Clockwork Phoenix 3: new tales of beauty and strangeness by Mike Allen

Author:Mike Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

* * *

The king called up, “What place is this?”

“Your new home,” one of the nobles said, “where you will make us jewelry enough to buy this satrapy. If you walk a little way down this tunnel you will find a workshop with a fire pit, and gold and gems enough to start your work.”

The king glanced once more at his wife’s dead father. “And the cauldrons?”

“You and your mechanical have nothing to fear in them, gemcutter,” the other noble said. “They were men without a trade, worth only their parts and the tallow from their fat, which will light your work.”

At this some of the villagers drew together and looked fearfully up. But the king said, “You must know a great deal about gemcutting, honored sirs. Most men of your class would have no idea that my mechanical and I have need of six helpers each.”

Now in fact the nobles did not know any such thing, since the king had only just made it up, but they smiled knowingly down into the pit and left all twelve villagers their lives. The king made bracelets and bowls and statuettes; and slowly, invisibly, he began with fine work and flattery to gain the nobles’ trust.

And so he spent years far from home, while Anaeet ruled so wisely that most people forgot they had or even needed a king.

One day he told the nobles, “Bring me gems of every type and gold enough to plate my arm, and I shall make a jewelled rhyton cup in the shape of a winged lion. It shall be fine enough for Queen Anaeet herself; she alone has the power to grant you your satrapy. In return I ask only that you set me up as your jeweler, for it pleases me to serve gentlemen of such exquisite taste.”

The nobles brought him these things with glee and good wishes, and in time he fashioned a cup as long as his arm. As he had promised, its base was a lion. Its sides were wings set with diamonds and emeralds and rubies, and sapphires yellow and blue, so closely nestled together that no hint of gold showed through their glimmering, mottled pattern. The other prisoners gathered around while he worked, caught between interest and awe; and when the cup was finished the king gave it to his captors with unfeigned pride.

And they took it to the queen.

But the queen, through eyes of ground emerald, saw diamonds and yellow sapphires as green. And to her eyes, rubies and blue sapphires both were black as nighttime blood, and those black stones picked out writing across the green wings. And the words read, “Help me, Anaeet.”

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.