Eidolon by CLARK ASHTON SMITH

— “Namirrha regarded the statue grimly.” Eidolon By CLARK ASHTON SMITH A powerful, vivid and eery tale of the tremendous doom that was loosed upon the kingdom of Xylac by a vengeful sorcerer Thasaidon, lord of seven hells N ZOTHIQUE, the last continent Wherein the single Serpent dwells. of Earth, the sun no longer shone With volumes drawn from pit to pit O with the whiteness of its prime, Through fire and darkness infinite but was dim and tarnished as if with a Thasaidon, sun of nether skies, Thine ancient evil never dies, vapor of blood. New stars without num- For aye thy somber fulgors flame ber had declared themselves in the heav- On sunken worlds that have no name, ens, and the shadows of the infinite had Man's heart enthrones thee, still supreme, fallen closer. And out of the shadows, Though the false sorcerers blaspheme. the older gods had returned to man: the —The Song of Xeethra. 93 94 WEIRD TALES gods forgotten since Hyperborea, since ling, he lay senseless for many hours, Mu and Poseidonis, bearing other names while the people passed him by unheed- but the same attributes. And the elder ing. And at last, regaining his senses, he demons had also returned, battening dragged himself to his hovel; but he evil sacrifice, and foster- on the fumes of limped a little thereafter all his days, and ing again the primordial sorceries. the mark of one hoof remained like a Many were the necromancers and ma- brand on his body, fading never. Later, gicians of Zothique, and the infamy and he left Ummaos and was forgotten marvel of their doings were legended quickly by its people. Going southward everywhere in the latter days. But among into Tasuun, he lost his way in the great them all there was none greater than desert, and was near to perishing. But Namirrha, who imposed his black yoke finally he came to a small oasis, where on the cities of Xylac, and later, in a dwelt the wizard Ouphaloc, a hermit who proud delirium, deemed himself the veri- preferred the company of honest jackals table peer of Thasaidon, lord of Evil. and hyenas to that of men. And Ouph- Namirrha had built his abode in Um- aloc, seeing the great craft and evil in the maos, the chief town of Xylac, to which starveling boy, gave succor to Narthos he came from the desert realm of Tasuun and sheltered him. He dwelt for years with the dark renown of his thauma- with Ouphaloc, becoming the wizard’s turgies like a cloud of desert storm be- pupil and the heir of his demon-wrested hind him. And no man knew that in com- lore. Strange things he learned in that ing to Ummaos he returned to the city of hermitage, being fed on fruits and grain his birth; for all deemed him a native of that had sprung not from the watered Tasuun. Indeed, none could have dreamt earth, and wine that was not the juice of that the great sorcerer was one with the terrene grapes. And like Ouphaloc, he beggar-boy, Narthos, an orphan of ques- became a master in devildom and drove tionable parentage, who had begged his his own bond with the archfiend Thasai- daily bread in the streets and bazars of don. When Ouphaloc died, he took the Ummaos. Wretchedly had he lived, alone name of Namirrha, and went forth as a and despised; and a hatred of the cruel, mighty sorcerer among the wandering opulent city grew in his heart like a peoples and the deep-buried mummies of smothered flame that feeds in secret, bid- Tasuun. But never could he forget the ing the time when it shall become a con- miseries of his boyhood in Ummaos and flagration consuming all things. the wrong he had endured from Zotulla; Bitterer always, through his boyhood and year by year he spun over in his and early youth, was the spleen and ran- thoughts the black web of revenge. And cor of Narthos toward men. And one his fame grew ever darker and vaster, and day the prince Zotulla, a boy but little men feared him in remote lands beyond older than he, riding a restive palfrey, Tasuun. With bated whispers they spoke came upon him in the square before the of his deeds in the cities of Yoros, and imperial palace; and Narthos implored in Zul-Bha-Sair, the abode of the ghoul- an alms. But Zotulla, scorning his plea, ish deity Mordiggian. And long before rode arrogantly forward, spurring the the coming of Namirrha himself, the palfrey; and Narthos was ridden down people of Ummaos knew him as a fabled and trampled under its hooves. And scourge that was direr than simoom or afterward, nigh