- 6/14/2025
Category
😹
FunTranscript
00:00:00Gates of Imagination presents The Voyage of King Uvaran by Clark Ashton Smith, read by Josh Greenwood.
00:00:10The crown of the kings of Ustheim was fashioned only from the rarest materials that could be
00:00:16procured anywhere. The magically graven gold of its circlet had been mined from a huge meteor
00:00:22that fell in the southern isle of Sintrum, shaking the isle from shore to shore with
00:00:27calamitous earthquake, and the gold was harder and brighter than any native gold of earth,
00:00:33and was changeable in color from a flame-like red to the yellow of young moons. It was set with
00:00:39thirteen jewels, every one of which was unique and without fellow even in fable. These jewels were
00:00:46a wonder to behold, starring the circlet with strange unquiet fires and full durations terrible
00:00:53as the eyes of the cockatrice. But more wonderful than all else was the stuffed gazolba bird which
00:01:00formed the superstructure of the crown, gripping the circlet with its steely claws above the wearer's
00:01:06brow, and towering royally with resplendent plumage of green, violet, and vermilion. Its beak was the
00:01:14hue of burnished brass, its eyes were like small dark garnets in bezels of silver. And seven lacy,
00:01:22minuted quills arose from its ebon-dappled head, and a white tail fell down in a straightly spreading
00:01:28fan like the beams of some white sun behind the circle. The gazolba bird was the last of its kind,
00:01:35according to the mariners who had slain it in an almost legendary isle beyond Sotar,
00:01:40far to the east of Zothique. For nine generations it had decked the crown of Ustaim, and the kings
00:01:46looked upon it as the sacred emblem of their fortunes, and a talisman inseparable from their royalty.
00:01:52Whose loss would be followed by grave disaster.
00:01:56Ouvaron, the son of Carpum, was the ninth wearer of the crown. Superbly and magnificently he had
00:02:02worn it for two years and ten months, following the death of Carpum from a surfeit of stuffed eels
00:02:09and jellied salamanders' eggs. On all state occasions, levies and daily grantings of public
00:02:15audience and administerings of justice, it had graced the brow of the young king and had conferred upon
00:02:21him a dreadful majesty in the eyes of the beholders. Also, it had served to conceal the lamentable
00:02:27increase of an early baldness. It came to pass, in the late autumn of the third year of his reign,
00:02:34that King Uvaran rose from a goodly breakfast of twelve courses and twelve wines, and went forth
00:02:40as was his custom to the Hall of Justice, which occupied an entire wing of his palace,
00:02:46in the city of Aramoam, looking down in several colored marble from its palmy hills to the rippled
00:02:53lazuli of the Orient Ocean. Being well fortified by his breakfast, Uvaran felt himself prepared to
00:03:00unravel the most involute skeins of legality and crime, and was likewise ready for the meeting of
00:03:06swift punishment to all malefactors. And beside him, at the right arm of his kraken-sculptured throne
00:03:13of ivory, there stood an executioner, leaning on a huge mace with a leaden head that was tempered to
00:03:20the hardness of iron. Full often, with this mace, the bones of the more flagitious offenders were broken
00:03:27immediately, or their brains were split in the king's presence on a floor that was strewn with black
00:03:33sand. And beside the left arm of the throne, a professional torturer busied himself continually
00:03:40with the screws and pulleys of certain fearsome instruments of torture, as a warning of their
00:03:46fate to all evildoers. And not always idle were the turnings of these screws and the tightenings of
00:03:53these pulleys. And not always empty were the metal beds of the machines. Now on that morning,
00:04:00the constables of the city brought before King Uvarin only a few petty thieves and suspicious
00:04:06vagrants, and there were no cases of felony such as would have warranted the wielding of the mace
00:04:11or the use of the torture implements. So the king, who had looked forward to a pleasurable session,
00:04:19was somewhat balked and disappointed. And he questioned with much severity the minor culprits
00:04:24before him, trying to extort from each of them, in turn, an admission of some graver crime than
00:04:31that whereof he was accused. But it seemed that the pilferers were innocent of aught but pilfering,
00:04:39and the vagrants were guilty of naught worse than vagrancy, and Uvarin began to think that the
00:04:45mourning would offer scant entertainment. For the bastinado was the heaviest punishment that he could
00:04:51legally impose on such misdemeanance. Away with these mackerel! He roared to the officers,
00:04:58and his crown shook with indignation, and the tall gazolba bird on the crown appeared to nod and bow.
00:05:05Away with them, for they pollute my presence. Give each of them a hundred strokes with the hardwood
00:05:10briar on the bare sole of each foot, and forget not the heels. Then drive them forth from Aramoam
00:05:17toward the public refuse grounds, and prod them with red-hot tridents if they linger in their crawling.
00:05:25Then, ere the officers could obey him, there entered the hall of justice two belated constables,
00:05:31hailing between them a peculiar and most unsavory individual, with the long-handled many-pointed
00:05:38hooks that were used in Aramoam for the apprehending of malefactors and suspects. And though the hooks
00:05:44were seemingly embedded in his flesh, as well as the filthy rags that served him for raiment,
00:05:50the prisoner bounded perpetually aloft in the manner of a goat. And his captors were obliged to follow
00:05:56in these lively and undignified saltations, so that the three presented the appearance of tumblers.
00:06:03With a final volatation in which the officers were drawn through the air like the tails of a kite,
00:06:08the incredible personage came to a pause before Uvaran. The king regarded him in amazement,
00:06:15blinking rapidly, and was not prepossessed by the singular suppleness with which he lauded to the
00:06:20very floor, upsetting the scarce-recovered equilibrium of the officers, and causing them
00:06:25to sprawl at full length in the royal presence.
00:06:28Ha! What have we now? said the king in an ominous voice.
00:06:34Sire, tis another vagabond, replied the breathless officers, when they had regained a more respectfully
00:06:41inclined position. He would have passed through Aramoam by the main avenue in the fashion that
00:06:47you behold, without stopping, and without even lessening the altitude of his saltations,
00:06:53if we had not arrested him. Such behavior is highly suspicious, growled Uvaran hopefully.
00:07:01Prisoner, declare your name, your nativity, and occupation, and the infamous crimes of which,
00:07:09beyond doubt, you are guilty. The captive, who was cross-eyed, appeared to regard Uvaran,
00:07:16the royal mace-wielder, and the royal torturer and his instruments, all in a single glance.
00:07:22He was ill-favored to an extravagant degree. His nose, ears, and other features were all
00:07:29possessed of unnatural mobility, and he grimaced perpetually in a manner that caused his unclean
00:07:35beard to toss and curl like seaweed on a boiling whirlpool.
