ntal power driving the people of Xuchotl inexorably on to doom and
extinction. It filled their whole lives. They were born in it, and they
expected to die in it. They never left their barricaded castle except to
steal forth into the Halls of Silence that lay between the opposing
fortresses, to slay and be slain. Sometimes the raiders returned with
frantic captives, or with grim tokens of victory in fight. Sometimes
they did not return at all, or returned only as severed limbs cast down
before the bolted bronze doors. It was a ghastly, unreal nightmare
existence these people lived, shut off from the rest of the world,
caught together like rabid rats in the same trap, butchering one another
through the years, crouching and creeping through the sunless corridors
to maim and torture and murder.

While Olmec talked, Valeria felt the blazing eyes of Tascela fixed upon
her. The princess seemed not to hear what Olmec was saying. Her
expression, as he narrated victories or defeats, did not mirror the wild
rage or fiendish exultation that alternated on the faces of the other
Tecuhltli. The feud that was an obsession to her clansmen seemed
meaningless to her. Valeria found her indifferent callousness more
repugnant than Olmec's naked ferocity.

"And we can never leave the city," said Olmec. "For fifty years no one
has left it except those----" Again he checked himself.

"Even without the peril of the dragons," he continued, "we who were born
and raised in the city would not dare leave it. We have never set foot
outside the walls. We are not accustomed to the open sky and the naked
sun. No; we were born in Xuchotl, and in Xuchotl we shall die."

"Well," said Conan, "with your leave we'll take our chances with the
dragons. This feud is none of our business. If you'll show us to the
west gate, we'll be on our way."

Tascela's hands clenched, and she started to speak, but Olmec
interrupted her: "It is nearly nightfall. If you wander forth into the
plain by night, you will certainly fall prey to the dragons."

"We crossed it last night, and slept in the open without seeing any,"
returned Conan.

Tascela smiled mirthlessly. "You dare not leave Xuchotl!"

Conan glared at her with instinctive antagonism; she was not looking at
him, but at the woman opposite him.

"I think they dare," retorted Olmec. "But look you, Conan and Valeria,
the gods must have sent you to us, to cast victory into the laps of the
Tecuhltli! You are profes