Part 16 (1/2)
The jungle soon began anew Here, however, were signs of the passing of h which he had hewn a laborious way Narrow paths were beaten through the undergrowth, though itthe clustered baay-feathered birds twittered Fro leopard
Conan slunk along the path like an anileaned froht on the Vilayet Sea, he deduced that he was now in the jungle bordering the city-state of Paikang The Khitan had told hiht days to cross this belt of forest Conan counted onupon his io exertions unthinkable to other oal was to reach some settlement The tale was that the forest folk lived in dread of Pai-kang's cruel ruler Therefore Conan counted on finding friends who could furnish hi the city
The eerie atle pressed down upon him with almost physical force Unbroken and unexplored for thousands of years, save for narrow paths and ss, it seelossy, naked ste profusion The esoteric traditions of this land reached back before the first fire was lit in the West Vast and ancient was the knowledge hoarded by its philosophers, artisans, and sorcerers
Conan shrugged off the depressing influence and gripped the hilt of his tulwarofleaves His faculties were sharpened and alert, like those of a wolf raiding into the lands of a foreign pack There was a rustle aray with a fla its back, reared its head fro place It struck viciously, with bared and dripping fangs At that instant, the steel in Conan's hand flashed The tulwar's keen edge severed the head of the reptile, which writhed and twisted in its death throes Conan grimly cleaned his blade and pressed on
Then he halted Stock-still he stood, ears sharpened to the utmost, nostrils widened to catch the faintest scent He had heard the clank of metal and now could catch the sound of voices
Swiftly but cautiously he advanced The path made a sudden turn a hundred paces further on At this corner his sharp eyes sought the cause of the disturbance
In a s, terful yellow-skinned Khitans were trussing a saffron-hued girl to a tree Unlike most of the Far Eastern folk, these men were tall and powerful Their lacquered, laave the broad, curved swords in lacquered wooden scabbards Cruelty and brutality were starip, uttering frantic pleas in the singsong, liquid Khitan tongue Having learnedof it in his youth, when he had served the king of Turan as a mercenary, Conan found he could understand the words The captive's slant-eyed face was of a startling oriental beauty
Her pleading had no effect on her merciless captors, who continued their work Conan felt his rageThis was one of those cruel human sacrifices which he had tried to stamp out in the western world but which were still coht of this irl He broke fro of the underbrush beneath the Cimmerian's feet reached the ears of the Khitan soldiers They swung round towards the sound, and their eyes widened with unfeigned surprise Both whipped out their swords and prepared to ant confidence They spoke no word, but the girl cried out:
”Flee! Do not try to saveto the bodyguard of Yah Chieng!”
The nareater fury to Conan's heart With slitted eyes, he struck the Khitans like a charging lion
Unequalled as swordsmen in Khitai they may have been, but before the wrath of Conan they were like straws in the wind The barbarian's blade whirled in a flashi+ng dance of death before their astonished eyes He feinted and struck, crushi+ng are of his hard-driven tulwar The first yellowlike a snake, exploded into a fierce attack Neither fighter would give way Their blades crashed ringingly together Then the inferior steel of Khitai broke before the supple strength of the tulwar, forged frouli sh the armor plate into the Khitan's heart
With ht idened eyes When Conan broke froht him one of her friends or relatives, bent upon a mad atte-li, a white-skinned foreigner froendary lands west of the Great Wall and the Wuhuan Desert Would he devour her alive, as legends averred? Or would he drag her back to his hoeon the rest of her life?
Her fears were soon allayed by Conan's friendly grin as he swiftly cut her bonds His appreciative glance ran over her li up the value of a captive, but with the glance of a freeupon a free woman Her cheeks were suffused with blood before his frank admiration
”By Macha” he said, ”I did not know they bred women this beautiful in the yellow lands! It seeo!”
His accent was far fro the words
”Seldoers come to Khitai,” she answered ”Your arrival and victory were timed by the Gods But for you, those two” (she indicated the corpses) ”would have lefthas let loose in the jungle”
”I have sworn to settle rowled Conan
”It seele terror you speak of?”
”None has met it and lived to tell Men say the arch wizard has conjured up abeasts walked the earth and the crust shook with earthquakes and eruptions He holds the land in abject terror of it, and human sacrifices are often demanded The fairest women and ablest men are taken by his soldiers to feed the maw of the beast of terror”
”Meseeh I fear not this monster of yours, I'd as lief not be hindered by it on e far?”
Before she could answer, there was a heavy crashi+ng in the undergrowth