ڥꥢ
pelias
	Conan cried out sharply and recoiled, thrusting his companion
	back.  Before them rose the great shimmering white form of Satha,
	an ageless hate in its eyes.  Conan tensed himself for one mad
	berserker onslaught -- to thrust the glowing faggot into that
	fiendish countenance and throw his life into the ripping sword-
	stroke.  But the snake was not looking at him.  It was glaring
	over his shoulder at the man called Pelias, who stood with his
	arms folded, smiling.  And in the great, cold, yellow eyes
	slowly the hate died out in a glitter of pure fear -- the only
	time Conan ever saw such an expression in a reptile's eyes.
	With a swirling rush like the sweep of a strong wind, the great
	snake was gone.
	"What did he see to frighten him?" asked Conan, eyeing his
	companion uneasily.
	"The scaled people see what escapes the mortal eye," answered
	Pelias cryptically.  "You see my fleshy guise, he saw my naked
	soul."
	    [ Conan the Usurper, by Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp ]
