Young Thongor Read Online Free Page B

great sword, Thongor watched as the sunset died to smoldering coals. The skies darkened as night rose on black wings up over the edges of the earth to shroud the great continent in shadow.
    The dragons hovered and circled, and, at length, flapped away and were lost in the gathering darkness. Then the boy turned to explore this peculiar ring of monoliths, where even the fanged predators of the sky dared not come near. This circle of stones, which mailed, mighty dragons dared not pass.
    4
    The City in the Jewel
    Thongor examined the seven stone pillars. They were of cold dead rock, dark, volcanic, rough and porous to the touch. With curious fingers the young barbarian traced the strange heiroglyphs inscribed upon them. He could make nothing of the curious symbols, but, then, as for that, he could neither read nor write. He had no way of guessing that those inscriptions were in a long-dead tongue whose last living speaker had perished from the earth untold aeons before…
    He next approached the low altar.
    It was a six-sided cube of black rock and it bore no carvings. On its top, the great gem flashed and twinkled. Never before had the boy seen a mass of crystal so immense. He bent over it curiously, and the cold shifting lights that moved within bathed his features in a restless glow.
    His was a strong young face, square of jaw and broad of brow and cheekbone. Scowling black brows curved over lion-like eyes. Sun and wind had burnt his face to the hue of old leather; there was strength in that face, and intelligence, and breeding. Though how a half-naked wild boy from the savage wilderness of the wintry Northlands had come by that breeding, none could say.
    He was curious about the carved sigils, which adorned the glassy surface of each of the odd-angled facets, and he stretched out his hand to trace them—
    And jerked back numb, tingling fingers with a muted cry. A cold, electric shock stabbed at him as his outstretched fingers touched the slick, glassy surface—a weird, thrilling force.
    Frowning, puzzled, he bent over the glittering, flashing gem and peered deep into it.
    Deep and deep…through the angled mirrors of the many facets…down through twinkling mists of dim green and sparkling silver dust…to the strange pulsing core of the monstrous gem, where cold phosphorescent fires coiled and glared.
    But something happened. The crystal changed .
    The mists thinned—faded—evaporated.
    Had the touch of his fingers closed a contact between the boy and the forces that slumbered, locked deep within the mystery jewel? Had his nearness triggered some dormant, age-old spell—some mystic sorcery whose secret was traced in the weird sigils that had been hewn into the facets of the gem?
    Sparkling mists coiled—cleared—whipped away.
    Suddenly the clouded green crystal was clouded no more. Now it was clear and pellucid as glass…and the boy’s eyes widened in amazement as he stared down upon that which was now clearly visible in the very core of the gigantic gem. He stared down upon…
    A city! A city there in the heart of the jewel.
    It was exquisite, elfin. Tiny, delicate minarets and needle-pointing spires of dainty glistening ivory. Swelling bells of domes, twinkling with goblin lights. Delicious little houses, peak-roofed and gabled, with stained-glass windows no bigger than his thumbnail.
    A faerie princedom in the frozen heart of a gem!
    Breathless with awe and wonder, the savage boy stared down at little, crooked streets cobbled as if with cowrie shells; at curved flights of alabaster stairs a finger joint in width; at elfin gardens of miniature trees where tiny brooks meandered like shimmering strips of blue satin ribbon.
    All of exquisite ivory it was, walls fretted like lace, thread-thin, lit with tiny silver lamps like acorn shells. He stared down at courts tiled with malachite; at walls of rosy coral, towers of glistening jade, slender arcades of delicate marble pilasters, beams of ebony, scrolled carvings over