"Between the time when the oceans drank Atlantis and the rise of the sons ofAryus there was an age undreamed-of." "And unto this, Conan destined to bear thejeweled crown ofAquilonia upon a troubled brow." "It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee ofhis saga." "Let me tell you of the days ofhigh adventure." "Fire and wind come from the sky from the gods of the sky, but Crom is your god." "Crom lives in the earth." "Once giants lived in the earth, Conan." "And in the darkness of chaos they fooled Crom and took from him the enigma of steel." "Crom was angered and the earth shook." "Fire and wind struck down the giants and threw their bodies in the water." "But in their rage, the gods forgot the secret of steel and left it on the battlefield." "And we who found it are just men." "Not gods." "Not giants." "Just men." "The secret of steel has always carried with it a mystery." "You must learn it, little Conan." "You must learn its discipline." "For no one, no one in this world can you trust." "Not men, not women, not beasts." "This you can trust." "lKill that one!" "You. lKill him!" "The ashes were trampled into the earth and the blood became as snow." "Who knows what they came for?" "Weapons ofsteel or murder?" "It was never known, for their leader rode to the south  while children went north with the Vanir." "No one would ever know that my lord's people had lived at all." "His was a tale ofsorrow." "Sit here." "Sit here!" "He did not care anymore." "Life and death the same." "Only that the crowd would be there to greet him  with howls oflust and fury." "He began to realize his sense of worth." "He mattered." "In time, his victories could not easily be counted." "He was taken to the East a greatprize, where the war masters  would teach him the deepest secrets." "Language and writing were made available the poetry ofKhitai, the philosophy of Sung." "And he also came to know the pleasures of women  when he was bred to the finest stock." "But always there remained the discipline ofsteel." "My fear is that my sons will never understand me." "We won again!" "This is good." "But what is best in life?" "The open steppe." "Fleet horse." "Falcons at your wrist." "And the wind in your hair." "Wrong!" "Conan, what is best in life?" "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you and to hear the lamentation of their women." "That is good." "Go." "Go." "You're free." "Go." "It has been surmised thatperhaps my lord was like a wild animal that had been kept too long." "Perhaps." "But whatever, freedom so long an unremembered dream, was his." "Crom." "There's warmth and fire." "Do you not wish to warm yourself by my fire?" "They said you would come." "From the north, a man of great strength." "A conqueror." "A man who would someday be king by his own hand." "Who would crush the snakes of the earth" "Snakes?" "Did you say snakes?" "What is it you seek?" "A standard." "A symbol." "Perhaps on a shield." "Two snakes, coming together." "Facing each other but they're one." "With a sun and a moon below." "Black sun, black moon." "Yes." "There's a price, barbarian." "Zamora." "The crossroads of the world." "You will find what you want in Zamora!" "Crom!" "Food." "Food!" "I have not eaten for days." "And who says you will?" "Give me food so I have strength when the wolves come." "Let me die not in hunger but in combat." "Who are you?" "I am Subotai, thief and archer." "I am Hyrkanian, the great order of lKerlait." "Why are you here?" "Dinner for wolves." "What gods do you pray to?" "I pray to the Four Winds." "And you?" "To Crom." "But I seldom pray to him." "He doesn't listen." "What good is he then?" "It's just as I've always said." "He's strong. lf l die, I have to go before him and he will ask, what's the rule of steel?" "If I don't know it, he will cast me away." "That's Crom, strong on his mountain." "My god is greater." "Crom laughs from his mountain at your Four Winds." "My god is stronger." "He is the everlasting sky." "Crom lives underneath him." "Civilization, ancient and wicked." "Have you ever seen this before?" "No." "Let's waste no time." "lt's good." "We don't know how long it was there." "Stink!" "Does it always smell?" "How does the wind get in?" "How about two snakes..." "The only ones I know are Set's in those cursed towers." "They've spread to every city." "Two years ago, it was a snake cult." "Now, everywhere." "They are deceivers." "They murder people in the night." "I know nothing." "Black lotus." "Stygian." "The best." "It better not be Haga." "I would sell Haga to a slayer?" "A pittance to protect you from evil." "l am evil." "They're all sluts." "He's dead already." "Can you believe that?" "Huh?" "You're too big to be a thief." "Come." "Let's leave this place." "Looking for snakes?" "They live in the Tower of the Serpent." "Said to have riches without end and the greatest jewel of all the Eye of the Serpent." "Chew it slowly. it's the good