e upon a
walled city here so many long weeks' march from the nearest outposts of
any sort of civilization.

Her hands tiring from clinging to the spire-like pinnacle, she let
herself down on the shelf, frowning in indecision. She had come
far--from the camp of the mercenaries by the border town of Sukhmet
amidst the level grasslands, where desperate adventurers of many races
guard the Stygian frontier against the raids that come up like a red
wave from Darfar. Her flight had been blind, into a country of which she
was wholly ignorant. And now she wavered between an urge to ride
directly to that city in the plain, and the instinct of caution which
prompted her to skirt it widely and continue her solitary flight.

Her thoughts were scattered by the rustling of the leaves below her. She
wheeled cat-like, snatched at her sword; and then she froze motionless,
staring wide-eyed at the man before her.

He was almost a giant in stature, muscles rippling smoothly under his
skin which the sun had burned brown. His garb was similar to hers,
except that he wore a broad leather belt instead of a girdle. Broadsword
and poniard hung from this belt.

"Conan, the Cimmerian!" ejaculated the woman. "What are _you_ doing on
my trail?"

He grinned hardly, and his fierce blue eyes burned with a light any
woman could understand as they ran over her magnificent figure,
lingering on the swell of her splendid breasts beneath the light shirt,
and the clear white flesh displayed between breeches and boot-tops.

"Don't you know?" he laughed. "Haven't I made my admiration for you
plain ever since I first saw you?"

"A stallion could have made it no plainer," she answered disdainfully.
"But I never expected to encounter you so far from the ale-barrels and
meat-pots of Sukhmet. Did you really follow me from Zarallo's camp, or
were you whipped forth for a rogue?"

He laughed at her insolence and flexed his mighty biceps.

"You know Zarallo didn't have enough knaves to whip me out of camp," he
grinned. "Of course I followed you. Lucky thing for you, too, wench!
When you knifed that Stygian officer, you forfeited Zarallo's favor and
protection, and you outlawed yourself with the Stygians."

"I know it," she replied sullenly. "But what else could I do? You know
what my provocation was."

"Sure," he agreed. "If I'd been there, I'd have knifed him myself. But
if a woman must live in the war-camps of men, she can expect such
things."

Valeria