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by Robert E. Howard
First published in Weird Tales for May, by Popular Fiction Publishing (1934)
Reprinted in Avon Fantasy Reader no. 8, (1948)
Reprinted in The Coming of Conan, by Robert
E. Howard, Gnome Press, Inc. (1953)
Current source: Conan of Cimmeria, by Robert E. Howard, L. Sprague de Camp and Lin
Carter, Ace Books, New York, NY (1969)
| Conan returns to the Hyborian kingdoms, where he serves as a condottiere in Nemedia, Ophir, and finally Argos. In the last-named place, a slight misunderstanding with the law impels him to take the first ship outward bound. He is about twenty-four years old now. |
Chapters:
1. Conan Joins the Pirates
Believe green buds awaken in the spring,
That autumn paints the leaves with somber fire;
Believe I held my heart inviolate
To lavish on one man my hot desire.
The Song of Belit
2. The Black Lotus
In that Dead citadel of crumbling stone
Her eyes were snared by that unholy sheen,
And curious mdness took me by the throat,
As of a rival lover thrust between.
The Song of Belit
3. The Horror in the Jungle
Was it a dream the nighted lotus brought?
Then curst the dream that brought my sluggish life;
And crust each laggard hour that does not see
Hot blood drip blackly from the crimsoned knife.
The Song of Belit
4. The Attack from the Air
The shadows were black around him,
The dripping jaws gapped wide,
Thicker than rain the red drops fell;
But my love was fiercer than Death's black spell,
Nor all the iron walls of Hell
Could keep me from his side.
The Song of Belit
5. The Funeral Pyre
Now we are done with roaming, evermore;
No more the oars, the windy harp's refrain;
Nor crimson pennon frights the dusky shore;
Blue gridle of the world, recieve again
Her whom thou gavest me.
The Song of Belit
