By This Axe I Rule

By Valka!

King Kull of Valusia
Crown heavy on his brow
Five men plot to kill the king
Ascalente wants the crown
Rindondo sings to mock the king
His songs are coffin nails
Valmana, Gromel, and Kaanuub
To be sure this doesn't fail

Brule the Pictish spear slayer
Rides off to assist Grondar
One fleet of men to guard the king
Red Slayers ride out and far
Seno Val Dor a noble man
Pleads assistance from the king
He wants to wed the slave Ala
Valusian law forbids this thing
Kull sees a girl, crying in the woods
He asks her what is troubling her
She loves a man, but she's a slave
Forbidden in Valusian ways
She cursed the king, she hates the law
He says the king's a helpless pawn
She looks at him and starts to cry
She runs in fear and he knows why

She realized he's the king!

They make their move, they bribe the guard
Twenty assassins outside his door
They break the door, then move in
Half-armored Kull with sword in hand
A tiger heart, he's not a sheep
Ready to fight he's not asleep
Valusian king, Atlantean
Born a red-handed barbarian
First to charge, Gromel the Bull
Kull breaks his blade on Gromel's skull
His weapon gone, steel cuts his flesh
He grabs an axe and keeps dealing death
He's not the type to stand at bay
To rush in is his fighting way
Ridondo comes, dagger in hand
Kull hesitates, blade plunges in

Kull shattered Ridondo's skull!

They hear the sound of clanking feet
Ascalente's men chose to retreat
Kull wipes the blood from his eyes
A sword thrusts, a dagger flies
Seno Val Dor stands at the door
Ascalente's a corpse on the floor
Seno and slave support the king
Saved by the Valdoor family
They staunch his wounds, Kull's men arrive
All happy that he's still alive
Broken scepter, axe in hand
Crushes the law of Valutian land
Kull is king, he makes the rules
And by this axe is how he'll rule
Kingdom now, ruled his own way
If you won't fight, you shall obey!

Worms of the Earth

Consulting Rome, Partha Mac Othm, emissary of the Picts
A Pict's been tried, Convicted, and on the cross is where they nailed him
Titus Sulla, Roman military governor commands
That ten men, will guard this pict, so birds can pick his bones until fleshless
Valerios, In honor of their neighbor: King Bran Mak Morn
Brings him wine, The pict spits in his face, Valerius then kills him

“Give up your sword”
Sulla exclaimed
“Place him under arrest
In a cell for a few days”

Bran Mak Morn, A spy posing as emissary of the Picts
Rome tries to bait, To the servant Grom, the king swears his vengeance
Grom rides north, To tell the armies, “sweep the land with sword and torch!”
After Bran sleeps, He calls Valerius to his cell window and slays him
To the west gate, Bran gives the guard a choice of gold, or fight to death
Now he rides west, Past the Wales, past the Moores, too the Black Fens
Now it's war, Between the Romans and their neighbor race: The Picts
Bran Mak Morn, Searches for a door, to call upon the worms of the Earth

The witch of Dagon Moore
Will show him the door
To a long-forgotten race
For just one night of lust

Through the door, way down to take their black stone
Safely back out, in the lake he throws their idol
Tells the witch of Dagon Moore, take me to them
Makes a bargain: do his vengeance for their idol

Worms of the Earth – strike
Bring Titus Sulla – alive
Tower of Trajan – crush
Then you shall have your stone

Towers crumble on men, what is happening
No foundations, something's coming from underground
Armies slaughtered, Titus has been taken
They bring Titus, Bran trades them for the idol
He kills not for vengeance, but mercy
He was insane from the hell he has seen

Rattle of Bones

Two men stand outside of a forest tavern
With long heavy logs and windows barred
Shouting, “Landlord ho!” broke the silence
Underneath the sign of the cleft skull
Just then the door swings open
A scowling bearded face peers out
He then asks for the strangers' names
One Solomon Kane, the other Gaston L`Armon
Few strangers are here in the black forest
Many bandits, but he brings them food
The host of the tavern is strange and eerie
Down a dark hallway he leads to their room

Solomon don't trust the inn keep
There's no bar for the door
Won't be murdered in his sleep
A bar they go looking for
The last room furniture's splintered
And there's bloodstains on the floor
He knows men died in this room
On the wall he sees a bar
A secret room is revealed
With a skeleton chained to the floor
Gaston cuts free the shackles
Blasphemous talk mocking the dead
Says somehow he'll avenge his own death
And points a pistol at Solomon's head

