Conan the Barbarian #189 – “Rites of Inquisition” – James Owsley/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with the funeral rites for Jahli, the boy-king of El Shah Maddoc who was killed last issue by assassins. Conan feels somewhat responsible and vows to punish whoever instigated the plot, threatening some of the attendees at the ceremony. He’s closer than he knows to the truth, as six of them are actually working for the Council of Seven, who did orchestrate the killing. The Council gets worried that their apostles will spill everything to Conan, so they tell the newly-resurrected Devourer of Souls to kill all six.
(Apparently, there’s a seventh Apostle masquerading as a priest of Namut, but he’s so well hidden that even the Council can’t find him.) Thanks to some secret documents he found Conan knows who the Apostles are, so when the first one is murdered, he realizes someone is silencing his possible leads. He has Simeon and Kaleb go out to bring other Apostles back to the castle, but Simeon has a little trouble with the plus-sized woman he’s supposed to get. She ends up being turned into a worm by the Devourer and killed. The next two on the list are twins who run a boys’ academy where they train (and apparently abuse) young men. When Kaleb shows up looking for them, they 
hide under the floor and have the kids lie for them. Interestingly, one of the kids recognizes Kaleb as a priest of Namut. When Kaleb leaves. The boys decide to get rid of their tormentors by trapping them under the floor and letting whomever shows up do away with them. Too bad for the twins that the next one who shows up is the Devourer. Shapur finds another Apostle dead, which leaves just one (plus the hidden priest whose identity remains secret) for Conan to confront. He rides to the estate of the man (Numax), only to find an army of thugs hired to stop him. Naturally, Conan cuts them down easily and confronts Numax, who swears the Apostles had nothing to do with killing Jahli and tells Conan where to find the Council. He also mentions the seventh Apostle is a priest of Namut, so Conan lets him live. We find out he was lying: the Apostles were in on the assassination, and they consider the
hidden Apostle to be a traitor, which is probably why he was willing to talk about him to Conan. Conan’s mercy turns out not to matter, as the Devourer shows up to kill Numax anyway. Back in the city, we see Kaleb praying and get confirmation that he is the last Apostle. This is a pretty good issue, with Conan one step ahead of the Devourer, yet technically one step behind since he doesn’t prevent any of the murders. I was thinking the Kaleb clues would turn out to be a red herring, but it looks like he really is the last Apostle. I’m assuming his loyalties have changed but if he was in on Jahli’s murder, that might not matter to Conan.
Conan the Barbarian #190 – “Exodus” – James Owslry/John Buscema/Ernie Chan
This one starts with a messenger from the Emperor of Koth heading to El Shah Maddoc with a missive for Conan. He’s waylaid by the Devourer, who reads the message and lets him go on to deliver it. In the city, people are rioting in the streets now that there’s no king, with some of the soldiers even joining them. Conan is sickened by the debauchery, but when Anneka urges him to take the crown and restore order, he refuses. Apparently Conan has no desire to rule this particular city-state, only to avenge Jahli and move on. Conan tells his friends they’ll be leaving the city at dawn, which turns out to be harder than they thought. The citizens figure Conan is abandoning them (which he is) and try to attack him and his cohort. They get out safely and head for the
border with Shem, where Conan expects to find the Council of Seven. They see the Kothian messenger and Conan sends Keiv to discern his purpose. When Keiv finds out the guy has a message from Strabonus, the Emperor of Koth, he sends the courier to the city and lies about it to Conan. Apparently, Keiv figures he can get rich by sticking around Conan and doesn’t want any royal messages complicating things. When the messenger (Kobe) reaches the city, he has to wade through the rioters to get into the castle and pound a few people to get info on Conan’s whereabouts. Meanwhile, Conan and company have reached the Castle of the Seven and Kaleb smashes through the outer door to get them 
in. Conan, Kaleb, and Simeon head inside but don’t have as much luck with the next door they open, being devoured by a fire-breathing dragon. Outside, the others are getting impatient after waiting several hours, so when Kobe the messenger shows up looking for Conan, Shapur takes it as the perfect excuse to head inside the castle. Conan and his two companions awaken tied to the wall and one of the Council explains that they killed Jahli because his ascension to the throne would screw up their business interests in the region (the old king having been in their pocket for his entire reign). Before the wizard can kill Conan, Shapur and Kobe arrive to help and Conan breaks free, killing his captor. Unfortunately, the rest of the Council has fled, leaving no trace of their whereabouts. Conan finally reads the message from
Koth and it names Conan king of the region. This is a pretty good story, although having most of the Council escape seems like a cheap way to keep them as a background threat. Conan being made king is interesting, especially since it wasn’t really something he wanted, but maybe that’s why he was chosen; anyone who craves that kind of power probably shouldn’t have it. I’m not sure if or when Conan will find out about Kaleb being the final Apostle, or about Keiv redirecting the messenger, but I guess we’ll see what happens in future issues.