00:07:40I have many names, he replied, in an insolent voice whose pitch was peculiarly disagreeable to
00:07:47Uvaran, setting his teeth on edge like the grating of metal on glass.
00:07:53As for my nativity and occupation, the knowledge of these, O king, would profit you little.
00:08:00Syrah, you are Malapert. Give answer or tongues of red-hot iron shall question you,
00:08:08roared Uvaran.
00:08:09Be it known to you, then, that I am a necromancer, and was born in the realm where the dawn and
00:08:16the sunset come together, and the moon is equal in brightness to the sun.
00:08:21Ha! a necromancer! snorted the king.
00:08:26Know you not that necromancy is a capital crime in Ustaim? Verily, we shall find means to dissuade
00:08:34you from the practice of such infamies. At a sign from Uvaran, the officers drew their
00:08:41captive toward the instruments of torture. Much to their surprise, in view of his former
00:08:46ebullience, he allowed himself to be chained supinely on the iron bed that produced a remarkable
00:08:52elongation of the limbs of its occupants. The official engineer of these miracles began to
00:08:58work the levers, and the bed lengthened little by little with a surly grating, till it seemed
00:09:03that the prisoner's joints would be torn apart. Inch by inch was added to his stature, and
00:09:10though after a time he had gained more than a half cubit from the stretching, he appeared
00:09:15to experience no discomfort whatever, and to the stupefaction of all present, it became
00:09:21plain that the elasticity of his arms, legs, and body was beyond the extensibility of the
00:09:27rack itself, for the latter was now drawn to its limits.
00:09:31All were silent, viewing this prodigy, and Uvaran rose from his seat and went over to the rack,
00:09:39as if doubtful of his own eyes that testified to a thing so enormous. And the prisoner said
00:09:44to him,
00:09:45It were well to release me, O King Uvaran.
00:09:49Say you so, the king cried out in a rage. However, it is not thus that we deal with felons in Ustheim.
00:09:59And he made a private sign to the executioner, who came forward quickly, rearing his massive,
00:10:05leaden-headed mace aloft.
00:10:08On your own head be it, said the necromancer, and he rose instantly from the iron bed, breaking
00:10:15the bonds that held him, as if they had been chains of grass. Then, towering to a terrible
00:10:21height, which the wrenchings of the rack had given him, he pointed his long forefinger, dark
00:10:27and sear as that of a mummy, at the king's crown. And simultaneously, he uttered a foreign
00:10:34word that was shrill and eldritch, as the crying of migrant fowl that pass over toward unknown
00:10:40shores in the night. And lo! As if in answer to that word, there was a loud, sudden flapping
00:10:47of wings above Uvaran's head, and the king felt that his brow was lightened by the crown's
00:10:52goodly and well-accustomed weight. A shadow fell upon him, and he, and all who were present,
00:10:59beheld above them in the air the stuffed gazolba bird, which had been slain more than two hundred
00:11:05years before by seafaring men in a remote isle. The wings of the bird, a living splendor, were
00:11:14outspread as if for flight, and it carried still in its steely claws the rare circlet of
00:11:20the crown. Liberating, it hung for a little over the throne, while the king watched it in
00:11:27wordless awe and consternation. Then, with metallic whirring, its white tail deployed like the beams
00:11:34of a flying sun, it flew swiftly through the open portals and passed seaward from Aramoam
00:11:40into the morning light. After it, with great bounds and goatish leapings, the necromancer
00:11:47followed, and no man tried to deter him. But those who saw him depart from the city swore
00:11:53that he went north along the ocean's strand, while the bird flew directly eastward, as if
00:11:58he had gone at a single bound into alien realms, the necromancer was not seen in Ustayim. But
00:12:10the crew of a merchant galley from Sotar, landing later in Aramoam, told how the gazolba bird
00:12:16had passed over them in mid-main, a several-colored glory still flying toward the sources of the
00:12:22dayspring. And they said that the crown of changeable gold, with its thirteen fellowless
00:12:28gems, was still carried by the bird. And though they had trafficked long in the archipelagos of
00:12:34wonder, and had seen many prodigies, they deemed this thing a most rare and unexampled portent.
00:12:42King Uvaran, so strangely reffed of that avian headgear, with his baldness rudely bared to the
00:12:49gaze of thieves and vagrants in the hall of justice, was as one on whom the gods have sent
00:12:55down a sudden bolt. If the sun had turned black in heaven, or his palace walls had crumbled about
00:13:02him, his dumbfoundment would hardly have been more excessive. For it seemed to him that his royalty had
00:13:08flown with that crown which was the emblem and the talisman of his fathers. And moreover, the thing
00:13:16was wholly against nature, and the laws of God and man were annulled thereby, since never before,
00:13:23in all history or fable, had a dead bird taken flight from the kingdom of Ustaim.
00:13:30Indeed, the loss was a dire calamity, and Uvaran, having donned a voluminous turban of purple Samite,
00:13:39held council with the sagest ministers regarding the state dilemma that had thus arisen.
00:13:44The ministers were no less troubled and perplexed than the king, for the bird and the circlet were
00:13:51both irreplaceable. And in the meanwhile, the rumor of this misfortune was borne abroad through
00:13:58Ustaim, and the land became filled with lamentable doubt and confusion, and some of the people began
00:14:06to murmur covertly against Uvaran, saying that no man could be the rightful ruler of that country
00:14:12without the gazolba crown. Then, as was the custom of the kings in a time of national exigence,
00:14:20Uvaran repaired to the temple in which dwelt the god Geol, who was a terrestrial god and the chief
00:14:25deity of Aramoam. Alone, with bare head and unshod feet, as was ordained by hierarchical law,
00:14:34he entered the dim Aditam, where the image of Geol, pot-bellied and wrought of earth-brown faience,
00:14:42reclined eternally on its back and regarded the motes in a narrow beam of sunlight from the slotted
00:14:47wall. And falling prone in the dust that had gathered around the idol through ages, the king
00:14:54gave homage to Geol, and implored an oracle to illuminate and guide him in his need. And after an
00:15:01interim, a voice issued from the god's navel, as if a subterranean rumbling had become articulate.
00:15:08And the voice said to King Uvaran, Go forth, and seek the gazolba in those isles that lie beneath
00:15:14the orient sun. There, O king, on the far coasts of dawn, thou shalt again behold the living bird which
00:15:22is the symbol and the fortune of thy dynasty. And there, with thine own hand, thou shalt slay the bird.
00:15:31Uvaran was much comforted by this oracle, since the utterances of the god were deemed infallible.
