-7-

     With wobbling knees and swimming head, the priest that had
lapsed into an epileptic siezure rose unsteadily to his feet.
While enacting his choking fit in writhing agony, the shaman was
overlooked by Grignr.  The barbarian had mistaken the siezure for
the death throes of the acolyte, allowing the priest to avoid his
stinging blade.  The sight that met the priests inflamed eyes
nearly served to sprawl him upon the floor once more.  The
sacrificial sat it grim, blood splattered silence all around him,
broken only by the occasional yelps and howles of his maimed and
butchered fellows.  Above his head rose the hideous idol, its
empty socket holding the shaman's ifurbished infuriated gaze.
His eyes turned to a stoney glaze with the realization of the
pillage and blasphemy.  Due to his high succeptibility following
the siezure, the priest was transformed into a raving maniac bent
soley upon reaking vengeance.  With lips curled and quivering, a
crust of foam dripping from them, the acolyte drew a long, wicked
looking jewel hilted scimitar from his silver girdle and fled
through the aperature in the ceiling uttering a faintly
perceptible ceremonial jibberish.

                             -7 1/2-

     A sweeping scimitar swung towards Grignr's head in a
shadowed blur of motion.  With Axe raised over his head, Grignr
prepared to parry the blow, while gaping wideeyed in open mouthed
perplexity.  Suddenly a sharp snap resounded behind the frothing
shaman.  The scimitar, halfway through its fatal sweep, dropped
from a quivering nerveless hand, clattering harmlessly to the
stoneage.  Cutting his screech short with a bubbling, red mouthed
gurgle, the lacerated acolyte staggered under the pressure of the
released spring-board.  After a moment of hopeless struggling,
the shaman buckled, sprawling face down in a widening pool of
bllod and entrails, his regal purple robe blending enhancingly
with the swirling streams of crimson.
     "Mrifk!  I thought I had killed the last of those dogs;"
muttered Grignr in a half apathetic state.
     "Nay Grignr.  You doubtless grew careless while giving vent
to your lusts.  But let us not tarry any long lest we over tax
the fates.  The paths leading to freedom will soon be barred.
The wretch's crys must certainly have attracted unwanted
attention," the wench mused.
     "By what direction shall we pursue our flight?"
     "Up that stair and down the corridor a short distance is the
concealed enterance to a tunnel seldom used by others than the
prince, and known to few others save the palace's royalty.  It is
used mainly by the prince when he wishes to take leave of the
palace in secret.  It is not always in the Prince's best
interests to leave his chateau in public view.  Even while under
heavy guard he is often assaulted by hurtling stones and rotting
fruits.  The commoners have little love for him." lectured the
nerelady!
     "It is amazing that they would ever have left a pig like him
become their ruler.  I should imagine that his people would rise
up and crucify him like the dog he is."
     "Alas, Grignr, it is not as simple as all that.  His
soldiers are well paid by him.  So long as he keeps their wages
up they will carry out his damned wished.  The crude impliments
of the commonfolk would never stand up under an onslaught of
forged blades and protective armor; they would be going to their
own slaughter," stated Carthena to a confused, but angered Grignr
as they topped the stairway.
     "Yet how can they bear to live under such oppression?  I
would sooner die beneath the sword than live under such a dog's
command." added Grignr as the pair stalked down the hall in the
direction opposite that in which Grignr had come.
     "But all men are not of the same mold that you are born of,
they choose to live as they are so as to save their filthy necks
from the chopping block." Returned Carthena in a disgusted tone
as she cast an appiesed glance towards the stalwart figure at her
side whose left arm was wound dextrously about her slim waist;
his slowly waning torch casting their images in intermingling
wisps as it dangled from his left hand.
     Presently Carthena came upon the panel, concealed amonst the
other granite slabs and discernable only by the burned out
cresset above it.  "As I push the cresset aside push the panel
inwards."  Catrhena motioned to the panel she was refering to and
twisted the cresset in a counterclockwise motion.  Grignr braced
his right shoulder against the walling, concentrating the force
