"Come to bed, my champion!" purred Huitzil, as she toyed with her sheer nightdress suggestively. "You've had enough work for one day – now it is time to take your pleasure."
"My work was a pleasure, on this day at least!" replied Conan with a broad grin, as he circled toward the door which led from his study to his private chambers. "Crom! What a sight!"
"I could only laugh at the shocked faces of those pious fools," smiled Huitzil. "It was a great day for all the people of the Mayapani, and all free folk. How the dogs of Xlantantaca have been brought low!"
"I did not do what I did to bring them low," replied Conan with a frown. Always mercurial, his mood was now grave, and he had a somber mien.
"I did it both for their sake, and for mine," he continued. "For their sake, because I have liberated them from their own delusions – no folk east of the great sea, civilized or barbarous, believes such nonsense about having to make sacrifices to ensure the Sun will rise!" he said with a grunt. "And for my own, because the priests of Kukulkan were a threat to my own power. Now I alone speak for the Feathered Serpent, without some meddlesome, lying priest to interfere."
"Indeed," replied Huitzil coyly. "Though for my part, I care more for the second reason than the first. But if it was for your own power, how do you now stand amongst the wretches of this city? Surely you have made many enemies this day, even as you have strengthened your standing amongst the Mayapani, and your alliance with the Quechalnti."
"I hardly thought my standing with the Mayapani could be stronger," replied Conan. "As for the Quechanlnti, I don't trust any of them farther than I could throw them – albeit that might be for a span or two. I would be more than happy to deal with their meddlesome priests as well, for their dark god Kuthlan is to friend to man. A curse upon both of the dark fiends who have long lorded it over this land!"
Conan then froze amid his pacing, astonished by his wife's reaction. For her coppery skin was almost shock pale, and for a moment he thought he saw murder in her dark eyes – yet she said nothing, her breath quickening silently.
"What now, are you a worshipper of Kuthlan?" said Conan with a laugh, seeking to quell the sudden tension between them. "Perhaps I should watch my back more than I do, even in my own bed!"
"The ways of this land are still strange to you, my husband," replied Huitzil with a voice that was barely above a whisper. "We do not offend our gods here."
"I thought you had just done so a moment ago, at least with Kukulkan," replied Conan with a shrug. "But no matter. For all the women I have had, their minds are still as beyond my ken as they were when I was a youth."
"So it is with all men," replied Huitzil, taking him by the hand and leading him towards their bed. The smile on her face, Conan thought, was belied by the coolness of her stare.