00:15:38And it seemed to him that the oracle implied in plain terms that he should recover the lost
00:15:42crown of Ustayim, which had the reanimated bird for its superstructure. So, returning to the royal
00:15:49palace, he sent for the captains of his proudest Argosies of war, which lay then at anchor in the
00:15:55tranquil harbour of Aramoam, and ordered them to make immediate provision for a long voyage into the
00:16:01east, and among the archipelagos of morning. When all was made ready, King Uvaran went aboard the
00:16:08flagship of the fleet, which was a towering quadririm, with oars of beefwood and sails of
00:16:14stout woven byssus dyed in yellowish scarlet, and a long gonfalon at the masthead, bearing the
00:16:21gazolba bird in its natural colours on a field of heavenly cobalt. The rowers and sailors of the
00:16:27quadririm were mighty men from the north, and the soldiers who manned it were fierce mercenaries from
00:16:34Zylac in the west. And with him, going aboard, the king took certain of his concubines and jesters and
00:16:41other ministrants, as well as an ample store of liquors and rare viands, so that he should lack
00:16:47for nothing during the voyage. And mindful of the prophecy of Geol, the king armed himself with a
00:16:53longbow and a quiver filled with parrot-feathered arrows. And he also carried a sling of lion leather
00:17:00and a blowgun of black bamboo, from which tiny poisoned darts were discharged.
00:17:05It seemed that the gods favoured the voyage, for a wind blew strongly from the west on the morning
00:17:13of the departure, and the fleet, which numbered fifteen vessels, was borne with bellying sails
00:17:20toward the sea-risen sun. And the farewell clamours and shoutings of Uvarun's people on the wharves
00:17:26were soon stilled by distance. And the marble houses of Aramuam on its four palmy hills here drowned in
00:17:33that swiftly foundering bank of azure which was the shoreline of Ustaim. And thereafter, for many days,
00:17:41the ironwood beaks of the galleys clove a softly weltering sea of indigo that rose unbroken on all
00:17:48sides, to a cloudless, dark blue heaven. Trusting in the oracle of Geol, that earthen god who had
00:17:56never failed his father's, the king made merry as was his wont. And reclining beneath a saffron canopy
00:18:03on the poop of the quadririm, he swilled from an emerald beaker the wines and brandies that had
00:18:09lain in his palace vaults, storing the warmth of elder, ardent suns whereon oblivion's black rhyme
00:18:15was fallen. And he laughed at the ribaldries of his fools, at unquenchable ancient bawdries that had
00:18:23won the laughter of other kings in the sea-lost continents of yore. And his women diverted him
00:18:29with harlotries that were older than Rome or Atlantis. And ever he kept at hand, beside his couch,
00:18:37the weapons wherewith he hoped to hunt and slay again the gazolba bird, according to the oracle of
00:18:43Geol. The winds were unfailing and auspicious, and the fleet sped onward, with the great black
00:18:50oarsmen singing gaily at their oars, and the gorgeous sailcloths flapping loudly, and the long
00:18:57banners floating on the air like straight-blown flames. After a fortnight, they came to Sotar,
00:19:04whose low-lying coasts of Cassia and Sago barred the sea for a hundred leagues from north to south,
00:19:10and in Loith, the chief port, they paused to inquire for the gazolba bird. There were rumors
00:19:17that the bird had passed above Sotar, and some of the people said that a cunning sorcerer of that isle,
00:19:23named Ifibos, had drawn it down through his sorcery, and had closed it in a cage of sandalwood.
00:19:30So the king landed in Loith, deeming his quest perhaps already nigh to its end,
00:19:36and went with certain of his captains and soldiers to visit Ifibos, who dwelt in a retired vale among
00:19:43the mountains at the island's core. It was a tedious journey, and Uvaran was much annoyed by
00:19:50the huge and vicious gnats of Sotar, which were no respecters of royalty, and were always insinuating
00:19:56themselves under his turban. And when, after some delay and divigation in the deep jungle,
00:20:03he came to the house of Ifibos on a high, precarious crag, he found that the bird was merely
00:20:09one of the bright plumaged vultures peculiar to the region, which Ifibos had tamed for his own
00:20:15amusement. So the king returned to Loitha, after declining somewhat rudely the invitation of the
00:20:22sorcerer, who wished to show him the unusual feats of falconry to which he had trained the
00:20:27vulture. And in Loith the king tarried no longer than was needful for the laying aboard of fifty
00:20:32jars of the sovereign arach, in which Sotar excels all other lands. Then, coasting the southern cliffs
00:20:41and promontories, where the sea bellowed prodigiously in mile-deep caverns, the ships of Uvaran sailed beyond
00:20:48Sotar and Tosk, whose people were more akin to apes and lemurs than to men. And Uvaran asked the
00:20:56people for news of the gazolba, and received only a chattering as of apes in answer. So the king
00:21:03ordered his men-at-arms to catch a number of these savage islanders, and crucify them on the cocoa palms
00:21:09for their incivility. And the men-at-arms pursued the nimble people of Tosk for a full day among the
00:21:16trees and boulders in which the isle abounded, but without catching a single one of them. So the
00:21:22king contented himself by crucifying several of the men-at-arms for their failure to obey him,
00:21:27and sailed on to the seven atolls of Umatot, whose inhabitants were mostly cannibals.
00:21:33And beyond Umatot, which was the usual limit of eastern voyaging from Ustheim, the vessels entered
00:21:39the Ilosian Sea, and began to touch at partly mythic shores and islands charted only in story.
00:21:46It were tedious to relate the full particulars of that voyage, in which Uvaran and his captains
00:21:51went ever toward the sources of the dawn. Various and without number were the strange marvels they
00:21:58found in the archipelagos beyond Umatot, but nowhere could they find a single feather such as had formed
00:22:04part of the gazolba's plumage, and the quaint people of those isles had never seen the bird.
00:22:10Howbeit, the king beheld many a flock of unknown, fiery-winged fowl that went over the galleys in
00:22:16mid-sea, passing between the unmarked islets. And, landing often, he practised his archery on
00:22:23lorikeets and lyrebirds and boobies, or stalked the golden cockatoos with his blowgun. And he chased
00:22:29the dodo and denornis on shores that were otherwise unpeopled. And once, in a sea of high-beetling
00:22:36barren rocks, the fleet was assailed by mighty griffins that flew down from their crag-built
00:22:41eries, with wings shining like feathery brass under the meridian sun, and making a harsh clangor
00:22:48as of shields shaken in battle. And the griffins, being both ferocious and pertinacious, were driven
00:22:55away with much difficulty by boulders hurled from the catapults of the vessels. Everywhere,
00:23:01as the ships drove eastward, there were multitudes of fowl. But at the sunset of a day in the fourth
00:23:08moon following their departure from Aramoam, the vessels approached a nameless isle that towered
00:23:14mile-high with cliffs of black, naked basalt, around whose base the sea cried with baffled anger,
00:23:21and about whose precipices there were no wings nor voices of birds. The isle was topped with
00:23:28gnarly cypresses that might have grown in a windy graveyard, and sullenly it took the afterglow,
00:23:36as if drenched with a gore of darkening blood.
