Queen of the Black Coast, and Other Stories

Conan takes ship as a fugitive and finds himself crewing for Bêlit, a pirate queen who commands a black corsair and a crew that worships her — and the river they sail up leads to a ruined city with something still living in it. Howard wrote in small-town Texas at furious speed for the pulps and all but invented sword and sorcery with Conan; he shot himself at thirty when his mother's coma became final. Fifty-eight plates of sail and shipwreck by painters including Aivazovsky and Eckersberg carry the sea chase and the black corsair through the book.