fuge among the dead.

Valeria advanced to the door and looked down a flight of stone steps
that vanished quickly into utter blackness. Evidently it was a shaft
that led straight to the pits below the city, without opening upon any
of the lower floors. She shivered slightly at the thought of the
thousands of corpses lying in their stone crypts down there, wrapped in
their moldering cloths. She had no intention of groping her way down
those stone steps. Yasala doubtless knew every turn and twist of the
subterranean tunnels.

She was turning back, baffled and furious, when a sobbing cry welled up
from the blackness. It seemed to come from a great depth, but human
words were faintly distinguishable, and the voice was that of a woman.
"Oh, help! Help, in Set's name! Ahhh!" It trailed away, and Valeria
thought she caught 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 were walled off from the rest, too securely for their enemies
to break through. Besides, that tittering had not sounded like a human
being 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 determined to make her way to Conan's room
and urge him, if he still lived, to join her in an attempt to fight
their way out of that city of devils.

But even as she reached the door that opened into the corridor, a
long-drawn scream of agony rang through the halls, followed by the stamp
of running feet and the loud clangor of swords.

_5. Twenty Red Nails_

Two warriors lounged in the guardroom on the floor known as the Tier of
the Eagle. 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 attempted on either side.

"The strangers are strong allies," said one. "Olmec will move against
the enemy tomorrow, I believe."

He spoke as a soldier in a war might have spoken. In the miniature world
of Xuchotl each handful of feudists was an army, and the empty halls
between the castles was