Sorcerers!, page 29
Cugel bowed stiffly. "Your offer is kind. But you must seek elsewhere; I am bound by a vow of continence. Control your displeasure, for it applies not only to you but to Udela Narshag yonder, to Zokoxa, and to Ilviu Lasmal."
The princess raised her eyebrows, sank back in her down-covered couch. She smiled faintly. "Indeed, indeed. You are a harsh man, a stem relentless man, thus to refuse yourself to so many imploring women."
"This is the case, and so it must be." Cugel turned away to face the Chief Elder, who approached with Bubach Angh at his back.
"Sorry circumstances," announced the Chief Elder in a troubled voice. "Bubach Angh speaks for the village of Grodz. He declares that no more victuals will be furnished until justice is done, and this they define as the surrender of your cusp to Bubach Angh, and your person to a punitive committee who waits in the parkland yonder."
Cugel laughed uneasily. "What a distorted view! You assured them of course that we of Smolod would eat grass and destroy the cusps before agreeing to such detestable provisions?'"
"I fear that I temporized," stated the Chief Elder. "I feel that the others of Smolod favor a more flexible course of action."
The implication was clear, and Firx began to stir in exasperation. In order to appraise circumstances in the most forthright manner possible. Cugel shifted the patch to look from his left eye.
Certain citizens of Grodz, armed with scythes, mattocks and clubs, waited at a distance of fifty yards: evidently the punitive committee to which Bubach Angh had referred. To one side were the huts of Smolod; to the other the walking boat and the princess of such—Cugel stared in astonishment. The boat was as before, walking on six bird-legs, and sitting in the pink down was the princess—if possible, more beautiful than ever. But now her expression, rather than faintly smiling, was cool and still.
Cugel drew a deep breath and took to his heels. Bubach Angh shouted an order to halt, but Cugel paid no heed. Across the barrens he raced, with the punitive committee in pursuit.
Cugel laughed gleefully. He was long of limb, sound of wind; the peasants were stumpy, knot-muscled, phlegmatic. He could easily run two miles to their one. He paused, and turned to wave farewell. To his dismay two legs from the walking boat detached themselves and leapt after him. Cugel ran for his life. In vain. The legs came bounding past, one on either side. They swung around and kicked him to a halt.
Cugel sullenly walked back, the legs hopping behind. Just before he reached the outskirts of Smolod he reached under the patch and pulled loose the magic cusp. As the punitive committee bore down on him, he held it aloft. "Stand back—or I break the cusp to fragments!"
"Hold! Hold!" called Bubach Angh. "This must not be! Come, give me the cusp and accept your just deserts."
"Nothing has yet been decided," Cugel reminded him. "The Chief Elder has ruled for no one."
The girl rose from her seat in the boat. "I will rule; I am Derwe Coreme, of the House of Domber. Give me the violet glass, whatever it is."
"By no means," said Cugel. "Take the cusp from Bubach Augh."
"Never!" exclaimed the squire from Grodz.
"What? You both have a cusp and both want two? What are those precious objects? You wear them as eyes? Give them to me."
Cugel drew his sword. "I prefer to run, but I will fight if I must."
"I cannot run," said Bubach Angh. "I prefer to fight." He pulled the cusp from his own eye. "Now then, vagabond, prepare to die."
"A moment," said Derwe Coreme. From one of the legs of the boat thin arms reached to seize the wrists of both Cugel and Bubach Angh. The cusps fell to earth; that of Bubach Angh struck a stone and shivered to fragments. He howled in anguish and leapt upon Cugel, who gave ground before the attack.
Bubach Angh knew nothing of swordplay; he hacked and slashed as if he were cleaning fish. The fury of his attack, however, was unsettling and Cugel was hard put to defend himself. In addition to Bubach Angh's sallies and slashes, Firx was deploring the loss of the cusp.
Derwe Coreme had lost interest in the affair. The boat started off across the barrens, moving faster and ever faster. Cugel slashed out with his sword, leapt back, leapt back once more, and for the second time fled across the barrens.
The boat-car jogged along at a leisurely rate. Lungs throbbing, Cugel gained upon it, and with a great bound leapt up, caught the downy gunwale and pulled himself astride.
It was as he expected. Derwe Coreme had looked through the cusp and lay back in a daze. The violet cusp reposed in her lap.
Cugel seized it, then for a moment stared down into the exquisite face and wondered if he dared more. Firx thought not. Already Derwe Coreme was sighing and moving her head.
