The Temple of Baal-Zebub (Tale I of the Valruna Saga)

A warrior-woman/sorceress from the northern steppes visits the ancient and wicked city of Bel-Athis, "The Jewel of the Sands" while traveling through strange desert lands far to the south and east. There she comes into conflict with the vicious tyrant Ammon-Zul, High Priest of Baal-Zebub, "The Lord of Flies," a devil-god who demands human sacrifice lest he unleash a terrible plague upon the city.A barbarian warrior-woman/sorceress from the northern steppes visits the ancient and wicked city of Bel-Athis, "The Jewel of the Sands" while traveling through strange desert lands far to the south and east. There she comes into conflict with the vicious tyrant Ammon-Zul, High Priest of Baal-Zebub, "The Lord of Flies," a devil-god who demands human sacrifice lest he unleash a terrible plague upon the city.Weird fiction meets sword and sorcery fantasy in this first installment of the Valruna Saga, an ongoing series of tales in the tradition of Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and Fritz Leiber.This short story introduces the character Vana Valruna and her reluctant campaign against the Baals, the four demonic Lords that rule the ancient world.It all starts here in this tale, when a single heroic act earns Vana the enmity of the most bloodthirsty of these devil-gods, the sinister Baal-Zebub, whereupon she is inexorably drawn into a desperate spiritual battle between the noble gods of the north and the terrifyingly alien deities worshipped by the rest of the known world.With the aid of her beloved horse, Thunrasar, her trusted guide, Jerob of the desert folk, and her northern gods, as well as an unlikely ally in one who was cast out by those same gods, villified as a traitor and deemed no better than a demon himself, one by one Vana will see these elder deities dethroned, or die in the attempt.