00:23:40Far up in the cliffs there were strange columned eaves like the dwellings of forgotten troglodytes,
00:23:46but seemingly inaccessible to men. And the caves to all appearances were unoccupied by any kind of
00:23:53life, though pitting the face of the isle for leagues. And Uvaran ordered his captains to drop
00:23:59anchor, meaning to search for a landing place on the morrow. Since in his anxiety to retrieve the
00:24:05gazolba, he would pass no isle of the dawnward main, not even the unlikeliest, without due inquiry
00:24:11and examination. Quickly fell the darkness, without moon, till the close-anchored ships were visible
00:24:18to each other only by their lanterns. And Uvaran sat at supper in his cabin, sipping the golden
00:24:24eric of sotar between mouthfuls of mango jelly and phenicopter's meat. And, saving a small watch on
00:24:31each of the vessels, the sailors and men-at-arms were all at evening mess, and the rowers ate their
00:24:37figs and lentils in the oar decks. Then, from the watches, there was a wild shouting of alarm,
00:24:43and the shouting ceased in a moment, and each of the vessels rocked and sagged in the water,
00:24:48as if a monstrous weight had settled upon it. No man knew the thing that had happened,
00:24:54but everywhere there was turmoil and confusion, some saying that the fleet was attacked by pirates.
00:25:01Those who peered from the ports and oar holes saw that the lanterns of their neighbors had been
00:25:05quenched, and perceived a milling and seething as of low-driven clouds in the darkness, and saw that
00:25:11foul black creatures, large as men and winged like eupires, were clinging to the ranged oars in myriads.
00:25:18And those who dared to approach the open hatches found that the decks, the rigging, and the masts
00:25:23were crowded with similar creatures, who, it seemed, were of nocturnal habit, and had come down in the
00:25:29manner of bats from their caves in the island.
00:25:31Then, like things of nightmare, the monsters began to invade the hatches and assail the ports,
00:25:40clawing with hellish talons at the men who opposed them. And being somewhat hampered by their wings,
00:25:46they were driven back with spears and arrows, but returned again and again in a thickening press
00:25:51without number, cheeping with a faint and bat-like sound.
00:25:55It was plain that they were vampires, for whenever they had dragged a man down, as many of them as
00:26:02could gain mouthhold would fasten on him incontinently, and suck his blood till little
00:26:07more remained than a skin full of bones. The upper oar decks, being half open to the sky,
00:26:13were quickly usurped, and their crews overcome with a hideous swarming. And the rowers in the
00:26:18orlops cried that the seawater was pouring in through the oar holes, as the ships sank deeper
00:26:24beneath an ever-gathering weight. All night, at the ports and hatches, the men of Uvaran fought the
00:26:31vampires, taking turns in shifts when they wearied. Many of them were seized and their blood sucked
00:26:37before the eyes of their fellows as the night wore on, and the vampires, it seemed, were not to be slain
00:26:43by mortal weapons, though the blood they had gorged came forth in spouting rills from their wounded
00:26:49bodies. And Thicklyer they clustered upon the fleet, till the Burems began to founder, and the rowers
00:26:56were drowned in the sunken lower decks of certain triremes and quadraremes. King Uvaran was wroth at
00:27:03this unseemly turmoil that had interrupted his supper. And when the golden arach was spilt, and the
00:27:10dishes of rare meat were emptied on the floor by the vessel's violent rocking, he would have issued
00:27:15from his cabin, fully armed, to try conclusions with these piacular miscreants. But, even as he
00:27:22turned to fling wide the cabin door, there was a soft infernal pittering at the portholes behind him.
00:27:28And the women who were with him began to shriek, and the fools cried out in terror. And the king saw in
00:27:34the lamplight a grisly face with the teeth and nostrils of a flittermouse, that leaned in through
00:27:39one of the cabin ports. He sought to repel the face, and thereafter, till dawn, he fought the
00:27:45vampires with those very weapons he had designed for the slaying of the gazolba. And the ship's captain,
00:27:51who was with him at supper, guarded a second port with his claymore, and the others were held by two
00:27:56of the king's eunuchs, armed with scimitars. In this warfare, they were favoured by the smallness of the
00:28:03ports, which could hardly in any case have allowed the free passage of their winged assailants.
00:28:08And after lightless hours of tedious, horrid struggle, the darkness became thinned with brown
00:28:14twilight, and the vampires lifted from the vessels in a black cloud, and returned to their caves in
00:28:21the mile-high cliffs of that unnamed island. Heavy was the heart of Uvaran within him when he
00:28:27surveyed the damage done to his proud argosies of war. For among the fifteen vessels, seven had sunk
00:28:34in the night, borne under and swamped by those obscenely clinging hordes of eupires. And the
00:28:41decks of the others were bloody as abattoirs, and half of the sailors and rowers and men-at-arms were
00:28:47lying flat and flaccid as empty wineskins after the greedy drinking of the great bats. And the sails and
00:28:54banners were shredded into rags, and everywhere, from beak to rudder of Uvaran's galleys, there was
00:29:00the stain and reek of a Stymphalian foulness. So, lest another eave should find them within
00:29:09wing-shot of that accursed isle, the king ordered his remaining captains to weigh anchor, and the other
00:29:15ships, with seawater still awash in their oar-lops, and some with drowned rowers still at the oars of their
00:29:22nether banks, drew slowly and heavily to eastward, till the pitted walls of the isle began to sink
00:29:28beneath the main. At eve there was no land in sight anywhere, and after two days, still unharried by the
00:29:36vampires, they came to a coral island, low in the wave, with a calm lagoon that was haunted only by ocean
00:29:44fowl. And there, for the first time, Uvaran paused to repair his tattered sails, and pump the sea from
00:29:52his holds, and clean the blood and vileness from his decks. However, in spite of this disaster, the king
00:30:00abated not in any degree his purpose, to sail ever on toward the fountains of the day, until, as Geol had
00:30:08predicted, he should come again on the flown gazalba and slay it with his own royal hand. So, for another
00:30:16moon, they passed amid other and stranger archipelagos, and penetrated deeplier into the regions of myth and
00:30:24story. Bravely they drove into mornings of amaranth crossed by gilded lorries, and noontides of darkly
00:30:33ardent sapphire where the rose flamingos went before them to lost, inviolate strands. The stars changed
00:30:41above them, and under the alien-figured signs they heard the wild, melancholy crying of swans that
00:30:47flew southward, fleeing the winter of realms indiscoverable, and seeking the summer in trackless
00:30:54worlds. And they held speech with fabulous men who wore for mantles the L-wide pennons of the rock,
00:31:01trailing far on the earth behind them, and men who arrayed themselves in apurnous plumes,
00:31:06and they spoke also with antic people whose bodies were covered with a down, like that of a new-hatched
00:31:12fowl, and others whose flesh was studded as if with pin-feathers. But nowhere could they learn aught
00:31:19of the gazalba. At mid-forenoon, early in the sixth month of the voyage, a new and unheard-of shore
00:31:27ascended from the deep, curving for many miles, from northeast to southwest, with sheltered harbors,
00:31:34and cliffs, and pinnacled crags that were interspaced with low-lying verdurous dales.
