4 Conjuring in the Iron Tower, of the hold of Carsey, and of the Midnight Practices of King Garice XII in the Ancient Chamber, preparing dull and doom for the Lords of Demonland. When the witches were come aboard of their ship, and all stored, and the row was set in order on the benches, they bade farewell to the Red Follyot, and rowed out to the deep, and there hoisted sail, and put up their home, and sailed eastward along the land. The stars wheeled overhead, and the east grew pale, and the sun came out of the sea on the labored bow, still sailed there two days and two nights, and on the third day there was land ahead, and morning rows abated by mist and cloud, and the sun was as a ball of red fire over which land in the east. So they hung a while off Tennamos, waiting for the tide, and at high water sailed over the bar, and up the Druima, past the dunes and mud-flats, and the Ergaspian Mere, till they reached the bend of the river below Carsey. Solitary marshland stretched on either side, as far as the eye might reach, with clumps of willow and rare homesteads showing above the flats. As wood above the bend, a bluff of land fell sharply to the elbow of the river, and on the other side sloped gently away for a few miles till it lost itself in the dead level of the marshes. On the southern face of the bluff, monstrous as a mountain in those low sedgelands, hung square and black the fortress of Carsey. It was built of black marble, rough hewn and unpolished, the outworks enclosing many acres. An inner wall with a tower at each corner formed the main stronghold, in the south-west corner of which was the palace, overhanging the river. And on the south-west corner of the palace, towering sheer from the water's edge seventy cubits of mortar-vattlements, stood the keep, a round tower lined with iron, bearing on the cobble-table beneath its parapet in varying form and untold repetition, the sculptured figure of the crab of witch-land. The outer ward of the fortress was dark with cypress-trees, black flames burning changelessly to heaven from a billowy sea of gloom. The edge of the keep was the water-gate, and beside it a bridge and bridge-house across the river, strongly fortified with turrets and magic-allations, and commanded from on high by the battlements of the keep. Dismal and fearsome to view was this strong place of Carsey, most like to the embedded soul of dreadful night brooding on the waters of that sluggish river. By day a shadow in broad sunshine, the likeness of pitiless violence sitting in the place of power, darkening the desolation of the mournful fenn. By night a blackness more black than night herself. Now was the ship made fast near the water-gate, and the lords of which land landed, and their fighting-men, and the gate opened to them, and mournfully they entered in and climbed a steep ascent to the palace, bearing with them their sad burden of the king. And in the great hole in Carsey was Garice the eleventh lad in state for that night, and the day wore to its close, nor was any word from the king Garice the twelfth. But when the shades of night were falling, there came a chamberlain to Lord Gro, as he walked upon the terrace without the western wall of the palace. And the chamberlain said, My lord, the king bids you attend him in the iron tower, and he charges you bring unto him the royal crown of which land. Gro made haste to fulfil the bidding of the king, and betook himself to the great banqueting-hole, and all reverently he lifted the iron crown of which land, set thick with priceless jams, and went by a winding stare to the tower, and the chamberlain went before him. When they were come to the first landing, the chamberlain knocked on a massive door that was forthwith opened by a guard, and the chamberlain said, My lord, it is the king's will that you attend his majesty in his secret chamber at the top of the tower. And Gro marveled, for none had entered that chamber for many years. Long ago had Garice the seventh practised forbidden arts therein, and folk said that in that chamber he raised up those spirits whereby he got his bairn. Sithens was the chamber sealed, nor had the late king's need of it, since little faith thereplaced in art magical, relying rather on the might of their hands on the sword of which land. But Gro was glad at heart, for the opening of this chamber by the king met his designs half-way. Fearlessly he mounted the winding stares that were dusky with the shadows of approaching night, and hung with cobwebs, and strewn with the distant neglect, until he came to the small lord-door of that chamber, and pausing, knocked thereon and hearkened for the answer. And one said from within, Who knocketh? And Gro answered, Lord, it is I, Gro, and the bolts were drawn, and the door opened, and the king said, Enter, and Gro entered, and stood in the presence of the king. Now the fashion of the chamber was that it was round, filling the whole space of the loftiest floor of the round dungeon keep. It was now gathering dusk, and weak twilight only entered through the deep embrasures of the windows that pierced the walls of the tower, looking to the four quarters of the heavens. A furnace glowing in the big hearth threw fitful gleams into the recesses of the chamber, lighting up strange shapes of glass and earthenware, flasks and retorts, balances, hourglasses, crucibles and astrolabes, a monstrous three-necked alembic of phosphorescent glass supported on a bain-marie, and other instruments of doubtful and unlawful aspect. Under the northern window, over against the doorway, was a massive table blackened with edge, whereon lay great books bound in black leather, with iron guards and heavy padlocks.  The low light, mother of shade and secrecy, that hovered in that chamber, moved about the still figure of the King, his nose hooked as the eagle's beak, his cropped hair, his thick, close-cut beard and shaven upper lip, his high cheekbones and cruel, heavy jaw, and the dark eaves of his brows, whence the glint of green eyes showed us no friendly lamp to them without. The door shut noiselessly, and gross stood before the King. The dusk deepened, and the firelight pulsed and blinked in that dread chamber, and the King leaned without motion on his hand, bending his brow on Groll. And there was utter silence, save for the faint purr of the furnace. In a while the King said, I sent for thee, because thou alone was so hardy as to urge to the uttermost thy counsel upon the King that is now dead, Gerys XI of memory ever glorious. But because thy counsel was good, marvellous thou that I wist of thy counsel? Groll said, O my Lord the King, I marvel not of this, for it is known to me that the soul endures, albeit the body perish. Keep thou thy lips from over speech, said the King. These be mysteries, whereon but to think may snatch thee into peril, and who saw speaketh of them, though in so secret a place as this, and with me only, yet at his most bitter peril speaketh he. Groll answered, O King, I spake not lightly. Moreover you did tempt me by your questioning. Nevertheless I am utterly obedient to your Majesty's admonition. The King rose from his chair and walked towards Groll slowly. He was exceeding tall, and lean as a starved cormorant. Laying his hands upon the shoulders of Groll, and bending his first agroes, art not a feared, he asked, to abide me in this chamber, at the claws of dare, or has not thought on, and on these instruments thou seest, their use and purpose, and the ancient use of this chamber. Groll blenched never a wit, but stoutly said, I am not a feared, or my Lord the King, but rather rejoiced I at your summons. For it jumpeth with mine own designs, when I took counsel secretly in my heart after the walls that the fates fulfilled for which land in the Folly at Isles. For in that day, O King, when I beheld the light of which land darkened, and her might abated in the fall of King Garice the eleventh of glorious memory, I thought on you, Lord, the twelfth Garice, raised up King in Carsey, and there was present to my mind the word of the soothsayer of old, where he singeth ten-eleven-twelfth I.C. in sequent variety, of peace all some mastery, with sword, sinews, and grammary, in the hold of Carsey, loading it royally. Being minded that he singeth without you, the twelfth, as potent in grammary, all my care was that these demons should be detained within reach of your spells, until we should have time to win home to you, and to apprise you of their fairings, that so you might put forth your power and destroy them by art magic, for ever they come safe again to many mountain demon-land. The King took grotes to his bosom and kissed him, saying, art thou not a very jewel of wisdom and discretion? Let me embrace the unlovedy fiver. Then the King stood back from him, keeping his hands on Gros's shoulder, and gazed piercingly upon him for a space in silence. Then kindled he a taper that stood in an iron candlestick by the table where the books lay, and held it to Gros's face. Then the King said, Aye, why is thou art an of good discretion, and some courage has thou? But if thou be to serve me this night, needs must I try thee first with terrors till thou be ineured to them, as tried gold runneth in the crucible, or if thou be best metal only, till that thou be eaten up by them. Gros said unto the King, For many years, Lord, or ever I came to Carcy, I fared up and down the world, and I am acquainted with objects of terror as a child with his toys. I have seen in the southern seas, by the light of Acanar and Canopus, giant seahorses battling with eight-legged cuttlefishes in the whirlpools of the Cosh. Yet was I unafraid. I was in the Isle Siona when the first of the pit brassed forth in that isle, and split it as a man's skull is split with an axe, and the green gulfs of the sea swallowed that isle, and the stench and the steam hung in the air for days where the burning rock and earth had sizzled in the ocean. Yet was I unafraid. Also was I with gazlark in the flight out of Zajizakuloh when the ghouls took the palace over our heads, and portents walked in his halls in broad daylight, and the ghouls conjured the sun out of heaven. Yet was I unafraid. And for thirty days and thirty nights wandered I alone on the face of the maruna in Upper Impland, where scarcer living soul hath been, and there the evil whites that peopled the air of that desert dogged my steps and gibbered at me in darkness. Yet was I unafraid, and came in Dewtown to mourn a maruna, and thence, standing on the lip of the escarpment as it were on the edge of the world, looked south away where never mortal eye had gazed a foretime, across the untrodden forests of the barvinan. And in that sky-y distance, preeminent beyond range on range of ice-robed mountains, I beheld two peaks thrown for ever between firm land and heaven in unearthly loveliness. The spires and airy ridges of Kostropivraca, and the wild precipices that saw upward from the abysses to the queenly silent snow-dome of Kostrobelorn. When groe had ended, the king turned him away, and, taking from a shelf a retort filled with a dark blue fluid, set it on a bain-marie and the lamp thereunder. Fumes of affained purple hue came forth from the neck of the retort, and the king gathered them in a flask. He made signs over the flask, and shook forth into his hand therefrom a fine powder. Then said he unto groe, holding out the powder in the open palm of his eye, look narrowly at this powder. And groe looked. The king muttered an incantation, and the powder moved and heaved, and was like a crawling mass of cheese-mats in an over-ripe cheese. It increased in volume in the king's hand, and groe perceived that each particular grain had legs. The grains grew before his eyes, and became the size of mustard seeds, and then of barley-corn swiftly crawling each over other. And even as he marvelled, they waxed great as kidney beans, and now is their shape and seeming clear to him, so that he beheld that there were small frogs and paddocks. And they overflowed from the king's hand as they waxed swiftly in size, pouring onto the floor, and they ceased not to increase and groe, and now they were large as little dogs, nor might the king retain more than a single wand, holding his hand under its belly while it waved its legs in the air. And they were walking on the tables and jostling on the floor, pallid they were and permeable to light like thin horn, and their hue affained purple, even as the hue and the vapour went, they were engendered, and now was the room filled with them, so that their mounty perforced one on another's shoulders, and there were of the bigness of well-fatted hogs, and they gobbled