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Conan Tales

(Conan created by Robert E. Howard)

The Darklight

Daniel Thomas Andrew Daly

On the outskirts of Never, lived the Kareesh. The Kareesh drank water from deep wells, water which came from the heart of creation. The Kareesh drank this water, and wandered far away from Never, into the desert land. Into the desert land.

Conan was old, and in many ways young again. King of Aquilonia in the power of Heaven’s Might, Conan had all he wished, and bedded any fair maiden which caught his eye.

But at the bottom of the well of Zamora, he entered the Never. And the Never cascaded into the wilderness beneath. The underground world.

The earth above was red, deep ocreish red, from the ‘Kraad’ sandstone, which took any meagre source of light brought to it and enhanced it, reflected it on eternally. A torch lit would light the realm e’er. Nobody doubted this.

Cept the Kareesh.

They believed in the darklight, which would dim the Kraad, and bring darkness again to the underworld. Yet not in Never did Darklight exist. So the Kareesh, on manhood, wandered to the desert, having drunk deep water, to search for the Darklight.

So they might once more sleep.

A wizard had cursed them, to wander forever, in search of the darklight. And until then they would never rest, for they had offended him greatly. And, in his own words, ne’er a Kareesh could yet find the Darklight anyway, yet surely it also must be their own.

Conan had fallen into the well, and was dead in the heart of Never. Yet a Kareesh took pity and brought him into his home and nursed him back to health.

‘Truly you are a brother to me,’ swore Conan. ‘I shall find the Darklight as your own, yet not.’

And he drank deeply of the water of Never.

And he searched….

And he searched…

And he found the darklight, beyond the wastelands, in the deepest hole of the deepest pit, a black majestic piece of crystal.

And he returned to his host.

And they placed the darklight in the heart of Never.

And the curse was broken.

And the Kareesh slept once more.

Yet the Wizard knew…

The End

The Darklight 2

The Wizard awoke.

'I'll curse that Conan. He shall wander the wastelands, till he is no more.' And the curse was wrathful.

Conan's blade fell from his side. 'Ho, why does it fall?' he queried, and looked at his scabbard. Rot had set in and the blade had fallen. He picked up the blade, and looked at it. It was covered in nasty green grime. He tried rubbing it off, but then started coughing.

A week later he was sick, fowl mooded, and in bed. The vomiting had not departed for the last 3 days.

'Ye are cursed,' said Zanzan.

'Curse you and your curse,' replied Conan to the Hyperborean.

'Tis the Wizard. His wrath is well known. Only slaying him will end the curse,' replied Zanzan.

Conan eyed Zanzan. 'Then a wizard's dead head I'll deliver ye.'

Conan, still sick, set out on his steed, but nobody knew where the wizard hid. And then he dreamed one night, and a Kareesh maiden said to him 'The Wizard dwells in Castle Vanity in the heart of Aquilonia.'

Conan travelled, and found Castle Vanity in the middle of a lake, and he swam the waters, and climbed into the tower.

But the wizard was gone, and the castle was bare, and Conan vomited once more.

On his travels a few days later he found an old wizard, one he knew from youth, who gave him an elixir, and the curse lifted, but his mood remained fowl.

'I know the wizard ye seek,' said Radfarr, the old wizard. 'He is a fowl student of mine, turned to darkness. Yet, I am afraid, you will not find him with ease. He knows the way of mystery, and dwells in illusion. A tired adventurer you will be before you track him down.'

'Then a tired adventurer I will be,' said Conan, and resumed his search.

But he searched Aquilonia in vain, and a trail to Cimmeria was a dead end, and Conan left off his wrath for the time being. For fair Cimmerian maidens beckoned him once more, and Conan being Conan........

But that is another story.

The End

The Darklight 3

Conan looked at the Cimmerian maiden. She was not the most attractive of lasses he'd bedded, by no means. But she was neither plain. Of moderate to decent looks. Marni was, though, a solid sort. He had gotten to know her well over the last few weeks, on hiatus in Cimmeria before resuming his adventures. She was a reliable sort, and faithful to his presence - she was never far away, and seemed to hang on his every word. Very devoted. Men wanted that in a woman. Devotion. The loyal sort. The marrying sort. Naturally the breasts needed to be firm - and large - with good thighs and nice legs. They were requirements in the instinctive list Conan carried around in his head in his adventures for the one to settle down with. Perhaps this Marni could be as such.

