The Worm Ouroboros by Eric Rücker Eddison (e book reader online .TXT) 📖
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presence was filled in the high presence chamber, and the three
brethren sat upon their thrones, as four years ago they sat, between
the golden hippogriffs, and beside them were thrones set for Queen
Sophonisba and Lord Brandoch Daha. All else of beauty and splendour in
Galing Castle had the Queen beheld, but not till now this presence
chamber; and much she marvelled at its matchless beauties and
rarities, the hangings and the carvings on the walls, the fair
pictures, the lamps of moonstone and escarbuncle self-effulgent, the
monsters on the four-andtwenty pillars, carved in precious stones so
great that two men might scarce circle them with their arms, and the
constellations burning in that firmament of lapis lazuli below the
golden canopy. And when they drank unto Lord Juss the cup of glory to
be, wishing him long years and joy and greatness for ever more, the
Queen took a little cithern saying, “O my lord, I will sing a sonnet
to thee and to you my lords and to sea-girt Demonland.” So saying, she
smote the strings, and sang in that crystal voice of hers, so true and
delicate that all that were in that hail were ravished by its beauty:
Shall I compare thee to a Sommers day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough windes do shake the darling buds of Maie.
And Sommers lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines.
And often is his gold complexion dimn’d:
And every faire from faire sometime declines.
By chance or natures changing course untrim’d;
But thy eternall Sommer shall not fade
Nor loose possession of that faire thou ow’st;
Nor shall Death brag thou wandr’st in his shade.
When in eternall lines to time thou grow’st:
So long as men can breath, or eyes can see.
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
When she had done, Lord Juss rose up very nobly and kissed her hand,
saying, “O Queen Sophonisba, fostering of the Gods, shame us not with
praises that be too high for mortal men. For well thou knowest what
thing alone might bring us content. And ‘tis not to be thought that
that which was seen at Moonmere Head last night was very truth indeed,
but rather the dream of a night vision.”
But Queen Sophonisba answered and said, “My Lord Juss, blaspheme not
the bounty of the blessed Gods, lest They be angry and withdraw it,
Who have granted unto you of Demonland from this day forth youth
everlasting and unwaning strength and skill in arms, and—but hark!”
she said, for a trumpet sounded at the gate, three strident blasts.
At the sound of that trumpet blown, the lords Goldry and Spitfire
sprang from their seats, clapping hand to sword. Lord Juss stood like
a stag at gaze. Lord Brandoch Daha sat still in his golden chair,
scarce changing his pose of easeful grace. But all his frame seemed
alight with action near to birth, as the active principle of light
pulses and grows in the sky at sunrise. He looked at the Queen, his
eyes filled with a wild surmise. A serving man, obedient to Juss’s
nod, hastened from the chamber.
No sound was there in that high presence chamber in Galing till in a
minute’s space the serving man returned with startled countenance,
and, bowing before Lord Juss, said, “Lord, it is an Ambassador from
Witchland and his train. He craveth present audience.”
ARGUMENT: WITH DATES
[Dates Anno Carces Conditae. The action of the story covers exactly
four years; from the 22nd April 399 to 22nd April 403 A.C.C.]
YEARA.C.C.
171 Queen Sophonisba born in Morna Moruna.
187 Gorice III. eat up with mantichores beyond the Bhavinan.
188 Morna Moruna sacked by Gorice IV. Queen Sophonisba lodged by
divine agency in Koshtra Belorn.
337 Gorice VII., conjuring in Carcë, slain by evil spirits.
341 Birth of Zeldornius.
344 Birth of Corsus in Tenemos.
353 Corund born in Carcë.
354 Birth of Zenambria, duchess to Corsus.
357 Birth of Helteranius.
360 Voile born at Darklairstead in Demonland.
361 Birth of Jalcanaius Fostus.
363 Birth of Vizz at Darklairstead.
364 Gro born in Goblinland at the court of Zajë Zaculo, the foster-brother of Gaslark the King. Gaslark born in Zajë Zaculo.
