arm was forced excruciatingly up
between her shoulder-blades, but a violent shaking of her head was the
only answer she made.

"Slut!" Valeria cast her from her to sprawl on the floor. The pirate
glared at the prostrate figure with blazing eyes. Fear and the memory of
Tascela's burning eyes stirred in her, rousing all her tigerish
instincts of self-preservation. These people were decadent; any sort of
perversity might be expected to be encountered among them. But Valeria
sensed here something that moved behind the scenes, some secret terror
fouler than common degeneracy. Fear and revulsion of this weird city
swept her. These people were neither sane nor normal; she began to doubt
if they were even human. Madness smoldered in the eyes of them all--all
except the cruel, cryptic eyes of Tascela, which held secrets and
mysteries more abysmal than madness.

She lifted her head and listened intently. The halls of Xuchotl were as
silent as if it were in reality a dead city. The green jewels bathed the
chamber in a nightmare glow, in which the eyes of the woman on the floor
glittered eerily up at her. A thrill of panic throbbed through Valeria,
driving the last vestige of mercy from her fierce soul.

"Why did you try to drug me?" she muttered, grasping the woman's black
hair, and forcing her head back to glare into her sullen, long-lashed
eyes. "Did Tascela send you?"

No answer. Valeria cursed venomously and slapped the woman first on one
cheek and then the other. The blows resounded through the room, but
Yasala made no outcry.

"Why don't you scream?" demanded Valeria savagely. "Do you fear someone
will hear you? Whom do you fear? Tascela? Olmec? Conan?"

* * * * *

Yasala made no reply. She crouched, watching her captor with eyes
baleful as those of a basilisk. Stubborn silence always fans anger.
Valeria turned and tore a handful of cords from a near-by hanging.

"You sulky slut!" she said between her teeth. "I'm going to strip you
stark naked and tie you across that couch and whip you until you tell me
what you were doing here, and who sent you!"

Yasala made no verbal protest, nor did she offer any resistance, as
Valeria carried out the first part of her threat with a fury that her
captive's obstinacy only sharpened. Then for a space there was no sound
in the chamber except the whistle and crackle of hard-woven silken cords
on naked flesh. Yasala could not move her fast-bound hands