The Enchantress of World's End
- Автор: Картер Лин Спрэг
- Серия: Gondwane Epic #2
- Год: 101
- Язык: английский
- Год: DAW
- Жанр: Научная фантастика
Электронная книга - «The Enchantress of World's End». Краткое содержание книги:
Gondwane... When all the kingdoms of all the peoples of Earth had come and gone and new ones arose, it was on Gondwane they created their ephemeral glories.
On Gondwane, amid the turmoil of the last wars and the last quests and the last efforts of scientists and alchemists, there arose one final hero, the mighty Ganelon Silvermane.
The saga of Ganelon is the telling of master fantasist Lin Carter. And it is in the story of the Scarlet Enchantress that Ganelon first found the meaning of manhood.
And then the City itself spoke up, offering to take the four northwards to Valardus using its mobility as means of transport. One last jaunt, before it settled down to becoming a regular City that stayed in one place all the tune, seemed only fitting and proper.
“A delightful notion, my dear City,” nodded the magician. “And should you find Valardus occupied by the Ximchak barbarians, simply remember to reverse your suction as you did with the Death Dwarves! Capital, capital! Why, I may rejoin you to find half the Horde already chopped into minced meat!”
The farewells were brief, though heart-felt. Ganelon had never been separated from his master for any length of time since he had left home nearly a year ago, but he was consoled by the fact that the separation was to be only a temporary thing. The Illusionist bundled the eager-faced Phadia into the Bazonga. Before the noontide sun had quite ascended to its zenith, the ungainly flying contraption rose, circled the plaza clacking her excited goodbyes, and flew off to the southwest, dwindling to a tiny mote in the distance. Fryx, of course, had taken his usual interdimensional shortcut and would be home before them, doubtless in time to have a fire lit in the great pillared hall, hot baths drawn, and huge mugs of steaming chocolate ready with heaping platters of sandwiches and cookies.
Ganelon stood gazing after the Bazonga, feeling empty, forlorn and somehow deserted. But before long the City started upward and began flying across the interminable meadows north, towards Valardus and an exciting host of new adventures among strange foreign lands and curious peoples.
It is hard to remain melancholy when faced with such an entertaining prospect. Shrugging off his solemn mood, Ganelon Silvermane turned on his heel and went over to where his friends were already getting set to have lunch with the happy, chattering band of lomagoths.
Gliding steadily on, north and ever north, Kan Zar Kan itself gradually dwindled and shrank until at last it vanished, lost in the distance. What perils and adventures lay ahead for the little band of heroes, only time would tell.
THE END.
APPENDIX
A GLOSSARY OF UNFAMILIAR NAMES AND TERMS
Chx:
The small city-state of Chx, together with its neighboring realms of Ning, Quay, Horx, Poy, Cham, and possibly Ixland (for some students of Gondwanol-ogy consider the original name of that country to have been “Ik”), are the remnants of the Monosyllabic Empire which flourished in these border regions of Northern YamaYamaLand in the early millennia of the present Eon. After the collapse and breakup of Monosyllabia, former provinces or counties achieved their independence and embarked on the troubled path of self-rule. Old customs died hard during this period, while personal and tribal names gradually developed into polysyllabism. Place-names, more securely rooted in ancient tradition, remained words of one syllable. Chelibus has an interesting monograph on this subject.
Dianium:
According to leading authorities on Alchemy, a metal found only on the Moon, whose strongest urge is to return to its satellitic home. One of the living, or at least sentient metals, such as glegiwn. (for which see pertinent data in the Third Book of the Epic, forthcoming). Technically, dianium is element 122 on the Periodic Table, and the known isotope of dianium with the longest halflife has an atomic weight of 273. The sentient or Living Metals are considered of recent origin, cosmically speaking; only with publication of Cardoxicus’ milestone theorem, The Evolution of the Elements, was it realized that the doctrine of evolution could be extended to matter itself, and that all things in the Plenum tend towards vitality, if not indeed intelligence.
