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Title: The Scarlet Citadel
Series:
Conan Chronicles #2
Author: Robert Howard
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
44
Words: 16K
Publish: 1933
This takes place after The
Sword and the Phoenix, as a
character and the attempted coup, are mentioned as having happened in
the past. Conan gets betrayed but with some help, comes back stronger
than ever.
This
is one story where wizardry is both hurtful and helpful. But through
it all, Conan doesn’t like it nor does he trust the wizard helping
him, as it is obvious the wizard is simply using Conan to get his own
revenge on the “bad” wizard. But it is stories like this that set
the stage for the idea of Conan fighting any and all wizardry.
It is
also quite interesting to see Conan near the apogee of his career.
He’s king of a country, but has no offspring (I don’t know if any
ever exist in the official Conan timeline or not. He does have kids
in some of the pastiches I read) and is as strong but alone as ever.
He’s at the top, but now he has to deal with holding onto it
instead of just trying to take it like he did earlier in life. He
even considers giving up here and starting over, but then his famous
temper comes to the fore and he decides no one, especially a wizard,
is going to push him around.
There
is also a good bit of monster’y stuff. There’s a giant snake and
in relation to that several mentions of his time as a river pirate
Amra. Conan has to go through an underground tunnel system and
encounters several denizens of hell, so the idea of cosmic horror and
evil from the great darkness were inherent in Conan’s mythos right
from the get-go. There’s no question of that in my mind now. Conan
doesn’t just fight usurpers or tigers and animals, but he’s in a
world of monsters and he’ll fight them as soon as spit at them.
Reading
these original “Chronicles” is giving me a much better grasp on
Conan as a character, even though I’ve only read just over 50
pages. Howard imbues Conan with characteristics that have survived to
this day, both characteristics of personality and situation. While
these stories aren’t ones that I would consider “great”, they
are solidly good and I am glad I am taking my time to read them. Not
even a shadow of the dreaded “I wasted my time” :-D
★★★☆☆
From Conan.fandom.com
Conan's army is destroyed on the plains
of Shamu, having answered a plea for help from his ally Amalrus of
Ophir. Amalrus has treacherously joined forces with Strabonus of Koth
and the wizard Tsotha-lanti, in an attempt to overwhelm Conan's army
and capture him. While Strabonus wants the king dead, Tsotha wants
him alive. With a touch of poison, he paralyze Conan and has him
bound in chains. While Strabonus orders his general, Arbanus, to
invade Aquilonia through Shamar, both he and the wizard bring Conan
to Khorshemish, capital of Koth.
Conan stands before Strabonus and
Amalrus, while they dictate terms - they want him to turn over
control of Aquilonia to Prince Arpello of Pellia. Conan scoffs at the
kings and insults them, spitting in Amalrus' eye. The enraged king
moves closer to kill Conan for his defiance, but Tsotha blinds him,
reminding the king who the real power is as Strabonus pretends he
doesn't notice. Tsotha sends Conan to the dungeon, guarded by his
eunuch servant, Shukeli, and leaves him in complete darkness before
going to assist the siege at Shamar.
Conan tests his restraints and finds
them too strong to break. The stories he has heard of Tsotha's
dungeons and inhuman experiments actually strikes fear in the
barbarian's heart. His fear is amplified when he hears a rustling
sound and, in the shadows, sees a tremendous snake, over 80 feet
long, slither into the chamber. Conan stands motionless as venom
drips from the snake's fangs and burns his thigh. Suddenly, the sound
of a door opening from inside the prison chamber forces the snake to
flee. A gigantic naked black man, who calls Conan by his pirate name
Amra, has come with the keys and asks what he would pay for them.
This is merely a ruse, however, as the man wants Conan dead for
killing his brother during his travels with Bêlit. Fortunately, just
as he's about to deal a killing blow towards Conan, the snake rears
up behind him and constricts the man in its coils, causing the keys,
along with a sword, to fall onto the floor at Conan's feet. He
manages to grasp the keys with his feet and free himself, only to
find the door barred from the outside. Shukeli appears outside the
barred window and shrieks with laughter. However, in a flash, Conan
stabs through the bars with his sword and instantly skewers Shukeli
in the stomach. Because the barred door can only be opened from the
outside, Conan is still trapped and realizes he must go down the same
corridor where the snake came in from. Conan creeps down the
corridor, ignoring the passages on either side, until he hears a
sobbing sound and diverts himself towards an adjacent tunnel.