their eyes at groe and croaked. The king looked narrowly on groe, who stood in the presence of that spectacle, the crown of which land in his hands, and the king moored that the crown trembled not a whit in groe's hands that held it. So he said a certain word, and the paddocks and the frogs grew small again, shrinking more swiftly than their groan, and so vanished. The king now took from the shelf a ball the size of the egg of an estrange, of dark green glass. He said unto groe, Look well at this glass, and tell me what thou seest. Groe answered him, I see a shifting shadow within. The king commanded him, saying, Dash it down with all thy strength upon the floor. The lord groe lifted the ball with both hands above his head, and it was ponderous as a ball of lead, and according to the command of Goraeus the king, he hurled it on the floor so that it was pasched in pieces. And behold, a puff of thick smoke burst forth from the fragments of the ball, and took the form of one of human shape and dreadful aspect, whose two legs were two writhing snakes, and it stood in the chamber, saw tall that the head of it touched the vaulted ceiling, viewing the king groe malevolently and menacing them. The king caught down a sword that hung against the wall, and put it in groe's hands, shouting, Smite off the legs of it, and delay not or thou art but dead. Groe smalt and cut off the left leg of the evil white easily, as it were cutting of butter. But from the stump came forth two fresh snakes writhing, and so it fared likewise with the right leg, but the king shouted, Smite and cease not or thou art but a dead dog. And ever as groe hewed a snake in twain, forth came two more from the wound, till the chamber was a mares of their wriggling forms, and still groe hewed with a will until the sweat stood on his brow. And he said, panting between the strokes, Oh king! I have made him many legged as a centipede. Must I make him a myriad pod ere nights decline? And the king smiled, and spake a word of hidden meaning. And therewith the turmoil was gone as Augusta wind departeth, and naught left save the shivered splinters of the green ball on the chamber floor. He was not a feared, as the king. And when groe said near, me thinks these sights of terror should much afflict me, said the king, since well I know thou art not skilled in art magical. Yet am I a philosopher, answered Lord groe, and somewhat know I of alchemy and the hidden properties of this material world, the virtues of herbs, plants, stones and minerals, the ways of the stars in their courses, and the influences of those heavenly bodies. And I have held converse with birds and fishes in their degree, and that generation which creepeth on the earth is not held in scorn but off-talk I in sweet companionship with the effed of the pond, and the glowworm, and the ladybird, and the pismire, and their kind, making them my little gossips. So have I a certain law which lighteth me in the outer court of the secret temple of Grammary and art forbid, albeit I have not peered within that temple. And by my philosophy, o king, I am certified concerning these apparitions which you have raised for me, that they be illusions and phantasms only, able to terrify the soul indeed of him that calleth not divine philosophy, but without bodily power or essence, nor resort to fear in such, said the fear itself where with their strike the simple. Then said the king, by what talkon knoweth thou this? And Lord Grammary answered unto him, o king, as a child weaver the daisy chain, thus easily did you conjure up these shapes of terror, not in such wise faireth he that calleth out of the deep the deadly terror indeed, but with toil and sweat, and with fear at he. The king smiled. Thou say is true. Now therefore, since phantasmogoria makeeth not thy heart to quail, I present thee a more material horror. And he lighteth the candles in the great candlesticks of iron, and opened a little secret door in the wall of the chamber near the floor, and grove beheld iron bars within the little door, and heard a hissing from behind the bars. The king took a key of fans in length, and opened the iron-grated door.  The glance of its eye sufficeth to turn to stone any living thing that standeth before it. Were I but for one instant to loose my spells whereby I hold it in subjection, in that moment would end my life day as on thine. So strong in properties of ill is this serpent which to be a bane unto the children of men, but an instrument of might in the hand of enchanters and sorcerers.  Black shining feathers grew on its neck, but the body of it was the body of a dragon with scales that glittered on its back, and its wings were like bat's wings, and its tail the tail of an aspic with a sting in the end thereof, and from its beak its forked tongue flickered venomously, and the stature of the thing was a little above a cubit. Now because of the spells of King Arise, whereby he held it ensorcelled, it might not cast its baneful glance upon him, nor upon Graw, but it walked back and forth in the candle-light, just swiftly twirled its scaly tail, and it hissed ever more fiercely, irked by the bonds of the King's enchantment, and the breath of it was noisome, and hung in sluggish weeds about the chamber. So for a while it walked before them, and as it looked side-long past him, Graw beheld the light of its eyes that were as sick moons burning poisonously through a mist of greenish yellow in the dusk of night, and strong loathing seized him, so that his arms of his hands became clammy, and he said, My Lord the King, I have looked steadfastly on this cockatrice, and it affrighteth me no wit, but it is lovely in my sight, so that my gorge rises because of it, and with that he fell vomiting, and the King commanded that serpent back into its whole, wither it returned, hissing rothfully. Now the King poured forth wine, speaking it is well, O Graw, that thou hast shown thyself a philosopher indeed, and have heart intrepid. Yet even as no bled is utterly tried until one try it in very battle, where if it snap, war, and doom, wait on the hand that wields it, so must thou in this midnight suffer a yet fierce of furnishing to terror, wherein if thou be reduced we are both lost eternally, and this carcay and all witch-land blasted with us forever in ruin and answered, I am hot to obey your word, O King. For well know I that it is idle to hope by phantoms and illusions to uphold the demons, and that against the demons the deadly eye of thy cockatrice were turned in vain. Stout of heart are there, and instructed in all law, and just a sorcerer of ancient power, who hath charms to blunt the glance of Basiliskor cockatrice. He that would strike down the demons was conjured indeed. Great, said the King, is the strength of their now-shown mastery over us, as sadly witness of the overthrow of Goraes XI, against whom no mortal could stand up and rassle and not die, till cursed gold-ry, drunk with spleen and envy, slew him in the foliar tiles. Nor was there any afford to outdo us in feats of arms, and Goraes X, victorious in single combats without number, made our name glorious over all the world. Yet at the last he got his death, out of all expectation, and by what treacherous he was, standing in single combat against the curled step-dancer from Crowther Inc. But I, that am skilled in Grammarie, to bear a mightier engine against the demons than brawny sinews, or the sword that smiter the Sunder, yet is mine engine perilous to him that uses it. Therewith the King unlocked the greatest of those books that lay by on the Matthew table, saying in groes ear, as one who would not be overheard, this is that awful book of Grammarie, where within this same chamber, on such a night, Garice the Seventh stirred the vasty deep, and know that from this circumstance alone ensued the ruin of King Garice the Seventh, in that having by his hellish sinews conjured up somewhat from the primeval dark, and being utterly foredone with the sweat and stress of his conjuring, his mind was clouded for a moment, in such sort that either he forgot the words writ in this Grammarie, or the page whereon they were writ, or speech failed him to speak those words that must be spoken, or might therefore he kept not his power over that which he had called out of the deep, but it turned upon him, and tear him limb from limb. Such like doom will I avoid, renewing in these latter days those self-serm spells, if thou dost stand by me undismared the while I utter my incantations, and shudst thou mark me fail or waver, ere all be accomplished, then shalt thy self at this. Gros said, Lord, show me my task, and I will carry it, though all the furies of the pit flock to this chamber to say me near. So the king instructed Gros, rehearsing to him those acts that were needful, and making known unto him the diverse pages of the Grammarie, whereon were writ those words which must be spoken, each in its due time and sequence. But the king pronounced not yet those words, pointing only to them in the book, for who so speak of those words in the book. And now when the retorts and beakers with their several necks and tubes, and the appurtenances thereof were set in order, and the unhallowed processes of fixation, conjunction, deflagration, putrefaction, and rubification were nearing maturity. And the belfal star Antares, standing by the Astrolene, with an a little of the meridian, signified the instant approach of midnight. The king described on the floor with his conjuring rod three pentacles framed by certain runes. And in the midst of the star he limed the image of a green crab eating of the sun, and turning to the 73rd page of his great black grammar, the king recited in a mighty voice words of hidden meaning, calling on the name that it is a sin to utter. Now when he had spoken the first spell and was silent, there was a deadly quiet in that chamber, and a chill in the areas of winter. And in the quiet grow heard the king's breath coming and going, as of one who bore the course. Now the blood rushed back to grow's heart, and his hands and feet became cold, and a cold sweat break forth on his brow. But for all that he held his courage firm, and his brain ready. The king motioned to grow to break off the tail of a certain drop of black glass that lay on the table, and with the snapping of its tail the whole drop fell in pieces in a coarse black powder. Grow by the king's direction gathered that powder, and dropped the flame of a lamp. Then the fluid became red as blood, and the body of the alembic filled with a tawny smoke, and sparks of sunlight brilliance flashed and crackled through the smoke. Thereupon distilled from the neck of the alembic a white oil incombustible, and the king dipped his rod in that oil, and described around the seven-pointed star on the floor the figure of the worm Oroboros, that eateth his own tail. And he wrote the formula of the crab below the circle that was done, yet more biting seemed a night air, and yet more like the crab the stillness of the chamber. The king's hand shook as with an eggy as he turned the pages of the mighty book. Grow's teeth chattered in his head. He gritted them together and werted. And now through every window came a light unto the chamber as of skies paling to the dawn. Yet not wholly so, for never yet came dawn at midnight, nor from all four quarters of the sky at once, nor late, nor with the light so ghastly. The candle-flames burned filmy as the glare waxed strong from without. An evil pallid light of bail and corruption, wherein the hands and faces of the king-grice and his disciples showed death-pale, and their lips black as the dark skin of a grape, where the bloom has been rubbed off from it. The king cried terribly, they hour approacheth! And he took a file of crystal containing a decoction of seven drops from the alembic into the file, and poured forth that liquor on the figure of the crab drawn on the floor. Grow leaned against the wall, weak in body, but with will unbowed. So bitter was the cold that his hands and feet were benumbed, and the liquor from the vile congealed where it fell. Yet the sweat stood in beads on the forehead of the king, by reason of the mighty striving that was his, and in the overpowering glare of that light from the underskies he stood to make the words Luro Volpo Vir Voracadumia. Now with those words spoken, the vivid light departed as a blown out lump, and the midnight closed down again without. Nor was any sound heard, said the thick panting of the king, but it was as if the night held its breath in expectation of that which was to come, and the candle sputtered and burned blue. The king swayed and clutched the table with his left hand, and again the Viracadumia. Thereafter for the space of ten heartbeats, silence hung like a kestrel poised in the listening night. Then went a crash through earth and heaven, and a blinding wildfire threw the chamber as it had been a thunderbolt.  