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 ]