 The name "Valeria" comes from the heroine of the novella "Red  Nails." The theft of the tower in Zamora is from "The Tower of the  Elephant." The speech King Osric gives about the throne room  becoming a prison echoes a similar passage in "The Mirrors of Tuzun  Thune," a King Kull story. The scene where Conan is crucified and  kills a vulture with his teeth is from "A Witch Shall Be Born."  Finally, the scene where Valeria vows to come back from the dead to  save Conan and then does so is from "Queen of the Black Coast."