Conan the Barbarian: Battle of the Black Stone

Book excerpt: Across time and space, the Heroes of Man discovered the sign of the Black Stone. In 1936 Chicago, Professor Conrad and Kirowan held a clandestine meeting with an old gunslinger named El Borak to trace the symbol’s origins. In the 16th century, Dark Agnes found the sigil in France, as years later Solomon Kane did in deepest Africa. While still back in 1930s Texas, writer James Allison sat down to type potentially his last story… just as evil darkened his doorway. The many echoes, the many sightings come to their crescendo in the Hyborian Age, where Conan of Cimmeria raced into the jungles near Conajohara to unearth the sign’s mystery. There he found a score of corrupted Picts worshipping the symbol and set to bloody work. Yet even as he carved through their number with abandon, a soul-shearing howl heralded the arrival of an apparition in agony: James Allison, appearing to each of the heroes in turn, chaining them together for now and evermore…