t! There is no escape from Xuchotl! You
will spend the rest of your lives in this city!"

"What do you mean?" growled Conan, clapping his hand to his hilt and
stepping about so as to face both the dais and the rest of the room.
"Are you telling us we're prisoners?"

"She did not mean that," interposed Olmec. "We are your friends. We
would not restrain you against your will. But I fear other circumstances
will make it impossible for you to leave Xuchotl."

His eyes flickered to Valeria, and he lowered them quickly.

"This woman is Tascela," he said. "She is a princess of Tecuhltli. But
let food and drink be brought our guests. Doubtless they are hungry, and
weary from their long travels."

He indicated an ivory table, and after an exchange of glances, the
adventurers seated themselves. The Cimmerian was suspicious. His fierce
blue eyes roved about the chamber, and he kept his sword close to his
hand. But an invitation to eat and drink never found him backward. His
eyes kept wandering to Tascela, but the princess had eyes only for his
white-skinned companion.

* * * * *

Techotl, who had bound a strip of silk about his wounded thigh, placed
himself at the table to attend to the wants of his friends, seeming to
consider it a privilege and honor to see after their needs. He inspected
the food and drink the others brought in gold vessels and dishes, and
tasted each before he placed it before his guests. While they ate, Olmec
sat in silence on his ivory seat, watching them from under his broad
black brows. Tascela sat beside him, chin cupped in her hands and her
elbows resting on her knees. Her dark, enigmatic eyes, burning with a
mysterious light, never left Valeria's supple figure. Behind her seat a
sullen handsome girl waved an ostrich-plume fan with a slow rhythm.

The food was fruit of an exotic kind unfamiliar to the wanderers, but
very palatable, and the drink was a light crimson wine that carried a
heady tang.

"You have come from afar," said Olmec at last. "I have read the books of
our fathers. Aquilonia lies beyond the lands of the Stygians and the
Shemites, beyond Argos and Zingara; and Cimmeria lies beyond Aquilonia."

"We have each a roving foot," answered Conan carelessly.

"How you won through the forest is a wonder to me," quoth Olmec. "In
bygone days a thousand fighting-men scarcely were able to carve a road
through its perils."

"We encountered a bench-legged mons