Part 14 (1/2)
The girl he had outfitted was Yasrowled ”Why didn't you say so in the first place?”
”Aye, the Devi bids you come Now hurry!”
With practiced speed, Conan dressed and arirl silently opened the door and peered out Then, with a gesture, she motioned to Conan The twain slipped noiselessly down the stairs and out into the hot night
Their route was devious and twisting Evidently there was truth in the ruuide often cast quick glances over her shoulder Many tiht itself, as if to shake off pursuers
Once, in such a lane, a huge dog with glowing eyes and slavering jaws sprang upon theer stretched hiedtheir exit
Oman's white-toothed s No other disturbance barred their way
Soon their journey ended They stood before the high, crenelated wall around the royal palace Its lofty towers reared narrow pinnacles against the sky; the sardens within reached their nostrils The girl scanned the surface of the wall At last she pressed two places on it at the sa a dier upon her lips, she led the way The secret door swung noiselessly to behind hi the corridor, hand on hilt He was sure that Yasmina meant hi hiuard
They went up a stone staircase, then along irl stopped before a door and peered through a sht She pulled a lever, and the door opened They entered
”Wait here, my lord,” she said, ”and I will tell my mistress that you are here”
She hurried froed and let his eyes wander round the chamber
Replete with the riches of an Eastern ruler it ith silken hangings, golden cups and ornaments, and rich embroidery streith precious stones, yet its luxury was tempered by the quality of exquisite taste That it was a woman's boudoir was evident from the vanity table with its costly Turanian old, and silver, holding ointments and salves prepared by the most skilled cosmeticians of the East Fereat bed, with its opaque silken hangings and canopy of gold-worked Sheh he was a hardened warrior, yet his days as a king had taught hihts were interrupted by a sound at his back
Wheeling, he half drew his sword; then he checked himself
It was Yasmina When he had first met her, she had been in the first flower of womanhood-hardly twenty as he remembered Now, thirteen years later, she was a mature woman The sharp wit that had enabled her to hold the throne still shone froarure had bloomed into a woman's desirable body And that body was of such beauty that poets grew fa it; it would have fetched over a thousand talars on the auction block at Sultanapur Yasmina's beautiful face was suffused with happiness as she stopped three steps fro:
”My hill chieftain! You have come back!”
Oman's blood pounded in his tehty stride and took her in his arainst his, she whispered:
”We shall be undisturbed, ht The entrance to this room is locked Love ed for the feel of your arms around me I have not been happy since we parted after the battle in Feht that neither of us shall ever forget!”
In another part of the palace, five men sat inrichly furnished roooblets as they listened to the tall, swarthy ht! I have just learned that Yasuard her chambers A woman's whiir,” one of the others interrupted, ”is it really necessary to slay the Devi? I have fought Turanian squadrons on the border and hewed ht of striking dooman in cold blood”
The tall man sdom of Vendhya The blood of the realment our power The Devi has weakened the fiber of the country by her peaceful rule We, a race of conquering warriors, noaste our ti dams and roads for the filthy lower castes!
Nay, she must die Then I, as successor to the throne, will lead the KshatriySs to new conquests We will carve out a new empire in blood in Khitai, in Uttara Kuru, in Turan We'll sweep the hillmen from the Himelias in a red flood The East shall shake and totter to our thunder! Day and night, camel trains laden with spoil shall pour into Ayodhya Are you with old-worked sheaths, and the claenerals' assent was a loud murmur
The prince waved them to silence ”Not so loud, sirs
Remember that nearly all are loyal to Yasht