The air that was wintry cold waxed on a sudden hot as the breath of a burning mountain, and grow was near choking with the smell of soot and the chamber rocked as a ship riding in a swell with the wind against the tide. But the king, steadying himself against the table and clutching the edge of it till the veins on his lean hands seemed night a bursting, cried in short breaths and with an altered voice, by these figures drawn, and by these spells enchanted, by the unction of wolf and salamander, by the unblessed sign of cancer now leaning to the sun, and by the fiery heart of Scorpio that was in the moment, abaste thee and serve me worm of the pit, else will I buy and buy someone out of the ancient night intelligences and dominations mightier for than thou, and they shall serve mine ends, and thee shall their chain with chains of quenchless fire and drag thee from torment to torment through the deep. Therewith was the earthquake stilled, and there remained but a quivering of the walls and floor, and the wind and speech came out of the teeming air of that chamber, strangely sweet, saying, a cursed wretch that troublesome our quiet, what is thy will? The terror of that speech made the throat of grow dry, and the hairs on his scalp stood up. The king trembled in all his members like a frightened horse, yet was his voice level and his countenance unruffled as he said hoarsely, mine enemies sail at daybreak from the foleyot isles. I give thee them. Turn them to thy will.  Away!   Then sprang grow forth to the table and against it sprawling, for now was the great keep of cars he singly and the sound of water stunned the ear in that chamber and still that laughter pealed above the turmoil. And grow knew that it was now with the king even as it had been with Garise the seventh in years gone by when his strength gave forth and the spirit tear him and plastered those chamber walls with his blood. Yet was grow mindful even in that hideous storm of terror at the 97th page Garise had his eye found the word when a whirlwind of hail and sleet swept into the chamber and the candles were blown out and the tables over set and in the plunging darkness beneath the crashing of the thunder grow pitching headlong felt claws clasp his head and body. He cried in his agony the word that was the word trypsora copsum and so fell a swimming. It was high noon when the lord of the night the tables were cast down and the floor strewn and splashed with costly essences and earths spilt from shattered vials and jars and caskets afroselmia shell of gold saffron of gold arsum amian stypteria of mellos confounded with mandragora venum ardens sal ammonia devouring aqua regia little pools and scattered globules of quicksilver poisonous decoctions of toadstools and uberis monks hood thorn apple wolf's bane and black hellebore quintessences of dragon's blood and serpent's bile and with these splashed together and worsted elixirs that wise men have died a dreaming of spirit as Monday and that sovereign alchohest which dissolved with every substance dipped therein and that aurum porta bile which being itself perfect in juiceth perfection in the living frame and in this welter of spoil treasure with the great conjuring books hurled amid the ruin of retorts and silver sandbaths mattresses spatulae athernois and other instruments innumerable of rare design tossed and broken on the chamber floor the king's chair was thrown against the furnace and huddled against the table lay the king his head thrown back his black beard pointing skyward showing his sinewy hairy throat grow looked narrowly at him saw that he seemed unhurt and slept deep and so knowing well that sleep was silent all day till supper time for all he was sore and hungered when at length the king awoke he looked about him in amaze he thought I tripped at the last step of last night's journey he said and truly strange riot had left its footprints in my chamber grow answered lord sorely was I tried yet fulfilled I your behest the king laughed as one who saw was at ease and standing upon his feet said unto grow take up the crown and that high honour shout thou have because I do love thee for this night gone by now without were the lords of witchland assembled in the courtyard being bound for the great banqueting-hole to eat and drink unto whom the king came forth from the gate below the keep rolled in his conjuring roll wondrous bright sparkled the gems of the iron crown of witchland above the heavy brown cheekbones and the fierce disdainful lip of the king as he stood there in his majesty and grow with the king my lords corund and corsus and corinius and galandus and ye sons of corsus and of corund and ye other witches behold your king the twelfth good-ice crowned with this crowning carcy to be king of witchland and of demon land and all countries of the world and the rulers thereof so many as the sun doth spread his beams over shall do me obeisance and call me king and lord the king imagine not that oaths sworn unto the demons by garice the eleventh of memory ever glorious bind me any wit I will not be at peace with this just and his brethren but do account them all mine enemies and this night have I made ascending to take them on the waste of waters as they sail homeward to many mountain demon land corund said lord your words are as wine unto us and well we guessed that the principalities of darkness were frozen fell as the breast of the large earth a breathing when they were coming to the banqueting hall the king said grow shall sit at my right hand this night since manfully hath he served me and when they scowled at this and spake each in the other's ear the king said who so among you shall so serve me and so water the growth of this witch land as hath grow in this night gone by unto him will I do like honour but unto grow he said I will bring forth an exile I will pluck gaslog from his throne and make the king in Zajeciculo and all goblin land shall thou hold for me in fee exercising dominion over it end of chapter 4 chapter 5 of the Worm of Oroboros this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Jason Mills the Worm of Oroboros by E.R. Edison chapter 5 King Goris's sending of King Gaslark and of the coming of the sending upon the demons on the high seas with how the Lord Jus by the egging on of his companions was persuaded to an unadvised rashness the next morning following that night when King Goris the 12th sat crowned in carcy as is aforesaid was Gaslark assailing on the middle sea homeward from the east seven ships of war he had and they steered in column south westward close hold on the starboard tack where she who led the line a great dragon of war painted as your of the summer sea with towering head of a worm plated with gold and wrought with overlapping scales gaping defiance from her bows and a worms tear erect at the poop seventy and five picked men of Goblin land sailed on that ship clad in gay curtles and burnies of mail and armed with axes spears and swords their shields each with his device hung at the bulwarks on the high poop sat King Gaslark his sturdy hands grasping the great steering paddle goodly of mean and well-knit were all they of Goblin land that went on that great ship yet did Gaslark outdo them all in goodliness and strength and all kingliness he wore a silken curtle of Tyrion purple broad wristlets of woven gold were on his wrists dark skinned was he as one that had lived all his days in the hot sunshine clean cut of feature somewhat hooky-nosed with great eyes and white teeth and tight-cold black mustachios nought restful was there in his presence and bearing but rashness and impetuous fire and he was wild to look on swift and beautiful as a stag in autumn Teshmoir that was the skipper of his ship stood at his elbow Gaslark said to him is it not one of the three gallant spectacles of the world a good ship treading the hastening furrows of the sea like a queen in grace and beauty scattering up the wavecrests before her stem in a glittering rain Ye Lorde answered him and what be the other two one that I most unhappily did miss whereof but yesterday we had tidings to behold such a battling of great champions and such a victory as Lord Goldry obtained upon yonder vaunting tyrant the third shall be seen I think said Teshmoir when the Lord Goldry blusco shall in your royal palace of Zages-a-Culor amid pomp and high rejoicing wed the young princess your cousin most fortunate Lord that must be Lord of her whom all just censured I've acknowledged the ornament of the earth the model of heaven the queen of beauty kind gods hastened the day said Gaslock for truly it is a most sweet lass and those kinsmen of demon land my dearest friends but for whose great upholding time and again Teshmoir in days gone by where were I today and my kingdom and where thou and all of you the kings brow darkened a little with thought after a time he began to say I must have more great action these trivial harryings spoils of Neverea chasing of Esomorcian Black Awards be toys not worthy of our great name and renown among the nations something I would enact that shall embroil and astonish the world even as the demons when they purged earth of the ghouls ere I go down into silence Teshmoir was staring toward the southern borne he pointed with his hand there right at the great ship her king and me thinks she had a strange look Gaslight gazed earnestly at her for an instant then straightway shifted his helm and steered towards her he spake no more staring ever as he sailed marking ever as the distance lessened more and more particulars of that ship her silken sail fluttered in tatters from the yard she roared feebly as one groping in darkness with barely strength to stare her from drifting sea as one struck stupid by some blow doubting which were her harbour lay or which were her course as a thing which had been held in the flame of a monstrous candle saw-seen she singed and besmirched with soot smashed was her proud figure-head and smashed was her high forecastle and burned and shattered the carved timbers of the poop and the fair seats that were there on she leaped so that a score of her crew must be still a bearing to keep her afloat broken or gone adrift and many of the ship's company lay wounded and some slain under her thoughts and now as King Gaslock where as he drew near that here was the Lord just on her ruined poop a-steering and by him Spitfire and Brandoc de Har their dual arms and gear and Richard Tyre were black with more stinking suck and it was as though admiration and grief and anger were so locked and twined within them that none of these passions when they were within hailing distance Gaslock held them they answered him not only beholding him with alien eyes but they stopped the ship and Gaslock lay aboard of her and came on board and went upon the poop and greeted them and he said well met in an ill hour what's the matter the Lord just made his itch to speak but no word came only he took Gaslock by both hands and sat down on the poop averting his face Gaslock said oh just for so many a time as thou has borne part in my evils and suckered me surely right requireth I have part of thine but just answered in a thick strange voice all unlike himself MINE saith thou or Gaslock what in the established world is MINE that I'm thus in a moment weaved of him that was my own heart-string my brother might of mine the chiefest citadel of my dominion and he burst into a great passion of weeping King Gaslock's rings were driven into the flesh of his fingers by the grip of just his strong hands on his but he scarce whisked of the pain such agony of mind was in him for the loss of his friend and for the bitterness and wonder that it was to behold these three great lords of demon land weep like frightened women and all their ships company of tried men of war that their lordly souls were unseated for a season because of some dreadful fact the havocware of his eyes most woefully beheld while its particulars were yet dark to him yet with a terror in darkness that might well make his heart to quail by much questioning he was at last well advertised of what had before them how there the day before in broad noon on such a summer sea had heard a noise like the flapping of wings outstretched the whole sea was lifted up and fell again and the whole sea clashed together and roared yet was the ship not sunken and there was a tumult about them of thunder and raging