Part 13 (1/2)
”Conan, you have too curseda woman wish to keep you alive!”
FIVE
Conan led the way down the tunnel If danger should arise, it would most likely come from another beast, drawn by the din of the first one's death It could also co, if it waited until he and Valeria were safely out of its path!
The tunnel sloped steadily doard, and the air grew dah, as far underground as it lay, and with so much death and rottenness about
Conan found sicthe air, and giving life to who-knehat monstrosities besides those they had already le before him would be his choice, but every step they took seemed to take them farther into the bowels of this warren
Clearly, the beast and its kin had passed this way many times Even the hardest rock of walls and floor was scored by claws and scales Loose scales in half a score of hues had drifted like autus of the tunnel In one place, a bronze post the thickness of Conan's ar swift, strong, and ht he saw a slight upward slope in the floor of the branch, at the very liht, but fifty paces farther on came a bend, and just beyond that, a dead end
Nor was the dead end a natural rockfall An enorilded bronze blocked the way Conan saw that it slid to and fro in bronze grooves that led into niches on either side of the tunnel
The least of the slabs had to weigh more than the Cimmerian, and the thinnest s
Soht in the shape of serpents, and more serpents writhed across the slabs, soly carved
Conan did not care to think what spells ht be needed to move this door Spells, or perhaps some device that would rival those of drowned Atlantis and ine of Khitai seereen eyes,” Valeria whispered The awe of this place and its ancient works was in her, too ”Are they meant to be the Golden Serpents?”
Conan studied the shapes The gilding orn in places and tarnished in more, but, in truth, the eyes of all the serpents, carved or painted, were tiny green jewels Studying thelow from within like the fire-stones they had seen in Xuchotl
”Ha! Perhaps we've found where the Golden Serpents laired in ancient tih for a door like this It would stop a galley's ram”
”Then let us hope it does its work until we are out of these caves,”
Valeria said
”Woman, where is a true pirate's heart?” Conan scoffed He thrust a forefinger against Valeria's ribs
She lightly batted his hand away ”Down in her boots, I confess, although I'll geld you if you breathe a word of it” She rubbed her stoi under her arm ”Are these really fit to eat?”
”They haven't killed me yet”
”Just let me eat my fill, and no doubt you rithe and die the uarded their backs nicely, but who could say what lay on the other side? Also, if one of the beasts should catch their scent and come down the branch tunnel, they would be trapped
So they returned to the junction of the tunnels to eat ”Tastes like raw sea slugs,” Valeria said after a few mouthfuls
”And how are they? I've heard of them, but also that they're poison if not cooked”
”It's not the cooking that takes out the poison There's a spot in the head that needs cutting out, or one slug can kill a shi+p's crew A cunning hand with a knife can do the work, though, and then the slug's called a rare treat in so one hot sus spawned farther north than usual”