of his bulk against it.  The slab gradually swung inward with a
slight grating sound.  Carthena stooped beneath Grignr's corded
arms and crawled upon all fours into the passage beyond.  Grignr
followed after easing the slab back into place.
     Winding before the pair was a dark musty tunnel, exhibiting
tangled spider webs from it ceiling to wall and an oozing, sickly
slime running lazily upon its floor.  Hanging from the chipped
wall upon GrignR's right side was a half mouldered corpse, its
grey flacking arms held in place by rusted iron manacles.
Carthena flinched back into Grignr's arms at sight of the leering
set in an ugly distorted grimmace; staring horribly at her from
hollow gaping sockets.
     "This alcove must also be used by Agaphim as a torture
chamber.  I wonder how many of his enemies have disappeared into
these haunts never to be heard from again," pondered the hulking
brute.
     "Let us flee before we are also caught within Agaphim's
ghastly clutches.  The exit from this tunnel cannot be very far
from here!" Said Carthena with a slight sob to her voice, as she
sagged in Grignr's encompasing embrace.
     "Aye; It will be best to be finished with this corridor as
soon as it is possible.  But why do you flinch from the sight of
death so?  Mrift!  You have seen much death this day without
exhibiting such emotions."  Exclaimed Grignr as he led her
trembling form along the dingy confines.
     "---The man hanging from the wall was Doyanta.  He had
committed the folly of showing affections for me in front of
Agaphim --- he never meant any harm by his actions!"  At this
Carthena broke into a slow steady whimpering, chokking her voice
with gasping sobs.  "There was never anything between us yet
Agaphim did this to him!  The beast!  May the demons of Hell's
deepest haunts claw away at his wretched flesh for this merciless
act!" she prayed.
     "I detect that you felt more for this fellow than you wish
to let on ... but enough of this, We can talk of such matters
after we are once more free to do so."  With this Grignr lifted
the grieved female to her feet and strode onward down the
corridor, supporting the bulk of her weight with his surging left
arm.
     Presently a dim light was perceptibly filtering into the
tunnel, casting a dim reddish hue upon the moldy wall of the
passage's grim confines.  Carthena had ceased her whimpering and
partially regained her composure.  "The tunnel's end must be
nearing.  Rays of sunlight are beginning to seep into ..."
     Grignr clameed his right hand over Carthena's mouth and with
a slight struggle pulled her over to the shadows at the right
hand wall of the path, while at the same time thrusting this
torch beneath an overhanging stone to smother its flickering
rays.  "Be silent; I can hear footfalls approaching through the
tunnel;" growled Grignr in a hushed tone.
     "All that you hear are the horses corraled at the far end of
the tunnel.  That is a further sign that we are nearing our
goal." She stated!
     "All that you hear is less than I hear!  I heard footsteps
coming towards us.  Silence yourself that we may find out whom we
are being brought into contact with.  I doubt that any would have
thought as yet of searching this passage for us.  The advantage
of surprize will be upon our side." Grignr warned.
     Carthena cast her eyes downward and ceased any further
pursuit towards conversation, an irritating habit in which she
had gained an amazing proficiency.  Two figures came into the
pairs view, from around a turn in the tunnel.  They were clothed
in rich luxuriant silks and rambling o on in conversation while
ignorant of their crouching foes waiting in an ambush ahead.
     "...That barbarian dog is cringing beneath the weight of the
lash at this moment sire.  He shall cause no more disturbance."
     "Aye, and so it is with any who dare to cross the path of
Sargon's chosen one." said the 2nd man.
     "But the peasants are showing signs of growing unrest.  They
complain that they cannot feet their families while burdened with
your taxes."
     "I shall teach those sluts the meaning of humility!  Order
an immediate increase upon their taxes.  They dare to question my
sovereign authority, Ha-a, they shall soon learn what true
oppression can be.  I will ... "
     A shodowed bulk leapt from behind a jutting promontory as it
brought down a double edged axe with the spped of a striking
thought.  One of the nobles sagged lifeless to the ground, skull