waters and black night and wildfire in the night which presently passing away and the darkness lifting the sea less solitary as far as I might reach and nothing is more certain said just than that this is ascending of King Necromancy beyond all other this world had seen and this is his vengeance for the walls we wrought for which land in the foliot isles against such a peril I had provided certain amulets made of the stone alectorium which grow within the gizzard of a cock hatched on a moonless night when satan burneth in a human sign and the lord of the third house is in the ascendant these saved us albeit sorely buffeted from destruction all saved Goldry alone whether he neglected to wear the charm I gave him or the chain of it was broken in the plunging of the ship or by some other means it was lost when daylight came again we stood but three on this poop where four had stood more I know not oh gazlark said spitfire our brother that is stolen from us with us it surely lieth to find him and set him free but just groaned and said in which star of the unclimbed secret streams of ocean where the last green razor quenched in oozy darkness gazlark was silent for a while then he said I think not likelier than this that Garice has caught away Goldry blust go into carcy where he holdeth him in duress and dither must be straight where to deliver him just answered no word but gazlark seized his hand saying our ancient love and your oft-suckering of goblin land in days gone by make this my quarrel as I fared from the east through the straits of Rinnath I beheld a mighty company of forty sail bound eastward to the bestry and sea well it was there marked as not as we lay under the aisles of Ellion in the dusk of evening for touching later at Norvasp in Pixieland we learned that their sailed laxus with the whole witch-land fleet being minded to work evil deeds among the peaceful cities of the bestry and seaboard and as well met were an antelope with a devouring lion as I and my seven ships with those strength on the high seas but now behold how wide standard the door to our wishes laxus and that great armament are safe harrying eastward whore I make question whether at this moment more than nine score or ten score fighting men be left in carcy I have here of my own nigh on five hundred never was fair a chance to take witch-land with his claws beneath the table and royally may we scratch his fair so he get them forth again and just smiles it not to thee this reed of mine gazloic said lord just nobly and with that open hand and heart that I have loved in thee from of old hast thou made this offer yet not so is witch-land to be overcome but after long days of labour only and laying of schemes and building of ships and gathering of hosts answerable to the strength we bear of late against the ghouls when we destroyed them nor for all his urging might gazloic move them and spake privately to him kinsman what ails thee is all high heart and swiftness to action crushed out of demon-land and doth but the unserviceable juiceless skin remain to us thou art clean unlike that thou hast ever been and could which land behold as now well might he judge that best fear had turned hold upon us seeing that with the odds of strength so fortunately of our side we shrink from striking at him just said in spitfire's ear this it is the most fastness of the goblins too like to fire among dead leaves is the sudden flame of their valour a poor thing to rely on if once they be checked so do I count it folly trusting in them for our main strength to go up against carcy also it is but a wild fancy that golder have been transported into carcy but spitfire leaped up a cursing and cried out oh gazloic thou art best fair home to goblin land but we will sail openly to carcy and crave audience to kiss his toe and acknowledging him to be our king and us his ill conditioned disobedient children so may he happily restore unto us our brother when he hath chastised us and happily of his mercy send us home to demon land there to fawn upon corsus or vile carinius or whosoever he shall set up in gaoling for his viceroy for with goldery hath all manliness departed out of demon land and we be milksops that remain and objects of sorrow of heart the lord brandock dahar faired fore and aft on the gangway about and about as a caged panther ferrith when feeding time is long over due and at while he clapped hand to the hilt of his long and glittering sword and rattled it in the scabbard at length standing over against gazloic and eyeing him with a mocking glance oh gazloic he said this that hath befallen melancholy and madness itself the cure of this is only fighting wherefore if thou love me gazloic out with thy sword and ward thyself fight I must or this passion will kill me quite out it is pity to draw upon my friend but sith we be banned from fighting with our enemies what choice remaineth gazloic laughed and seized him playfully by the arm saying I will not fight with thee how prettily so ere thou ask it but straight grew grave again and said to just oh just be ruled thou see us what temper thy friends are in all we be as hounds tugging against the leash to be loosed against carcy in this happy hour that likely cometh not again now when lord just perceived them all against him and hot mouthed for that attempt he smiled scornfully and said oh my brother and my friends what echoes and quail pipes are you become who seem to catch wisdom there is every man of you and myself too break ice in one place who'll crack in more and truly I care not greatly for my life now that galdry has gone from me cast we lots then which of us three shall fare home to demon land with this our ship that is but a limb duck since descending and he on whom the lot shall fall must fare home to concert the raising of a mighty fleet and armament to carry on our war against the witches so spoke lord just an old there who had but themselves in such point that there was in them no hope of convalescence nor of life had now their spirits raised in a seeming drunkenness and thought only on the gladness of battle the lords of demon land marked each his lot and cast it in the helm of gazloch and gazloch shook the helm and there leapt forth the lot of the lord's spitfire right wrothful was he so the lords of demon landed off their armor the lords there fighting men that were unscathed by the sending went aboard one of gazloch's ships and the crew of that ship manned the ship of demon land and spitfire took the steering paddle and the demons that were hurt lay in the hold of the hollow ship they brought forth a spare sail and hoisted it in place of that that was destroyed so and saw a discontent hand up to her who was like a warhorse impatient for battle her prow swung north and so round east away and her sail broided with flour to loses smolt the mast and filled to the north west wind and those of the six fared after her in line ahead with white sails unfurled striding majestic over the full broad billows end of chapter 5 chapter 6 of the worm uroboros this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by jesson mills the worm uroboros by E. R. Edison chapter 6 the claws of witch-land of King Gasloic's leading in the attempt on carcy in the dark and how he prospered therein and of the great stand of Lord Juson Lord Brandoc de Haar on the evening of the third day when as they drew near to within sight of the witch-land coast they brailed up their sails and waited for the night that so they might make the landfall little to their mind it was that the King should have news of their fairings this was their plan to beach their ships on the lonely shore some two leagues north of Tennamos once it was but two hours march across the fend to carcy so when the sun set and all the ways were darkened they muffled their oars and rode silently to the low shore that showed strangely near in the darkness yet ever seemed to flee and keep its distance as they rode toward it coming at length the shore they drew 50 men of the goblins they left to guard the ships while the rest took their weapons and when they were marshalled they marched inland over the sand dunes and so on to the open fen and seeing that the most of them by far were of goblin land it was agreed between those three Jus, Brandoc de Haar and Gaslock that Gaslock should have command of this empire so fared there silently across the marshes that were firm enough for marching so it would done circumspectly scattered here and there for the weather had been fine for a season and little new water stood on the marsh but as they drew near to Carsey the weather worsened and fine rain began to fall and albeit there was little comfort marching through the drizzling murk of night towards that fortress of evil name yet was Lord Jus glad at the rain since it favored surprise and on surprise hung all their hopes about the middle night that loomed ghostly through the watery curtain silent as it had been a tomb where which land lay in death rather than the mailed shell wherein so great a power sat waiting the sight of that vast bulk couched shadowy in the rain lighted the fire of battle in the breast of Gaslock nor would ought please him said that there should go forthwith up to the walls with all their force and forth detachments to select a spot for assault and bring back word before the whole force advanced be sure said Gaslock that there within are all foxed and cup-shotten the third night with swilling of wine in honour of such triumph as he has gotten by his sending and but a sorry watch is kept on such a night for who say there shall come up against Karse morning or ever our main force could seize the occasion nay but as the ghouls in an evil day coming suddenly upon me in charges of culo kept my palace taken ere we were well aware of their coming so must we take this hold of Karse and if thou fear us to Sally right hotly do I desire it for if they open the gate we are enough to force an entry in despite of any numbers they are like to have within now just like his wits he would not again say Gaslock so crept they in stealth near to the great walls of Karse softly ever fell the rain and breathless stood the cypresses within the outer ward and blank and dumb and untenanted frowned the black marble walls of that sleeping castle and dower midnight waited over all now Gaslock issued command bidding them march warily round the walls northward for no likely place to win into the hold in such order went there that Gaslock with a hundred of his ableist men led the vamp and after him came the demons the main strength of the goblins followed after with teshmark for their captain warily there marched and now were they on the rising ground that ran back north and west from the bluff of Karse to the fen full eager were they of goblin land and flown with the intoxication of impending battle but just was feigned to hasten after them lest they should lose touch and fall to confusion but teshmark's men feared greatly to be left behind nor might he hold them back but there must run betwixt the demons and the walls meaning to join with Gaslock just swore under his breath saying see the unruly rabble of goblin land and there will yet be our undoing in such case stood there nor were teshmark's fork more than 20 paces from the walls when sudden as night the walls dazzling the goblins and the demons and brightly lighting them for those that manned the walls who fell a shooting at them with spears and arrows and a slinging of stones in the same moment opened a paulstone gate whence salid forth the lord carinius with 150 stoutlads of witchland shouting he that would sub of the crab of an eye the hand with a two edged axe with heft lapped with bronze and greatly though the fork of Gaslock outnumbered him yet were there sought taken at unawares and confounded by the sudden onslaught of carinius that they might not abide him but everywhere gave ground before his onslaught and many were wounded and some were slain and with these teshmark of goblin land the master of Gaslock's ship for smiting at carinius and missing of his aim the lord came on teshmark's neck and saw huge off his head now Gaslock with the best of his fighting men was come somewhere past the paulstone but when as they fell to fighting he turned back straight where to meet carinius calling loudly on his mentor rally against the witches and drive them back within the walls so when Gaslock was gone through the press to within reach of carinius he thrusted carinius with the spear wounding him in the arm but carinius smelt further and Gaslock took to his sword and many blows they banded that made either stagger till carinius struck Gaslock on the helm