Conan is trapped in a snare of thorns until he steals one of his captor's swords and cuts his way free. A tendril wrapped around his ankle stops his escape, though, and he is again bound and made a prisoner of the Inquisitors of Ong. He is taken to the Grand Inquisitor, who, because of a rather large tongue piercing, can only be understood by Soom, a grotesque, tortured man in a box. Soom reveals that the Inquisitor's have Conan's amulet (dropped by Daedikaron) and wants to know what Conan knows about Sakyara's defenses. Conan stalls, and is places in a torture device next to the blind Khitain who spoke to Conan of his destiny at Venarium. It turns out the soothsayer is also connected to the mystery of the Talisman, which the Grand Inquisitor is eager to learn about. Conan is tortured by t