said. "A warrior tells me that Xatmec opened
the door to the Xotalancas and was cut down as they stormed into the
guardroom. This warrior came to the guardroom from the inner hall just
in time to see it happen and to hear the last of a weird strain of music
which froze his very soul. Tolkemec used to talk of these pipes, which
the Xuchotlans swore were hidden somewhere in the catacombs with the
bones of the ancient wizard who used them in his lifetime. Somehow the
dogs of Xotalanc found them and learned their secret."

"Somebody ought to go to Xotalanc and see if any remain alive," said
Conan. "I'll go if somebody will guide me."

Olmec glanced at the remnants of his people. There were only twenty left
alive, and of these several lay groaning on the floor. Tascela was the
only one of the Tecuhltli who had escaped without a wound. The princess
was untouched, though she had fought as savagely as any.

"Who will go with Conan to Xotalanc?" asked Olmec.

Techotl limped forward. The wound in his thigh had started bleeding
afresh, and he had another gash across his ribs.

"I will go!"

"No, you won't," vetoed Conan. "And you're not going either, Valeria. In
a little while that leg will be getting stiff."

"I will go," volunteered a warrior, who was knotting a bandage about a
slashed forearm.

"Very well, Yanath. Go with the Cimmerian. And you, too, Topal." Olmec
indicated another man whose injuries were slight. "But first aid us to
lift the badly wounded on these couches where we may bandage their
hurts."

This was done quickly. As they stooped to pick up a woman who had been
stunned by a war-club, Olmec's beard brushed Topal's ear. Conan thought
the prince muttered something to the warrior, but he could not be sure.
A few moments later he was leading his companions down the hall.

Conan glanced back as he went out the door, at that shambles where the
dead lay on the smoldering floor, blood-stained dark limbs knotted in
attitudes of fierce muscular effort, dark faces frozen in masks of hate,
glassy eyes glaring up at the green fire-jewels which bathed the ghastly
scene in a dusky emerald witch-light. Among the dead the living moved
aimlessly, like people moving in a trance. Conan heard Olmec call a
woman and direct her to bandage Valeria's leg. The pirate followed the
woman into an adjoining chamber, already beginning to limp slightly.

* * * * *

Warily the two Tecuhltli led Conan