a great downstroke of his axe as one driver the pile with a wooden mallet and because of the good helmy war given by lord just in days gone by as a gift of love and friendship was Gaslock saved and his head not cloven asunder for on that helm carinius's axe that he fell senseless to the earth and with his fall came dismay upon them of goblin land all this befell in the first brunt of the battle nor were the lords of demon land yet fully joined in the mallet for the great press of Gaslock's men were between them and the witches but now just and brandook the ha went forth mightily with their following and took up Gaslock that lure like one dead and just made a company of the goblins bear him to the ships and there was King Gaslock was slain and at this chosen time corund that was come privily forth of a hidden door on the western side of carcy with fifty men took the goblins mightily in the rear so there still falling back before carinius and corund and their hearts sick at the supposed slaying of Gaslock waxed full of doubt and dejection for in the watery darkness they might know wise perceived by how much they out went in numbers the men of witch land and panic took them so that they broke and fled before the witches as a stout holdeth by a rabbit and slew them by scores and by fifties as they fled from carcy scarce three score men of that brave company of goblin land that went up with Gaslock against carcy won away into the marshes and came to their ships escaping pitiless destruction but corund and corinius and their main force turned without more ado against the demons and bitter was the battle that befell betwixt them and great the clatter of their blows and now were the odds clean changed about with the putting of the goblins of the battle since but few of which land were fallen and there were as four to one against the demons hemming them in and having at them from every side and some shot at them from the wall until a chance shot came that was like to have stove in corund's helm who straight away sent word that when the route was ended he would make lark pies of the cow-headed doddy pole whosoever he might be that had set them thus a shooting spoiling sport for their comrades hemming and woundsome grew the battle for the demons mightily withstood the onset of the witches and the lord brandoc de ha rushed with an onslaught ever and anon upon corund or upon carinius no might either of these great captains bear up long against him but every time gave back before lord brandoc de ha and bitterly cursed there one another as each in turn was failing to save himself amid the press of their fighting men nor could one hope in one night's space to behold such deeds of daring do as were done that lord brandoc de ha the played his sword lightly as one handlet the willow wand yet death sat on the point thereof in such wise that eleven stout swords of witch-land were slain by him and fifteen besides were sorely wounded and at the last carinius stung by corund's taunts as by a gadfly and well-nigh bursting for grief and shame at his ill-speeding leapt upon lord brandoc de ha as one ref of his wits aiming at him a great two-handed blow that was apt enough to cleave him to the hearth slipped from the blow lightly as a king-fisher flying above an older-shadowed stream avoided the branch in his flight and ran carinius through the right wrist with his sword and straight was carinius put out of the fight nor had their greater satisfaction that went against lord just who mowed at them with great swashing blows beheading some and hewing some asunder in the midst till they were fain to keep clear of his reaping so fought the demons in the land to earth save those two lords alone just and brandoc de ha now stood king garice on the outer battlements of carci all armed in his black armor inlaid with gold and he beheld those two and how they fought back to back and how the witches beset them on every side yet norwise might prevail against them and the king said unto grove that was by him on the wall mine-eyes dazzle in the mist and torch-light what be these answered him surely o' king these be none other than lord just and lord brandoc de ha of croathering the king said so by degrees cometh my sending home to me for by my art I have intelligence albeit not certainly that goldry was taken by my sending so have I my desire on him I hold most in hate and these served by their enchantments from like ruin have been driven mad to rush into the open sight to behold an hundred of my abeless men flinch and duck before these twain till now me thought there was a sword in which land and me thought Carinius and Corund not simple braggarts without power or heart as here appeareth since like boys well birch they do cringe from the shining swords of just and the great deed in ambushing this mighty company of our enemies and putting them all to the slaughter and if I prevailed not against this brand of Dahar your majesty needs not to marvel since a greater than I garice the tenth of memory ever glorious was lightly conquered by him wherein me thinks I am the luckier to have but a gored wrist and not my death as for these twain they be stick freeze on whom no point or edge may bite and not rather said the king or ye all grown milk stops but I have no further stomach for this interlude but straight will end it there with the king called to him the old juke Corsus bidding him take nets and catch the demons therein and Corsus faring forth with nets by sheer weight of numbers and with the death of nearer scorer of the witches at length got this performed and lord Joss and lord brand of Dahar well tangled in soundly where they bumped along the ground and glad he know where the witches to have gotten those great fighters scotched at last for utterly spent were Corrand and his men and faint a drop for very weariness so when they were gotten into Corsi the king let's search with torches and bring in them of which land that lay hurt before the walls and any demons or goblins that were happed upon in into a corner of the inner court of the palace like two bales of damaged goods and set a guard upon them until morning as the lords of which land were upon going to bed they beheld westward by the sea a red glow and tongs of fire burning in the night Corineas said unto lord grow low where these goblins burn their ships lest we pursue them as they flee shamefully homeward we took him sleep a little bed pausing on the way to kick at the lord brandoke the har that lay safely swathed in his net powerless as then to do him home end of chapter 6 Chapter 7 of the Worm Oroboros this Librivox recording is in the public domain recording by Jason Mills The Worm Oroboros by E. R. Edison Chapter 7 guests of the king in Corsi of the two banquet halls that were in Corsi the old and the new and of the entertainment given by King Garas the 12th in the one hall to lord just and lord brandoke the har and in the other to the Prince Lafaireys and of their leave taking when the banquet was done the morrow of that battle dawned fair on Corsi folk lay longer bed after their toil and until the sun was high the morning came forth a band sent by King Garas to bring in the spoil and they took up the bodies of the slain and laid them in whole on the right bank of the river Druima half a mile below Corsi witches demons and goblins in one grave together and raised up a great whole over them now was the sun's heat strong but the shadow of the great keep rested still on the terrace with spleen wart asa fatida livid told stools dragon's teeth and bitter moon seed growing in the joints on the outer edge of the terrace were bushes of oba vitae planted in a row squat and round like sleeping dormice with plumps of chalk powered akinite in the interspaces many hundred feet in length was the terrace from north to south and at either end the flight of black marble steps led down to the level of the inner ward and its embattled wall benches of green jasper massively built and laden with velvet cushions of many colours stood against the palace wall facing to the west and on the bench nearest the iron tower a lady sat at ease eating cream wafers and a quince tart served by her waiting-women in dishes of pale gold for her morning meal tall was that lady and slender and beauty dwelt in her as the sunshine dwells in the red floor and grey green trunks of a beach and made fast by great silver pins their heads set with anarchy diamonds her gang was a cloth of silver with a knotted cordwork of black silk embroidery everywhere decked with little moon stones and over it she wore a mantel of figured satin the colour of the wood pigeon's wing tinseled and overcast with silver threads white skin she was and graceful as an antelope her eyes were green with yellow fiery gleams daintily tiles from a cup of amber artificially carved white wine cool from the cellars below Karsey and a maiden sitting at her feet played on a seven string lute singing very sweetly the song ask me no more where Job bestows when June is past the fading rose for in your beauties orient deep these flowers as in their causes sleep ask me no more with a deustrayer the golden atoms of the day for in pure love heaven did prepare those powders to enrich your hair ask me no more with a dothirst the nightingale when may is past for in your sweet dividing throat she winters and keeps warm her note ask me no more where those stars light that downwards fall in dead of night for in your eyes there sit and there fixed become as in their sphere ask me no more if east or west the phoenix builds her spicy nest for unto you at last she flies and in your fragrant buzzing dies no more said the lady thy voice is cracked this morning is none abroad yet thou canst find to tell me of last night's doings or are all gone my lord's get that I left sleeping still as though all the poppies of all earth's gardens breathed drowsiness about his head one cometh madam said the damels up the lady said the lord grow he may resolve me though were he in the stower last night that were a wonder and grow along the terrace from the north clad in a mantel of dunkelled velvet with a collar of raised work of gold upon silver pearl and his long black curly beard was perfumed with orange flower water and angelica when they have greeted one another and the lady had bitten her women stand apart she said my lord I thirst for tidings sounding to the onset and torches in the night and wars of lorums and there were torches indeed in my chamber lighting my lord to bed that answered me no word but straight where fell asleep as in utter weariness some slight scratches he hath but else unhurt I would not wake him for bomb is in slumber also is he ill to do with it one way him so but the tattle and wild surmise all routed last night by my lord and by carinius and goldry blusco slain in single combat with the king or that just hath set a charm on laxus and all our fleet making them sail like parasites against this land just on the other demons leading them and all slain save laxus and goldry blusco but these brought bound into carcy stark mad and frothing at the lips and carinius dead of his wounds after slaying of brand up to ha or foolishly that it was my brother risen in revolt to rest pixieland from the overlordship of garice and joined with gazlock to that end and their army overthrown and both to end prisoner growl laughed and said surely all my lady presmirer truth masketh in many astringent disguise when she rideth rumors broomstick and beholden glory I speak as big my lord said the lady were the demons in it I'm Adam he said and triumphed on and slain all slain saved just and brand up to ha and they taken said growl was this my lord's doing she asked greatly as I think said growl though carinius Klamath for himself as commonly the main honor of it presmirer and she said there were none in it served demons growl knowing her thought smiled and made answer madam there were witches my lord growl she cried thou dost ill to mock me thou art my friend there knowest the prince my brother proud and sudden to anger there knowest it chaifeth him to have witch land over him there knowest the time is many days over past when he should bring his yearly tribute presmirer saying most assuredly am I thy friend madam be like if truth were told thou and thy lord are all the true friends I have in waterish witch land you too and the king but who sleepeth safe in the favour of kings I am madam none of pixie land stood in the battle yesterday therefore let thy soul be at ease but my task it was standing on the battlements beside the king to smile and smile four or five hundred of my own kinsfolk presmirer caught her breath in the