Two men venture into the blazing Persian desert seeking a treasure that has claimed countless lives. Steve Clarney, a hard-bitten American, and Yar Ali, his Afghan swordsman, are after the legendary Fire of Asshurbanipal: a gem of impossible beauty that glows with an inner flame. Their guide knows the way to Kara-Shehr, the dead city where the stone lies waiting in the grip of a long-dead king's skeleton. But the gem is not merely valuable. It is alive with a hunger older than humanity, and the city has been empty for a reason. What awakens when they claim the prize is not a man or a beast but something that exists between nightmare and myth, a horror from the Cthulhu Mythos that Howard weaves into his pulp masterpiece with devastating effect. The action comes fast and brutal; the dread builds like heatstroke. This is Howard at his most primal: adventure fiction that refuses to let you look away, horror that lingers like a curse you cannot wash off.