Greater Zuavia:
The land-surface of Gondwane was so vast by the time of Ganelon Silvermane that it had long-since become impractical for historians or geographers to discuss individual countries as such. A new geo-historical term, which I translate as “conglomerate,” has been corned in order to deal with groups of countries as entities. Such conglomerates were composed of several individual realms which were individually autonomous, but linked together by a common ethnic origin or by common adherence to a religious creed. Southern and Northern YamaYamaLand were two such conglomerates: the twin conglomerates were originally settled by the Yam-iac Nomads, a migrant horde of youc-herders who strayed into these grassy regions one million years before. They were forced to invent or adopt urban civilization when the yax herds succumbed en-masse to the Giggling Fever. Originally divided into East YamaLand and West YamaLand, the northern countries became united during a wholesale conversion to the Zul-and-Rashemba Mythos and were simply known as “YamaYamaLand.” The southern half of the race remained true to the parent creed of the Mythos, which was Old High Great Quaxianity, hence the division into north and south.
As for Zuavia, which lies beyond the Purple Plains to the north, the Plains forming a natural border between the conglomerates, both Greater Zuavia and its sister-conglomerate to the east, Lesser Zuavia, were established some two and a half million years ago. The Zuaves wandered down from their mythic homeland on the shores of Zuav, the Sacred River. Originally, they were descended from a forgotten race called the Paniche. Greater Zuavia, the scene of the Third and Fourth Books of the Epic, comprises some twenty-two separate realms. They are purely Zuavic in ethnos and religiously devoted to the several creeds of the Peshtite Mys-terium. Greater Zuavia is half again the size of Europe.
Istrobian:
Towards the middle of the “current” Eon—current in context of the Epic, that is—flourished a brief period known as the Age of Magicians, or more formally, the Epoch of the High Wizards. Human civilization was for the most part dominated by the rise to power of some ninety major magicians. This period had long since lapsed by the time of our story, but the effects of this minor Age of Magicians still reverberated in human affairs. Among the High Wizards of the epoch were several who have some bearing on our story, such as the celebrated Qesper Volphotex to whom Grrff refers in Chapter 10 of the present book, the famous Miomivir Chastovix who is mentioned several times in the First Book; the notorious Palensus Choy who appears in the Third; and Istrobian, a distinguished sorcerer of Greater Zuavia. The flying kayak was only one of his many-celebrated achievements, among which were the Star Lens, Istrobian’s Fire-Flasher, the Earth Tube and the Submarine City. Many consider this last to be purely legendary, however. Oddly enough, the Illusionist of Nerelon does not seem to be a survivor of this Epoch, despite his evidently considerable longevity which should have made him a contemporary of these celebrities. The author of the Ninth Commentary postulates that the Illusionist was extant during the Age of the Magicians, but maintained a low profile for some peculiar reason. The question is still unresolved.
Magic:
Some sixty of the Secret Sciences were known and practiced in Ganelon’s day, more than half of which fall into the category of the Divinatory Arts, such as seership, astromancy, fortune-telling, Greater, Lesser and Middle Prophecy, haruspexy and theomancy. Three others were among the Alchemic or Metamorphosical Sciences. As for magic per se, which may be defined as employment of various world forces to alter, affect or manipulate Reality, twenty of these were studied during this period. Among these were Red Magic, which employs the Auric force from whose sanguinary coloration (to the Astral vision, at least) the name is derived; Green Magic, which taps the earth current itself; Purple Magic, and also Mountain Magic, which are among the several forms of Elemental Goety, and which utilize the Gnomic elemental force; Air Magic, and its variant, Blue Magic, which use the Sylphic force according to different modes; White Magic, which taps the Celestial force; Black Magic, which employs the Demonic or Infernal; an$ Gray Magic, which taps the Halfworld current. Sea Magic, Metal Magic, Star Magic and Yellow Magic were virtually in their infancy during this period, and did not flower until the following Eon. Fire Magic, another of the Elemental variety, employs the Salamandric force. Beyond these, and the others I have too little space to describe or even list, there were the four arts of Thaumaturgy per se; that is, the Astral, the Vitalic, the Psychonic and the Phonemic, and one other magical science un-practiced by humans or Quasi-humans, but known to them and reserved for the Gods only.