Conan the Barbarian #33 – “Death and 7 Wizards” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
Last issue, Conan was sent to the city of Wan Tengri in Khitai by a Turanian commander who wanted him to gather information for a possible invasion. The city is ruled by seven mysterious wizards who fill the skies with flames from a high tower. Conan ran afoul of one of the wizards and ended up fleeing the city guard, swimming through a watery tunnel where he fought an octopus-woman (which may or may not have been an illusion) before crawling out of a pool in the garden and collapsing. He’s approached by a sinister figure who turns out to be a thief named Bourtai. Conan wakes up while Bourtai is trying to steal his purse but before
he can “chastise” the thief, the guards show up. Bourtai leads Conan to safety across the rooftops and down a tunnel to an underground cave where the city’s thieves congregate. Bourtai explains how the seven wizards showed up about six months ago and took over the city, killing the old ruler. The wizards use the flames emanating from the tower to control the populace and they hold the old ruler’s daughter captive in the tower. Conan rests and when he wakes he hears that the shepherd (Kassar) who smuggled him into the city has been captured, so he vows to rescue him. Bourtai leads Conan to the Flame Tower, where he sees the cohorts of the various wizards standing with swords at each other’s 
throats. Bourtai says this is how the wizards maintain peace amongst themselves, and if anything upset that fragile balance there’d be civil war. Bourtai leads Conan into some tunnels but soon disappears, so Conan follows a voice he hears up some stairs. He finds himself in an arena with the dead body of Kassar and realizes he’s been lured into a trap. The stands are full of soldiers and the seven wizards come in to watch the entertainment, as the mysterious voice tells Conan he has to pass three tests to survive. The first test is fighting a tiger, but when Conan brandishes his sword, it turns into a snake in his hand. He hurls the snake at the tiger and the great cat falls dead at his feet. Apparently, the snake was just an illusion and he actually threw his sword and killed the tiger. Seven men enter the arena, one representing each
wizard, and a hot woman wearing a veil stands behind the men. She tells Conan she can give him dreamless sleep if he wins the fight and embraces her. Despite the odds, Conan defeats all the soldiers and approaches the woman, but instead of embracing her he rips off her veil, revealing a grinning skull. The “woman” tells him the last test is to face her … and she is death itself. Of course, this could just be another illusion … or maybe not. We’ll see next issue. This is the second part of the adaptation of Norvell Page’s Flame Winds, which Roy followed pretty closely except for a couple of changes. In the original story, 
the hero kills the tiger with a chain instead of a sword, but I guess Roy thought that was a bit much, even for Conan. And in the original, it was Bourtai’s dead body found in the arena, but that turned out to be an illusion because Bourtai was later revealed to be a wizard himself, and was secretly ruling the city while manipulating all the other wizards. Roy didn’t think that fit this Bourtai’s character, so he dropped that whole idea.
Conan the Barbarian #34 – “The Temptress in the Tower of Flame” – Roy Thomas/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This continues immediately from the above story, with Conan grasping the wrist of a woman who claims to be Death incarnate. Conan has heard that anyone in Wan Tengri who holds Death can ask any question they like and have it answered. The woman makes Conan believe he’s growing old and decrepit, but he doesn’t release his hold on her so she’s forced to answer his question. He asks how one man may rule in Wan Tengri, since there are so many wizards sharing power. She gives him the answer in a tone so low that no one else can hear. Conan isn’t impressed with her answer but before he can get too pissed off, she disappears and
he’s left holding the dead hand of Kassar, the shepherd. The ruling wizards aren’t happy that Death (or whoever she is) may have told Conan how to defeat them, so they order their soldiers to get the secret from Conan. He says he’d rather deal with one wizard than seven, so the various wizards and their soldiers start wasting each other, just as Conan intended. Bourtai shows up again and leads Conan through some more secret tunnels. Conan doesn’t really trust Bourtai, but figures he may as well make use of him. After getting past a portcullis, they run into a manticore, but after Conan kills the monster it turns into a regular 
lion. Conan has to face down a huge guard (who isn’t an illusion) and finally busts into the chambers of the kidnapped princess, who doesn’t seem all that surprised to see him. He frees her and Bourtai leads them into another passage, this time heading up to the top of the tower. They find a huge urn filled with flames and one of the palace attendants tells Conan this is how the wizards control the populace, using this “machine” to release the flames outside where they feed on something in the air, awing the people of Wan Tengri into submission. Conan looks outside and sees that the wizards’ guards are all slaughtering each other in the courtyard. The rescued princess appears atop the tower and tells the remaining wizards to get out of her city. Conan
smashes the machine and the flames suddenly stop, which the princess claims is due to her own magic. So the people of Wan Tengri rise up and finish off the wizards, welcoming the princess as their rightful ruler. She asks Conan to be her consort, but he refuses and asks for a reward instead. She gives him a ship and a few chests of gems and Conan sails off, accompanied by Bourtai who manages to wheedle his way into coming along. As they sail away, Conan sees the flame winds emerge from the tower again and figures he’s better off without the princess, as she’ll probably be a worse tyrant than all the wizards put together. As they get farther from the city, the ship turns into a leaking dinghy and the gems turn back into worthless rocks. Conan realizes he’s been had, but doesn’t want to go back to Wan Tengri, so he and Bourtai keep going forward. This finishes the adaptation of Norvell Page’s Flame 
Wind. Roy again stuck pretty closely to the original, but he did add a few touches of his own. In the original story, the hero doesn’t age when he’s holding onto Death (in fact, it’s Death that turns into a full skeleton), but Roy thought it was heroic for Conan to refuse to give in even when he thinks he’s being aged to death. And the original ending was a bit different too, with the hero agreeing to rule the city with the princess and then getting screwed over by her. But Roy figured Conan wouldn’t subordinate himself to anyone, so he had the barbarian simply leave … although he did still get screwed over. And yes, we will be seeing Bourtai as Conan’s untrustworthy sidekick next issue. Roy seems to like this character, although I just find him annoying.