SSoC #127
-------------
Reunion in ScarletScript by Don Kraar
Art by Mike Docherty, inked by Rudy Nebres for 34 pages and by Vince Colletta for 16 more.
This story answers an important question regarding Conan and Valeria of the Red Brotherhood, the she-pirate created by Robert Howard in the story
Red Nails:
did they or didn't they?Valeria was depicted as an independent woman with a fiery disposition, one who meant to live the life of a man if she damned well pleased, one who would (and did) knife an officer trying to paw her, and one who jumped overboard and swam to the Kushite coast when a pirate captain wanted to make her his mistress. She initially made clear that Conan's amorous attentions were unwelcome. At the end of
Red Nails, though, the shared adventure had seemed to make her reconsider her feelings:
(Here's the Savage Tales #3 version):
So, were they lovers after that, or not? Red Nails seems to suggest that they might well have been, although the introductory paragraph to "Jewels of Gwahlur" in Conan the warrior (written by L. Sprague de Camp, I assume) explains that they soon parted ways because both insisted on being the boss). Complicating the issue, when he cast Valeria as the female lead in the conanization of
Island of pirate's doom (SSoC #73, 74, 76-79), Roy Thomas had her say that she had remained as pure as any girl despite her piratical life (and she even slapped a guy for suggesting that she and Conan had been lovers). Oh, the ambiguity!
As a reader, I didn't much see the need for another sword-woman who insists on remaining chaste forever; we already had Red Sonja filling that role. A sword-woman in control of her sexuality, now,
that's something we hadn't seen. Apparently, writer Don Kraar thought the same!
The idea of bringing Valeria back was a welcome one, since she is a noteworthy character in the saga. This was the first time we saw her in an actual Conan story (outside of cameos, as when the Cimmerian remembered the ladies in his life) since
Red Nails had been adapted in Savage Tales #2 and 3. Later appearances by Valeria would often be so out of character as to make us postulate the existence of another pirate with the same name, but she'd be seen again "as herself" in the Roy Thomas-written latter issues of the magazine.
Our story:
Some time after he parted ways with Valeria after the
Red Nails episode, Conan learns that two Hyrkanian brothers, rich merchants with their own fleet of trading ships, have offered a reward for the woman's head on account of her belonging to the Red Brotherhood, a piratical organization that their forces have all but wiped out. (This is a little problematical... Has Valeria really had enough time to establish herself as a pirate on the Vilayet since last she saw Conan? There's a little more than a year, two at most, between "Red Nails" and "Beyond the Black River" in which Conan is far to the west in Aquilonia, and soon to become that country's king). Anyway, Conan rushes to her rescue and localizes her by roughing up bounty hunters.
Interfering with a nightly assassination attempt led by a cowardly braggart named Garth, Conan saves Valeria's life and rides away with her. The two bicker like an old couple but end up in bed together. Their dialogue suggests that they have a "can't live together, can't live apart" kind of relationship.
(In the picture on the right Valeria is very much drawn like Sandahl Bergman, who played her in the Conan movies in the 1980s).
When the man Garth tries to sneak up on the cabin they slept in, Conan and Valeria capture him and force him to act as a messenger for his employers. The two merchants who want Valeria dead are businessmen, reasons Conan; no matter how earnest their desire for revenge, there is surely some way to buy peace with them.
A meeting is arranged, and there is indeed something the merchant with whom they talk would consider an appropriate payment for Valeria's past misdeeds: a sacred relic called the
chalice of Tarim, which is venerated by a certain order of fanatical knights in their fortress near the Afghulistan border. Should Conan and Valeria steal and bring back the chalice, the merchant would consider the matter settled.
Conan, Valeria and Garth ride together toward the east and reach the castle. Here I regret that the knights are depicted in a very European-looking fashion (they look like Templars, honestly). Considering that they worship the Tarim and are Hyrkanian, they should have looked a lot more Turkish or Persian. But anyway.
Their sect seems to practice an uncommon version of the religion of the Tarim: they perform human sacrifice, for example. We've previously seen Tarimites express loud expression of grief and practice self-mortification, a bit like Shi'ites during Ashura, (see CtB#29) but human sacrifice seems very strange to honour a man-god who was, as far as legend goes, a humanitarian -as seen in CtB#19. I suppose that as in any historical era, different sects of a certain religion had different customs. (We would see priests of Mitra and of Bel practice human sacrifice over the years in this mag).
Managing to grab the chalice and to make a daring escape, the trio naturally incurs the wrath of the fanatical order.
When they bring the stolen goblet to the merchant, the trio are met with treachery. Sure, the man himself won't do Valeria any harm; but he never spoke for his brother! Cue said brother and his armed guards, intent on keeping the chalice
and killing Conan, Valeria and Garth anyway.
That proves to be a poor business decision: the trio slays them all! (Should have started with that, really. That's what being civilized and reasonable brings you).
Conan and Valeria part after discussing their bond: they love each other but cannot live together. Garth decides to accompany Conan in his further adventures.
Shortly thereafter, Conan and Garth are ambushed and captured by the knights of the chalice. Garth embarrassingly grovels and begs, appearing more cowardly than ever and the head of the order contemptuously lets him go, saying that living as a coward is the worst punishment imaginable. The man then gallops as fast as he can to reach Valeria and appraise her of the situation; the two of them proceed to the order's castle to rescue Conan before he is slain.
The Cimmerian is meant to be punished for his sacrilege by being thrown into molten lava, but the timely intervention of Valeria interrupts the proceedings. Luckily the knights are not that numerous, and a few of them turn out not to be so fanatical after all. Seeing what a batshit crazy loon their leader is, a few new initiates turn on him and his few remaining loyal men. The order's master is finally kicked into the lava pool by Garth.
Conan and Valeria must say their goodbyes again, and Garth is amazed than the Cimmerian can let such a woman go.
Notes:
- The Red Brotherhood, which seems to have been wiped out as this story opens, is said to be operating on the sea of Vilayet. It should actually be located on the Western Ocean, so we have a few options: either the brotherhood has a branch operating on the inland sea, either pirates tend to always choose the same names for their associations and this duplicate Red Brotherhood is just a coincidence, or this is simply an error.
- Valeria may have been a pirate among the Barachan on the Western sea, but this is not her first time on the shores of the Vilayet. As the daughter of Daquius, ambassador of Aquilonia to Turan, she spent a while in Hyrkania as a child (back when she still bore her original name of Merina). After her father's death, she was taken in by her pirate of an uncle and adopted the name Valeria, before she was sent as a teenager to marry someone respectable in the west Argos (at which point she decided to make her own way in life). These events were covered in Red Sonja (vol.2 #1-2 and SSoC #225)
- Hyrkanians swearing by Tarim! None of them swearing by Mitra of Ymir! My cup of happiness is brimming!
- Afghulistan seems to be just a tad too close to the Vilayet. In this story it's supposed to be a one week journey, but it's still roughly a thousand kilometers... feasible, I suppose, but one has to move fast and change horses often (and have a sore rump at the end).