silent moment then gaslock the main force was his it appeared answered lord grove Carinius bragoth himself his bansman uncertain it is he felled into earth but I am secretly advertised it was not among the dead taken up this morning my lord she said my desire for news drinks deep while thou art fasting and two damazoles ran and returned with sparkling golden wine in a beaker and a dish of lampres with hypocrite sauce so grove sat him down on the jasper bench and while he ate and drank rehearsed of the lady presmirer the doings of the night when he had ended she said how hath the king dealt with those twain lord josson lord brandock dahar grove answered he hath them slapped up in the old banqueting hall in the iron tower when his bro darkened to his pity thy lord lay thus long a bed and so came not to the council where courses and carinias backed by their steppesons on the sons of courses egged on the king to use shamefully these lords of demon land true is that dystic which admonisheth us nor when to speak for many times it brings danger to give the best advice to kings and little for my health and little again with all had it been had I then coroned wayeth in their councils as his hand wayeth in battle now as gross spake came the lord coroned on the terrace calling for still wine to cool his throat with all presmyre poured forth to him thou art blamed to me for keeping thy bed my lord that shouldst have been devising with the king touching our enemies tame captive in this night gone by coroned sat by his lady readyeth and strike off their heads and so bring all to a fit and happy ending for otherwise aggro hath the king determined he let drag before him lord just and lord brandock the half and with many fleas and jibes welcome he sayeth to carcy your table shall not lack store of delicates while you are my guests an eagle against the wall making both wrists and ankles fast to the staples with guives of iron and the king let dyeth the table before their feet as for a banquet that the sight and the saver might torment them and he called all us to his council dither that we might praise his conceit and mock them anew said presmyre to her not a mess he said that I had word with the king worth or so asked presmyre he that sleepeth let said corrand eyeing her humorously sometimes hath news for her that riseth be times to sit on the western terrace and this was I come to tell thee that I but now beheld eastward from our chamber window riding toward carcy out of pixel and down the way of kings the fire ease my own brother at three miles distance and as for thine I leave thee the swearing we should ride down the way of kings from pixeland cried presmyre but la fire ease that madam let echo answer thee said corrand and it sticketh in my mind that the prince my brother in law is one here are rebels this night needful it is that the king command these gavelers to keep silence touching our entertainment of these lords in the old banquet hall and in general touching the share of demon land in this fighting presmyre said come I'll go with thee they found the king on the top most battlements above the water gate with his lords about him gazing east away toward the long hills beyond which my words to mark it are the mark it be done I have already turned order for this and straightly charged my people that naught befell last night's interfering of the goblins against carcy and their overthrow and my chasing of them with a great slaughter into the sea who so by speech or sign shall reveal to la fire ease that the demons were in it or that these enemies of mine are thus entertained by me to their discomfort in the old banquet hall king said captain general what is our strength corineas answered seventy and three were slain and the others for the most part hurt I among them that am thus one-handed for the while I will not engage to find you or king fifty-seven men in carcy my lord coran said the king thine eyes pierced ever a lead we on the best among us young or old how many make us though young company coran leaned on the road as a smoked haddock uncovered on the back with yellow hairs growing somewhat sparsely as the hairs on the skin of a young elephant he rideth with three score horse or king one or two more I give you for good luck but if I have a horseman fewer than sixty never love me more the king muttered an implication it is the curse of chance bringeth him thus pat when I have my powers abroad and am left with too little pride south to Zorn and Permio and muster a few score fighting men from the herdsmen and farmers with what speed he may it is commanded now was the afternoon wearing to evening when the Prince Lafayres was coming with all his company and greetings done and the tribute safe bestowed and the sleeping room appointed for him and his and now we're all gathered together in the great banquet hall that was built in the old hall where Lord Justin Lord Brandock the Har were held in duress seven equal walls it had of dark green Jasper specked with bloody spots and the midst of one wall was the lofty doorway and in the walls right and left of this and in those that enclose the angle opposite the door where great windows placed high giving light to the banquet hall in each of the seven angles of the wall beneath the mass of a monstrous crab hewn out of the same storm the mighty claws of those seven crabs spreading upwards bear up the dome of the roof that was smooth and covered all over with paintings of battles and hunting scenes and wrestling bouts in dark and smoky colours answerable to the gloomy grandeur of that chamber on the walls beneath the windows gleamed weapons of war and of the chairs and on the two blind walls were nailed up all orderly the skulls and dead bones of the king garage the 11th or ever here pointed in an evil hour to wrestle with gold and blusco across the innermost angle facing the door was a long table and a carbon bench behind it and from the two ends of that table set square with it two other tables yet longer and benches by them on the sides next to the walls stretched to within a short space of the door midmost of the table another high seat smaller and the cushions of its own with silver in the space betwixt the tables five iron braziers massive and footed with claws like an eagle's stood in a row and behind the benches on either side where nine great stands for flamboy is to light the hall by night and seven behind the crossbench set at equal distances and even with the walls the floor was paved with steatite white and creamy with veins of rich brown and black scarlet the tables resting on great trestles were massy slabs of a dusky polished stone powder with spots of gold as small as atoms the women sat on the crossbench and midmost of them the lady presmirer who outwent the rest in beauty and queerness as Venus the lesser planets of the night Zenambria wife to Duke Corsus sat on her left and on her right Sreva daughter to Corsus strangely fair for such a father on the upper bench to the right the lords of witch-land sat above and below the king's high seat clad in holiday attire and they of Pixieland had placed over against them on the lower bench the high seat on the lower bench was set apart for lafayeres great plates and dishes of gold and silver and painted porcelain were set in order on the tables laden with delicacies harts and bike-pipes struck up a barbaric music and the guests rose to their feet as the shining doors swung open and gariced the king followed by the prince's guest and mounted that hole like a black eagle surveying earth from some high mountain the king passed by in his majesty his bernie was a black-chain mail its collar, sleeves and skirt edged with plates of dull gold set with hyacinths and black oracles his holes were black cross-gartered with bands of seal-skin trimmed with diamonds on his left thumb was his great signet ring fashioned in gold in the semblance of the Wormoroboros that he teth his own tail the bezel of the ring the head of the Worm made of a peach-coloured ruby of the bigness of a sparrow's egg his cloak was woven of the skins of black cobras stitched together with gold wire its lining of black silk sprinkled with dust of gold the iron crown of which land weighed on his brow the claws of the crab erect like horns and the sheen of its jewels was many-coloured like the rares of Sirius on the theonite of frost and wind of dual tide the prince's lafairees went in a mantle of black cendoline sprinkled everywhere with spangles of gold and the tunic beneath it of rich-figured silk dyed deep purple of the pasque flower from the golden circlet on his head two wings sprung aloft exquisitely fashioned in plates of beaten copper veneered with jewels and enamels and plaited with precious metals to the semblance of the wings of the Oleander hawk-moth he was something below the common height but stout and strong and sturdily knit with red crisp curly hair broad-faced and ruddy clean-shaved with high-wide-nostled knolls and bushy-red heavy eyebrows once his eyes most like his lady-sisters sea-green and fiery shot glances like a lion's when the king was coming to his high seat with corand and carinius on his left and right in honour of their great deeds of arms and lafairees facing him in the high seat on the lower bench the thralls made hairs to set forth dishes of pickled grigs and oysters in the shell and wilks, snails grass and the feasters delayed knot to fall on these dainties while the cook-bearer bore round a mighty bowl of beaten gold filled with sparking wine the hue of the yellow sapphire and furnished with six golden ladles resting their handles in six half-moon-shaped nicks in the rim of that great bowl each guest when the bowl was brought to him must brim his goblet with the ladle and drink unto the glory of witch-land and the rulers thereof somewhat greenly looked carinius on the prince son in the ear who sat next to him he said true it is that lafairees is the showiest of men in all that belongeth to gear and costly array marked with what ridiculous excess he effecteth demon-land in the great store of jewels he flaunteth and with what an apish insolence he sitteth at the board yet this lobcock liveth only by our sufferance and I see I hath not forgot to bring and thereafter story now of meats a fat kid roasted whole and garnished with peas on a spacious silver charger kid pasties plates of meats, tongs and sweet-breads sucking rabbits in jellies hedgehogs baked in their skins hogs, hazlets carbonados chitterlings and door-mouse pies these and other luscious meats were born round continually by thralls and moved silent on bare feet and Mary waxed the talk as the edge of hunger and with wine What news in which land? asked Lafairese I have heard nought newer said the king than the slaying of gazlark and the king recounted the battle in the night setting forth as in a frank and open honesty every particular of numbers, times and comings and goings said that none might have guessed from his tale that any of demon land had part or interest in that battle Lafairese said strange it is that he should our greatness said Carinius looking hotly at him is a lump where at other moth than he have been burnt I count it no strange matter at all Presmirer said strange indeed were it any but gazlark but sure with him no wild sudden fancy were too light but it should chariot him like thistle down to storm heaven itself a bubble of the air madam all fine colours without an empty wind within I have known other such said Carinius still resting his gears with studded insolence Presmirer's eye danced all my lord Carinius said she change first thine own fashion I pray the air thou convinced gay attire of inward folly lest beholding thee we misdoubt thy preset or thy wisdom Carinius drank his cup to the drains and laughed somewhat reddened was his insolent face about the cheeks and shaven jowl for surely was not in that hole more wrickly apparel than he his ample chess was cased in a jerking of untanned book-skin plated with silver scales a colour of gold that was rough with smaragds and a long cloak of sky-blue silk brocade lined with cloth of silver on his left wrist was a mighty ring of gold and on his head a wreath of black briny and sleeping nightshade grow whispered Corrand in the ear he bibbath it down a pace and the hour is yet early this presages trouble since ever with him in discretion treadeth hard on the heels of surliness all peaks of fame might gazlok applied but for this same rashness not more pitiful hath been heard to tell of than his great sending into implant ten years ago when on a sudden conceit that I should lay all implant under him and become the greatest