Conan, accompanied by Daris and Falco, leads a hundred Taian troops through hot, dry, mountainous country toward the haunted abandoned city of Pteion where he hopes to find and wield the Ax of Varanghi in fulfilment of a Mitran prophecy. Conan encounters a kind of obstacle that might not exist in any other book of the series. He is in a foul humour, bad tempered and resentful, and this has an adverse affect on those around him. We know that Nekekba still follows as an eagle and that her spellcraft probes and exacerbates Conan's weaknesses. Daris suspects a spell but Conan is unable to accept her help. This kind of problem would exist in the Hyborian Age and requires a chapter without physical action.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteAnd it also touches on a practical issue: the necessity of leaders in dangerous, stressful times of projecting confidence, determination, indomitability, etc., to their peoples. As Churchill did in the UK during the darkest days of WW II.
Ad astra! Sean