to death from the tramp- pestilence. THE DARK EIDOLON 95 Now, in the years that followed the ness; and afterward they brought a slum- going-forth of the boy Narthos from Um- ber no less profound than the Lethe of maos, Pithaim, the father of Prince Zo- the tomb. And one by one, as they drank, tulla, was slain by the sting of a small the revellers fell down in the streets, the adder that had crept into his bed for houses and gardens, as if a plague had warmth on an autumn night. Some said struck them; and Zotulla slept in his ban- that the adder had been purveyed by Zo- quet-hall of gold and ebony, with his tulla, but this was a thing that no man odalisques and chamberlains about him. could verily affirm. After the death of So, in all Ummaos, there was no man or Pithaim, Zotulla, being his only son, was woman wakeful at the hour when Sirius emperor of Xylac, and ruled evilly from began to fall toward the west. his throne in Ummaos. Indolent he was, Thus it was that none saw or heard the and tyrannic, and full of strange luxuries coming of Namirrha. But awakening and cruelties; but the people, who were heavily in the latter forenoon, the em- also evil, acclaimed him in his turpitude. peror Zotulla heard a confused babble, a So he prospered, and the lords of hell and troublous clamor of voices from such of heaven smote him not. And the red suns his eunuchs and women as had awakened and ashen moons went westward over before him. Inquiring the cause, he was Xylac, falling into that seldom-voyaged told that a strange prodigy had occurred Sea, which, if the mariners’ tales were during the night; but, being still bemused true, poured evermore like a swiftening with wine and slumber, he comprehend- river past the infamous isle of Naat, and ed little enough of its nature, till his fell in a worldwide cataract upon nether favorite concubine, Obexah, led him to space from the far, sheer edge of Earth. the eastern portico of the palace, from Grosser still he grew, and his sins were which he could behold tire marvel with as overswollen fruits that ripen above a his own eyes. deep abyss. But the winds of time blew Now the palace stood alone at the cen- softly; and the fruits fell not. And Zo- ter of Ummaos, and to north, west and tulla laughed amid his fools and his south, for wide intervals of distance, there eunuchs and his lemans; and the tale of stretched the imperial gardens, full of his luxuries was borne afar, and was told superbly arching palms and loftily spir- by dim outland peoples, as a twin marvel ing fountains. But to eastward was a with the bruited necromancies of Na- broad open area, used as a sort of com- mirrha. mon, between the palace and the man- sions of high optimates. And in this T came to pass, in the year of the space, which had lain wholly vacant at I Hyena and the month of the star Cani- eve, a building towered colossal and lord- cule, that a great feast was given by Zo- ly beneath the full-risen sun, with domes tulla to the inhabitants of Ummaos. like monstrous fungi of stone that had Meats that had been cooked in exotic come up in the night. And the domes, spices from Sotar, isle of the east, were rearing level with those of Zotulla, were spread everywhere; and the ardent wines builded of death-white marble; and the of Yoros and Xylac, filled as with sub- huge facade, with multi-columned por- terranean fires, were poured inexhaust- ticoes and deep balconies, was wrought in ibly from huge urns for all. The wines alternate zones of night-black onyx and awoke a furious mirth and a royal mad- porphyry hued as with dragons’ -blood. 8 96 WEIRD TALES And Zotulla swore lewdly, calling with trembled. And the foot-bones of the hoarse blasphemies on the gods and devils skeleton clicked sharply on the pavement of Xylac; and great was his dumfound- of blade onyx as it paused; and the putre- ment, deeming the marvel a work of wiz- fying tongue began to quiver between its ardry. The women gathered about him, teeth; and it uttered these words in an crying out with shrill cries of awe and unctuous, nauseous voice: terror; and more and more of his cour- "Return, and tell the emperor Zotulla tiers, awakening, came to swell the hub- that Namirrha, seer and magidan, has bub; and the fat castradoes diddered in come to dwell beside him.” their cloth-of-gold like immense black Hearing the skeleton speak as if it had jellies in golden basins.

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