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The Man-Eaters of Zamboula

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"The Man-Eaters of Zamboula" is a novelette by Robert E. Howard first published in Weird Tales 26 5 (November 1935) as "Shadows in Zamboula".

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[edit] Synopsis

Conan is at the Sword-Makers' Bazaar at Zamboula and is warned by a nomad there that "peril hides in the house of Aram Baksh," the inn where Conan will be spending the night, and that travelers check in, never to be seen again with their possessions appearing later at the local markets. The nomad also says that pits with charred bones appear on the outskirts of the city.

Conan checks into said inn (which is on the very edge of the city and has high walls and securely bolted doors; the district is also peculiarly deserted) and shown his room by Aram Baksh and locked in for the night. Late in the night Conan is waked by the sounds of stealthy opening of a door, and is instantly ready for action. In what ensues he kills with his sword a gigantic black man with a cudgel and filed teeth. Conan finds his way to the street with the intention of returning and settling the score with Aram Baksh and finds three huge blacks similarly attired to the one he killed in his room carrying a struggling woman. Conan intervenes, slaying the three blacks.

The woman, who identifies herself as a dancing girl Zabibi, explains that she sought a potion to give to her lover Alafdahl, a young Turanian soldier, from the high priest of Hanuman, but the priest, Totrasmek gave her a portion that would make her lover insane and try to kill her.

Zabibi uses her feminine charms to convince Conan to help her. Totrasmek had said that he has the potion to undo the effects of the one he already gave her. If he could accompany her to Totrasmek, and slay him and appropriate the portion, she would repay him.

They find Alafdahl, and Conan knocks him out cold with a blow to the head. Alafdahl is bound until he can be cured of his madness.

The two steal into Hanuman's shrine where Zabibi locates a trick panel leading into a secret chamber. As she opens it, a pair of gigantic hands reach out and grab her; the door closes instantly and Conan is unable to smash it down. He tries one of the other passages to follow the sounds of muffled screaming.

This leads him to a well lit room where a gigantic man--Baal-Pteor--was reclining on a divan. Conan goes to kill Baal-Pteor right away, but he uses illusions to confound Conan, who gets his sword stuck on a huge magnet as a result of fighting these illusions. Baal-Pteor performs the sacrifices to Hanuman by breaking his victims' necks with his bare hands. Conan and Baal-Pteor lock up in a deadly embrace and Conan prevails, taunting Baal-Pteor before he kills him. (Conan later admits that he was the strongest man he ever encountered.) Conan recovers his sword and continues on his way.

In the meantime Zabibi went to see Totrasmek. It is revealed that it was not a love potion that she originally sought, but a sleep potion and that she intended to use it to take away a ring he possessed and return it to the Queen of Ophir, from whom it was stolen. (The ring contained the Star of Khorala, a jewel whose magic would win the hearts of all the queens of the world if Alafdahl found out.) Four clay pots drop to the floor, and cobras come out of each of them; Totrasmek tells her to dance.

In an instant Conan appears from behind a curtain and runs Totrasmek through with his sword. The cobras turn out to be wisps of smoke. Zabibi reveal that Alafdahl is really Jungar Kahn, the satrap of Zamboula and that she was Nafertary, his mistress and that they needed to go incognito because if the citizenry found out that their leader had gone mad, there would be a revolt. She offers to have Conan made Captain of the Guard, but Conan only takes a sack of gold and a horse as payment.

Before Conan goes on his way, he has unfinished business to settle with Aram Baksh. He returns to the inn. He finds a group of cannibals lamenting the loss of their brothers and the fact they will go hungry today. Conan tells them that Aram Baksh has a new victim ready. He goes into the inn, man-handles Aram Baksh, cuts off his beard so that he wouldn't be recognized and thrusts him out of doors to the waiting cannibals.

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