366 Laxus, high Admiral of Witchland and after king of Pixyland, born
in Estremerine.
367 Birth of Gallandus in Buteny.
369 Zigg born at Many Bushes in Amadardale.
370 Juss born at Galing.
371 Goldry Bluszco born in Galing. Dekalajus, eldest of the sons of
Corsus, born in Witchland.
372 Spitfire born in Galing. Brandoch Daha born in Krothering.
374 La Fireez born in Norvasp of Pixyland. Gorius, second of Corsus’s
sons, born in Witchland.
375 Corinius born in Carcë.
376 Prezmyra, sister to the Prince La Fireez, second wife to Corund,
and after Queen of Impland, born in Norvasp.
379 Birth of Hacmon, eldest of the sons of Corund. Mevrian, sister to
Lord Brandoch Daha, born in Krothering.
380 Heming born, second of Corund’s sons.
381 Dormanes born, third of Corund’s sons.
382 Birth of Viglus, Corund’s fourth son, in Carcë. Recedor, King of
Goblinland, privily poisoned by Corsus: Gaslark reigns in his stead in
Zajë Zaculo. Sriva, daughter to Corsus and Zenambria, born in Carcë.
383 Armelline, cousin-german to King Gaslark, after betrothed and wed
to Goldry Bluszco, born in Carcë.
384 Cargo, youngest of the sons of Corund, born in Carcë.
388 Goblinland invaded by the Ghouls: the flight out of Zajë Zaculo:
Tenemos burnt: the power of the Ghouls crushed by Corsus.
389 Zeldornius, Helteranius, and Jalcanaius Fostus sent by Gaslark
with an armament into Impland, and there ensorcelled.
390 The Witches harry in Goblinland: their defeat by the help of
Demonland on Lormeron field: the slaying of Gorice X. by Brandoch
Daha: Corsus taken captive and shamed by the Demons: Gro, abandoning
the Goblin cause, dwells in exile at the court of Witchland.
393 La Fireez, besieged by Fax Fay Faz at Lida Nanguna in Outer
Impland, delivered by the Demons: Goldry Bluszco repulsed by Corsus
before Harquem.
395 Corund weds in Norvasp with the Princess Prezmyra.
398 The Ghouls burst forth in unimagined ferocity: their harrying in
Demonland and burning of Goldry’s house at Drepaby.
399 Holy war of Witchland, Demonland, Goblinland, and other polite
nations against the Ghouls: Laxus, with the countenance of his master
Gorice XI. and by the counsel of Gro, deserts with all his fleet in
the battle off Kartadza (eastern seaboard of Demonland): the Ghouls
nevertheless overwhelmed by the Demons in Kartadza Sound, and their
whole race exterminated: Gorice XI. demands homage of Demonland,
wrastles with Goldry Bluszco, and is in that encounter slain. Gorice
XII., renewing with happier fortune the artificial practices of Gorice
VII. in Carcë, takes Goldry with a sending magical: Juss and Brandoch
Daha, partly straught of their wits, unadvisedly go up with Gaslark
against Carcë and are there clapped up: their delivery by the agency
of La Fireez, and return to their own country: Juss’s dream: the
council in Krothering: the first expedition to Impland. The King’s
revenge on Pixyland executed by Corinius, and La Fireez dispossessed
and driven into exile: Corund’s great march over Akra Skabranth,
sudden irruption into Outer Impland, and conquest of that country:
shipwreck of the Demon fleet: carnage at Salapanta: march of the
Demons into Upper Impland: amorous commerce of Brandoch Daha with the
Lady of Ishnain Nemartra, who lays a weird upon him: Corund besieges
and captures Eshgrar Ogo: Juss and Brandoch Daha escape across the
Moruna and winter by the Bhavinan.
