Robert Ervin Howard

Blood of the Gods Robert Ervin Howard

A group of soldiers of fortune seek a set of matched rubies called the Blood of the Gods, owned by al Wazir. To find it, they capture an Arab who they believe knows the location of al Wazir, who has become a desert hermit. After the Arab agrees to help them, despite his fear of el Borak, a friend of al Wazir who leads the caravan to al Wazir's hermitage and reveals al Wazir's location at the Caves of El Khour, the Arab is shot by one of el Borak's other allies, Salim. Salim, wounded during the confrontation with the soldiers of fortune, alerts el Borak-Francis Xavier Gordon, an American adventrurer-to the threat to al Wazir. El Borak immediately departs for the Caves to protect al Wazir, and is ambushed on his way there by one of his old tribal foes, the Ruweila. His camel killed in the ambush, he continues his way on foot to the Well of Amir Khan, an oasis that he intends to replenish his water supplies at before he continues to the Caves of El Khour. He kills three tribesmen guarding the Well and continues on foot to the Caves.