king in all the world he hired zeldornias and helterranius and jalkanius fostus the three most notable captains found on earth said lafairies nothing is more true, said Corrand these he hired after revenge of war as hath not been seen these hundred years and sent him wither to the rich and pleasant lands of bestria no to demon land not a wit to this witch land where with the twentieth part the power hath now risked all and suffered death and doom no but to yonder helby smitten wilderness of upper imp land treeless waterless not a soul to pay him tribute their bodies and pens in their purses I warrant you but was he mindy to be king among the divils of the air ghosts and hobthrushes that be found in that desert without controversy there be seventeen several sorts of divils on the maruna said corces very loud and sudden saw that all turned to look on him fiery divils divils of the air terrestrial devils as you may say and watery divils and subterranean divils without controversy there be seven several sorts of hobthrushes and several sorts of divils and if the humour took me I could name them all by rote wondrous solemn was the heavy face of corces his eyes spaggy underneath and somewhat bloodshed his pendulous cheeks thick blubber upper lip and bristly grey mustachios and whiskers he had eaten mainly to provoke thirst pickled olives capers salted almonds the ladies in ambria asked no with any for certain what fate befell jalkanius and the hellteranius and zeldornius and their armies heard I not said presmirer that they were led by will of the wisps to the region's hyperborian and their made kings told thee by the madge howlet I fear me sister said the fiery when as I thought on a great dish of gold born by four serving men so weighty was the dish and its burden some light there glowed in the dull eye of corces to see it come and corund rose up with brimming goblet and the witches cried the song of the china corund great as a neat stud corund two hares of servers rising from the feast the flamboy's shun and his bald head set about with thick grizzled curls and on his keen grey eyes and his long and bushy beard he cried give me a rose my lords and if any fail to bear me out in the refrain I'll narrow love him more and he sang the song of the china in a incumbency brawn tusked brawn well sourced and fine with a precious cup of muscadine how shall I sing how shall I look in honour of the master cook the pigs shall turn round and answer me canst those spare me a shoulder a wee a wee the duck goose and capon good fellows all three shall dance the anantic so shall the turkey put o the cold china cook in honour of the master cook with bruis I'll noint thee from head to thiel shall make thee run nimbler than the new-oiled wheel with pycrust will make thee the eighth wise man to be but all the old china the cold china for me how shall I sing how shall I look in honour therewith came the dwarf into the hall mopping and mowing clad in a sleeveless jerking of striped yellow and red mccardo and his long and nervous tail dragged on the floor behind him somewhat fulsome is this dwarf said the fire-ease speak within door-prince said Carinius noce not his quality I have been envoy extraordinary from King this Lube for our ambassador the dwarf practised before them to the great content of the lords of witch-land and their guests save for his jerping upon Carinius and the Prince calling them two peacocks so like in their bright plumage that none might tell either from other which somewhat gold them both and now was the King's heart wax and glad with wine and he yours forever answered grow but me thinks I am little fitted to be a king me thinks I was ever a better steward of other men's fortunes than of my own where at the Duke Corsus that was sprawled on the table well night asleep cried out in a great voice but husky with all abrasive divils broil me if thou ha which land when were you the crown of demon land or king how now Corsus said the king ought thou drunk but Lafairies said ye swear peace with the demons in the foliotiles and by mighty ords are you bound to put by forever your clans of lordship over demon land I hoped your quarrels were ended why so they are said the king Cors chuckled weakly you say well your quarrels are ended no room for more for look you demon land is a ripe fruit ready to drop me thus in our mouth leaning back he gaped his mouth wide open suspending by one leg above it and Horteland bursted with its own dripping the bird slipped through his fingers and fell against his cheek and so on to his bosom and so on the floor and his brazen Bernie and the sleeves of his pale green glass of laughter but Lafairie's flushed with anger and said scowling drunkenness my lord is a jest for thralls to laugh at then sit there mom prince said Carinius lest thy quality be called in question for my part I laugh at my thoughts and they'd be very choice but Cors wiped his face and fell a singing when air I bit the wine down and back as fair to see for all where while we bibbing be asleep drop all our cares with that Corses sank heavily forward again on the table and the dwarf whose drapes all else in that company had taken well even when themselves were the mark thereof leapt up and down crying here a wonder this pudding singeth when with one were too little to contain so vast a deal of bullocks blood and lard swift and carviter the vapours burst the skin I will carve thee filth said Corses lurching to his feet and catching the dwarf by the wrist with one hand he gave him a great box on the ear with the other the dwarf squealed and bit Corses' thumb to the bone so that he loosed his hold and the dwarf fled from the door the night is young bring me botargores and caviar and toast drink, prince the red thrumley and wine that is thick like honey with the soul to divine philosophy how vain a thing is ambition this was Gaslock's bane whose enterprises of such pitch and moment have ended thus in a kind of nothing for what thinkers though grow convinced all expectation gotten us overthrown even so had he been no nearer to his heart's desire than when he first set forth for he had of all in such as a culot eating and drinking and gardens and treasure and musicians and a fair wife all soft ease and contentment all his days and at the last house aware we shape man's with a sad brow I say it said the king I hold him wise that resteth happy even as the red foliot and tempted not the gods by over mounting ambition to his dejection the fire ease had thrown himself back in his high seat with his elbows resting on its lofty arms and his hands dangling idly on either side with head held high and incredulous smile he hearkened to the words I think thou and I be clean out of fashion answered Corrand whispering that we be not yet drunken the cause were of is that thou drinkest within measure which is good and me this amethyst at my bell keepeth sober where I never saw surface well with wine the fire ease said you are pleased to jest oh king for my part I had as leaf have this musk million on my shoulders as a head saw blockish as to want ambition if thou were not our princely guest Carinias I had called that spoke in the right fashion of a little man which land effecteth not such volums but can afford to speak as our lord the king in proud humility turkey cocks do strut and gobble not so the eagle who holdeth the world at his discretion pity on thee cried the prince if this cheap victory turned thee so giddy goblins Carinias scowled of course as chuckled saying to himself but loud enough for all to hear goblins quother there was small game had there been all aye there it is had there been all the king's brow was like a fowl black cloud the women held their breath but course as blandly insensible of these gathering thunders beat time on the table with this cup drowsily chanting to a most mournful air when birds in water deep do lie and fishes in the air do fly when water burns and fire doth freeze and oysters grow as fruits on trees a resounding heck-up brought into a full clause the talk had died down the lords of witch-land ill at ease studying to wear their faces to the bent of the king's looks but presmiras spoke and the music of her voice came like a refreshing shower this song of my lord course as she said made me hopeful for an answer to a question in philosophy but Bacchus you see hath turned his soul and comeeth from his mouth to-night and this was my question whether it be true that all animals of the land are in their kind in the sea my lord cariniers or thou my princely brother can you resolve me why so it is received madam said lafairies an inquiry will show the many pretty instances as the sea-frog the sea-fox the sea-dog the sea-horse the sea-lion the sea-bear and I have known the barbarous people of Esimokia eat of a conserve of sea-mice with the flesh of that beast named boss marinas seasoned with salt and garlic foe speak to me somewhat quickly cried the lady Sreever herring imagination I taste such a nasty meat prithy yonder gold peaches and raisins of the sun as an antidote lord grower will instruct thee better than I said lafairies for my part albeit I think nobly of philosophy yet have I little leisure to study it oft have I hunted the badger one side shorter than of the other neither know I for all the lampreys I have yeet how many I as the lamprear hath whether it be nine or two presmir a smile all my brother thou art too too smooth I fear me in the dust of action and the field to be at accord with these nice searchings but be there birds under the sea my lord groor groor made answer in rivers certainly though it be but birds of the air sojourning for a season as I myself have found them in outer Impland they sleep in wintertime at the bottom of lakes and rivers two together mouth to mouth wing to wing but in the spring they revive again and by and by the woods are full of their singing and for the sea there be true sea cuckoos sea thrushes and sea sparrows and many more it is passing strange says anambria corsus sang when sorcerers do leave their charm when spiders do the flying or harm presmir returned to Coran saying was there not a merry dispute betwixt you my lord concerning the toad and the spider without maintaining that they do poisonous they destroy one another and my lord groor that he would show thee to the contrary to his even soul lady said Coran and it is yet in controversy corsus sang and when the blackbird leaves to sing and likewise serpents fought to sting then you may say unjustly too the old world now is turned anew and so sank back into blotted silence my lord the king cried presmir had beseech you give order for the ending of this difference between two of your counsel her it waxed to dangerous heat let them be given a toad or king and spiders without delay that they may make experiment before this goodly company therewith all fell a laughing and the king commanded a thrall who shortly brought fat spiders to the number of seven and a crystal wine cup and enclosed I will wager two furkins of pale permy and wine to a bunch of radishes said Coran that victory shall be given unto the spiders behold how without resistance they do sit upon his head and pass all over his body Grosed done they will lose the wager Coran said the king this toad taketh no hurt from the spiders but siteth quiet out of policy tempting them to security that upon advantage he brought the fruits were born in queen apples almonds pomegranates and pistick nuts and fresh balls and jars of wine and among them a crystal flagon of the peach-coloured wine of crothering vintage many summers ago in the vineyards that stretched southward toward the sea from below the castle of lord brand Dr. Ha Corineas drank deep and cried it is a royal drink this wine of crothering folks say it won't thou be prudent? let not thy pride flatter thee to think ought shall avail thee any more than my vilest thrall if by thy doing this prince smell out my secrets by then was the hour waxing late and the women took their leave lighteth to the doors in great state by thralls with flamboyce in a while when they were gone a plague of all spiders cried Coran thy toteth swallowed one already two more he hath two at a gulp and but four remain the lord Corineas his countenance was now a flame with furious drinking held high his cup and catching the prince's eye mark well the fairies he cried a sign under prophecy first one next two at a mouthful and early after that as I think the four that remain ought not a fear lest thou be found a spider when the brunt shall come shaken with anger he is as witty a marmalade eater as ever I conversed with said lefairies but I cannot tell what the dickens