Seeking shelter in a lonely Black Forest tavern marked by a cleft skull, Solomon Kane and the dazzling Gaston l'Armon sense at once that something is wrong. The silent inn, its grim host, and a hidden chamber of bloodstains and chained bones draw them into a night of mounting dread, where betrayal lurks behind every shadow and murder seems only the beginning. Kane soon realizes the tavern has served as a place of killing, but before he can act, l'Armon reveals himself as the notorious bandit Gaston the Butcher and turns his weapon on him. The host answers with savage violence, slaying Gaston and unleashing a madness born of years of brutal imprisonment and hatred for mankind. He raves about the skeleton in the secret room, insisting it belonged to a sorcerer whose bones may rise in vengeance. Trapped in darkness, Kane is left to face a nightmare of cruelty, superstition, and possible supernatural retribution, until he discovers the host dead in the chamber, apparently destroyed by the very dead man he mocked. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.