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Iron Shadows in the Moon

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"Iron Shadows in the Moon" is a novelette by Robert E. Howard first published in Weird Tales 23 4 (April 1934) as "Shadows in the Moonlight".

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[edit] Synopsis

"They stood in a great hall, whose floor was of polished stone, littered with dust and broken stones, which had fallen from the ceiling. Vines, growing between the stones, masked the apertures. The lofty roof, flat and undomed, was upheld by thick columns, marching in rows down the sides of the walls. And in each space between these columns stood a strange figure..."

— Robert E. Howard, "Iron Shadows in the Moon"

"Shadows in the Moonlight" (Howard's original title was "Iron Shadows in the Moon") is a moody story, and one of the better Conan novellettes. It begins a little unusually when a female lovely named Olivia, having fled captivity from the city of Akif, is chased down and cornered in a marsh, on the edge of the Vilayet Sea. Her pursuer and former master is a sadistic rogue named Shah Amurath. But before he can lay loathsome hands on the hapless heroine, a figure rises from the reeds. Apparently, the newcomer has his own bone to pick with Shah Amurath, having seen all his friends betrayed and treacherously cut down to a man, before escaping into the marshes where he has hidden out for so long he is nearly mad. The newcomer quickly dispatches Shah Amurath, then he and Olivia hop in a boat and decide to lie low for the next little while. Only then does the newcomer identify himself: Conan the Cimmerian.

The two fugitives, Conan and Olivia, find their way to a dark and apparently deserted island, where they spend the night sleeping in ancient ruins decorated with remarkably life-like statues. Olivia has a dream in which she sees a band of men turned into those statues and wakes convinced they will come to life in the moonlight. Conan is less than convinced of Olivia's fears and is more concerned by whatever it is is lurking in the jungle, lobbing giant boulders at the two fugitives. A pirate ship makes port on the island, and leaving Olivia hidden in the brush, Conan challenges their captain; an old rival. He slays the pirate captain, but is knocked unconscious by a stone from a sling. The pirates bind him and take him with them to the ruins where they discuss his fate, until they pass out drunk. Olivia meanwhile, narrowly escapes from a massive and dark figure that pursues her up to the ruins. Olivia sneaks past the drunken and sleeping pirates and frees Conan. Conan then slays the dark figure that pursued Olivia, a giant man-ape, which had also been hurling the boulders at them. As Conan recovers from his battle with the man-ape, they hear the beginning of a horrific slaughter back at the ruins. They quickly head back to the deserted pirate ship. As Conan prepares the ship to sail, a band of beaten and bedraggled pirates comes and asks to come aboard and leave the 'devil island'. Conan challenges them and they accept him as their captain. At the end Olivia begs Conan to allow her to stay with him and laughing, accepts, saying he'd make her 'Queen of the Blue Sea'.

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