Rattle of bones, makes an eerie sound
Gaston the Butcher, a new victim found
Tricked Kane easily, murderous thief he's crowned
Sudden death from behind him, swift blade swings down

Standing above the body
The terrible figure of the host
Ha ha, Gaston the Butcher
Wanted gold and he found death
“Now your gold will be mine too
And more vengeance on men.”
Suddenly he falls back through the doorway,
The candle light has been blown out

Groping, he finds a pistol
A muffled scream heard from beyond
With flint and steel he lights the candle
Then he opens the door
Broken neck by skeletal fingers
Two dead men achieved their goals

Swords of the Hills

Francis Xavier Gordon is startled from his sleep
Gustav Hunyadi and his Turkish killers now creep
Gordon kills the first one, then heads out in the dark
Men now pursue him, for some papers he will be shot

He runs, then falls off a cliff in the dark
At dawn he awakens to the Turks firing shots
He takes cover, shoots a large Turk up on the rocks
He falls hard and causes a huge avalanche

Round the bend he sees a blonde man under a rock
Gordon lifts the stone off him Bardylis is shocked
Now to his village he owes Gordon his life
The killers will shoot them if they don't get out of sight

Take the road of the eagles, down the cliff to the trees
Through the Valley of Iskandar, to the Village they flee

The village of Attalus looks as ancient as Rome
No man of Attalus has ever been two days from his home
Gordon meets King Ptolemy a giant ruler of this town
Abdullah the Muslim Dog stares at Gordon in the street
Now too Bardylis' father's home for food and sleep
Hides the papers in a wall and off to sleep

Knocked out, kidnapped in the darkness
Taken to a torchlit room
Three blonde men and Abdullah the Tavik
Hold him down with his arms bound

Abdullah cuts the bonds to search him
Gordon kicks the man at his feet
Frees his hands and knocks out another
The other Attalus man draws a knife
El Borak grabs a blade from a downed man
The man lunges and he ends his life

Abdullah runs out of the chamber
Heads to the king to tell him the lie
They bring Gordon to Ptolemy
Charged with murder, witchcraft, and deceit
Gordon still protecting his papers
Defies the word of the Attalus king
The two men engage in a battle
Gordon wins although he's battered and beat

Afghans lead by the Ferringh
Three-hundred they have taken the pass
Gordon now in charge of the city
Leads the warriors armed with steel and flintlock
His men fire and take down the first wave
Then cold steel meeting flesh to blade
Gordon after the Turks and Hunyadi
Brings them to Lady Death

Kings of the Night

Battle next morn
Prepare the victim for sacrifice
Rip out his heart
The Portents are good, prepare for war
The battle can be won
The Brittons want a king of their own race
Gonar explains
The magic in the jewel in Bran's crown

In the mist of the morning
A king from the past
Born in Atlantis
King of Valusia
Wulfere will not follow
A dead man from the past
Kull slays him in the battle now
He is king

Eighteen-hundred for the Romans
Three-hundred men with Kull to block the pass
Heather of the slopes gives no
Evidence of hundreds of savage men
Five hundred Britton horsemen
Hidden with Bran to lead them down
First the Romans send the scouts in
A small band of men dispute the pass

The scouts come first, mounted horsemen
Three-hundred men at the pass is all they see
A lone scout rides through the heather
An unseen arrow and knives finish him

Looking back to the valley
Bran sees scouts return
He does not need to be a Roman
To understand what they say
Only a small band of warriors
Disputes our passage
Cavalry with javelins
Kull's mace kills first

Northmen roar for battle
Picts they loose their shafts
Romans now all in the valley
Bran then springs the trap
Hack your way through Northmen
Before the trap can close
Marcus Sulius and his Romans
Are attacked from all sides

Doubtful Marcus Sulius ever knew
The King of the Picts was charging him
Come, we must help the Northmen
At the gael they see it's far too late
Kull still battles on the west slope
A mighty vista opens behind the king
Kull and image both vanish

The Frost Giant's Daughter

Silence falls heavy on blood-stained snow
Nervous hands grip sword hilts
Helmeted heads drawn back in death throes
Red and gold beards grimly face upwards
As if in final invocation to
Ymir the Frost Giant
God to a warrior race of men
Two men still fight in desolation

