Conan the Barbarian by L. Sprague de Camp, Lin Carter Read Free Book Online Page B

sat with his back to the wall of the cave, trying by candlelight to decipher the words on a scroll. He had picked up a smattering of written Hyrkanian; now, with knotted brow, slowly moving his lips, he was puzzling out each word written in the spidery script of Turan. The writing on the scroll was a love poem, which mightily perplexed the youth even when he understood most of the words. He had never before heard sentiments like these.
    Presently, Toghrul’s raised voice drew his attention. The Pit master was chaffering with a slim young woman wrapped in a cloak of fine sable. Her dress, jewels, and confident manner suggested a lady of high rank, perhaps even kin to royalty. As Conan caught the exchange of words, he gathered that the woman wished to retain his services as a love partner for the night. He drew a sharp breath in amazement, for such a thing was unheard-of among the Cimmerian tribesmen. Then his astonishment changed to ire at the thought of his master’s gaining riches from such a use of his slave’s body.
    Toghrul took the girl’s money, unlocked the gate, opened it just enough for her to slip through, then hastily relocked it. As the girl, dropping her fur cloak, approached him hesitantly, the Cimmerian’s eyes roved up and down her slender, diaphanously clad form. He felt his blood pound as he stepped forward to meet her. Then he noticed Toghrul at the gate, grinning, his eyes ashine in the candlelight.
    “What are you waiting for?” growled Conan.
    “To see your performance, Cimmerian,” snickered the Pit master.
    “To the nine hells with you!" snarled Conan. “There’ll be no performance so long as you stand there goggling!”
    The girl spoke in a light, high voice. “Indeed, sirrah, I have paid you well. Now depart, I command you!”
    As Toghrul, disappointed, shrugged and strode off, Conan said, “Now, lady, you will have to show me a thing or two. I have had some experience at man-slaying, but this kind of combat is new to me....”
    The full moon was on its downward path across the heavens when a small sound broke Conan’s slumber. He raised himself on one elbow, staring through the darkness. A faint light came from the declining moon, which shot silver arrows through the imprisoning bars. As a lazy cloud drifted across the moon, the landscape seemed bathed in lustreless crimson. A heavy silence lay upon the world, as if Nature held her breath and waited. Beside Conan, the sleeping girl stirred.
    The Cimmerian did not know what had aroused him; but his savage instincts warned him of impending danger. Quietly, he reached for his garments and pulled them on.
    Somewhere a dog barked, then another. Soon every dog within earshot gave uneasy tongue. A hoarse whinnied; then Conan heard a chorus of whinnies. Asses brayed, and restless cattle lowed in their pastures. The entire animal kingdom seemed to cry out a warning of impending disaster.
    Suddenly the earth shook. A muffled moan within the ground swelled to a rumbling roar. The ground cracked open. A stream of rocks cascaded down the hillside past the entrance to the cave.
    The girl woke, screaming, and fumbled for her lover; but Conan, fully clad, was crouching on the cave floor, his outstretched arms braced against the stone wall, as the ground heaved and shook beneath him. Huddled there, he recalled the legends that his father told him about giants in the earth and wondered whether some of them, astir, were causing the catastrophe.
    The rumble increased in volume, until Conan had to shout to the trembling girl, urging her to join him. From Kolari came a continuing ululation of screams as terror-stricken people rushed from their tumbling houses. Behind Conan and the girl, a section of the cave roof collapsed with a thunderous roar, filling the air with rock dust.
    As Conan, growling curses, seized the bars that penned them in, the ground beneath his feet split open. A line like black lightning zigzagged down the rock in which the hinges of