Part 11 (1/2)

”Oh, help! Help, in Set's naht the echo of a ghostly tittering

Valeria felt her skin crawl What had happened to Yasala down there in the thick blackness? There was no doubt that it had been she who had cried out But what peril could have befallen her? Was a Xotalanca lurking down there? Olmec had assured them that the catacombs below Tecuhltli alled off froh Besides, that tittering had not sounded like a hu at all

Valeria hurried back down the corridor, not stopping to close the door that opened on the stair Regaining her chamber, she closed the door and shot the bolt behind her She pulled on her boots and buckled her sword-belt about her She was detere hiht their way out of that city of devils

But even as she reached the door that opened into the corridor, a long-drawn screah the halls, followed by the staor of swords

_5 Twenty Red Nails_

Tarriors lounged in the guardroole Their attitude was casual, though habitually alert An attack on the great bronze door from without was always a possibility, but for many years no such assault had been atte allies,” said one ”Olainst the enemy toht have spoken In the miniature world of Xuchotl each handful of feudists was an army, and the empty halls between the castles was the country over which they caned

[Illustration: ”Even as he shi+fted, he hurled the knife”]

The other meditated for a space

”Suppose with their aid we destroy Xotalanc,” he said ”What then, Xatmec?”

”Why,” returned Xatmec, ”ill drive red nails for them all The captives ill burn and flay and quarter”

”But afterward?” pursued the other ”After we have slain theht? All ht and hated the Xotalancas With the feud ended, what is left?”

Xatone beyond the destruction of their foes They could not go beyond that

Suddenly both men stiffened at a noise outside the door

”To the door, Xath the Eye----”

Xat his ear to hear through the metal His mate looked into the mirror He started convulsively Men were clustered thickly outside the door; griripped in their teeth--_and their fingers thrust into their ears_ One ore a feathered head-dress had a set of pipes which he set to his lips, and even as the Tecuhltli started to shout a warning, the pipes began to skirl

The cry died in the guard's throat as the thin, weird piping penetrated the ainst the door, as if paralyzed in that position His face was that of a wooden iuard, farther removed from the source of the sound, yet sensed the horror of as taking place, the grisly threat that lay in that de like unseen fingers at the tissues of his brain, filling him with alien e effort he broke the spell, and shrieked a warning in a voice he did not recognize as his own

But even as he cried out, thethat was like a knife in the ear-druony, and all the sanity went out of his face like a flame blown out in a wind Like a madman he ripped loose the chain, tore open the door and rushed out into the hall, sword lifted before his mate could stop hiled body the Xotalancas surged into the guardroo-drawn, blood-

His brain reeling frouard leaped tospear The horror of the sorcery he had just witnessed was sub realization that the eneh a dark-skinned belly he knew nosword crushed his skull, even as wild-eyed warriors cauardroo of steel that brought Conan bounding from his couch, wide awake and broadsword in hand In an instant he had reached the door and flung it open, and was glaring out into the corridor just as Techotl rushed up it, eyes blazing madly

”The Xotalancas!” he screamed, in a voice hardly human, ”_They are within the door!_”

Conan ran down the corridor, even as Valeria eed from her chamber