t
the unwonted echoes reverberating.

His brain reeling from the shock of it all, the remaining guard leaped
to meet them with goring spear. The horror of the sorcery he had just
witnessed was submerged in the stunning realization that the enemy were
in Tecuhltli. And as his spearhead ripped through a dark-skinned belly
he knew no more, for a swinging sword crushed his skull, even as
wild-eyed warriors came pouring in from the chambers behind the
guardroom.

It was the yelling of men and the clanging 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 emerged from her chamber.

"What the devil is it?" she called.

"Techotl says the Xotalancas are in," he answered hurriedly. "That
racket sounds like it."

* * * * *

With the Tecuhltli on their heels they burst into the throne room and
were confronted by a scene beyond the most frantic dream of blood and
fury. Twenty men and women, their black hair streaming, and the white
skulls gleaming on their breasts, were locked in combat with the people
of Tecuhltli. The women on both sides fought as madly as the men, and
already the room and the hall beyond were strewn with corpses.

Olmec, naked but for a breech-clout, was fighting before his throne, and
as the adventurers entered, Tascela ran from an inner chamber with a
sword in her hand.

Xatmec and his mate were dead, so there was none to tell the Tecuhltli
how their foes had found their way into their citadel. Nor was there any
to say what had prompted that mad attempt. But the losses of the
Xotalancas had been greater, their position more desperate, than the
Tecuhltli had known. The maiming of their scaly ally, the destruction of
the Burning Skull, and the news, gasped by a dying man, that mysterious
white-skin allies had joined their enemies, had driven them to the
frenzy of desperation and the wild determination to die dealing death to
their ancient foes.

The Tecuhltli, recovering from the first stunning shock of the surprise
that had swept them back into the throne room and littered the floor
with their corpses, fought back with an equally desperate fury, while
the d