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by Robert E. Howard
Originally published in Weird Tales, for May and June, Popular Fiction Publishing
Co. (1936)
Reprinted in King Conan, by Robert E. Howard, Gnome Press, Inc., NY (1953)
Current source: Conan the Warrior, by Robert E. Howard, edited by L. Sprague de
Camp, Lancer Books, Inc., NY (1967)
| Heading for Punt with Muriela, Conan carries out his scheme for relieving those worshippers of an ivory goddess of some of their abundant gold. He then continues to Zembabwei. In the city of the twin kings he joins a trading caravan, which he squires northward along the desert borders - borders patrolled by his one-time Zuagir marauders - bringing it safely into Shem. He continues northwards across the Hyborian kingdorm to his bleak homeland. Conan is now around forty, with few signs of his years save a more deliberate approach to wenching and the pursuit of trouble. Back in Cimmeria, he finds the sons of his contemporaries raising families in their turn and tempering their northern hardihood with little luxuries, which filter up from the softer Hyborian lands. Even so, no Hyborian colonist has crossed the Cimmerian borders since the destruction of Venarium, more than two decades before. Now, however, the Aquilonians are spreading westward, through the Bossonian Marches into the fringes of the Pictish wilderness. So thither, seeking work for his sword, goes Conan. He enrolls as a scout at Fort Tuscelan, the last Aquilonian outpost on the east bank of the Black River, deep in Pictish territory. Here a fierce tribal war with the Picts is in progress. |
Chapters:
- Conan Loses His Ax
- The Wizard of Gwawela
- The Crawlers in the Dark
- The Beasts of Zogar Sag
- The Children of Jhebbal Sag
- Red Axes of the Border
- The Devil in the Fire
- Conajohara No More