00:31:40As the galleys hove toward it, Uvaran and his captains saw that towers were builded on certain
00:31:46of the highmost crags. But in the haven below them there were no ships at anchor nor boats moving,
00:31:52and the shore of the haven was a wilderness of green trees and grass. And sailing still nearer,
00:31:59and entering the harbour, they descried no evident sign of man other than the crag-reared towers.
00:32:06The place, however, was full of an extraordinary number and variety of birds, ranging in size from
00:32:13little tits and passerines to creatures of greater wingspread than eagle or condor.
00:32:17They circled the ships in coveys and great motley flocks, seeming to be both curious and wary,
00:32:25and Uvaran saw that a winged concourse, as it were, went to and fro above the woods and about the cliffs
00:32:32and towers. He bethought him that here was a likely haunt in which to track down the gazalba. So,
00:32:39arming himself for the chase, he went ashore in a small boat with several of his men. The birds,
00:32:45even the largest, were patently timid and inoffensive. For when the king landed on the beach,
00:32:51the very trees appeared to take flight. So numerous were the fowl that soared and flew inland,
00:32:59or sought the crags and pinnacles that rose beyond bowshot. None remained of the multitude visible
00:33:06shortly before. And Uvaran marveled at such cunning. And moreover he was somewhat exasperated,
00:33:14for he wished not to depart without bringing down a trophy of his skill, even though he should fail
00:33:19to find the gazalba itself. And he deemed the behaviour of the birds all the more curious because
00:33:25of the island's solitude, for here there were no paths other than would be made by forest animals.
00:33:32And the woods and meadows were wholly wild and incult, and the towers were seemingly desolate,
00:33:39with sea-fowl and land-fowl flying in and out of their empty windows.
00:33:44The king and his men combed the deserted woods along the shore and came to a steep slope of bushes and
00:33:51dwarf cedars, whose upper incline approached the tallest tower at one side. Here, at the slope's
00:33:58bottom, Uvaran saw a small owl that slept in one of the cedars, as if wholly unaware of the commotion
00:34:05made by the other birds in their flight. And Uvaran trained an arrow and shot down the owl,
00:34:11though ordinarily he would have spared a prey so paltry, and he was about to pick up the fallen
00:34:16owl, when one of the men who accompanied him cried out as if in alarm. Then, turning his head as he
00:34:22stooped beneath the foliage of the cedar, the king beheld a brace of colossal birds, larger than any he
00:34:29had yet descried on that isle, who came down from the tower like falling thunderbolts. Before he could
00:34:36fit another arrow to the string, they were upon him with the drumming of their mighty vans, and beating
00:34:42him instantly to the ground, so that he was aware of them only as a storm of dreadfully rushing plumes,
00:34:48and a hurly-burly of cruel beaks and talons. And before his men could rally to assist him,
00:34:55one of the birds fastened its huge claws in the shoulder cape of the king's mantle,
00:35:00not sparing the flesh beneath in its fell clutch, and carried him away to the tower on the crag as
00:35:05easily as a gerfalcon would have carried a small leveret. The king was wholly helpless,
00:35:12and he had dropped his longbow beneath the onset of the birds, and his blowgun had been shaken loose
00:35:17from the girdle at which it depended, and all his darts and arrows were spilled. And he had no weapon
00:35:23remaining, other than a sharp misericordia, and this he could not use to any purpose against his captor
00:35:29in mid-air. Swiftly he neared the tower, with a flock of lesser fowl circling about him, and shrieking
00:35:38as if with derision till he was deafened by their din. And a sickness came upon him because of the
00:35:45height to which he had been carried and the violence of his ascent. And giddily he saw the walls of the
00:35:50tower sink past him with wide and portal-like windows. Then, as he began to retch in his sickness,
00:35:59he was borne in through one of the windows and was dropped rudely on the floor of a high and spacious
00:36:04chamber. He sprawled at full length on his face and lay vomiting for a while, heedless of his
00:36:11surroundings. Then, recovering somewhat, he raised himself to a sitting position and beheld before him,
00:36:19above a sort of dais, an enormous perch of red gold and yellow ivory, wrought in the form of a new
00:36:26crescent arching upward. The perch was supported between posts of black jasper flecked as if with
00:36:33blood, and upon it there sat a most gigantic and uncommon bird, eyeing Juveron, with a grim and
00:36:40dreadful and austere mien, as an emperor might eye the gutter-scum that his guards have hailed before
00:36:47him for some obscene offence. The plumage of the bird was tyrian purple, and his beak was like a
00:36:53mighty pickaxe of pale bronze that darkened greenly toward the point, and he clutched the perch with
00:36:59iron talons that were longer than the mailed fingers of a warrior. His head was adorned with quills of
00:37:05turquoise blue and amber yellow, like many a pointed crown, and about his long, unfeathered throat,
00:37:13rough as the scaled skin of a dragon. He wore a singular necklace composed of human heads, and the
00:37:20heads of various ferrine beasts such as the weasel, the wildcat, the stoat, and the fox, all of which had
00:37:28been reduced to a common size, and were no larger than groundnuts. Juveron was terrified by the
00:37:35aspect of this fowl. And his alarm was not lessened when he saw that many other birds of a size inferior
00:37:42only to his were sitting about the chamber on less costly and less elevated perches, even as grandees
00:37:49of the realm might sit in the presence of their sovereign. And behind Juveron, like guards, there stood
00:37:56together with its fellow the creatures that had wrapped him to the tower. Now, adding to his utter
00:38:03confounding, the great Tyrian-feathered bird addressed him in human speech. And the bird said to him in a
00:38:11harsh but magniloquent and majestic voice, Too-heartily, O filth of mankind, thou hast intruded on the peace of
00:38:20Ornava, isle that is sacred to the birds, and wantonly thou hast slain one of my subjects.
