Part 4 (1/2)
She hesitated, glancing at hi, facing toward the plain, his sword across his knees, his back to her Without further comment she lay down on the sand inside the spiky circle
”Wake me when the moon is at its zenith,” she directed
He did not reply nor look toward her Her last iure, iainst the low-hanging stars
_2 By the Blaze of the Fire-Jewels_
Valeria aith a start, to the realization that a gray daas stealing over the plain
She sat up, rubbing her eyes Conan squatted beside the cactus, cutting off the thick pears and dexterously twitching out the spikes
”You didn't awake ht!”
”You were tired,” he answered ”Your posteriorride You pirates aren't used to horseback”
”What about yourself?” she retorted
”I was a _kozak_ before I was a pirate,” he answered ”They live in the saddle I snatch naps like a panther watching beside the trail for a deer to come by My ears keep watch while iant barbarian seeht on a golden bed Having reh skin, he handed the girl a thick, juicy cactus leaf
”Skin your teeth in that pear It's food and drink to a desert irs once--desertthe caravans”
”Is there anything you haven't been?” inquired the girl, half in derision and half in fascination
”I've never been king of an Hyborian kingdo an enor even that I may be too, some day Why shouldn't I?”
She shook her head in wonder at his cal her pear She found it not unpleasing to the palate, and full of cool and thirst-satisfying juice Finishi+ng his ers through his thick black mane, hitched at his sword-belt and said:
”Well, let's go If the people in that city are going to cut our throats they ins”
His griht be prophetic She too hitched her sword-belt as she rose Her terrors of the night were past The roaring dragons of the distant forest were like a dier in her stride as she moved off beside the Cimmerian Whatever perils lay ahead of them, their foes would be men And Valeria of the Red Brotherhood had never seen the face of the lanced down at her as she strode along beside hi stride that matched his own
”You walk more like a hillman than a sailor,” he said ”You must be an Aquilonian The suns of Darfar never burnt your white skin brown Many a princess would envy you”
”I aer irritated her His evident admiration pleased her For another ered her; she had always fiercely resented anyto shi+eld or protect her because of her sex But she found a secret pleasure in the fact that this ht and the weakness resulting from it After all, she reflected, her companion was no co the towers to a sinister crirunted Conan, his eyes clouding with the abysmal superstition of the barbarian ”Blood-red as a threat of blood against the sun this dawn I do not like this city”
But they went on, and as they went Conan pointed out the fact that no road ran to the city from the north
”No cattle have trampled the plain on this side of the city,” said he