"Severed Heads" by Glen Cook(1984)

Originally appeared in Sword & Sorceress (1984).

Plot: Narriman is a young woman who is marked by the shagun to be their woman. Her father tries to hide her far from the mountain but she can not escape. The shagun comes and takes her anyway, making her pregnant. He leaves her alone for three years, raising her son in yet another village to escpae the shame of her rape. The shagun comes again, takes then leaves with her boy. Narriman decides she will go into the very heart of the sorcerer's mountain to get her son back. To do this she trains as a man in arms, then goes to the temple of Karkur, the local god to pray. There a strange power is invested in her necklace that can aware her of the shagun's approach. She rides against the elements, fights a band of weird undead creatures, and finally enters the shagun's inner sanctum, killing several of the warrior-sorcerers to get her son. When she flees she must fce the one that raped her. She defeats it in battle only to realize it is a young man no different than her son will be in the future.

Monsters:

Shaghun - dark warriors/sorcerers who live on a mountain and take from the common villagers whatever they want, including women.

Undead - It is never explained exactly what these attackers are, whether they are undead or simulacra. They are not stopped by wounds. They are driven off by magic.

History: Cook does a great job of creating S&S with an Arabic flavor. This isn't just copying The Arabian Nights but creating an entirely new world that just happens to be Muslim-based instead of Christian based. This story is one of the best in the book.

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