00:38:28For know that I am the monarch of all birds that fly, walk, wade, or swim on this terraqueous globe
00:38:34of earth. And in Ornava is my seat and my capital. Verily, justice shall be done upon thee for thy crime.
00:38:43But if thou hast aught to say in thy defence, I will give thee hearing now, for I would not that
00:38:50even the vilest of earthly vermin, and the most pernicious, should accuse me of inequity, or tyranny.
00:38:58Then, blustering somewhat, though sorely afraid at heart, Juveron gave answer to the bird and said,
00:39:05I came hither seeking the gazolba, which adorned my crown in Ustayim, and was feloniously reft from
00:39:13me together with the crown through the spell of a lawless necromancer. And know that I am Juveron,
00:39:19king of Ustayim, and I bow me to no bird, not even the mightiest of that species.
00:39:26Thereat, the ruler of the birds, as if amazed and more indignant than before, made question of
00:39:32Juveron and interrogated him sharply concerning the gazolba. And learning that this bird had been
00:39:38slain by sailors and afterwards stuffed, and that the whole purpose of Juveron in his voyage was to
00:39:45catch and kill it a second time, and re-stuff it if necessary, the ruler cried in a great and wrathful
00:39:51voice, This helpeth not thy case, but showeth thee guilty of a twofold and a triple infamy.
00:39:58For thou hast owned a most abominable thing, and one that subverteth nature. In this my tower,
00:40:06as is right and proper, I keep the bodies of men that my taxidermists have stuffed for me.
00:40:13But truly, it is not allowable nor sufferable that man should do thus to birds.
00:40:19So, for the sake of justice and retribution, I shall presently commit thee to one of my taxidermists.
00:40:26Indeed, me thinks that a stuffed king, since even the vermin have kings, will serve to enhance my
00:40:33collection. After that, he addressed Juveron's guards and enjoined them.
00:40:40Away with this vileness! Confine it to the man-cage, and maintain a strict watch before it!
00:40:47Juveron, urged and directed by the pecking of his guards, was compelled to climb a sort of sloping
00:40:55ladder with broad rungs of teak, that led from the chamber to one above it in the tower's top.
00:41:02In the centre of this room there was a bamboo cage of capacity more than ample for the housing of six
00:41:07men. The king was driven into the cage, and the birds bolted the door upon him with their claws,
00:41:14which seemed to have the deftness of fingers. Thereafter, one of them remained by the cage,
00:41:21eyeing Juveron vigilantly through the spaces of the bars. And the other flew away through a great
00:41:27window, and did not return. The king sat down on a litter of straw, since the cage contained no
00:41:34better provision for his comfort. Despair was heavy upon him, and it seemed that his plight was both
00:41:41dreadful and ignominious. And sorely was he astonished, that a bird should speak with human
00:41:48speech, insulting and reviling humankind. And he deemed it an equally monstrous thing, that a bird
00:41:55should dwell in royal state, with servitors to do his will, and the pomp and power of a king.
00:42:01And pondering these unholy prodigies, Juveron waited for his doom in the man-cage, and after a while,
00:42:09water and raw grain were brought to him in earthen vessels. But he could not eat the grain.
00:42:16And still later, as the day drew toward afternoon, he heard a shouting of men,
00:42:21and a shrieking of birds below the tower. And above these noises anon, there were clashings as of
00:42:27weapons and thuddings as of boulders loosened from the crag. So Juveron knew that his sailors and
00:42:34soldiers, having seen him born into captivity in the tower, were assailing the place in an effort to
00:42:40succor him. And the noises waxed, mounting to a most tremendous and atrocious din, and there were cries
00:42:48as of people mortally wounded, and a vengeful shrilling as of harpies in battle. Then, presently the clamor
00:42:57ebbed away, and the shoutings grew faint, and Juveron knew that his men had failed to take the tower.
00:43:03And hope waned within him, dying in a darker murk of despair. So the afternoon went over, declining
00:43:11seaward, and the sun touched Juveron with its level beams through a western window, and coloured the
00:43:17bars of his cage with a mockery of gold. Presently the light flowed from the room, and after a while
00:43:25the twilight rose, weaving a tremulous phantom web of the pale air. And between the sunset and the
00:43:32darkness a nightguard came in to relieve the day-flying owl who warded the captive king.
00:43:38The newcomer was a nyctelops with glowing yellow eyes, and he stood taller than Juveron himself,
00:43:46and was formed and feathered somewhat in the burly fashion of an owl, and he had the stout
00:43:51legs of a megapode. Juveron was uncomfortably aware of the bird's eyes which burned upon him
00:43:57with a brighter bale as the dusk deepened. Hardly could he sustain that ever-vigilant scrutiny.
00:44:03But anon the moon rose, being but little past the full, and poured a spectral quicksilver into the
00:44:11room, and paled the eyes of the bird, and Juveron conceived a desperate plan. His captors,
00:44:18deeming all his weapons lost, had neglected to remove from his girdle the misericordia,
00:44:23which was long and double-edged and needle-sharp at the tip.
00:44:26And stealthily he gripped the hilt of his misericordia under his mantle, and feigned a
00:44:32sudden illness with groanings and tossings and convulsions that threw him against the bars.
00:44:39And, even as he had schemed, the great nyctelops came nearer, curious to learn what ailed the king,
00:44:47and stooping, he leaned his owl-like head between the bars above Juveron.
00:44:53And the king, pretending a more violent convulsion, drew the misericordia from its sheath and struck
00:45:00quickly at the outstretched throat of the bird. Shrewdly the thrust went home, piercing the deepest
00:45:06veins, and the squawking of the bird was choked by his own blood. And he fell, flapping noisily,
00:45:14so that Juveron feared that all the occupants of the tower would be awakened by the sound.
00:45:18But it seemed that his fears were bootless, for none came to the chamber, and soon the flapping
00:45:24ceased, and the nyctelops lay still in a great heap of ruffled feathers. Thereupon the king proceeded
00:45:31with his plan, and shot back the bolts of the wide-latticed bamboo door with small difficulty.
00:45:37Then, going to the head of the teakwood ladder which ran to the room beneath, he looked down and
00:45:42beheld the ruler of the birds asleep in the moonlight on his chrysalophantine perch,
00:45:47with his terrible pickaxe beak under his wing. And Juveron was afraid to descend into the chamber,
00:45:53lest the ruler should awake and see him. And also, it occurred to him that the lower
00:45:58stories of the tower might well be guarded by such fowl as the nocturnal creature he had slain.