split to the teeth.
     Grignr gasped as he observed the bisected face set in its
leering death agonies.  It was Agafnd!  The dead mans comrade
having recovered from his shock drew a jewel encrusted dagger
from beneath the folds of his robe and lunged toward the
barbarians back.  Grignr spun at the sound from behind and
smashed down his crimsoned axe once more.  His antagonist lunged
howling to a stream of stagnent green water, grasping a spouting
stump that had once been a wrist.  Grignr raised his axe over his
head and prepaired to finish the incomplete job, but was detered
half way through his lunge by a frenzied screech from behind.
     Carthena leapt to the head of the writhing figure, plunging
a smoldering torch into the agonized face.  The howls increased
in their horrid intensity, stifled by the sizzling of roasting
flesh, then died down until the man was reduced to a blubbering
mass of squirming, insensate flesh.
     Grignr advance to Carthena's side wincing slightly from the
putrid aroma of charred flesh that rose in a puff of thick white
smog throughout the chamber.  Carthena reeled slightly, staring
dasedly downward at her gruesome handywork.  "I had to do it ...
it was Agaphim ... I had to, " she exclaimed!
     "Sargon should be more carful of his right hand men." Added
Grignr, a smug grin upon his lips.  "But to hell with Sargon for
now, the stench is becoming bothersome to me."  With that Grignr
grasped Carthena around the waist leading her around the bend in
the cave and into the open.
     A ball of feral red was rising through the mists of the
eastern horizon, disipating the slinking shadows of the night.  A
coral stood before the pair, enclosing two grazing mares.  Grignr
reached into a weighted down leather pouch dangling at his side
and drew forth the scintillant red emerald he had obtained from
the bloated idol.  Raising it toward the sun he said, "We shall
do well with bauble, eh!"
     Carthena gaped at the gem gasping in a terrified manner "The
eye of Argon, Oh!  Kalla!"  At this the gem gave off a blinding
glow, then dribbled through Grignr's fingers in a slimy red ooze.
Grignr stepped back, pushing Carthena behind him.  The droplets
of slime slowly converged into a pulsating jelly-like mass.  A
single opening transfixed the blob, forminf into a leechlike maw.
     Then the hideous transgressor of nature flowed towards
Grignr, a trail of greenish slime lingering behind it.  The
single gap puckered repeatedly emitting a ghastly sucking sound.
     Grignr spread his legs into a battle stance, steeling his
quivering thews for a battle royal with a thing he knew not how
to fight.  Carthena wound her arms about her protectors neck,
mumbling, "Kill it!  Kill!" While her entire body trembled.
     The thing was almost upon Grignr when he buried his axe into
the gristly maw.  It passed through the blob and clanged upon the
ground.  Grignr drew his axe back with a film of yellow-green
slime clinging to the blade.  The thing was seemingly unaffected.
Then it started to slooze up his leg.  The hairs upon his nape
stoode on end from the slimey feel of the things buly, bulk.  The
Nautous sucking sound became louder, and Grignr felt the blood
being drawn from his body.  With each hiss of hideous pucker the
thing increased in size.
     Grignr shook his foot about madly in an attempt to dislodge
the blob, but it clung like a leech, still feeding upon his
rapidly draining life fluid.  He grasped with his hands trying to
rip it off, but only found his hands entangled in a sickly glue-
like substance.  The slimey thing continued its puckering ; now
having grown the size of Grignr's leg from its vampiric feast.
     Grignr began to reel and stagger under the blob, his chalk
white face and faltering muscles attesting to the gigantic loss
of blood.  Carthena slipped from Grignr in a death-like faint, a
morrow chilling scream upon her red rubish lips.  In final
desperation Grignr grasped the smoldering torch upon the ground
and plunged it into the reeking maw of the travestry.  A shudder
passed through the thing.  Grignr felt the blackness closing upon
his eyes, but held on with the last ebb of his rapidly waning
vitality.  He could feel its grip lessoning as a hideous gurgling
sound erupted from the writhing maw.  The jelly like mass began
to bubble like a vat of boiling tar as quavers passed up and down
its entire form.

                     -END OF AVAILABLE COPY-

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