400 News of Eshgrar Ogo brought to Carcë: Corund honoured by the King
therefor with the style of king of Impland. Juss and Brandoch Daha
cross the Zia Pass: fight with the mantichore: ascent of Koshtra
Pivrarcha, entrance into Koshtra Belorn, and entertainment by Queen
Sophonisba: Juss’s vision of Goldry bound on Zora: the Queen’s
furtherance of their designs: the hippogriff hatched beside the Lake
of Ravary: the fatal folly of Mivarsh: Juss in despite of the Queen’s
admonitions assays Zora Rach on foot and comes within a little of
losing his life. Prezmyra Queen of Impland and Laxus king of Pixyland
crowned in Carcë, the King sends an expedition to put down Demonland,
setting Corsus in chief command thereof: Laxus defeats Voile by sea
off Lookinghaven, and Corsus, Vizz by land at Crossby Outsikes, Vizz
slain on the field: cruel and despiteful policy of Corsus: dissensions
betwixt him and Gallandus: great reversal of these disasters by
Spitfire, Corsus’s army cut in pieces by him on the Rapes of Brima and
the survivors besieged in Owlswick: discontent of the army: Corsus
with his own hands murthers Gallandus in Owlswick: tidings brought by
Gro to Carcë: Corsus degraded by the King, who commissions Corinius as
king of Demonland to retrieve the matter: battle of Thremnir’s Heugh,
with the overthrow of Spitfire’s power: Corinius crowned in Owlswick:
arrest of Corsus and his sons and their despatch home to Witchland.
401 Reduction of eastern Demonland by Corinius, save only Galing which
Bremery holds with seventy men: Corinius moves west over the Stile:
his insolent demands to Mevrian: miscarriage of Gaslark’s expedition
to the relief of Krothering, his defeat at Aurwath: masterly retreat
of Corinius from Krothering before superior numbers: his ambushing and
destroying of Spitfire’s army on the shores of Switchwater: fall of
Krothering and surrender of Mevrian: her escape by the counsel of Gro,
the help of Corund’s sons, and the connivance of Laxus: her flight to
Westmark and thence east again into Neverdale: Gro abandons the cause
of Witchland for that of Demonland: his and Mevrian’s meeting with Juss
and Brandoch Daha on their return home after two years: revolt of the
east and relief of Galing: masterly dispositions both by Corinius and
by the Demons for a decisive encounter: battle of Krothering Side and
expulsion of the Witches from Demonland.
402 Second expedition to Impland, in which Gaslark and La Fireez join
the Demons, lands at Muelva on the Didornian Sea: Juss, Spitfire,
Brandoch Daha, Gro, Zigg, and Astar cross the Moruna: Juss’s riding of
the hippogriff to Zora Rach and deliverance of Goldry: Laxus sent by
the King with an overwhelming power of ships to close Melikaphkhaz
Straits against the Demons on their homeward voyage: battle off
Melikaphkhaz: destruction of the Witchiand armada: Laxus and La Fireez
slain: a single surviving ship brings the tidings to Carcë: Corund
called captain general in Carcë: gathering of the Witchland armies and
their subject allies: landing of the Demons in the south: parley
before Carcë: the King’s warning to Juss: implacable enmity between
them: signs and prognosticks in the heavens: the King’s desperate
resolution if the fight should go against him: battle before Carcë:
slaying of Gro and Corund: defeat of the King’s forces: council of war
in Carcë, Corinius the second time captain general: Corsus,
counselling surrender, falls greatly into the King’s displeasure and
is by him shamed and dismissed: in despair he compasses the taking off
of Corinius and the sons of Corund, and unhappily of his own son too
and his duchess, by poison, but is himself slain by Corinius: blasting
of the Iron Tower in the miscarriage of the King’s last conjuring: the
Demons enter into Carcë: their encounter there with Queen Prezmyra:
her tragical end and triumph: in all of which is completed the fall of
the empire and kingdom of the house of Gorice in Carcë.
403 Queen Sophonisba in Demonland: the marvel of marvels that restored
the world on Lord Juss’s natal day,
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