00:46:03Again his despair returned upon him, but being of a slightful and crafty bent, Juveron bethought him
00:46:12of another scheme. With much labour, using the misericordia, he skinned the mighty nyctelops,
00:46:20and cleaned the blood from its plumage as best he could. Then Juveron wrapped himself in the skin,
00:46:26with the head of the nyctelops rearing above his own head, and eye-holes in its burly throat through
00:46:32which he could look out amidst the feathers. And the skin fitted him well enough because of his
00:46:38pigeon breast and his pot-belly, and his spindle shanks were hidden behind the heavy shanks of the
00:46:44bird as he walked. Then, imitating the gate and carriage of this fowl, the king descended the ladder,
00:46:52treading cautiously to avoid a fall and making little noise, lest the ruler of the birds should
00:46:57awaken and detect his imposture. And the ruler was all alone, and he slept without stirring while
00:47:03Juveron reached the floor and crossed the chamber stealthily to another ladder, leading to the next
00:47:08room below. In the next room there were many great birds asleep on perches, and the king was nigh
00:47:14to perishing with terror as he passed among them. Some of the birds moved a little and chirped drowsily,
00:47:21as if aware of his presence, but none challenged him. And he went down into a third room, and was
00:47:27startled to see therein the standing figures of many men, some in the garb of sailors, and others
00:47:33clad like merchants, and others nude and ruddled with bright oars like savages. And the men were still
00:47:40and stark, as if enchanted, and the king feared them little less than he had feared the birds.
00:47:46But remembering that which the ruler had told him, he divined that these were persons who had been
00:47:52captured even as he himself, and had been slain by the birds and preserved through the art of an
00:47:58avian taxidermy. And trembling, he passed down to another room, which was full of stuffed cats and
00:48:05tigers and serpents and various other enemies of bird kind. And the room below this was the ground
00:48:11story of the tower, and its windows and portals by several gigantic night-fowl similar to those whose
00:48:18skin was worn by the king. Here, indeed, was his greatest peril, and the supreme trial of his courage.
00:48:26For the birds eyed him alertly with their fiery golden orbs, and they greeted him with a soft woo-wooing
00:48:33as of owls. And the knees of Uvaran knocked together behind the birdshanks. But imitating the sound in
00:48:40reply, he passed among the guards, and was not molested by them. And reaching an open portal of
00:48:46the tower, he saw the moonlight rock of the crag lying at a distance of no more than two cubits below
00:48:52him. And he hopped from the door-sill in the manner of a fowl, and found his way precariously from
00:48:59ledge to ledge along the crag, till he reached the upper beginning of that declivity, at whose bottom
00:49:04he had slain the little owl. Here his descent was easier, and he came anon to the woods around the
00:49:11harbour. But, ere he could enter the woods, there was a shrill singing of arrows about him, and the
00:49:18king was wounded slightly by one of the arrows, and he roared out in anger and dropped the mantling
00:49:23birdskin. Thereby, no doubt, he was saved from death at the hands of his own men, who were coming
00:49:31through the woods, with intent to assail the tower at night. And learning this, the king forgave the
00:49:38jeopardy in which their arrows had placed him. But he thought it best to refrain from attacking the tower,
00:49:44and to quit the isle with all dispatch. So returning to his flagship,
00:49:50he ordered all his captains to set sail immediately. For, knowing the baleful power of the bird monarch,
00:49:57he was more than apprehensive of pursuit, and he deemed it well to place a wide interval of sea
00:50:03between his vessels, and that isle, ere dawn.
00:50:08So the galleys drew from the tranquil harbour, and rounding a north-eastern promontory,
00:50:13they went due east in a course contrary to the moon. And Juveron, sitting in his cabin, regaled
00:50:20himself with a variety and plenitude of viands, to make up for his fasting in the man-cage,
00:50:26and he drank a whole gallon of palm wine, and added thereto a jar full of the puissant
00:50:31pale gold arach of Sotar. Halfway betwixt midnight and morn, when the isle of Ornava was left far
00:50:39behind, the steersmen of the vessels beheld a wall of ebon cloud that rose swiftly athwart the heavens,
00:50:47spreading and toppling in towers of thunder, till the storm overtook Juveron's fleet and drove it on as
00:50:53if with the loosed hurricanes of hell through a welter of unstarred chaos. The ships were sundered in the
00:51:00gloom and were borne far apart, and at daybreak the king's quadrarim was alone in a prone-rushing
00:51:07tumult of mingled wave and cloud, and the mast was shattered, along with most of the beefwood oars,
00:51:14and the vessel was a toy for the demons of the tempest.
00:51:17For three days and nights, with no glimmer of sun or star discerned through the ever-boiling murk,
00:51:26the vessel was hurled onward as if caught in a cataract of elements, pouring to some bottomless
00:51:33gulf beyond the fringes of the world. And early on the fourth day the clouds were somewhat riven,
00:51:40but a wind still blew like the breath of perdition.
00:51:43Then, lifting darkly through the spray and vapor, a half-seen land arose before the prow,
00:51:52and the helmsmen and the rowers were wholly helpless to turn the doomed ship from its course.
00:51:57And shortly after, with a great crashing of its carven beak and a terrible rending of timbers,
00:52:04the vessel struck on a low reef hidden by the flying foam, and its lower decks were flooded quickly,
00:52:10and the vessel began to founder, with the poop tilting sharply and more sharply, and the water frothing at
00:52:17the lee bulwarks. Gaunt and cragged and austere was the shore beyond the reef, beheld only through the
00:52:24veils of the sea's foaming fury. And scant, it seemed, was the hope of reaching land.
00:52:31But, ere the wrecked Argosy had gone beneath him, Juveron lashed himself with ropes of choir to an
00:52:38empty wine-barrel and cast himself from the sloping deck. And those of his men who were not already
00:52:45drowned in the hold or swept overboard by the typhoon leapt after him into that high wallowing sea,
00:52:51some trusting only to their might as swimmers and others clinging to casks or broken spars or planks.
00:52:58And most were drawn under in the seething maelstroms or were beaten to death on the rocks.
00:53:03And of all the ship's company, the king alone survived and was cast ashore with the breath of
00:53:08life unquenched within him by the bitter sea. Half-drowned and senseless, he lay where the
00:53:14surf had spewed him on a shelving beach. Soon the gale forgot its violence, and the billows came in with
00:53:21falling crests, and the clouds went over in a rack of pearl, and the sun, climbing above the rock,
00:53:28shone down upon Juveron from a deep, immaculate azure. And the king, still dazed from the buffeting
00:53:36rudeness of the sea, heard dimly, and as if in a dream, the shrilling of an unknown bird.
00:53:42Then, opening his eyes, he beheld betwixt himself and the sun,
00:53:47librating on spread wings, that various-colored glory of plumes and feathers, which he knew as
00:53:54the gazalba. Crying again with a voice that was harsh and shrill as that of the peafowl,
00:54:00the bird hung above him for a moment, and then flew inland through a rift among the crags.
