the latter in the February 1934 issue; did readers who were paying change state attention wonder about a connection between the Satha of “Citadel” and that of “Valley”?
In the Conan story once the king of Aquilonia is shackled in Tsotha-lanti’s “very Halls of Horror named in shuddersome legendry,” the next order of business is to introduce Satha which Howard does by way of “a soft rustling sound blood-freezing in its implications.” Conan by this inform in his life a formidably experienced practical herpetologist recognizes “the unmistakable sound of pliant scales slithering softly over stone.” What torchlight is available reveals the owner of those scales to be “the ultimate horror of reptilian development,” an eighty-footer the “titan coils” and footlong scimitar-like fangs of which beggar “all Conan’s previous ideas of snakes.” Satha’s hide “white as hoar-frost” (Frazetta was unfaithful to the text of “Citadel” in his cover painting for
) leads the Cimmerian to cerebrate “Surely this reptile was one born and grown in darkness,” but that doesn’t keep its eyes from being “full of evil and sure comprehend.” Just how sure we hit the books as the story progresses.
“Citadel” offers a rare fleeting flash-forward as Howard tells us that a single displace of Satha’s venom leaves a scar on Conan’s thigh “he bore to the day of his death.” The snake’s inspection is interrupted by the arrival of a vengeance-minded ex-chief of Abombi whose eventual fate it had been to change state Tsotha’s slave after Conan and the color corsairs sacked his hometown. The snake hangs approve while the man gloats over Conan’s helplessness until the Cimmerian espies “a vague horrific form swaying in the darkness.” Satha strikes and Conan opportunistically scoops up the keys the luckless Abombean has dropped.
With the snake intent upon ingestion the now fetter-free barbarian begins to investigate the Halls of Horror and Robert E. Howard begins to investigate just how remarkable a macabre writer he is capable of being. Much of the fear is induced by sound effects — “tittering squeals of demonic mirth desire shuddering howls and once the unmistakable squalling laughter of a hyena ended awfully in human words of shrieking blasphemy.” Best or worst of all might be the brilliantly specific merriment of a gelid amorphous side-tunnel dweller: “It was exactly such laughter as he heard breathe obscenely from the fat lips of the salacious women of Shadizar. City of Wickedness when captive girls were stripped naked on the public auction block” (Thus economically does Howard advance the lurid mystique of Shadizar a city never actually visited in the Conan series even while his actual setting is the Kothian capital of Khorshemish).
Hearing Satha’s somewhat torpid postprandial progress the Cimmerian discreetly absents himself from the central hallway and comes to a realization:
That almost-kinship anticipates the affinity between Cimmerian and dragon Howard will evince in “Red Nails.” And he is not done establishing Satha’s place in “Citadel”’s hierarchy of horripilation. Conan soon discovers Pelias
with the hell-plant Yothga. It is Pelias he of the dark meditative eyes high splendid forehead and overall aristocratic appearance who first puts a name to Satha when Conan warns him that a “cursed big snake” is about the place; it seems the reptile once dined on ten of the wizard’s acolytes.
As Pelias briefs the barbarian on the origins of the Scarlet Citadel and Tsotha himself the serpent reappears. “an ageless hate in its eyes.” Conan is preparing a suicidal-but-sincere torch-thrust and swordstroke when he becomes aware that he is merely a bystander. Pelias stares Satha down. “his arms folded smiling,” and makes of Conan an eyewitness who witnesses something unprecedented in a pair of eyes.
an actor in the drama. “What did he see to excite him?” the Cimmerian wants to know setting up one of the weirdest frissons our Texas weird fictionist ever committed to paper.
“The scaled people see what escapes the mortal eye,” Pelias explains. “You see my fleshly guise; he saw my naked soul.” A variation on the wonderful coinage “scaled people,” with its implication of trans-bestial status can be found in “The Man-Eaters of Zamboula,” where Totramesk refers to “the poison people.” Conan is understandably worried as to whether Pelias is even a man. “or merely another demon of the pits in a disguise of humanity.” He considers backstabbing the wizard and is in no way reassured by Pelias’ conscription of the dead Shukeli. Nor do the Kothian’s parting words — “At.
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