[Music] the clanger of the swords had died away the shouting of the slaughter was hushed silence lay on the red stained snow The Bleak pale Sun that glittered so blindingly from the ice fields and the snow covered planes struck Sheen of silver from rent corselet and Broken Blade with a dead lay as they had fallen the nerveless hand yet gripped the broken Hilt helmeted heads backd drawn in the death throws tilted red beards and golden beards grimly upward as if in last invocation to yamir the frost giant God of a Warrior Race Across the red
drifts and male clad forms two figures glared at each other in that utter desolation only they moved the frosty sky was over them the white illimited plane around them the dead men at their feet slowly through the corpses they came as ghosts might come to a trist through the shambles of a dead world in the brooding silence they stood face to face both were tall men built like tigers their shields were gone their corselets battered and dented blood dried on their mail their swords were stained red their horned helmets showed the marks of fierce Strokes
one was beardless and black maned the locks and beard of the other were red as the blood on the sunlet snow man said he tell me your name so that my brothers in vanaheim may know who was the last of Wolf's band to fall before the sword of heimel not in vanaheim growled the blackhaired warrior but in Valhalla will you tell your brothers that you met kodan of Sam area heimel roared and leaped and his sword flashed in deathly Ark Conan staggered and his vision was filled with red Sparks as the singing blade crashed on
his helmet shivering into bits of blue fire but as he reeled he thrust with all the power of his broad shoulders behind the humming Blade the sharp Point tore through brass scales and bones and heart and the redhaired Warrior died at Conan's feet the samarians stood upright trailing his sword a sudden sick weariness assailing him the glare of the sun on the snow cut his eyes like a knife and the sky seemed shrunken and strangely apart he turned away from the trampled expanse where yellow bearded Warriors lay locked with red-haired Slayers in the Embrace of
death a few steps he took and the glare of the snow fields was suddenly dimmed a rushing wave of blindness engulfed him and he sank down into the snow supporting himself on one mailed arm seeking to shake the blindness out of his eyes as a lion might shake his man a silvery laugh cut through his dizziness and his sight cleared slowly he looked up there was a strangeness about all the landscape that he could not place or Define an unfamiliar tinge to Earth and Sky but he did not think long of this before him swaying
like a sapling in the wind stood a woman her body was like Ivory to his Daz and gaze and save for a light veil of gossamer she was naked as the day her slender bare feet were whiter than the snow they spurned she laughed down at the bewildered Warrior her laughter was sweeter than the Rippling of silvery fountains and poisonous with cruel mockery who are you asked the Samaran once you come what matters her voice was more musical than a silver stringed harp but it was edged with cruelty call up your men said he grasping
his sword yet don't my strength fail me they shall not Take Me Alive I see that you are of the vanir have I said so his gaze went again to her unruly lucks which at first glance he had thought to be red now he saw that they were neither red nor yellow but a glorious compound of both colors he gazed Spellbound her hair was like elf in Gold the sun Struck it so dazzlingly that he could scarcely bear to look upon it her eyes were likewise neither wholly blue nor wholly gray but of Shifting colors
and dancing lights and clouds of colors he could not Define her full red lips smiled and from her slender feet to the blinding crown of her billowy hair her Ivory body was as perfect as the dream of a god Conan's pulse hammered in his temples I cannot tell said he whether you are of vanaheim and my enemy or of Asgard and my friend far have I wandered but a woman like you I have never seen your locks blind me with their brightness never have I seen such hair not even among the fairest Daughters of the
aier by air who are you to swear by yir she mocked what know you of the Gods of ice and snow you who have come up from the south to Adventure among an alien people by the dark gods of my own race he cried in Anger though I am not of the goldenhair AER none has been more forward in Sword Play this day I have seen four score men fall and I alone have survived the field where wolfer Weavers met the Wolves of bragi tell me woman have you seen the flash of male out across
the snow Plains or seen armed Men Moving upon the ice I have seen the hor Frost glittering in the sun she answered I have heard the wind Whispering across the Everlasting snows he shook his head with a sigh NE should have come up with us before the battle joined I fear he and his fighting men have been ambushed wolf here and his Warriors lie dead I had thought there was no village within many leagues of this spot for the war carried us far but you cannot have come a great distance over these snows naked as
you are lead me to your tribe if you are of Asgard for I am faint with blows and the weariness of St my Village is further than you can walk Conan of Samaria she laughed spreading her arms wide she swayed before him her Golden Hair Ling sensuously her cilent eyes half shadowed beneath their long silken lashes am I not beautiful oh man like Dawn running naked on the Snows he muttered his eyes burning like those of a wolf then why do you not rise and follow me who is the strong Warrior Who falls down before
