Shadows in Zamboula

The desert city of Zamboula is a deathtrap for strangers. When Conan the Cimmerian ignores a warning from a desert nomad and beds down in a cheap tavern, he finds himself hunted by something far worse than bandits: the Darfarian cannibals who roam Zamboula's blackened streets each night, preying on travelers while the locals lock their doors and pray for dawn. What begins as a fight for survival becomes something stranger. Conan intervenes when he sees a naked woman chasing a raving madman through the city. She tried to secure his love with a potion from the city's high priest, but the magic twisted him into a beast. Now she wants blood: the priest's. Together with the madman, Conan must hunt the corrupter through a city where every shadow hides teeth. Howard delivers brutal action, creeping dread, and the cold logic of a barbarian in a civilization that has traded its soul for comfort. This is sword-and-sorcery at its rawest, where the real monsters wear robes.