Conan the Barbarian 111

Major Characters

 * Conan (Last appearance in CB-110; next appearance in CB-112).

Minor Characters

 * Tossa (Last appearance in CB-110; next appearance in CB-112).
 * Erfu (Last appearance in CB-110; next appearance in CB-112).
 * Aesir (Last appearance in CB-110; next appearance in CB-112). Madoric named.
 * Aosoka and his dwarves (Last appearance in CB-110; next appearance in CB-112).
 * Thanamund (First appearance ; next appearance in CB-112). Tossa's brother.

Locations

 * Shem
 * The Dwarvish city of Buryat

Time Frame

 * One day

Synopsis
Tossa dresses in the morning, and though Conan refuses to acknowledge her as his wife, he certainly has not kicked her out of his bed. He casually talks about the slaves of the city rebelling when there is a knock on the door. It is the family of the Aesir he slayed, and they have come to offer themselves as slaves. Conan dismisses them and gives them a golden chalice with which to buy their freedom. When they leave, Erfu bursts in with news that a spy has overheard Conan's talk of a revolt and soldiers are on their way. He accuses Tossa of being a spy and Conan has to split them up. A group of dwarven soldiers arrives to escort Conan to King Aosoka, and Conan goes with them peacefully only to be joined by a band of Aesir. When they arrive at the palace stairs, a priest orders Conan to be disarmed and arrested, but Conan charges the dwarf and pulls off his ceremonial bat-like ears. He rushes into the palace and bars the door and seeks the throne room where he finds Aosoka sitting on his throne. Only a bit of mesh netting stands in his way, but when Conan pushes it aside it sends surges of electricity through his body until he tears it free from the ceiling. When he approaches the king, he discovers only a mirror - it is a reflection from somewhere else in the palace. He is interrupted by the palace guard and delays them by tossing the net at the soldiers. He then runs out of the palace and races towards higher ground - the pyramid with the blue globe at the top. He notices that the globe, in conjunction with the reflection from another globe, allows him to see well into the distance, and that the soldiers are wary to shoot arrows when he is near it. In desperation, he puts on the priest ears that he took and hears a voice calling to him. Across the courtyard an Aesir urges Conan to crawl across the rope that separates the two buildings. The blonde man, Thanamund, who is Tossa's brother, pours a dark dust from a bag which covers the entire courtyard in a darkness. Conan scurries across and Thanamund leads him out of the city. Conan tells him to have Tossa and Erfu go into hiding, and he goes off to find the Aesir outside the city, hoping to rally him to overthrow the dwarves.

Reprinted

 * The Chronicles of Conan 14 - Shadow of the Beast and Other Stories