me she chanted in maddening mockery lie down and die in the snow with the other Fool's Conan of the black hair you cannot follow where I would lead with an oath the Samaran heaved himself up on his feet his blue eyes blazing his dark scarred face contorted rage shook his soul but desire for the taunting figure before him hammered at his temples and drove his Wild Blood fiercely through his veins passion Fier as physical Agony flooded his whole being so that Earth and Sky swam red to his dizzy gaze in the madness that swept upon
Him weariness and faintness were swept away he spoke no word as he drove at her fingers spread to grip her soft flesh with a shriek of laughter she leaped back and ran laughing at him over her white shoulder with a low growl Conan followed he had forgotten the fight forgotten the mailed Warriors who lay in their blood forgotten yord and the reavers who had failed to reach the fight he had thought only for the Slender white shape which seemed to float rather than run before him out across the white blinding plane the chase led the
trampled red field fell out of sight behind him but still Conan kept on with the silent tenacity of his race his mailed feet broke through the fro Frozen crust he sank deep in the drifts and forged through them by sheer strength but the girl danced across the snow light as a feather floating across a pool her naked feet barely left their imprint on the hor Frost that overlaid the crust in spite of the fire in his veins the cold bit through the Warrior's maale and furlin tunic but the girl in her gossamer Veil ran as
lightly as gay as if she danced through the Palm and Rose Gardens of Po pain on and on she led and Conan followed black curses drooled through the Samaran parched lips the great veins in his temples swelled and throbbed and his teeth nashed you cannot Escape me he roared lead me into a trap and I'll pile the heads of your Kinsmen at your feet hide from me and I'll tear apart the mountains to find you I'll follow you to hell her maddening laughter floated back to him and foam flew from The Barbarians lips further and
further into the wastes she led him the land changed the wide Plains gave way to low Hills marching upward in broken ranges far to the North he caught a glimpse of towering mountains blue with the distance or white with the Eternal snows above these mountains shown the flaring rays of the Borealis they spread fanwise into the sky Frosty blad Blades of cold flaming light changing in color growing and brightening above him the skies glowed and crackled with strange lights and gleams the snow Shone weirdly now Frosty blue now icy Crimson now cold silver through a
shimmering icy realm of Enchantment Conan plunged doggedly onward in a crystalline maze where the only reality was the white body dancing across the glittering snow Beyond his reach ever Beyond his reach he did not Wonder at the strangeness of it all not even when two gigantic figures rose up to Bar his way the scales of their male were white with hor Frost their helmets and their axes were covered with ice snow sprinkled their locks in their beards were spikes of icicles their eyes were cold as the lights that streamed above them brothers cried the girl
dancing between them look who follows I have brought you a man to sleep L take his heart that we may lay it smoking on our father's board the Giants answered with Roars like the grinding of icebergs on a frozen Shore and heaved up their shining axes as the maddened Samaran hurled himself upon them a frosty blade flashed before his eyes blinding him with its brightness and he gave back a terrible stroke that sheared through his fo's thigh with a groan the victim fell and at the instant Conan was dashed into the snow his left shoulder
numb from the blow of the Survivor from which the Samaran male had barely saved his life Conan saw the remaining giant looming high above him like a Colossus carved of ice etched against the cold glowing Sky the axe fell to sink through the snow and deep into the Frozen Earth as Conan hurled himself aside and leaped to his feet the giant roared and wrenched his axe free but even as he did Conan's sword sang down the Giant's knees bent and he sank slowly into the the snow which turned Crimson with the blood that gushed from
his half severed neck Conan wheeled to see the girl standing a short distance away staring at him in wide-eyed horror all the mockery gone from her face he cried out fiercely and the blood drops flew from his sword as his hand shook in the intensity of his passion call the rust of your brothers he cried I'll give their hearts to the Wolves you cannot Escape me with a cry of fright she turned and ran fleetly she did not laugh now nor mock him over her white shoulder she ran as for her life and though he
strained every nerve in th until his temples were like to burst and the snow swam red to his gaze she Drew away from him dwindling in the witch fire of the Skies until she was a figure no bigger than a child then dancing White Flame on the snow then a dim blur in the distance but grinding his teeth until the blood started from his gums he reeled on and he saw the blur grow to a dancing White Flame and the flame to a figure big as a child and then she was running less than 100
Paces ahead of him and slowly the space narrowed foot by foot she was running with effort now her golden locks blowing free he heard the quick panting of her breath and saw a flash of fear in the she cast over her white shoulder the Grim endurance of the Barbarian had served him well the speed ebbed from her flashing white legs she reeled in her gate in his Untamed Soul leaped up the fires of hell she had fanned so well with an inhuman Roar he closed in on her just as she wheeled with a haunting cry
