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The People of the Black Circle
by Robert E. Howard
1934
Contents
The People of the Black Circle
I: Death Strikes a King
II: A Barbarian from the Hills
III: Khemsa Uses Magic
IV: An Encounter in the Pass
V: The Black Stallion
VI: The Mountain of the Black Seers
VII: On to Yimsha
VIII: Yasmina Knows Stark Terror
IX: The Castle of the Wizard
X: Yasmina and Conan
Chapter I
: Death Strikes a King
The king of Vendhya was dying. Through the hot, stifling night the temple gongs boomed and the conchs roared. Their clamor was a faint echo in the gold-domed chamber where Bunda Chand struggled on the velvet-cushioned dais. Beads of sweat glistened on his dark skin; his fingers twisted the gold-worked fabric beneath him. He was young; no spear had touched him, no poison lurked in his wine. But his veins stood out like blue cords on his temples, and his eyes dilated with the nearness of death. Trembling slave-girls knelt at the foot of the dais, and leaning down to him, watching him with passionate intensity, was his sister, the Devi Yasmina. With her was the wazam, a noble grown old in the royal court.
She threw up her head in a gusty gesture of wrath and despair as the thunder of the distant drums reached her ears.
"The priests and their clamor!" she exclaimed. "They are no wiser than the leeches who are helpless! Nay, he dies and none can say why. He is dying now--and I stand here helpless, who would burn the whole city and spill the