Conan turned to see an old crone emerging from the shadows of a lightning-scarred oak. Her skin was like parched parchment, and her eyes held the milky glaze of the blind.
The sun hung low over the blasted heaths of Cimmeria, a blood-red orb sinking into the jagged peaks of the Ben Morgh. Conan , a youth of seventeen winters but with the shoulders of a seasoned bull, wiped the gore of a Vanir raider from his notched broadsword. He stood atop a pile of the slain, his blue eyes smoldering with a primal fire that even the freezing winds could not douse.
Conan did not answer. He slung his shield over his back and began the long descent. He passed through the haunted forests of Hyperborea, where the trees whispered in forgotten tongues, and into the teeming markets of Shadizar the Wicked.
