| abstract
| - Neg the Malefic is a necromancer. He dispatched agents to Khauran to obtain a magical talisman called The Source Of Light. His agents, being more greedy than trustworthy, betrayed him and tried to sell it to a mage in Koth. The mage decided to kill them and take the talisman but both sides perished in the struggle. The fetish was discovered by a monk of the Suddah Oblates and is now on its way to their temple in the northern Kezankian Mountains on the western border of Brythunia. Enraged by the news, Neg punishes the undead messenger that delivered it. In doing so, he inadvertently releases another undead from his control. Freed from slavery, the beautiful zombie woman, Tuanne, escapes Neg's castle and goes seeking The Source Of Light to free her and her fellow undead from Neg's power. Fresh from The Thing in the Crypt, Conan has continued south through the mountains that separate Hyperborea from Brythunia. The opening of the novel finds him wearing crusty furs and travelling eastward through northern Brythunia toward the Kezankian Mountains that separate Brythunia from Zamora. After finding a whetstone and sharpening his sword (from The Thing In The Crypt) Conan hears the sounds of combat coming from further down the mountain he has just crossed. He comes upon a single robed man defending himself with a cane against 5 attackers armed with a mixture of swords, long knives and spears. The robed man is surprisingly adept with his cane and disables two attackers but is tripped to the ground by a third attacker with a spear. Conan comes to the man's aid and slays one of the attackers. The other four bandits decide to leave. The robed man is named Cengh, a monk of the Suddah Oblates, travelling to a monastery two days from that spot. Cengh invites Conan to travel with him and get food and clothing for his journey. Conan accepts. A day's travel from the monastery they are attacked by a lizard-man that Cengh identifies as a Stith. The predator's primary means of attack is spitting acid at its prey, which Conan discovers when the thing attacks the two men. The two dispatch the beast and Cengh explains that they are territorial and solitary. The Temple That Will Not Fall perched on the side of a mountain supported in large part by an intricate system of struts and arches. Conan and Cengh travel up a set of narrow steps cut into the mountain's rock to reach the main gate. Inside Conan is offered a bath and fresh clothing, food and a bed for the night...all for free. Conan soon learns that the priests conduct no system of trade inside the temple. The system is communal and the needs of each resident are met without trade of coin or service. The next day, after Conan has eaten breakfast, Cengh gifts Conan with a scabbard in which to carry his sword. The newly made scabbard was crafted from the skin of the Stith they had defeated two days before and manufactured using a "special process" that allowed the leather to be tanned and worked in such a short time. Cengh introduces Conan to Oblate Kensash, the combat master of the order. After Conan defeats Kensash's best student, an initiate monk named Malo, Kensash invites Conan to spar with him. The two spend several minutes examining each other's form and then declare a draw, for neither can find a weakness in the other's technique which would allow them to attack without mutual-defeat. Conan is prepared to leave the temple and continue his journey. Two days have passed and Conan has come to appreciate the simple pleasures of life at the temple, but has decided that they are not for him. In that time Conan observed the lessons of master Kensash and learned a thing or two from the elder Oblate. The rest of the time was spent talking with Cengh and gathering his supplies for his departure. As Conan walks toward the gates he comes across a confrontation between what looks like two priests but one has a long knife while the other is unarmed. The two are fighting near the bleeding body of a third priest, Mikahl. The imposter stabs the priest, takes something from the body over which they were fighting and then flees down a side-street. The stabbed priest is Cengh. With his dying breath Cengh tells Conan that his assailant was a servant of Neg and he has stolen The Source Of Light from Mikahl. He tells Conan that he must recover it, but dies before telling the Cimmerian what doing so will prevent. Conan departs the Temple and lays in wait for the assassin along the path leading to and from the monastery. He confronts the next monk to pass but finds it is a woman dressed as a monk...the same woman he met inside the monastery just before he witnessed Cengh's murder...the same woman who ran after the murderer. The woman knows the murderer, one Skeer, and is still chasing him. They agree to run him down together...Conan because it was Cengh's dying wish and the woman, Elashi, to recover The Source Of Light so she can use it to gain access to Neg's castle and kill him for engineering the murder of her father. The pair catches up with Skeer at the inn of the next village...but not before Tuanne meets Skeer in the inn's common room. Beautiful but pale, Tuanne seduces Skeer and, once they are alone together in his room, she knocks him unconscious but not before he realizes her true nature. As begins to look through Skeer's belongings for The Source Of Light, Conan bursts into the room prepared to kill Skeer. Finding Skeer unconscious and a beautiful, naked woman standing in the middle of the room, Conan is distracted...Skeer, who came-to with the noise of the door crashing from its hinges, escapes, still naked, out the window while Conan and Tuanne talk. Conan is about to follow Skeer when an enraged Elashi enters and accuses Conan of stealing the fetish, attacking him with a stolen sword. Tuanne uses the confusion to filch Skeer's purse and makes off with The Source Of Light. Conan disarms Elashi and together they realize