However, he is horrified upon discovering the source of this weeping
- a tentacled, amorphous blob-like creature who, when it sees Conan,
becomes overjoyed with laughter and starts chasing him. He quickly
outpaces it, but trips and drops his torch, thrusting himself into
darkness as he scrambles up before continuing his escape. He creeps
along the nearest passage and stops before a large pit in the ground.
Obviously, he has gone in the wrong direction. However, before he can
decide on what to do, Conan senses something unseen rising from the
pit and turns back the way he came. He comes across the final embers
of his torch, manages to get it fully lit again, and hurries his way
back towards the central corridor, again feeling the invisible
presence engulfing him. He flees in sheer horror, while hearing the
sounds of different monsters and beasts down each tunnel. As Conan is
wondering why these beasts won't come out into the central opening,
he realizes the giant serpent is already slithering behind him. It
seems as though even the monsters are afraid of this serpent. He
hurries down a side passage and, through the window of a prison door,
witnesses a monstrous plant torture an unconscious captive entwined
within its grasp. Conan enters the cell and slices away the plant's
stem, as it hisses while waving its tentacles and blossoms at him.
Soon, the plant dies upon having its stem chopped away and the man is
freed. The man, Pelias, tells Conan how his rival, Tsotha-lanti, has
held him captive for almost a decade. His powers are beginning to
return and he leads Conan back to the entrance. The snake, identified
by Pelias as Satha, emerges and moves in to attack. However,
once it sees Pelias, its eyes widen in terror and it flees. When they
reach the barred door, Pelias re-animates Shukeli's corpse and has
him unlock the door. The two go to Tsotha's private chambers, where
Pelias uses the wizard's crystal ball to show Strabonus' army laying
siege to Shamar and chaos engulfing Tarantia, as, with word spreading
of Conan's alleged death, Prince Arpello of Pellia has moved to take
over the kingdom. Conan laments that the capital is almost a week
away by fastest steed, and Strabonus's army lie along the path, but
Pelias summons a batlike creature to fly him directly towards
Tarantia.
In Tarantia, Trocero desperately tried
to keep the peace as rioters and looters, mystically encouraged by
Tsotha-lanti to believing Conan is dead, rampage through the streets.
Prince Arpello made his play for the crown and managed to get the
council to surrender, when he won the support of the public. Trocero
abandons the city with 1500 soldiers upon realizing he would have to
fight the citizens themselves. The chancellor, Publius, had been
imprisoned and heavy taxes laid on the merchants of the city, with
anyone protesting hanged. Soon, armed men from the Pellian army
quickly and violently clamp down on any acts of disloyalty within the
city. When word spread that the Kothian army had taken Shamar, the
people turned to Arpello for reassurance, but he simply drank some
wine and laughed at them. When a small insurgency headed by the
student Athemides is quelled, the young man is smuggled out of the
city to the camp of Trocero to plead with him to return. It's then,
with Arpello loudly proclaiming from the ramparts that he is now
king, Conan arrives on the wings of the demon. A shocked Arpello
charges Conan, but the true king picks up the Prince and throws him
off the castle walls.
The siege of Shamar continues, and
although the city is hopelessly outnumbered, its strong walls have
prevented it from being entirely overrun. Strabonus grows anxious, as
he would like to continue into Aquilonia but doesn't want to leave
his flank unprotected. Suddenly, a bugle is heard and a galloping
army rides from within the country. When Tsotha sees it is Conan
leading the charge he realizes Pelias must have helped, Strabonus
frantically sends his men to the attack, but the outnumbered
Aquilonians burst through the ranks and Amalrus is trampled to death
under the charge. Conan ends up face to face with Strabonus.
Strabonus takes one desperate swing at Conan, but is run through
immediately. The Kothian army is routed and slaughtered as Conan
turns his attention to Tsotha. Although Tsotha hurls magic at Conan,
the king lops off the wizard's head, though it still lives and glares
at Conan...until a giant eagle swoops down the pick up the head and
fly away. The body of Tsotha rises and runs off in the direction of
the eagle, who laughs with the voice of Pelias and Conan, though
grateful for Pelias's help, hopes never to see him again.