Cugel leapt from the boat, and only just in time. Had she seen him? He ran to a clump of reeds which grew by a pond, and flung himself into the water. From here he saw the walking-boat halt while Derwe Coreme rose to her feet. She felt through the pink down for the cusp, then she looked all around the countryside. But the blood-red light of the low sun was in her eyes when she looked toward Cugel, and she saw only the reeds and the reflection of sun on water.
Angry and sullen as never before, she set the boat into motion. It walked, then cantered, then loped to the south.
Cugel emerged from the water, inspected the magic cusp, tucked it into his pouch, and looked back toward Smolod. He started to walk south, then paused. He took the cusp from his pocket, closed his left eye, and held the cusp to his right. There rose the palaces, tier on tier, tower above tower, the gardens hanging down the terraces. . . . Cugel would have stared a long time, but Firx became restive.
Cugel returned the cusp to his pouch, and once again set his face to the south, for the long journey back to Almery.
RECOMMENDED READING
Compiling a reading list for this anthology was a difficult task, since nine out of ten fantasy stories feature the use of sorcery to one degree or another. A comprehensive listing, if it could have been compiled at all, would have taken up half the book. Therefore, this listing is not intended to be exhaustive—it is, rather, a hitting of highlights; the intention behind the list is to guide the interested reader to further material about sorcerers, material that we ourselves found interesting or entertaining, and not to produce a heavily authoritative work of scholarship. This listing is unabashedly arbitrary, its only criteria our own personal tastes. Since much important fantasy work is done as series of connected novels or collections, and since many of these series run of connected novels or collections, and since many of these series run to multiple volumes, we have listed these series under a general heading (viz.: the Fafhrd-Gray Mouser series); short-story collections are indicated as (c). Throughout the short fiction list, we have given the most recent sources for the stories, or else those we have judged—arbitrarily—to be the most accessible to the average reader.
Especially Recommended:*
BOOKS (Novels & Collections)
Brian W. Aldiss. The Malacia Tapestry.
Poul Anderson. The Broken Sword.
*__________. Three Hearts and Three Lions.
*John Bellaires. The Face In the Frost.
James Blish. Black Easter.
Ray Bradbury. Something Wicked This Way Comes.
John Brunner. The Traveler in Black(c).
Orson Scott Card. Hart's Hope.
John Crowley. Little, Big.
Avram Davidson. The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy (c).
__________. Masters of the Maze.
*__________. The Phoenix and the Mirror.
*L. Sprague De Camp and Fletcher Pratt. The Complete Enchanter.
__________. Land of Unreason.
Lord Dunsany. At the Edge of the World (c).
__________. Beyond the Fields We Know (c).
__________. The Sword of Welleran (c).
E. R. Eddison. The Worm Ouroboros.
Charles G. Finney. The Circus of Dr. Lao.
Alan Garner. The Moon of Gomrath.
__________. The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
Randall Garrett. Lord Darcey Investigates (c).
__________. Murder and Magic (c).
__________. Too Many Magicians.
*Lisa Goldstein. The Red Magician.
Robin Hardy and Anthony Shaffer. The Wicker Man.
Robert A. Heinlein. Waldo & Magic, Inc. (c).
Robert E. Howard. The Conan series.
*Stephen King. The Gunslinger.
__________. The Stand.
R. A. Lafferty. The Devil Is Dead.
__________. The Reefs of Earth.
Sterling E. Lanier. The Peculiar Exploits of Brigadier Ffellowes (c).
Tanith Lee. Cyrion (c).
__________. Red as Blood (c).
*Ursula K. Le Guin. The Earthsea trilogy.
*Fritz Leiber. Conjure Wife.
*__________. The Fafhrd-Gray Mouser series.
___________. Our Lady of Darkness.
H. P. Lovecraft. The Cthulhu Mythos stories.
George R. R. Martin. The Armageddon Rag.
Michael Moorcock. The Elric series.
*C. L. Moore. Jirel of Joiry (c).
Andre Norton.Witch World.
Mervyn Peake. The Gormenghast trilogy.
Tim Powers. The Anubis Gates.
__________. The Drawing of the Dark.
Clark Ashton Smith. The Last Incantation (c).
*__________. Zothique (c).
*J. R. R. Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings trilogy.
Jack Vance. Cugel's Saga (c).
*__________. The Dying Earth (c).
*__________. The Eyes of the Overworld.
Karl Edward Wagner. The Kane series.
Manly Wade Wellman. Who Fears the Devil? (c).
*T. H. White. The Once and Future King.
*Gene Wolfe. The Book of the New Sun tetralogy.
Roger Zelazny. The Amber series.
SHORT STORIES
Brian W. Aldiss. "The Small Stones of Tu Fu," Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Nov.-Dec. 1978.
