Lankar of Callisto
- Автор: Картер Лин Спрэг
- Серия: Callisto #6
- Язык: английский
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «Lankar of Callisto». Краткое содержание книги:
...in the mysterious and treacherous domain of the insidious Mind Wizards. Searching for him is a fearless armada of his loyal friends, and a stranger who knows him better than anyone on Callisto. The stranger, Lankar, is none other than Lin Carter, accidentally transported through the Gate Between the Worlds to the land of the Thanatorians. Aware of Jandar's plight, Lankar joins the search beyond the world's edge and suddenly finds himself battling for his own existence against the most nightmarish creatures on the planet - the gruesome flesh robots of Kuur and the fiendish Mind Wizards of Callisto themselves...
“Neither a poet, an artist, nor much of an intellectual, Master Glypto,” I laughed. “Merely a teller of tales, ‘ a spinner of sagas, if you will. But the manuscript journals of his adventures here which your Prince has been sending back to Earth by means of the Gate Between The Worlds―these have come into my hands and I have assumed the task of editing them for …for..:’
(There is no such word, apparently, in Thanatorian for “publication,” as the Thanatorians have yet to invent the printing, much less the wholesale marketing, of books.)
“I believe I understand … then you will have read of the loss of our Prince, and of the mysterious foundering or destruction of the First Armada―if the journals describing our first, ill-fated expedition against the Mind Wizards* have survived the transition?” asked Zastro. I nodded eagerly.
“The manuscript arrived safely at the Earth-terminus of the Gate, and I have read it with considerable interest and suspense. And I am awfully anxious to learn what has been happening here since the Xaxar returned to Shondakor.”
“Alas, my dear sir,” Dr. Abziz puffed. “Very little has transpired―the shipyards of Tharkol have labored mightily to complete the new vessels from which the Second Armada will, it is to be hoped, ere long be assembled. But the story has been one of frequent breakdown, continuous frustration, and thorough wastage of time―the one, indispensable commodity! First the supply caravan dispatched to the Black Mountains to procure a sufficiency of the lifting-gas fell afoul of an ambush by Yathoon nomads and was wiped out; the needed stores of levitant vapor were eventually procured by a second caravan, under heavy guard by a full regiment. But then the caulking compound proved inadequate to the task of cementing the seams of the new ships, permitting the vapors to dissipate uselessly into the empty air―which required the dispatching of yet a third caravan―and so it has been going, day after day, week after week! Delays! Delays, and more delays! Lords of Gordrimator, the poor Prince and the others, Zamara of Tharkol, Prince Valkar, and that ruffian, Lukor, may well be stark dead by this time, and still the idle fools stumble and fumble and jumble …”
“Dr. Abziz, if you please!” sighed Zastro patiently. “If we all talk at once, we shall never learn the answers to the many questions …”
“Oh, very well, get on with it, then,” Abziz grumbled, pouring himself another goblet of wine.
I could not resist a sly dig at this point.
“From the fact that the distinguished and learned Dr. Abziz was still present in Shondakor, I had already guessed that the new sky-ships had not yet sailed, for a scholar of such dedication and repute could not have been restrained from joining the second expedition, if only for the advancement of scientific knowledge,” I said.
Abziz’s frosty manner thawed before this application of ego-salve. He cast a beaming eye upon me with unaccustomed warmth, while wriggling in his chair as if barely able to contain his delight.
“Oh, come now! My dear sir―really! Such praise, for one of my poor accomplishments―too much!” he virtually giggled.
“Aye, too much, indeed, your lordship,” Glypto cackled from his corner. “Too much, that is, for one as couldn’t even find the haunt of the dastardly Mind Wizards with a man stuck to the end of his nose!”
The pudgy Soraban fixed the grinning thief of Tharkol with a piercing glare of indignation.
“If this―ah, this―person―is going to be permitted to give utterance to such slanderous and slighting remarks against the scholarly attainments of a distinguished guest in your excellent city, sage Zastro, well, words fail me! They fail me, sir!” he huffed.
Zastro smothered a groan and turned a mildly accusing glance on the impudent little man from Tharkol.
“Now, Master Glypto, I have asked you and I have warned you, and if I have to disturb the Princess to come and admonish you to keep your tongue, well…” .
“Oh, aye, aye!” Glypto whined in a servile fashion (while tipping me a roguish wink in the process). “I beg your honors’ pardon, I am sure!”
“Oh, get on with it, can’t I you?” grumbled Ergon. “If, yonder sniveling rascal speaks up again I’ll squelch him with this,” he said, holding up one immense red fist. Glypto yelped and shrank back in his place: he had felt the weight of Ergon’s hand before, on a previous adventure, and held the burly, homely exgladiator in a degree of respect which bordered upon awe.
“You were saying, Lord Lankar?” Zastro inquired by way of prompting me.
“Oh, just that since so many of you were still here at court, I had already guessed. that the new armada had not sailed―or whatever the word should be, with flying ships. In a way, I’m glad to learn this. Because when the armada does depart for the other side of the world, on an attempt to find the country of the Mind Wizards and to set Jandar free, if he is indeed being held captive in Kuur … well, I’d like a place aboard it!”
Approval flashed in huge Zantor’s somber eyes.
“Well said, man!” he boomed. “I like your spirit, and there’s a berth for you aboard the Xaxar, by the Moons―or any other ship I shall command!”
Ergon grinned cheerily, and you’d be surprised to see how his glum, homely, bullet-headed face lit up when he smiled. He said nothing, but the gleam in his eyes said more than words could say. Even the sad-faced jungle maid brightened at my inadvertent volunteering. I suddenly realized why the jungle girl was so subdued and downcast, so unlike the bright, sharptongued, vivacious girl Jandar had described in his manuscript. It was because the young officer, Tomar, was among those members lost from the First Armada. Something had come into being between the vivid jungle girl and the awkward, shy young fellowsomething which Jandar had noticed with amusement, putting it down to a spasm of puppy love.
But, of the entire company, it was Glypto who evinced the greatest enthusiasm towards my words. The cunning little master spy from Soraba, who had lived the part of a scrawny thief from the gutters of Tharkol so long that he seemed to feel more comfortable in the part of that imaginary character than in being himself, sprang to his feet with a croak of glee.
He made a lunge towards me as if to clap me on the shoulder with approval―which brought Bozo’s head up with a goggling glare and a warning growl that made him blench and snatch his fingers back as if from the mouth of a furnace.
“Er … ah … your beast, me lord! … mind the great brute … there’s a sweet creature, the lovely fellow! … he wouldn’t be wantin’ to snatch a gulp out of scrawny old Glypto, now, would he!”
I sternly bade Bozo to be silent and lie down again. And to my surprise the great othode obeyed me.
“Ah! That’s better, now,” the little rogue crooned. “And it’s like wine. to me gullet to learn that your lordship will be flying with us to the other side o’ the world!”
“With us?” repeated Dr. Abziz, huffily. “Do you mean to tell me, sir,” he demanded of Zantor fiercely, “that this―this person―will be permitted to join the expedition?”
The Zanadarian sky-captain shrugged good-humoredly. “We shall need every man with sky-ship experience we can find,” he said. “And Master Glypto is not only the official representative of our good friend and ally, the Seraan of Soraba, but a former member of Queen Zamara’s crew aboard the Conqueress, I be lieve. We can hardly afford to deny him a place amongst us, sir.”