Part 7 (1/2)

'Do you believe this?' said Conan

Metemphoc chuckled 'If a priest asked me, I should say yes Most of the people believe, or at least lack the guts to question the teachings of their masters But, between you and me, so has shown that land still exists on the other side of the waters, also'

'Why do the priests proclaim this lie, when they know better?'

'It helps to keep their subjects under control If they believe there is no other land they could flee to, they will despair of escaping from the iron rule of the priests of Xotli'

'Tell me of this demon-God and his rites!'

Metemphoc explained that Xotli, Lord of Terror, was a deht He appeared unto his worshi+ppers as a rolling cloud of ebony darkness, a vortex of ultimate, boreal cold like that of the winds that bloeen the stars He drank the living souls of those slain upon his towering, pyraes between the Hierarch of the Mysteries in this world and the Dehted depths of its unknown dimensions beyond the universe, the raw life-force of the victims was projected into the other worldly abyss

Calmly, the fat master thief told how naked captives by the thousands were iurat that Conan had glimpsed amidst the upper tiers of the ancient city There, on the altars of Ultiht, the priest-wizards tore upen the breasts of the living victilass, and offered up the life-force thereof to the whirling cloud of va there for hours, feeding on the living force of human souls The corpses they dropped down a shaft into sorowled and his eyes flashed dangerous fires as he listened The mere idea of human sacrifice did not especially shock hi life, and such practices were not unknown ae But that his own friends and followers should be offered up in such barbarous rites - that was soent wine 'What then of the Red Shadows ?'

Then Conan learned that the population of Antillia had become so depleted by the constant sacrifices that the wizard-priests had been forced to travel far afield to secure an adequate supply of captives to slake the dark thirsts of Xotli First they raided the shores of Mayapan; then, when the coastal natives of that barbarous sparsely peopled land scattered into their iun to reach out in other directions

'The Red Shadows, as you call them,' said Metemphoc, 'are the spirit-servants of the Dark One I had not known until now that the Hierarch ( the unknown lands to the east Black Xotli rown so numerous of late that the city is half empty, as you have seen Whole squares and streets are depleted of people Thousands have fled to the hills or to the adjoining isles; but the rule of the priests extends thither, too, and they hunt them down That is the reason for the Sea Guard, which seized your own vessel It watches the harbors to intercept any who, doubting the word of the priests, essay to flee to soaunt, scarred hands opened and closed on emptiness, as if they clenched a human throat between therowled

'From what I have seen of sorcery in my oorld, I know that once a dark force from beyond has obtained a foothold in the world ofnumbers of sacrifices to sustain it The demons of the Elder Dark are - I know not how to put it in your tongue - they are negative; not nothing, but less than nothing Life-force streams in to fill the void of their false existence But their vacuum can never be filled and needs ever more and more life-force to sustain their illusion of life Do you understand me?'

'I do,' said Metemphoc 'Go on'

'Why, man, do you know that, unchecked, the servants of Black Xotli would ravage all the lands of this world until the very planet is eher forms of animal life, to leave the world to the fishes and the worht to warn me - this perverted forht thousand years ago'

'Frohost of your wise man said,' replied Metemphoc, 'it would seem that the Gods have chosen you to stand between the world of living men and the Shadow of Evil Only you can tip the balance between life for the world and death'

'Aye' muttered Conan

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

THE BLACK LABYRINTH

Red eyes flamed as the blood-mad horde Frolea pack

- The Voyage of A down like stone drapery fro far above; an occasional drop of li ends The cavern floor was scus of the rowth rose fro pillars, where stalage, repellent odors A faint, sour breeze blew in Conan's face Guided by it, the old Cih the black labyrinth, which stretched for e-old city of Ptahuacan

Old Metemphoc, the master thief of Ptahuacan, had flatly told Conan that by no conceivable route could a single aruarded citadel where Conan's Barachans lay i the Day of Sacrifice two days thence Countless guards, gates and doors, locks and bars lay between the open streets and the secret heart of the priestly fortress

Conan's agile mind, however, was not so easily lulled into abandonn In response to his endless queries the Lord of Thieves bethought him of the ancient labyrinth of caverns and tunnels beneath the city Whence they had come, no man could say But the city was built upon a es of erosion by underground streams had hollowed thehest level and used them often But the deeper tunnels were shunned even by thee cries froli dared the deep tunnels, cried out and then vanished forever

Under Conan's i, Meteht well connect with the dungeons of the Vestibule of the Gods Still, he had urged Conan to find some more wholesome way into the forbidden citadel But Conan had proved obdurate to all his well-th, Metemphoc had seen that Conan was adamant in his determination to try to rescue his coh, the fat master thief then called his henchh the archives of the thieves' guild Ancient maps of the labyrinth of tunnels were unearthed Conan pored over these,the twists and turns of the caverns and the landmarks by which he could find his way

So here was Conan, stalking through the darkness of the deep tunnels, scraularities in the floor of the cavern In one hand he bore a lantern furnished him by the master thief This device - a fine example of Antillian technical skill - was a little bronze lamp with a cylindrical reservoir for oil, a spout fro wick, a disk-shaped reflector of silvered bronze behind the fla, some of the silver had been worn away fro the bronze beneath But the little lamp was still useful for Oman's purposes It would, Metemphoc had said, burn for several hours before its fuel was exhausted

Here and there a ainst the wet stone These were the thieves' blazes Where none was visible, certain odd configurations of stone had been described to him as landmarks - for instance, a huantic spider

Conan h he little liked the cold, damp breeze that wafted upon him from the unseen depths As he e pictures from the odd sounds that wailed and echoed and whispered about hi cry, which rose to a piercing shriek of inhuain to a faint h distant pines

At other tiht he sensed the stealthy tread of unseen feet about hies and in the main tunnel behind hihter roused atavistic fears of the supernatural in his barbaric soul - fears which he crushed with iron self-control

Then, too, there ca sound, as if soh stone floor Even so seasoned an old warrior as Conan could not help a shi+ver of revulsion as he thought of what creatures otten city of Time's Dawn

The moans and wails, he sternly told hih the le of underground waters, distorted by the conforht have been the slow, creaking subsidence of the very earth itself But still the superstitious fears arose in his ue him

The skin of Conan's nape prickled Froaze of unseen eyes He had been winding his way through the subterranean caverns for - he thought - well over two hours He had slipped and staggered on wet stones, stuularities, leaped ditches and chass, squeezed through narrow places, and scrambled up and down steep slopes He had disturbed colonies of bats, hanging upside down in clusters frorily at him and whirred away into the darkness

He wondered how ht It seemed to him that already its flah its supply of oil were coularly

And now the barbarian's keen senses, but little blunted and dulled by years of urban life, told him that he was under the surveillance of hidden eyes

He slowed his pace and went forward cautiously and silently His keen eyes searched the dark ents of the Antillian priesthood, but he saw no sign of men Nevertheless, his wilderness-trained senses told hiaze rested upon hilobes of ical powers, which they had inherited from their Atlantean forebears and the like of which he had seen in the Hyborian lands, whereby an initiateplace afar Were the cold eyes of an Antillian watching his everyFar behind hiined it?

Now sounds grew behind him Sweat started fro, pattering, and rustling It was as if the unseen watcher had loosed behind hih the cavern world and pull him doith thousands of claws and teeth