that the woman made off with the talisman. Thinking that Tuanne was sent by Neg to ensure the return of the fetish and deciding that since she was smart enough to outwit him, what chance does a dull witted barbarian have, Skeer rides east toward the road Tuanne must take to return to Neg's domain. When he sees her travelling alone, at dawn, he immobilizes her with a solution of salt water (paralyzing to all Neg's undead) and relieves her of the jewel. Conan and Elashi, travelling on foot, come across the woman a short time later, sitting in the middle of the road. She turns her head at the approach of Conan and Elashi, but does not stand up. Conan demands she return the talisman, which only makes Tuanne begin to cry. Elashi berates Conan for his callousness and, after explaining what the Talisman can do, Elashi insists they help Tuanne. Conan quickly begins thinking of Tuanne as a woman and not a zombie. Conan seems quite concerned that he will have to travel with two women. A few hours later, an early snowstorm hits the mountain passes. Conan builds a shelter for his group to wait out the storm. Elashi's concern that they will lose Skeer's trail int he storm is assuaged by Tuanne's ability to sense the location of the Talisman. Skeer, driving his horse too hard in an attempt to outrun the weather, kills the beast when it loses the road in the snow and break's its leg...so he won't go hungry while he waits out the storm. The storm lasts for 2 days and Conan fashions the group snowshoes so they can get underway quickly when the weather breaks. They make up some time on Skeer who is now struggling along on foot, heading toward a city in the mountains called Opkothard. As night falls, they stop for Elashi and Conan to sleep while Tuanne, who does not, stands guard. Tuanne wakes Conan in the night as a dire-wolf draws near their fire. Neg discovers that Tuanne has slipped from his control and dispatches a group of Men With No Eyes to locate and return her. Opkothard City is dedicated to the worship of the Spider God. By carrying The Source Of Light into the city, Skeer unwittingly offends the local priesthood. They contract with Opkothard's foremost spy, The Disguise Master, to discover the nature and mission of the carrier of The Source Of Light. Conan, Elashi and Tuanne reach Opkothard only a half day behind Skeer, as the city's market square is about to close for the day. Bartering his newly acquired dire-wolf hide, Conan collects enough money to rent the trio a room for the evening, intent on resuming the search for Skeer in the morning. Later that night, the Men With No Eyes enter the city to find Tuanne. As the night turns old, a Suddah Oblate initiate enters Opkothard. It is Malo, come seeking Conan, who he blames for slaying Cengh and Mikahl. The Men With No Eyes try to take Tuanne the next morning. Malo, is mistaken by the Men as an ally of Conan and is also attacked. He helps the trio dispatch their attackers and then attacks Conan, only to be cut down easily by the Cimmerian. As retribution for bringing a powerful magical talisman into Opkothard, Emreaves, high Priest of the Spider God, curses Skeer with the Death of the Shes. After following Skeer through the city for hours, Conan and the women lay in wait for him at the South Gate of Opkothard (the only entrance from the city that leads to the outside world). Skeer escapes the city with the Curse of the Shes hot on his heels. As the Trio makes ready to leave town in pursuit of Skeer, Conan discovers the Disguise Master is watching them. He robs him and ties him up and the trio leave the city. The Disguise Master vows revenge for the humiliation of being exposed by a barbarian. Neg, discovering that the Men With No Eyes have been slain in their attempt to take Tuanne, calls them back to life. They rise from their slabs in the Opkothard morgue and set out after the zombie woman, much to horror of the morgue attendant. In less than a week, Skeer arrives at Vanatta, the village near Neg's castle. Conan and the women arrive next, then the disguise master's band, then the Shes and then the undead Men With No Eyes. Skeer delivers the Source to Neg and is killed and re-animated for his trouble. The Disguise Master and his band are defeated by Conan and Tuanne. Conan and the women decide to have Tuanne dimension door them into The In-Between Lands so they can bypass Neg's physical security. The undead men with no eays follow them to the other dimension. The Shes find Skeer but he is already dead so they begin to follow him around. Neg is delayed by magical details before he can fully activate the power of the Talisman. He completes his work before Conan and the women can complete their journey and Tuanne leaves to answer the call of the fetish. Conan and Elashi escape the In-Between Lands by outwitting an exact copy of Conan who is guarding the exit. The Conan-copy makes short work of the undead Men With No Eyes. As Neg's power continues to expand, all the dead from earlier in the novel as well as the recently dead for 1000 miles begin to rise and travel to Neg's castle. When the first 5,000 have assembled, he sends them off to kill all the men between his castle and Numalia, the capital of Nemedia. Inside Neg's castle, Conan and Elashi encounter Skeer who agrees to guide them to the chamber where The Source Of Light is kept so they can defeat the necromancer. Elashi removes the talisman from the magical focus that amplifies Neg's power and they move through the hallways giving the "true death" to those of Neg's minions who wish it. Conan, Elashi and Skeer face off against Neg in the final battle. The Cimmerian narrowly triumphs due in no small part to the timely intervention from an unexpected source. Freed from Neg's control, Tuanne instructs Elashi on the proper incantation to free all the animated dead. Conan and Elashi travel east together, toward Zamora.
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