at first, then with a suddenly roused interest To her amazement he sat up and took the vessel from her hands When he lifted his face, his eyes were clear and norone from his features, and his voice was not the et this?'

She pointed 'Fro'

He thrust his olden liquid

'By Croh, 'I feel new life and power rush like wildfire through my veins Surely this is the very elixir of Life!'

'We had best go back into the corridor,' Natala ventured nervously 'We shall be discovered if we stay here long We can hide there until your wounds heal-'

'Not I,' he grunted 'We are not rats, to hide in dark burrows We leave this devil-city now, and let none seek to stop us'

'But your wounds!' she wailed