If you missed Part 1…
When we left Brak he was in a prison cell and had been visited by Ariane, the daughter of Hell. Two unseen cellmates commented on Brak’s actions.
Now we find out who those two men are: Tyresias and Friar Jerome. Brak attacks Jerome when he tries to pray over him. He is a monk of the Order of Nestoriamus. These priests are very close to Christians (perhaps a bit more than I like). They bear the cross of their god. Tyresias is a wizard, more in the Merlin mold. Both are enemies of Septegundus and are to be sacrificed.
The two men get Brak up to date on the politics of the South. One of Ariane’s shining orbs arrives.
Instead of the Daughter of Hell appearing, the bubble takes Brak away.
Ariane takes Brak on a magical ride across the sky in a chariot pulled by magic steeds. She has fallen for the brooding barbarian and wants him to join her as her mate.
Brak refuses. She gave him a necklace that would immediately summon her if he desired to take her up on her offer.
The three prisoners are taken to the temple that bears a gigantic statue of Yob-Haggoth. They are to be sacrificed to the evil god. Brak’s broadsword is one of the items brought to the altar.
Brak sees the man who will plunge the sacrificial dagger into his heart…Septegundus.
Brak has other ideas, and plugs Septegundus in the nose. The Darter Boys are attending their master and try to recapture the barbarian. This is hard to do because Brak has his sword back!
Using his sword, Brak “slays” the living idol of Yob-Haggoth.
This really pisses off Septegundus. The high priest throws a magical dagger at the barbarian. But Brak is wily. He uses the necklace to summon Ariane, who magical appears between Brak and her father. The dagger kills her instead. Septegundus departs in a blast of magical fire, but he curses the barbarian. “The Road to Khurisan is long, Barbarian. I will be there!” So the forces of evil take up a vendetta against the swordsman from the North.
In this way Jakes has set up the stories to follow –mostly stories he wrote in the decade before “The Unspeakable Shrine”. All the stories were collected in five paperbacks. Where new material was created the feud with Septegundus would appear again. In the older stories, the evil is more general. There were some great stories that would have made excellent comics. “The Devils in the Walls”, “The Girl in the Gem” and “When Idols Walked” would have been adapted well with great monsters and lots of action. Alas, they never happened. Marvel had their hitmaker in Robert E. Howard, a Conan clone wasn’t really required.
