"The Shadow Kingdom" by Robert E. Howard(1929)
Originally appeared in Weird Tales, August 1929. Plot: King Kull is the usurper of Valusia, originally an Atlantean savage. An ambassador of the Picts comes to invite the king to a secret meeting with Ka-Nu, the Pictish envoy. At this meeting, Ka-Nu only hints that there is treachery afoot in the palace of Kull and tells him Brule the Spear-Slayer will see him the following night bearing a dragon armlet. Brule shows up and shows Kull secret passages in his own palace, in which are hidden the dead bodies of his 20 guards, even though the guards stand outside his door! Kull also sees the ghost of the ancient King Eallal, murdered by the serpents and now their undead slave.Tu, Kull's visier comes to kill the king with a dagger. At Brule's warning Kull kills him only to see he is not Tu but a Serpent-man wearing his face by way of a magic spell. While Brule is getting rid of the body another Serpent-man attacks Kull, pretending to be the spear-slayer. Armed with the knowledge that the highest men in his house are Serpents, Kull is ready for the enemy which leads him off to his supposed coronation. Brule follows him and is there to protect his back as Kull battles the dozens of Serpent-Men. The two win out, killing them all. Their magic spell broken Kull finds himself in the 'Accursed Chamber' where Eallal was murdered and not the cornation hall. Suspecting more foul play, the duo rush to the real hall to find a false King kull accepting the crown. The real Kull kills him, then reveals the serpent face to all there. Ka-Nu shows up to tell them that the power of the seropent is broken. Kull swears he will hunt down and kill every last serpent. Monsters: Serpent-Men: The Serpent-Men have lived on the planet since the time of the dinosaurs but slowly lost their power to the humans. By Kull's time they are a secret organization re-taking their power through the Temple of the Serpent and by magic. Those they kill become their undead ghost-slaves. Ghost-Slave: We get to see King Eallal wandering the hidden passages on some task of the Serpent masters. History: This story is in my opinion the very first true Sword & Sorcery tale. The tales of Solomon Kane pre-date it but aren't quite S&S because of their background. With this story Howard cemented the basics building blocks of S&S. There should be a medieval or early style backdrop, a supernatural foe, magic, a good sword fight and a weird sense of the eons before, which haunt the entire atmosphere of the story. The S&S tale is Fantasy blended with the Horror tale, and really could only have been spawned in a magazine like Weird Tales, which featured both. Read Lin Carter's history of this important story here.
Comic adaption from Kull the Conqueror #2 (September 1971) Adapted by Roy Thomas/Drawn by Marie and John Severin
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