Part 9 (1/2)

Oarded the maddened officer without e across his shoulders and bound his are arreatest tautness at the

The jailer than unlocked Oet what you deserve sooner or later You will see”

Ardashi+r's face twitched in fury as he spat back: ”And you will get yours, you red-handed rogue! No torture devised by human brains will be too cruel when the royal executioners set to work upon you” He laughed a shrill uncontrolled laugh that betrayed his hysteric abble Follow esture to the guards the dank corridors The bound barbarian walked in theiracross his shoulders Conan was quite unruffled He had been in ht places before and won his way to freedo for a chance to reverse the situation He did not waste thought on the terrible odds against hiainst his foes, or on self-reproach for the ilance that resulted in his capture His whole mind and nervous syste stone staircases led upward As nobody had blindfolded Conan, his keen eyes took in every detail The dungeons of the royal palace were far below ground level There were several floors to pass, at each of which an arlimpsed the outside world as they passedslits The darkling sky showed that the ti murmur of surf which had reached his ears

The palace was built on the outskirts of Aghrapur, on a crag overlooking the Sea of Vilayet The dungeons were carved out of the heart of the rock whose sheer face ended in the lapping waves below

That hy Conan could see the sky through theslits, though they had not yet reached the lower floors of the palace itself Conan stored the knowledge in hisThe party passed through endless rooms with fountains and jeweled vases Exotic bloo walls; now they were s Corseleted soldiers stood like statues everywhere with inscrutable faces and eyes alert Here the splendor of the East blooantic, gold-worked doors Fully fifty feet high they towered, their upper parts disappearing in the gloom

Mysterious arabesques curled their snaky course across the surfaces of the doors, on which the dragons, heroes, and wizards of Hyrkanian legend were depicted Ardashi+r stepped forward and struck the golden plates a ringing bloith the hilt of his scimitar

In response, the ireat assembly of people reached O Conan had ever seen, from the sumptuous state chambers of Ophir and Neard and Vanaheim Giant pillars of marble reared lofty columns toward a roof that seemed as distant as the sky

The profusion of cressets, las, and hangings Behind the throne rose s of stained glass, closed against the fall of night

A glittering host filled the hall Fully a thousand must have assembled there There were Nemedians in jupons, trunk hose, and leathern boots; Ophireans in billowing cloaks; stocky, black-bearded Sheirs froauzy robes; barbarically-clad edoms to the far southwest Even a lone yellow-haired warrior from the Far North, clad in a somber black tunic, stared sullenly before hisword that rested before him with the chape of its scabbard on the floor

Some had come here to escape the wrath of their own rulers, soainst the lands of their birth, and soerd was never satisfied with the size of his growing eht to enlarge it

The blare of golden truh the ain in reat to make out the individuals clustered there, but their brisk approach would soon bring theh he had fought this eastern despot irs, as admiral of the Vilayet pirates, as leader of the Himelian hillmen, and as hetman of the kozaki-he had never yet seen his iure on the golden throne as he approached it

So it caiant's gray eyes in sudden recognition The powerful knuckles whitened as the enigure of the Cierd was a swarthy giant of a h the debauchery of the Turanian court had wrought pouches under his glittering eyes, and lines crisscrossed his stern and gloomy features ten years too early, his hard-ence had not sapped his iist and an insatiable plunderer, Yezdigerd had do tribute fro horseia and Hyperborea The crafty king of Zamora, Mithridates, had been shorn of border provinces and had kept his throne only at the price of groveling before his conqueror

Arrayed in a splendor of silk and cloth-of-gold, the long lolled on the shi+ning throne with the deceptive ease of a resting panther

At his right sat a wonition Thanara! Her voluptuous body was draped in the seductive robes of a Turanian noblewolittered in her lustrous black hair Her eyes fastened triuure of her captive She joined in the laughter of the courtiers round the throne at so

The detail halted before the throne Yezdigerd's eyes blazed with triulee At last he held in his power the htered his soldiers, burnt his cities, and scuttled his shi+ps The lust for vengeance churned up within hiuardsmen knelt and touched their foreheads to the marble floor

Conan made no obeisance His blue eyes afla with the Turanian king in a battle of looks Every inch of his body expressed defiance and contempt Unclad as he was, he still commanded the attention of all by the aura of power that radiated from him The rumor of his fabulous exploits hispered back and forth a

Many knew him under other dreaded na the strain upon the rope he held, Ardashi+r looked up froe seethed in his face as he saw the disdain of the Cied viciously at the rope, tightening the noose about Conan's neck A lesser man would have stumbled and fallen, but Conan stood steady as a rock The ainst the pressure of the rope Then he suddenly bent forward and straightened up again, pulling the rope backwards Ardashi+r was jerked off his knees and spraith a clatter of gear on the marble

”I pay ho!” Conan's roar was like a peal of thunder ”You wage your ith the help of women Can you handle a sword yourself? Til show you how a realhis short speech, Conan relaxed the tauttheers around one end of the log on his back With a quick jerk he slipped his right ar around in front of him Then he swiftly freed his left ared towards hi his sci around with a thud against the Turanian's helmet The officer was hurled across the floor, his body spinning like that of a thrown doll

For a split second, everybody stood unical feat With the fighting instinct of the barbarian, Conan took instant advantage of this pause One end of the log shot out and caught a guardsman in the face The man flew over backwards, his face a mere smear of blood and broken bones Then Conan whirled and threw the log into the nearest group of guards on the other side of him, even as they started to rise and draw their weapons Theheap