Conan the Barbarian 133

Major Characters

 * Conan (Previous appearance in CB-132; next appearance in CB-134).

Minor Characters

 * Arianna (First and only appearance to date). Border Kingdoms Princess.
 * King Wolden (First and only appearance to date; dies in this issue). Border Kingdoms King
 * Lenya (First and only appearance to date). Border Kingdoms Queen
 * Paka (First and only appearance to date).

Locations

 * Southern Cimmerian border

Time Frame

 * Two days

Synopsis
As Conan travels through the mountains he finds a row of crucified men leading off into the distance. He notices they were all killed by puncture wounds before they were placed on the wooden crosses, and a note indicates that they attempted to scale Mount Widnsor in order to free Princess Seraina. He follows the trail all night and ends up at a small encampment at the base of a glass mountain, atop of which a woman beckons for help. He strikes up a conversation with a man who tells Conan the Princess has been stranded up there for years, kept alive with deliveries by a carrier pigeon, and hundreds of men have attempted to scale the sheer, smooth glass mountain, only to slip and fall into the spikes that surround the base. Conan has no interest in this and rides off, though he soon finds himself rescuing a young woman from brigands. It turns out the woman is the Princess's sister, Arianna, and when Conan returns her to her father a grateful King Wolden tells Conan about the mountain. He had married the widowed Queen Lenya who was acting as reagent for the previous king's daughter Seraina. After the birth of Arianna, Wolden had an affair with a gypsy girl, and after she became pregnant and attempted to blackmail the king, he had her imprisoned and she lost the baby. He released her but she magically created the glass mountain and placed Seraina there as punishment. Wolden ordered her tongue and hands removed so she couldn't cause and more curses, but his guards went to far and killed her. The Queen died of grief as hundreds of men attempted to save the Princess, who could be seen waving to them from far above. Conan is curious about the door at the base of the mountain, and the king explains that every locksmith in the kingdom has tried to open the door. The entire mountain is cursed. Conan still is not interested, and leaves again but is soon waylaid by a lone brigand, Paka, who explains that the gypsy girl is not dead; he serves her. Paka takes Conan to the handless and mute woman, and Conan questions her. She manages to intimate that the King's story is untrue and that he himself has the key. Conan returns to the palace and climbs into the sleeping king's room, where he sees a key around the king's neck. He steals it and makes his way to the tower, the king's guard on his tail. The key does not, in fact, fit the door, and Conan turns to face the army when he realizes that they key is hollow - in fact, it's a whistle. He blows into it and the glass mountain crumbles save for a towering wooden staircase and platform. Conan rushes up the stairs and sees Seraina...who is merely a skeleton attached to a machine to keep her waving. She has been dead for ages. Conan realizes that there never was a gypsy girl - it was Queen Lenya, who Wolden had attempted to kill after killing Seraina in order to ensure his bloodline's rule. The soldiers realize the truth, especially when Wolden flees, and when the mob chases him into the forest, they find him dead and crucified on a cross, as Lenya and Paka found him first.

Reprinted

 * The Chronicles of Conan 17 - The Creation Quest and Other Stories