Avon Fantasy Reader No. 14 — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

Conrad had killed, his helmet went off and I crushed his skull before he could recover his balance. Gorat was up and coming for me, and the other was swinging his sword in both hands for a death blow, but he never struck, for Conrad caught up the spear that had been dropped, and spitted him from behind, neat as a whistle. “Gorat’s point raked my ribs as he thrust for my heart and IJ twisted to one side, and his up-flung arm broke like a rotten stick beneath my stroke but saved his life. He was game—they were all game or they'd never have rushed my gun. He sprang in like a blood-mad tiger, hacking tor my head. J ducked and avoided the full force of the blow but couldn't get away from it alto- gether and it laid my scalp open in a three-inch gash, clear to the bone— here’s the scar to prove it. Blood blinded me and I struck back like a wounded lion, blind and terrible, and by sheer chance I landed squarely. 1 felt the ax crunch through metal and bone, the haft splintered in my hand, and there was Gorat dead at my feet in a horrid welter of blood and brains. “T shook the blood out of my eyes and looked about for my companions. Conrad was helping Naluna up and it seemed to me she swayed a little. There was blood on her bosom but it might have come from the red dagger she gripped in a hand stained to the wrist. God! it wus a bit sickening, to think of it now. The water we stood in was choked with corpses and ghastly red. Naluna pointed out across the lake and we saw Eridu’s boats sweeping down on us—a good way off as yet, but coming swiftly. She led us at a run away trom the lake’s edge. My wound was bleeding as only a scalp wound can bleed, but I wasn't weakened as yet. I shook the blood out of my eyes, saw Naluna stagger as she ran and tried to put my arm about her to steady her, but she shook me off. “She was making for the cliffs and we reached them out of breath. Naluna leaned against Conrad and pointed upward with a shaky hand, breathing in great, sobbing gasps. | caught her meaning. A rope ladder led upward. | made her go first with Conrad following. | came after him, drawing the lad- der up behind me. We'd gotten some half-way up when the boats landed and the warriors raced up the shore, loosing their arrows as they ran. But we were in the shadow of the cliffs, which made aim uncertain, and most of the shafts fell short or. broke on the face of the cliff. One stuck in my left arm, but I shook it out and didn’t stop to congratulate the marksman on his eye. “Once over the cliff's edge, | jerked the ladder up and tore it loose, and then turned to see Naluna sway and collapse in Conrad’s arms. We laid her gently on the grass, but a man with half an eye could tell she was going fast. I wiped the blood from her bosom and stared aghast. Only a woman with a great love could have made that run and that climb with such a wound as that girl had under her heart. “Conrad cradled her head in his lap and tried to falter a few words, but she weakly put her arms around his neck and drew his face down to hers. “ “Weep not for me, my loyer,’ she said, as her voice weakened to a whisper. “Thou hast been mine aforetime, as thou shalt be again. In the mud huts of the Old River, before Sumer was, when we tended the flocks, we were as onc. In the palaces of Old Eridu, before the barbarians came out of the East, we 17 comicbooks.com