A Witch Shall be Born
by Robert E. Howard
Queen Taramis of Khauran awakens one day to find her identical twin sister, Salome, staring her in the face. As an infant, Salome was deemed a witch due to a crescent-shaped birthmark on her chest. This birthmark was believed to be a sign of evil, so she was left in the desert to die. However, a magician from Khitai (China) found Salome, brought her up, and instructed her in the art of sorcery.
Salome has conspired with a voivode named Constantius, also known as "The Falcon", the Kothic leader for an army of Shemitish mercenaries, to take over the city of Khauran. Queen Taramis is sent to the palace dungeon, with the implications of torture and rape. Salome assumes Taramis' identity as the queen of Khauran and names Constantius as her royal consort. The Khaurani army is disbanded and replaced by Constantius' Shemitish mercenaries, an event which turns violent when the captain of the queen's guard, Conan the Cimmerian, refuses to obey Salome's order.
After putting his back against a wall while killing a number of Constantius' warriors, Conan is finally captured and crucified for his defiance. Olgerd Vladislav, the Zaporoskan leader of a band of Zuagir desert raiders, is riding by with his scouting party and discovers a crucified Conan miles outside the city walls. Vladislav doesn't entirely help Conan. He has the base of the cross cut, leaving it to fate and Conan's hardiness that he isn't crushed by the heavy wood. Vladislav then refuses to give Conan any water, claiming the Cimmerian must wait until after a ten-mile trek towards their outlaw camp to prove himself worthy of his band.
In Khauran, Salome's reign as "Taramis" has plunged the city into ruin. Citizens are killed, tortured, or sold as slaves; heavy taxes are imposed; and women are frequently debauched by the Shemites. Salome desecrates the temple of Ishtar in the center of her city and summons a demon, Thaug, to live inside it. Soon, the citizens of Khauran are routinely sacrificed to Thaug.
Conan has been expanding the numbers of Zuagirs as Vladislav's lieutenant, while also secretly establishing communication with the Khaurani Knights who had become refugees. When he has a sufficient force, Conan deposes Vladislav's leadership of the Zuagirs, but doesn't kill him in repayment for Vladislav having saved his life from the cross. Conan fakes the construction of siege engines with palm trees and painted silk. Soon, Constantius is fooled by this as his scouts cannot get close enough to see them properly and Conan is known for his experience in all manner of warfare. The Shemitish mercenaries ride out of their city for an open-field battle, with Constantius expecting only the lightly armed Zuagirs, but are taken by surprise by the Khaurani cavalry hidden amongst them. Conan's forces are victorious, ruthlessly taking no prisoners. The Zuagirs, Shemite nomads, are hereditary enemies of the Western Shemite city dwellers from whom Constantius' mercenaries were drawn, while the Khaurani exiles are full of bitterness over the Shemites' oppression of their city; neither are inclined to be merciful to their defeated enemies.
Meanwhile, Valerius, a former member of the Khaurani army, has discovered the secret of Salome's masquerade, and the fact that Salome is holding the real Taramis within her dungeon. With Conan's forces approaching Khauran, Valerius plans to rescue Taramis and reveal the conspiracy to his people or to escape with the true queen. Conan's victory is not certain to the Khauranis and they are nervous about his intentions if he does take Khauran. When it becomes apparent that Conan has defeated Constantius' Shemites, Salome decides to kill Taramis before his army can reclaim the city. She thwarts Valerius' rescue attempt and sends Taramis to the former temple of Ishtar to sacrifice her to Thaug. Valerius saves Taramis and kills Salome, but not before she unleashes Thaug. Conan arrives with his Khaurani allies and some Zuagir warriors, who kill the demon with two flights of arrows.
Soon, Taramis offers to make Conan her royal councillor and captain. However, he declines the queen's offer and nominates Valerius instead. Conan, as chief of the Zuagirs, drives away the remaining Shemites (capturing Constantius in the process) and leaves to raid the nearby kingdom of Turan. Before leaving Khauran, he crucifies Constantius at the site where he'd been crucified, commenting with irony to a crucified Constantius the difference between their respective situations: "I hung there on a cross as you are hanging, and I lived, thanks to circumstances and a stamina peculiar to barbarians. But you civilized men are soft; your lives are not nailed to your spines as are ours. Your fortitude consists mainly in inflicting torment, not in enduring it. You will be dead before sundown. And so, Falcon, I leave you to the companionship of another bird of the desert."
Salome's words at the beginning: "'Every century a witch shall be born.' So ran the ancient curse. And so it has come to pass. Each was named Salome. I too am Salome. It was always Salome, the witch. It will always be Salome, the witch, even when the mountains of ice have roared down from the pole and ground the civilizations to ruin, and a new world has risen from the ashes and dust—even then there shall be Salomes to walk the earth, to trap men's hearts by their sorcery, to dance before the kings of the world, and see the heads of the wise men fall at their pleasure" - clearly imply that the witch Salome of this story is an earlier incarnation of the notorious Salome of the New Testament, who instigated the beheading of John the Baptist.