Part 9 (1/2)

”So be it You shall meet the fate of any cobra when it crawls too close to the leopard's cubs”

Geyrus did not produce a thunderclap as he corowl as the spell-borne leopards scented prey Then claws struck golden sparks from the stone as the leopards hurled themselves upon the warriors

Geyrus had kept his pro Wind cos tore out throats, claws ripped bellies, and screaony echoed only briefly about the tunnels

The leopards were feeding lustily on the corpses as Geyrus dropped the stout net across the tunnel

A tiainst the leopards entirely by one, and would not co the leopards when they were needed, and returning them when they slept, sated on human flesh

Geyrus did not pray to any God who had a na Wind-it was no God; that had been plain from the earliest days of its Servants

Instead, he hoped that his not keeping the secret of Xuchotl's fall would do no harm It was probably a vain hope, inasmuch as neither Chabano nor Dobanpu were fools Geyrus consoled hiht that if they had been, there would be no challenge, no pride for hi theainst worthy foes

But that girl-lost! She alone would earn Seyganko the slowest death any man had ever suffered, after he had watched Emwaya die just as slowly

Or would it be better to hter watch her betrothed's death before her own?

Time to decide when he had theirl's obedience for the rest of his days The First Speaker to the Living Wind would sleep in a armed bed, as befitted a victor

The disappearance of Valeria's Cimmerian companion ift and silent One moment, Valeria sensed him at her back; the next moment, her fine-honed battle instincts told her that he was not

She leaped again, nearly losing her last gar into a cook fire and wriggled forward

Its jaws-as long as a child of twelve-gaped, then shut again with a clang as ifof saltwater crocodiles, having once anchored in a river mouth where they swarmed She had never been so far from the sea in a land where the rivers also spawned the cousins It would be swift in the water, slow on land, tenacious of life, and sloits Doubtless it was cudgeling those wits for soe had failed

She could be long gone froer from the crocodile if she was ready to abandon Conan to whatever fate had befallen hi as the very earth itself seeht made her next leap cautious, and she thanked Mitra when she landed on solid ground Then she kicked off her boots Blisters or no, she had a better feel for any surface under her-shi+p's deck or jungle riverbank-when she was unshod

She drew dagger to match sword and studied her opponent It was i Conan Not iainst nature, as it would have been iainst her nature and all she had lived by since before she was a woman

She and the Cimmerian were battle-bound, as surely as by any tie of blood or by oath sworn before a score of priests of asin a barber's house, or even dance in taverns, before she broke such a bond as she had with Conan

That he desired her was an annoyance, as a fly buzzing about her head ht have been But one did not strike oneself on the head with a haain and lumbered forward Valeria shi+fted on nimble feet so that she could watch the whole riverbank as well as her i she dreaded most was another crocodile

The first one woulditself on the sow, but where there were two of the n of another reptile, but she did see a shallow depression in the ground where the leafIf that place had sed Conan, perhaps it ht be persuaded to s the crocodile

Then the ed forith a speed that startled her

Surprise did not slow her, or et that no creature's brain can be far froed, Valeria leaped, and race that had caused old her way in years past She came down astride the crocodile's spiny back, just behind the massive neck

Before the crocodile realized that its prey was no longer in sight, Valeria struck Her dagger drove hard into the scaly hide, seeking a chink, sinking in deep enough to hold her Then she lifted her sword, reversed the blade, and drove it deep into the crocodile's right eye