stuff." "You are not a guard." "Neither are you." "We're thieves like yourself." "Come to climb the tower." "You don't even have a rope." "Two fools who laugh at death." "Do you know what horrors lie beyond that wall?" "No." "Then you go first." "What could smell so bad?" "Do you want to live forever?" "That one is the high priest, second only to Thulsa Doom." "They say Thulsa Doom's 1000 years old." "I'll see what's here." "Look below." "lKill them!" "Do you want to live forever?" "All manner ofpleasures and diversions were indulged." "Wealth can be wonderful." "But you know, success can test one's mettle as surely as the strongest adversary." "They were taken to the hall ofKing Osric, the Usurper." "Once a powerful Northman like my lord but now old and sotted." "These are the thieves you requested." "I thought there were three." "Our companion died in the gardens." "Lions ate him." "Lions ate him?" "The lions ate him!" "You know what you've done?" "Rexor himself has come before me, threatened me, the king." "What daring!" "What outrageousness!" "What insolence!" "What arrogance!" "I salute you." "Thulsa Doom. I've chafed for years at this demi-god." "Snakes in my beautiful city." "To the west, Nemedia, Aquilonia." "To the south, lKoth, Stygia." "Snakes!" "Everywhere these evil towers." "You alone have stood up to their guards." "And what are you?" "Thieves!" "You see this?" "They call it the Fangs of the Serpent." "And this one was thrust into a father's heart by his very son." "And my own daughter has fallen under this Thulsa Doom's spell." "is there a dagger such as this in her hand for me?" "She follows him as a slave seeking for the truth of her soul as if I couldn't give it to her." "As we speak, my daughter travels east to Thulsa Doom and his Mountain of Power." "She is to be his!" "Steal my daughter back!" "Take all you can carry." "There's more." "There's much more." "Enough to become kings yourself." "There comes a time, thief, when the jewels cease to sparkle when the gold loses its luster when the throne room becomes a prison and all that is left is a father's love for his child." "To hell with Thulsa Doom." "He's evil." "A sorcerer who can summon demons." "His followers' only purpose is to die in his service." "Thousands of them." "This Mountain of Power where he lives is said to be impregnable." "I have talked to Subotai and he agrees." "Let's take what we have while we live." "I have never had so much as now." "All my life I've been alone." "Many times I've faced my death with no one to know." "I would look into tents of others in the dark and I would see figures holding each other." "But I always passed by." "You and I, we have warmth." "That's so hard to find in this world." "Please." "Let someone else pass by in the night." "Let's take the world by the throat, and get what we desire." "The children ofDoom." "Doom's children." "They told my lord the way to the Mountain ofPower." "They told him to throw down his sword and return to the earth." "Time enough for the earth in the grave." "Once, great men lived here." "Giants, gods." "Once, but long ago." "It was here that I met my master." "It was no accident." "Nor is it mere chance that I am the teller ofhis tale." "Hey!" "I'm a wizard, mind you." "This place is kept by powerful gods and spirits of kings." "Harm my flesh and you will have to kill the dead." "Can you summon demons?" "Yes!" "I strike at you!" "I summon demons more ferocious than all in hell!" "Mounds have been here since the time of the Titans." "lKings buried in them, great kings." "Domains once glittered like the light on the windy sea." "Fire won't burn there." "No fire at all." "That's why I live down here in the wind." "You care for these places?" "I sing to them, on nights when they wish." "I sing of the tales of battles, heroes witches and women." "Nobody bothers me down here." "Not even Thulsa Doom." "Do flowers grow here?" "Flowers?" "Flowers." "You're not a pilgrim, are you?" "Oil the sword and feed the horse." "Have you ever ridden one of those before?" "No!" "Warrior, what are the flowers for?" "For a girl." "Where are you going, brother?" "l'm afraid." "Afraid to bare yourself?" "Why?" "You're so big and well-grown." "You should be proud of your body." "How can you reach emptiness without knowing your own body?" "Could we talk over there where the others cannot see?" "Why, yes, brother." "Of course." "I'm afraid and I'm shy." "is this your robe, your priest's robe?" "Yes, it's all I have." "Good." "That's all you'll ever need." "What do you see?" "Infinity." "Good." "I see you." "I have watched you." "For 1000 years I have watched you." "Who among you still fears death?" "Who will not face emptiness?" "Infidel!" "I wish to speak to you now." "Where is the Eye of the Serpent?" "Rexor says that you gave it to a girl." "Probably for a mere night's pleasure?" "What a loss." "People have no grasp of what they do." "You broke