“Agnès! You red-haired spawn of the devil, where are you?”

It was my father calling me, after his usual fashion. I raked my sweat-dampened hair out of my eyes and heaved the bundle of fagots back on my shoulder. Little of rest was there in my life.

My father parted the bushes and came into the glade – a tall man, gaunt and bitter, darkened with the suns of many campaigns, marked with scars gotten in the service of greedy kings and avaricious dukes. He scowled at me, and faith, I would hardly have recognized him had he worn another expression.

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In the rugged countryside of 16th-century France, Agnès de Chastillon's story unfolds, a tale of resilience born from hardship. Raised under the harsh hand of her father and coerced into a loathsome marriage, Agnès dramatically escapes her village. Her journey is fraught with danger, falling into the clutches of men with nefarious intentions. One plots to sell her into a brothel, while another teaches her the art of sword fighting. In mere weeks, Agnès is thrust into adulthood, swiftly becoming a notorious figure across France.

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Renowned for creating Conan the Barbarian, a character that shaped the fantasy genre of sword and sorcery, Robert E. Howard also penned detective stories and historical adventures. Among these, the tales of Agnès de Chastillon stand out, published posthumously over forty years after Howard's demise. These gripping narratives are now available for the first time as ebook and audiobook, bringing Howard's captivating storytelling to a new generation of readers and listeners.

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Dramatised with music and sound effects. Music by Steve Oxen. Sound effect from OcularSounds and Freesound.org