Short Story: A Witch Shall Be Born

Summary
"A Witch Shall Be Born" follows Conan in one of Robert E. Howard's grimmer Hyborian tales, set in the ruined and violent politics of Khauran. The rightful queen Taramis is the beloved ruler of the city, but her deformed and vengeful twin sister Salome, a practitioner of dark arts, engineers a palace coup. In the ensuing chaos Conan, serving as one of the city's defenders and a leader of men, is betrayed and captured. The conspirators crucify him in the desert as an example, leaving him to hang beneath a merciless sun.
Conan endures the crucifixion, surviving against the odds through sheer will and savage resourcefulness. He is not merely rescued; he claws his way back to life, gathers allies among outlaws and desert tribes, and returns to Khauran as a force of retribution. The narrative drives forward on his single-minded pursuit of vengeance. Conan's homecoming is brutal and uncompromising: he exposes the impostor queen, dismantles the witch's power, and inflicts a harsh justice on those responsible for the city's torment. The tale closes with the restoration of order through violence and the grim revelation of the cost paid by all involved.

Characters and Tone
Conan dominates the story as the elemental, unbowed hero: physically indomitable, morally direct, and quick to anger when wronged. Taramis and Salome function as opposing images of power and corruption, the fair, legitimate monarch and the malignant twin who uses sorcery and cruelty to seize rule. Secondary figures, soldiers, conspirators, and tribal allies, populate the canvas but the emotional center remains Conan's suffering and fall to fury. Howard paints the witch Salome not as a sympathetic villain but as a grotesque embodiment of vengeance and black magic, her rule marked by terror and blood.
The tone is bleak and uncompromising. Howard leans into visceral descriptions of brutality, the raw mechanics of survival, and the harsh morality of revenge. The atmosphere is heavy with superstition and dread; the city becomes a stage for both political treachery and uncanny menace. Howard's prose is muscular and vivid, favoring action and sensory detail that make the crucifixion and the later assaults feel immediate and relentless.

Themes and Legacy
Central themes include endurance in the face of humiliation, the thin line between civilization and barbarism, and the idea that brutal power must be answered by brute force. Conan's crucifixion is not a redemptive martyrdom but a trial that reaffirms his primacy as a man of action; his vengeance reads as civic correction through violence rather than moral absolution. The story interrogates leadership and legitimacy, showing how fragile a stable regime can be when fear and occult influence replace law.
"A Witch Shall Be Born" is notable in the Conan canon for its stark cruelty and its iconic image of the hero left to die in the desert sun. It stands as an exemplar of Howard's ability to fuse pulpy adventure with darker, almost nihilistic impulses, and it helped cement the enduring image of Conan as a relentless, elemental force. The tale remains a favorite for readers who appreciate the harsher, more tragic edges of sword-and-sorcery fiction.