Hymdal asked his name, so brothers in Vanaheim
Will know the last to fall of Wulfere's band
Not in Vanaheim, but in Valhalla
You will tell them that you met Conan
The Cimmerian, Hymdul roared and leapt
His sword flashed through the air, Conan staggered
His helmet took the blow, then he thrust his own
His sword found it's mark, he killed Hymdul

The battle's over and Conan's the only survivor
Sudden sick weariness assails him
The sun on the snow cuts through his vision
He takes a few steps and is engulfed by blindness
He sinks down in the snow, and that is when
He can hear her sick laughter

Her skin like ivory, she's naked as the day
Save for a veil of lightest gossamer
So he asked her name, and from where she came
She said, “What does it matter?”
He says that he cannot tell
If she is friend or foe
He's never seen a woman
With locks blinding as the snow

He swears by Ymir, she asks him who is he
To swear by the gods of ice and snow
He who's come from the south, for adventure here
He swears by dark gods in anger
“Woman have you seen, flash of mail on the plains
Or seen armed men moving across the ice?”
She has seen the frost, glittering in the sun
And heard the wind whispering across the snow

“Take me to your village now wench,
Dressed like you it can't be far.”
She then runs, and he pursues her
She runs fast, the chase is on
He says that he will follow her to hell
If she hides he'll break the mountains
Land and sky have changed, and strange lights that gleam
Passion for the girl is all that matters

To her brothers she's brought a man to slay
Give his heart to their father
Two giants, mail shirts, axes in hand
Conan hurls himself among them
One giant falls when blade meets thigh
Now he faces the other
Axe swings down as blade comes 'round
Conan's killed the other brother

Now fear in her eyes, running for her life
Pursuit is her game, now he has her
Flesh cold as the snow, he'll warm the woman now
With fire in his blood, and desire
Her lips bruised from his kisses
Desperate wench slips from his arms
Now he holds her single garment
Ymir father save her now

Then there is blue flame, and the girl is gone
“The sky is going mad,” Conan screams
Like a tidal wave of snow below his feet
The mountains crumbling, he lies still
Cold world whose sun's extinguished
Conan feels movement of life
Niord and his men have found him
He tells them of his vicious flight

Some men don't believe, it was Atali
First-born of Ymir, the frost giant's daughter
Warriors stare in fright, his fist clenched tight
He holds a flimsy veil, a wisp of gossamer

Xuthal of the Dusk

Lost two figures in the desert
Scorched and burnt
Scowling he feeds her all their weight
Then draws his sword

South, something glimmered through the heat waves
It's no mirage
Banging on the front gate of the city
With his saber hilt
Unchallenged the door swings slowly inward
The guard lies dead
After moments the guard rises to attack them
Conan lops his head

Strange, what is this sort of madhouse
Where dead men rise
Through doors they find some food and beverage
The feast is on
On a dias they see a man engulfed in slumber
A shadow comes
The man's gone, a drop of crimson on the dias
Is all that's left

Thalis, the beautiful Stygian woman
Explains it all
Xuthal, a town of sleeping black lotus madmen
Worship Thog
They sleep, waiting for their time to be eaten
By their own god
Distracted, Natala's kidnapped for sacrifice
By the harlot

Thalis slipped her through a secret door
To sacrifice and nothing more
She'll feed her to their godlike fiend
So Conan can reign as her king
Natala finds a dagger hilt
Swings down hard and blood is spilt
Thalis chains her up and finds a whip
Rips off her clothes to lash with it
Thog now aroused grabs the queen
A strangled cry, a muffled scream
Now Thog comes back for Natala
But someone drops from up above

Enraged, Conan searches for his sweetheart
Then soldiers come
Bloody scene, he spills their brains and entrails
The search is on
Upstairs, a woman pulls a lever
To a trap door
He falls to fight the hellish demon
Blade versus Thog

Alone, he walks out of the darkness
Ripped and torn
Thankful, he's saved his girl Natala
He curses Crom
The two find a fountain in a chamber
To bathe his wounds
She finds a jar of a golden elixir
That restores life
Revived, he throws a rope outside a window
Now back outside
South to the oasis and the grasslands
Two days' march