Conan the Barbarian 178

Major Characters

 * Conan (Previous appearance in CB-177; next appearance in CB-179).

Minor Characters

 * Tetra (Previous appearance in CB-177; next appearance in CB-181).
 * Delmurio (Previous appearance CB-177; dies in this issue).
 * Keiv (Previous appearance in CB-177; next appearance in CB-179).

Locations

 * Nostume's island in the Western Ocean

Time Frame

 * An hour

Synopsis
Years in the past, the boy Conan sharpens spears while the men of his village fight in the hills. He is visited by a red-headed woman who he cannot understand, who nonetheless begins to tell Conan a tale. In the present, Conan, Delmurio, and Keiv race to higher ground as energies burst from Tetra, ripping the island apart. Delmurio falls into a chasm and pleads with Keiv to help him. but the monster, tired of Delmurio's insults, leaves him to die. Tetra floats after Conan, who is under attack by vines springing from the ground, and he tries to reason with her but she cannot contain the power, and she collapses into unconsciousness into Conan's arms. Conan realizes the power has left her and Kiev points out it seems to have shifted to a giant demonic wolf that appears over the horizon. Delmurio pulls himself out of the chasm, furious at Kiev, but stops when he sees the wolf in the distance. Kiev reveals that the wolf comes to consume Tetra to consolidate the power and it will kill them one by one to get to her, so he suggests leaving the girl behind. When Conan objects, Kiev knocks him into unconsciousness and begins to shamble off. Delmurio attacks but Kiev shrugs the blow off and tosses Delurio aside to shamble off into the water. Delmurio decides to offer Tetra to the approaching wolf, but instead it devours Delmurio. Conan awakens to see only the end of his comrade and moves to attack the demonic creature, and after a long battle, manages to put the beast down. When he turns his attentions to Tetra, who begs Conan to kill her, the wolf attacks from behind and nearly kills Conan, if not for the return of Kiev, who, as he says, has been "infected" by Conan's sense of honor. Kiev knows that Tetra was doomed the moment she fell into the chasm and holds Conan back as the wounded wolf grabs her hand, and both vanish in a burst of light. Back in the past, the woman finishes her story to a confused Conan, who senses she means him harm. Although she intended to kill Conan in the past to stop him from coming into her life in the future, she chooses to leave instead, vanishing in another flash of light.

Reprinted

 * The Chronicles of Conan 23 - Well of Souls and Other Stories