With Neftha's knowledge of Khemi's underground, she, Conan, and Belit find and secure passage on a black market barge heading along the Styx to Luxur. The slow-going passage is interrupted, though, as the boat sails past the independently-minded city of Harakht, and barge is attacked by men flying giant hawks. Much of the crew is slaughtered by the hawk-riders' arrows, while others fall into the river to be devoured by the giant Stygian crocodiles, who are used to such bounty when the hawks attack. Belit is snatched in a hawk's talons, and Conan, ignoring Neftha's pleas to save her, leaps onto a low-flying hawk, managing to throw the rider to his death. The bird attempts to shake Conan, but Conan snaps the bird's neck, which sends it into a tailspin into the swampy shore that Conan only ba