00:54:07Forgetful of all his hardships and the loss of his proud galleys of war, the king unbound himself in
00:54:13haste from the empty barrel, and, rising giddily, he followed the bird. And though he was now weaponless,
00:54:20it seemed to him that the fulfillment of the oracle of Geol was at hand. And hopefully he
00:54:26armed himself with a great cudgel of driftwood and gathered heavy pebbles from the beach as he
00:54:31pursued the gazalba. Beyond the cleft in the high and rugged crags, he found a sheltered valley with
00:54:38quiet-flowing springs, and woods of exotic leaf, and fragrant orient shrubs in blossom. Here, from
00:54:45bough to bough before his astounded eyes, there darted great numbers of fowl that wore the gaudy
00:54:51plumage of the gazalba. And among them he was unable to distinguish the one he had followed,
00:54:57deeming it the avian garniture of his lost crown. The multitude of these birds was a thing beyond his
00:55:04comprehension. Since he, and all his people, had thought the stuffed fowl unique and fellowless
00:55:10throughout the world, even as the other components of the crown of Ustheim. And it came to him that
00:55:16his fathers had been deceived by the mariners who had slain the birds in a remote isle, swearing later
00:55:22that it was the last of its kind. However, though wrath and confusion were in his heart, Uvaran bethought
00:55:30him that a single bird from the flock would still stand as the emblem and the talisman of his royalty
00:55:35in Ustheim, and would vindicate his quest among the Isles of Dawn. So, with a valiant hurling of
00:55:42sticks and stones, he tried to bring down one of the gazalbas. And ever before him as he chased them,
00:55:49the birds flew from tree to tree with a horrid shrieking and a flurry of plumes that wrought an
00:55:55imperial splendor on the air. And at length, by his own good aim or the cast of chance,
00:56:01Uvaran slew him a gazalba. As he went to retrieve the fallen bird, he saw a man in tattered raiment of
00:56:10an uncouth cut, armed with a rude bow, and carrying over his shoulder a brace of gazalbas tied together
00:56:16at the feet with tough grass. And the man wore in lieu of other headgear the skin and feathers of the same
00:56:24fowl. He came toward Uvaran, shouting indistinctly through his matted beard. And the king beheld him
00:56:31with surprise and anger, and cried loudly, Vile serf! How darest thou to kill the bird that is
00:56:39sacred to the kings of Ustheim? And knowest thou not that only the kings may wear the bird for
00:56:44headgear? I, who am King Uvaran, shall hold thee to a dire accounting of these deeds."
00:56:51At this, eyeing Uvaran strangely, the man laughed a long and derisive laugh, as if he deemed the king a
00:57:01person somewhat addled in his wits. And he seemed to find much merriment in the aspect of the king,
00:57:07whose garments were draggled and were stiff and stained with the drying sea-water, and whose turban
00:57:13had been snatched away by the felon waves, leaving his baldness without disguise. And when he had done
00:57:19laughing, the man said, Verily, this is the first and only jest that I have heard in nine years,
00:57:26and my laughter must be forgiven. For nine years agone I was shipwrecked on this isle,
00:57:32being a sea-captain from the far south-western land of Ullotroy, and the sole member of my ship's
00:57:38company that survived and came safe to shore. In all those years I have held speech with no other man,
00:57:46since the isle is remote from the maritime routes, and has no people other than the birds.
00:57:53And as for your questions, they are readily answered. I kill these fowl to avert the pangs
00:57:59of famine, since there is little else on the isle for sustenance, apart from roots and berries.
00:58:05And I wear on my head the skin and feathers of the fowl, because my tarboosh was stolen by the sea,
00:58:11whenas it flung me rudely upon this strand. And I wot not of the strange laws that you mention,
00:58:19and moreover your kingship is a matter that concerns me little, since the isle is kingless,
00:58:24and you and I are alone thereon, and I am the stronger of us twain and the better armed.
00:58:30Therefore be well advised, O King Uvarin. And since you have slain yourself a bird,
00:58:36I counsel you to pick up the bird and come with me. Truly, it may be that I can help you in the
00:58:42matter of spitting and broiling this fowl. For I must deem that you are more familiar with the
00:58:47products of the culinary art than with the practice."
00:58:52Now, hearing all this, the wrath of Uvarin sank within him like a flame that fails for oil.
00:58:59Clearly he saw the plight to which his voyage had brought him in the end,
00:59:03and bitterly he discerned the irony that was hidden in the true oracle of Gheol.
00:59:09And he knew that the wreckage of his fleet of war was scattered among lost islands or
00:59:13blown into seas unvoyageable. And it came to him that never again should he see the marble
00:59:18houses of Aramoam, nor live in pleasant luxury, nor administer the dooms of law between the torturer
00:59:25and the executioner in the hall of justice, nor wear the gazolba crown amid the plaudits of his people.
00:59:31So, not being utterly bereft of reason, he bowed him to his destiny. And he said to the sea captain,
00:59:42There is sense in what you say. Therefore, lead on.
00:59:45Then, laden with the spoils of the chase, Uvarin and the captain, whose name was Naz Obamar, repaired
00:59:55companionably to a cave in the rocky hill-slope of the isle's interior, which Naz Obamar had chosen for
01:00:03his abode. Here the captain made a fire of dry cedar boughs, and showed the king the proper manner in
01:00:10which to pluck his fowl and broil it over the fire, turning it slowly on a spit of green camphor wood.
01:00:16And Uvarin, being famished, found the meat of the gazolba far from unpalatable, though somewhat lean and
01:00:22strongly flavored. And after they had eaten, Naz Obamar brought out from the cave a rough jar of the
01:00:28island clay containing a wine he had made from certain berries. And he and Uvarin drank from the
01:00:34jar by turns, and told each other the tale of their adventures, and forgot for a while the rudeness and
01:00:40desolation of their plight. Thereafter they shared the isle of gazolbas, killing and eating the birds
01:00:47as their hunger ordained. Sometimes, for a great delicacy, they slew and ate some other fowl that was
01:00:54more rarely met on the isle, though common enough, perhaps in Ustheim or Ulotroi. And King Uvarin made
01:01:02him a headdress from the skin and plumes of the gazolba, even as Naz Obamar had done. And this was
01:01:08the fashion of their days till the end.
01:01:15Thank you for listening. If you like our recordings, consider liking this video and subscribing to our
01:01:21channel so you don't miss any more audiobooks.
Recommended
18:45
17:02
41:35
10:07
37:27
34:12
44:54
44:38
41:11
43:37
44:48
45:47