into my house, stole my property murdered my servants and my pets." "And that is what grieves me the most." "You killed my snake." "Thorgrim is beside himself with grief." "He raised that snake from the time it was born." "You killed my mother." "You killed my father." "You killed my people!" "You took my father's sword." "Ah!" "Must have been when I was younger." "There was a time, boy, when I searched for steel." "When steel meant more to me than gold or jewels." "The riddle of steel." "Yes!" "You know what it is, don't you, boy?" "Shall I tell you?" "It's the least I can do." "Steel isn't strong, boy." "Flesh is stronger." "Look around you." "There, on the rocks." "That beautiful girl." "Come to me, my child." "That is strength, boy." "That is power." "The strength and power of flesh." "What is steel compared to the hand that wields it?" "The strength of your body the desire in your heart." "I gave you this." "Such a waste." "Contemplate this on the Tree of Woe." "Crucify him." "He said you were a wizard." "Do the gods owe you any favors?" "There are dangers, but I see you care little for those." "The spirits here ask a heavy toll." "Then I will pay them." "Drink." "Sometime soon, perhaps tonight, they'll try to take him." "And if they succeed-- -lf they succeed, you'll follow." "They're gone!" "They're gone!" "All the gods, they cannot sever us." "If I were dead and you still fighting for life, I'd come back back from the pit of hell to fight at your side." "The old man says the Mountain of Power is hollow." "Thulsa Doom is in the mountain." "What else does he say?" "That in the back of the mountain, there's a gorge." "Many caves." "A thief could get in there, steal the princess and be off before she's missed." "Good thieves could do that, but not vengeful ones." "Only the girl." "We kill Thulsa Doom another day." "Agreed?" "Conan?" "So this is paradise!" "Princess." "Get them!" "Come on!" "You." "Help him." "The infidel defilers shall all drown in lakes of blood." "Now they will know why they are afraid of the dark." "Now they will learn why they fear the night." "Seek." "The wizard." "I told him I would pay the gods." "Hold me." "lKiss me.... lKiss me...." "Let me breathe my last breath into your mouth." "I'm so cold." "So cold.... lKeep me warm." "Ikeep me...." "Fire won't burn up there." "No fire at all." "Why do you cry?" "He is Conan, Cimmerian." "He won't cry." "So I cry for him." "He will kill you." "He has seen your fires." "He will come for me, and when he does, he will kill you." "I remember days like this when my father took me to the forest and we ate wild blueberries." "More than 20 years ago." "I was just a boy of four or five." "The leaves were so dark and green then." "The grass smelled sweet with the spring wind." "Almost 20 years of pitiless combat." "No rest, no sleep like other men." "And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai." "Have you ever felt such a wind?" "They blow where l live too." "In the north of every man's heart." "It's never too late, Subotai." "No." "It would only lead me back here another day." "In even worse company." "For us, there is no spring." "Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm." "Where did you get this stuff?" "The dead." "The gods are pleased with you." "They will watch the battle." "Are they going to help?" "No." "Then tell them to stay out of the way." "Crom I have never prayed to you before." "I have no tongue for it." "No one, not even you, will remember if we were good men or bad." "Why we fought or why we died." "No." "All that matters is that two stood against many." "That's what's important." "Valor pleases you, Crom, so grant me one request." "Grant me revenge." "And if you do not listen, then to hell with you." "That's how we do it." "l did it." "With my spear!" "Do you want to live forever?" "Doom!" "Don't leave me!" "My lord!" "No, don't kill me!" "Father!" "The purging is at last at hand." "Day of doom is here." "All that is evil, all that have eyes your parents, your leaders." "Those who would call themselves your judges." "Those who have lied and corrupted the earth." "They shall all be cleansed." "You, my children, are the water that will wash away all that has gone before." "In your hand you hold my light a gleam in the eye of Set." "This flame will burn away the darkness burn you away to paradise!" "My child." "You have come to me, my son." "For who now is your father if it is not me?" "Who gave you the will to live?" "I am the wellspring from which you flow." "When I am gone you will have never been." "What will your world be without me?" "My son." "My son." "So, did Conan return the wayward daughter ofKing Osric home." "And having no further concern he and his companions sought adventure in the West." "Many wars and feuds did Conan fight." "Honor and fear were heaped upon his name." "In time, he became a king by his own hand." "This story shall also be told."