he means that answered Corineas which should make thy smoking fairs turn serious I mean our ancient enemies the haskidly mongrels of demon land first gulp goldry taken heaven knows wither the lord saying this it is then that lies behind this hud a mudder and you go to war with demon land think not to have my help therein we shall not sleep the worse for that said Corineas oh a mouth is big enough for such a morsel of march pain as thou if thou turn irksome thy mouth is big enough to blab the secretist intelligence as we know most the lord Corineas leaping up I would not take an insult from the gods in heaven reach me a sword boy I will make bestiary and cut works in his guts peace on your lives said the king in a great voice while Corund went to Corineas and grow to the prince to quiet them Corineas is wounded in the wrist and cannot fight easily nor vile fellow the best swordsman in the world gave me this wound had it been thou that stood before me I had cut the interstakes that are caponed already but the king stood up in his majesty saying silence on your lives and the king's eyes glittered with wrath and he said for the Corineas not thy hot youth and rebellious blood nor yet the wine thou has look thou bear thyself more humbly in my halls overpert was the message brought me by thine herald at thy coming hither this morning and too much it smacked of a greeting from an equal to an equal calling thy tribute a gift though it and thou and all thy principality on mine by right to deal with us seems me good yet did I my halls be advised lest my wroth forge thunderbolts against thee the Prince Lafaireys answered and said keep frowns and threats for thine offending thralls o' king since me they are fright not and I laugh them to scorn nor am I careful to answer thine injurious words since well thou know as my old friendship unto thine house o' king and unto Suzerainty yet needest thou not to carpet this since thy tribute is paid thee high and in overmeasure but unto demon land am I bound as all the world knoweth and sooner shall thou prevail upon the lamps of heaven to come down and fight for thee against the demons than upon me and unto Cariniath that so bolsteth I say that demon land hath ever been too hard for you witches my reasons first that thou hast no just cause of quarrel with them next and this should swear thee more that if thou persist in fighting against them it will be the ruin of thee and of all witch land the king bit his fingers with signs of wonderful anger and for a minute's time no sound was in that hall only Corinth spoke privately to the king saying lord offer all sex swallow with wine that trust me I would not adventure the price of a turnip on our chances if it come to fighting trolled at heart was Corinth for well he knew how dear beyond account his lady wife held the keeping of the peace betwixt lafairies and the witches in this moment Corsus somewhat roused in an evil hour out of lethargy by the loud token movement began the hall wherein Carinius in whom wine and quarrelling and the king's rebukes had lighted a fire of reckless and outrageous malice before which all councils of prudence or policy were dissipated like wax in a furnace shouted loudly we'll see our prisoners prince at the old banquet hall to prove thyself an ass what prisoners cried the more wild words thou canst not daff me so I will know the truth said lafairies so thou shalt said Carinius this it is that we witches be better men than thou and thy hen-hearted pixies and better men than the accursed demons no need to hide it further two of that breed we have laid by the heels and nailed them up on the wall almost villainous lie said the king I'll have the hewn in pieces but Carinius said I nurse your honor oh king we must no longer sulk before these pixies thou dyest for it said the king and it is a lie now is dead silence for a space at last the prince sat down slowly his face was white and drawn and if I have omitted any form of allegiance due to you think rather that in my blood it is to chafe at such ceremonies than that I had any lack of friendship unto you who ever dreamed of questioning your overlordship aught that you shall require of me and that lieth with my honor aught of ceremony or fealty will I with joy perform and serve against demon land is my sword ready against the king unto all the lords of which land that my bones were whitening these six years in implant the moor if lord just had not served me from the barbarous imps that followed fax-fear-faz who besieged me four months with my small following shut up in Lida Nanguna my friendship shall you have or king if you yield me up my friends but the king said I have not thy friends see it now said the prince and he rose from his seat I will disemble with thee no longer said the king I do love thee well but when they ask us me to yield up to thee just and brandocked to ha thou ask us to think all pixieland and thy deer's hearts blood were unable to purchase from me these be my worst enemies thou know us not at what cost of toil and danger I have at last and for all his gentle speeches and offers of wealth and rich advantage and upholding in peace and war might not lafairies shake the king and the king said forbear lafairies or thou wilt vex me they must rot so when the prince lafairies saw that he might not move the king by soft words he took up his fair crystal goblet egg-shaped with three claws of gold to stand with all welded to a collar of gold about its middle that the goblet smelt him on the forehead and the crystal was brassed asunder with the force of the blow and the king's forehead laid open and the king stroked senseless therewith was huge uproar in the banquet hall nor would Corrin that any should have speedier hand therein than he but catching up his two-edged sword and crying look to the king grow his distressful revels he leaped up on the table and his sons likewise and galandus and the other witches and there was battle in the great hall in carcy Corrinius whose left hand only might as no wield weapon even so sprang forth in most gallant wise calling upon the prince with many vile words to abide his onset but the fumes of unbridled potations that being flaunt to his brain and made infantic mad wrought in his legs more foggily dulling their wanted nimbleness and his foot sliding in a puddle of spilt wine he fell backwards aggrievous fall striking his head there was no well-nice speechless and quite stupefied with drink so that a baby might tell as well as he what meant this hubbub real cup in hand shouting drunkenness is better for the body than physic drink always and you shall never die so shouting he was smitten square in the mouth by a breast of veal flungered him by aileron of pixieland the captain of the prince's body guard and so fell like a hog of thwart carinius and there was given and taken and swiftly ran the tide of vantage against the witches for albeit the pixies were none such great soldiers as they of witch-land yet this served them mightily that they were well-nice-sober and their foes as so many casks filled with wine staggering and raving for the most part from their long tippling and quaffing nor did Coran's amethyst avail him thoroughly but the wine clogged his veins so that he waxed scantum breath and his strokes lighter and slower than they were want for his old kindness's sake for witch-land the prince charges men to fight only for the overpowering of the witches slaying none if so it might be and on their lives to look to it that the Lord Coran took no hurt and when they had fairly gotten the mastery Lafairi's made certain of his folk take jars of wine and there with saus carund and his men most lustily in the face while others held them at weapons-point until by the power of the wine both within the drops and heavy or contrestles and Lafairi's charged Elleron hold the door with the most of his following and set guards without each window that none might come forth from the hole but the prince himself took flamboyz and went six in company to the old banquet hall overpowered the guard break open the doors and so stood before Lord Justin Lord Brandon Dahar that hunk shackled to the wall side by side something dazzled they were in the sudden torch light and the accents were scarcely touched with hollowness for all his hunger starving and long-watching and the carcant care of his affliction Lafairi's he said day and air broke up till now and me thought you were yonder false fichus fostered in filth and fen the spawn of witch-land returned again to fleer and flautaters Lafairi's told them how things had gone and he said occasion gallop at the pierce upon this bargain do I loose you upon the witches just said year to this and Brandon Dahar laughed saying prince I so love thee I could refuse thee nothing where it shave half my head and go in fusty until harvest time sleeping my clothes and discourse pious nothing seven hours a day with my lady's lap dog this night we be utterly thine an instant only bear with us this fair shows too good to rest untasted after so much looking on it would be a vice of turkey and three quails boned and served in jelly and just a dozen plover's eggs and a cold partridge Lord Brandon Dahar said I prithee break the eggshells just when the meat is out lest some sorcerer should prick or write thy name thereon and so mischief thy person and pouring out a stoop of wine he quaffed it off and filling it again perdition catch me if it be not my own wine of croathering so any are careful a horse than king Goraes and he pledged lord just in the second cup lest in carcy when the king of witch land and all the lords thereof are slain thereafter they took their weapons that lay by on the table set there to distress their souls and with little expectation they should so take them up again and glad at heart albeit somewhat stiff of limb they went forth with lafairies from that banquet hall when they were coming to the courtyard just spake and said herein might honour-holders back even hads they made no bargain with those lafairies in an equal battle but let us there we be gone from carcy ransacked this hold for my kinsman Goldry Blusco since for his sake only and in hope to find him here we fared on this journey so you touch no other thing but only Goldry if you shall find him I am content said the prince so when they had found keys they ransacked all carcy even to the dread chamber where the king had conjured and the vaults and cellars below the river but it availed not and as they stood in the courtyard on the balcony the lady presmyra in her night-gown disturbed by this ransacking ethereal as a cloud she singed pavilioned in the balmy night as a cloud touched by the exhalations of the honourism moon what transformation is this said she demons loose in the court content thee dear heart said the prince thy man is safe and all else beside as I think said that the king hath a broken head the witch I lament and will without all tonight being too sleepy sodden with the feast to take their chambers presmyra cried my fears have fallen upon me what thou broken with which land that may I not for judge he answered tell them tomorrow that note I did in hatred and note but what I was by circumstance enforced to for I am not such a coward nor so great a villain as leave my friends caged up while strength is left me to work for their setting free you must straight distant my steps on hackmon which was sent to gather strength to all thee if need were rideth by now from the south with a great company thy horses are fresh and you may well out distance the king's men if they ride after you if thou will not yet raise up a river of blood betwixt as be gone why far thee well then sister and doubt it not these rifts I had in him that blow nor his robbing him of his prayer but she said sadly fair well my brother and my heart tells me I shall never see thee more when thou tookst these from prison thou didst dig up two mandrakes shall bring sorrow and death to thee and to me and to all which land the prince was silent but lord just bowed to presmirer saying his foals be our foals for this night's sake thou swarest it she said he answered madam I swear it unto thee and unto him the lady presmirer withdrew sadly to her chamber and in short space she heard their horse hooves on the bridge and looking forth beheld where they galloped on the way of kings dim in the coppery light of a waning moon and her brothers men were ridden beyond her seeing long after their last hoofbeat had ceased to echo on the road in a while fresh horses sounded from the south and a noise as of many riding in company and she knew it was young Hackmon back from Permio End of chapter 7