The Tower of the Elephant by Robert E. Howard

Author:Robert E. Howard
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Science Fiction, Fiction, General
ISBN: 9781406572261
Publisher: Dodo Press
Published: 2008-02-22T17:07:37.494000+00:00

dealt doom to the lions in the gardens below.

Gingerly the barbarian ran his hands over the man's half-naked body, seeking a wound. But the onlymarks of violence were between his shoulders, high up near the base of his bull-neck--three smallwounds, which looked as if three nails had been driven deep in the flesh and withdrawn. The edges ofthese wounds were black, and a faint smell as of putrefaction was evident. Poisoned darts? thoughtConan--but in that case the missiles should be still in the wounds.

Cautiously he stole toward the golden door, pushed it open, and looked inside. The chamber lay empty,bathed in the cold, pulsing glow of the myriad jewels. In the very center of the ceiling he idly noted acurious design--a black eight-sided pattern, in the center of which four gems glittered with a red flameunlike the white blaze of the other jewels. Across the room there was another door, like the one in whichhe stood, except that it was not carved in the scale pattern. Was it from that door that death hadcome?--and having struck down its victim, had it retreated by the same way?

Closing the door behind him, the Cimmerian advanced into the chamber. His bare feet made no soundon the crystal floor. There were no chairs or tables in the chamber, only three or four silken couches,embroidered with gold and worked in strange serpentine designs, and several silver-bound mahoganychests. Some were sealed with heavy golden locks; others lay open, their carven lids thrown back,revealing heaps of jewels in a careless riot of splendor to the Cimmerian's astounded eyes. Conan sworebeneath his breath; already he had looked upon more wealth that night than he had ever dreamed existedin allthe world, and he grew dizzy thinking of what must be the value of the jewel he sought.

He was in the center of the room now, going stooped forward, head thrust out warily, sword advanced,when again death struck at him soundlessly. A flying shadow that swept across the gleaming floor was hisonly warning, and his instinctive sidelong leap all that saved his life. He had a flashing glimpse of a hairyblack horror that swung past him with a clashing of frothing fangs, and something splashed on his bareshoulder that burned like drops of liquid hellfire. Springing back, sword high, he saw the horror strike thefloor, wheel and scuttle toward him with appalling speed--a gigantic black spider, such as men see only innightmare dreams.

It was as large as a pig, and its eight thick hairy legs drove its ogreish body over the floor at headlongpace; its four evilly gleaming eyes shone with a horrible intelligence, and its fangs dripped venom thatConan knew, from the burning of his shoulder where only a few drops had splashed as the thing struckand missed, was laden with swift death. This was the killer that had dropped from its perch in the middleof the ceiling on a strand of its web, on the neck of the Nemedian. Fools that they were not to havesuspected that the

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