and flung out her arms to fend him off his sword fell into the snow as he crushed her to him her L Body bent backwards as she fought with desperate frenzy in his iron arms her Golden Hair blew about his face blinding him with its Sheen the feel of her slender body twisting in his mailed arms drove him to Blinder Madness his strong fingers sank deep into her smooth flesh and that flesh was cold as ice it was as if he embraced not a woman of human flesh and blood but a woman of flaming ice
she red her golden head aside striving to avoid the fierce kisses that bruised her red lips you you are as cold as the Snows he mumbled dazedly I will warm you with the fire in my own blood with a scream and a desperate wrench she slipped from his arms leaving her single gossamer garment in his grasp she sprang back and faced him her golden locks in Wild disarray her white bosom heaving her beautiful eyes blazing with Terror for an instant he stood Frozen awed by her Terrible Beauty as she posed naked against the Snows and
in that instant she flung her arms toward the lights that glowed in the skies above her and cried out in a voice that rang in Conan's ears Forever After yamir oh my father save me Conan was leaping forward arms spread to seize her when with a crack like the breaking of an Ice Mountain the whole Skies leaped into Icy Fire the girl's Ivory body was suddenly enveloped in a cold blue flame so blinding that the Samaran threw up his hands to Shield his eyes from the Intolerable blaze a fleeting instant skies and snowy Hills were
bathed in crackling white Flames Blue Darts of icy light and Frozen Crimson fires then Conan staggered and cried out the girl was gone the glowing snow lay empty and bare high above his head the witch lights flashed and played in a frosty Sky gone mad and among the distant Blue Mountain Mountain there sounded a rolling thunder as of a gigantic War Chariot rushing behind steeds whose frantic Hooves struck lightning from the Snows and Echoes from the skies then suddenly the Borealis the snow clad Hills and the Blazing Heavens wheeled drunkenly to Conan's sight thousands of
fireballs burst with showers of Sparks and the sky itself became a Titanic wheel which rained stars as it spun under his feet the snowy Hills heaved up like a wave and the Samaran crumpled into the Snows to lie Motionless in a cold Dark Universe whose son was extinguished ions ago Conan felt the movement of life alien and unguessed an earthquake had him in its grasp and was shaking him to and fro at the same time chaing his hands and feet until he yelled in pain and fury and groped for his sword he's coming too horse
said a voice haste we must rub the frost out of his limbs if he's ever to wield sword again he won't open his left hand growled another he's clutching something Conan opened his eyes and stared into the bearded faces that bent over him he was surrounded by tall golden-haired Warriors in male and Furs Conan you live by gasped the Samaran am I alive or are we all dead and in vhalla we live grunted the a here busy over Conan's half Frozen feet we had to fight our way through an ambush or we had come up
with you before the battle was joined the corpses were scarce cold when we came upon the field we did not find you among the dead so we followed your Spore in yamir's name Conan why did you wander off into the Wast of the north we have followed your tracks in the snow for hours had a blizzard come up and hidden them we had never found you by air swear not so often by air uneasily muttered a warrior glancing at the distant mountains this is his land and the God bides among Yonder mountains the Legends say
I saw a woman Conan answered hazily we met bragi's men in the plains I know not how long we fought I alone lived I was dizzy and faint the land lay like a dream before me only now do all things seem natural and familiar the woman came and taunted me she was beautiful as a frozen flame from Hell A Strange Madness fell upon me when I looked at her so I forgot all else in the world I followed her did you not find her tracks or the Giants and an icy male I slew Nord shook
his head we found only your tracks in the snow Conan then it may be I am mad said Conan dazedly yet you yourself are no more real to me than was the golden locked witch who fled naked across the Snows before me yet from under my very hands she vanished in icy flame he is Delirious whispered a warrior not so cried an older man whose eyes were wild and weird it was atali the daughter of yir the frost giant to fields of the Dead she comes and shows herself to the dying myself when I was
a boy I saw her when I lay half slain on the bloody field of wolf Raven I saw her walk among the dead in the Snows her naked body gleaming like Ivory and her Golden Hair unbearably bright in the Moonlight I lay and howled like a dying dog because I could not crawl after her she lures men from stricken Fields into the wastelands to be slain by her brothers the ice giants who lay men's red hearts smoking on the amir's board the Samaran has seen atali the frost Giant's daughter ba grunted horsa old gorm's mind
was touched in his youth by a sword cut on the head Conan was delirious from the fury of battle look how his helmet is dented any of those blow might have addled his brain it was an hallucination he followed into the wastes he is from the south what does he know of atali you speak truth perhaps muttered Conan it was all strange and weird by Crum he broke off glaring at the object that still dangled from his clenched left fist the others gaped silently at the veil he held up a wisp of gossamer that was
never spun by human disti [Music]
