Part 11 (1/2)
Conan took the rear guard until they reached a place where the tunnel divided; there were no sounds of pursuit behind or of life ahead That this was no natural tunnel was by now made plainer than ever by the remains of incredibly ancient tool ht once have been bronze or iron
At the dividing point, Conan exaly darkand the ankle would support her weight Like his ribs, it would slow neither weapons nor feet, depending on what seeer
”Now, you will take the shi+rt off my back, or I'll knohy,” he said
”Garbed as you are, you'd adorn a royal palace, but I doubt we'll be finding eons, perhaps, and the bones of those held in them, but little else”
”You need not soothe oat”
”Ha! You've your spirits back Perhaps you need no clothes then, since without them, you're double-armed, steel and womanhood!”
”Give h to raise echoes She looked about her while the echoes died, then alarment the Cih Conan cut the sleeves into strips and bound them around Valeria's feet to protect the blisters until further walking toughened the skin So clad, with her hair a tangle any honest bird would have disdained to nest in, and her boots dangling fro into the street from the cheapest waterfront tavern
Or she would have been but for her sword and daggers-and also for the look in her eyes that said any hand touching her against her ould not return to its owner intact, if at all
Conan needed no further warnings in that rateful for the skill and luck that had allowed her to keep her weapons They would be fighting again before they ever saw daylight, even if the battle was against foes where steel could do no ive man or woman a clean death
Valeria found little pleasure in her present situation save being alive Also, the Cier than otherwise He had been as forical ones, and for rather more years than she had followed the warrior's path
Where the tunnel divided, one way sloped upward, the other down They halted, Valeria set her back against the wall and looked to the rear, and Conan briefly explored in both directions
Valeria did not enjoy being even briefly alone here in the bowels of the earth But she could master her fancies now; she would wait for real monsters to leap from the shadows before she let herself fear She passed the brief ti fro sword and wrist securely She hoped she would have no call for , and likewise that the da should she need it
Conan returned swiftly ”The way down leads to water, deeper than I'd care to try And that's leaving out what ht be in the water”
Valeria held her nose ”So that reeks like a days-old battlefield, from what's on you”
”That, and more I saw statues, kin to the oldest idols I saw in the Black Kingdoms I'm more than ever certain that someone built this warren”
”But why?”
”Like as not, to save a trek through the jungle Let's hope it's fit to do the sa way ”If I'ether turned about, that leads back the e caht be down here,” Valeria said fervently ”That beast in the pit sounded like so that could have eaten Xuchotl's Crawler for lunch and the dragon in the forest for dinner”
Conan said nothing, but took the lead For three hundred paces, the tunnel sloped upward Valeria began to hope that it ht rise so close to the surface that they could make a way for themselves If another tree had thrust a root down-
Disappointment came swiftly Not only were the tunnel walls intact, save for one place where a niche had cruan to slope doard as steeply as it had risen It also grew as slick as if it had been oiled
The light did not fade, and Valeria now began to ht have been paintings They also ht have been patterns of tiny jewels set into the stone; they see to see which, Valeria looked closely at one pattern-and found that it changed before her eyes, from one beast to another, and then to yet others
One beast was a lion, another a great fish, and she hoped that the third was a dragon The rest were things that she decided she would not care to look at too closely, let alone an to feel rowing reek of sohly rotten She tore another strip from Conan's shi+rt and bound it over her nose, and the Cimmerian did likewise