Poul Anderson. "The Tale of Hauk," Fantasy. Fantasy is the title of a short-story collection by Anderson.
*__________. "The Valor of Cappen Varra," Fantasy. Fantasy is the title of a short-story collection by Anderson.
J. G. Ballard. "The Volcano Dances," The Terminal Beach.
Greg Bear. "The White Horse Child," The Wind from a Burning Woman.
*Alfred Bester. "Hell Is Forever," The Unknown Five.
Robert Bloch. "Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper," The Arbor House Treasury of Horror & The Supernatural.
Frederic Brown. "Armageddon," The Unknown.
Edward Bryant. "Dark Angel," Dark Forces.
Anthony Boucher. "Snulbug," The Unknown.
Pat Cadigan. "The Sorceress in Spite of Herself," Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Dec. 1982.
Truman Capote. "Dazzle," Music For Chameleons.
Orson Scott Card. "The Princess and the Bear," Berkley Showcase, Vol. 1.
__________. "Sandmagic," Swords Against Darkness IV.
Susan Casper. "Mama," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, August 1984.
Theodore R. Cogswell. "You Know Willie," The Wall Around the World.
Richard Cowper. "The Web of the Magi." The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, June 1980.
Jack Dann, Gardner Dozois, and Michael Swanwick. "Afternoon at Schrafft's," Amazing, 1984.
Avram Davidson. "The Ceaseless Stone," The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy.
__________. "Dagon," Or All the Seas with Oysters.
__________. "Milord Sir Smith, the English Wizard," The Enquiries of Doctor Eszterhazy.
*__________. "The Power of Every Root," Strange Seas and Shores.
__________. "Where do You Live, Queen Ester?," What Strange Shores and Skies.
L. Sprague De Camp. "The Emperor's Fan," The Best of L. Sprague De Camp.
__________. "Ka the Appalling," The Reluctant Shaman.
*__________. "The Yellow Man," The Purple Pterodactyls.
Stephen R. Donaldson. "The Lady In White," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Feb. 1978.
Lord Dunsany. "Chu-Bu and Sheemish," Warlocks & Warriors.
*__________. "The Fortress Unvanquishable, Save for Sacnoth," The Sword of Welleran.
Harlan Ellison. "Djinn, No Chaser," Stalking the Nightmare.
__________. "Grail," Stalking the Nightmare.
Randall Garrett. "The Bitter End," Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Nov.–Dec. 1978.
__________. "The Eyes Have It," Murder and Magic.
Robert E. Howard. "'Old Garfield's Heart," The Dark Man and Others.
__________. "The People of the Black Circle," Weird Tales, Sep.-Oct. 1934.
Shirley Jackson. "One Ordinary Day, With Peanuts," SF: The Best of the Best.
M. R. James. "The Casting of the Runes," The Collected Ghost Stories of M. R. James.
James Patrick Kelly. "The Fear that Men Call Courage," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Sept. 1980
Stephen King. "Children of the Corn," Night Shift.
*__________. "The Gunslingers," Year's Finest Fantasy, Vol 1.
__________."Night of the Tiger," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct. 1978.
Rudyard Kipling. "The Mark of the Beast," Werewolf.
__________. "The Sending of Dona Da," Kipling's Indian Tales.
Damon Knight. "Extempore," The Best of Damon Knight.
C. M. Kornbluth. "The Words of Guru," The Best of C. M. Kornblath.
R. A. Lafferty. "Seven-Day Terror," Nine Hundred Grandmothers.
__________. "The Transcendent Tigers," Strange Doings.
*Sterling E. Lanier. "Ghosts of a Crown," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Dec. 1976.
__________. "The Voice of the Turtle," The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Oct. 1972.
Tanith Lee. "The Golden Rope," Red As Blood.
__________. "Red As Blood," Red As Blood.
__________. "Winter White," Year's Best Horror Stories 1978.
Ursula K. Le Guin. "The Barrow," Orsinian Tales.
__________. "The Rule of Names," The Wind's Twelve Quarters.
*Fritz Leiber. "Adept's Gambit," Swords in the Mist.
__________. "The Howling Tower," Swords Against Death.
__________. "Scylla's Daughter," Fantastic, May 1961.
__________. "When the Sea King's Away," Swords in the Mist.
Elizabeth A. Lynn. "The Wizard of Reorth," The Woman Who Loved the Moon.
Robin McKinley. "The Healer," Elsewhere II.
George R. R. Martin. "In the Lost Lands," Amazons II.
__________. "The Lonely Songs of Laren Door," Songs of Stars and Shadows.