'Yo, maiden. Where are you?' No sooner had Conan spoken those words than Marni came a running.

'Master,' she said, kneeling down at his feet.

'Will ye wash my feet,' he said. 'I have not bathed for a week, and they smell fowl.'

'Of course, my lord,' she replied. As she gathered a bowl and filled it with water, Conan watched her steady Cimmerian mannerisms. Noble. She was noble in the way she carried herself, as if she expected much from life and much from the people she associated with. And, perhaps, much in a husband. Yet she liked him, and looking at her, with her decent physique and acceptable looks, he wondered if he would ask her.

'Did you dream?' she asked him, as she washed his feet with the true gentleness and strength of a Cimmerian lady.

'I dreamt of fowl wizards, and strange creatures running around a lake,' he replied.

'Dreams are often portents. And lessons,' she said. 'They speak of what has been and what could be. In symbols and crypticity.'

'Do not baffle me with your fine words. Just wash.' And she smiled at him, and he smiled back.

The weeks turned to months, and he had not left the village, and had been working with the blacksmith to pay his way in the village community. Marni would come and visit him each day, bringing meat and bread, and he would relax at the midday meal, and look fondly upon her. For he had decided to act upon his impulse, for perhaps the time had come to settle down.

It is a shame, when a man has found love, that it is taken from him. For the wizard, the one who had cursed him, found the village, and learnt of Conan, and he found out of Conan's love for Marni. And, not being seen, he found Marni alone.

'You are his bitch,' he said.

Marni did not respond, but gazed with Cimmerian strength at her adversary.

'Then you will die,' said the wizard.

'Before you kill me, may I know your name?' asked Marni.

The wizard chuckled. 'Why, Merdak, the abominable.'

'Then, Merdak, I curse your name to the fowlest of hells.'

'My fate is sealed,' he said dramatically. 'But I am afraid yours is too.' And he fixed her with a glance, and spoke a word, and she fell over, writhing in pain, and soon it was too much, and the spirit departed.

Conan found his love later that day, and when she did not respond to his jesting prodding, he picked her up and looked at her. And then he knew she was dead. The villagers spoke to him, upon finding out, and they spoke of the wizard, and they told him it had been Merdak the Abominable. And that truth settled into the heart of Conan.

The hellfire which raged in his eyes would not be appeased any time soon.

The End

The Darklight 4

He tracked the wizard through heat. He tracked the wizard through snow. He tracked the wizard, through rain. He tracked the wizard through clear skies and sunny days. Radfarr rode alongside him as they searched, and the name of Merdak became well known in the world as the wrath of Conan the Cimmerian. And then, in the far frozen north, they heard word that a wizard lived in a castle in the frozen crags beyond the village, and apparently it was whispered he was Merdak the Abominable.

'Conan, ye are a savage, and I fear the pain Merdak shall suffer at your hands. So look in your heart, and just behead the fool and have done with it.'

But Conan just glared back at Radfarr the Wizard.

They found the castle, and Conan climbed, and then lowered a rope and dragged up Radfarr. They came inside, and there he was, drunk, sleeping on his throne. A sickly servant looked at them and yelled 'Merdak. Intruders!'

Merdak awoke, but his eyes were bloodshot, and he could do nothing as Conan closed in, dragged him to his feet, and held a knife at his throat.

'What do you say before I kill, you abomination?'

Merdak looked into the eyes of wrath, and bowed his head. 'I guess I'm getting what I deserve,' said the wizard, and said nothing more.

Conan looked at Merdak, and he thought of his beloved Marni, and her cruel death, and the torments he had been through, and he looked with hatred at the wizard, who did not resist. And then, deep in his heart, he heard a song of his mother, and remembered that his mother loved him. And looking at the wretched creature before him, he realized, in the end, this abomination too had a mother, who even now loved his son.

So Conan threw Merdak on his throne, and left the castle by its front entrance, and the name of Merdak the Abominable was heard of again no more.

'Aye, ye are a Cimmerian proud and true,' said Radfarr, as they journeyed homewards.

Conan's steely gaze was the only reply.

The End