Corvus Rex by J K Ishaya

Author:J K Ishaya [Ishaya, J K]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-09-04T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Fifteen

“Nyarlathotep knew to maintain his silence right then as he led me down the slope and we made our way toward the river. The ground gave way to reedy marsh and a series of docks had been built there for pathways, connecting little fishing huts. It all felt so natural, peaceful, like the edges of true home. Like Dacia where the Danube delta empties into the Black Sea. The familiarity continued to unravel my discomfort. Beyond the reed-strewn edges, a much greater dock stretched out into the river and at its end sat a strange ship. Decebal had taken me on the Danube out to the Black Sea with him many times in my life and even as far south as the Adriatic, and I had seen many a style of ship, sail, and oar galley from war ship to trader vessel. This one was far different, larger than any ship of my time, something like a caravel with fore and aft castles and three blood-red rectangular sails running down its middle, but its wood shown like polished ebony and the prow emulated some strange beast head that somewhat reminded me of the Dacian Draco with its combination of wolf head and serpent. There were two extra-long rectangular sails, however, one on each side of the aft and each folded up. They were so gracefully tapered as to look like wings on some huge water bird. But the physical beauty of the ship was almost overridden by its smell, which cloyed the air. Not quite decay, not quite excrement. It wafted then waned with the wind, and gods, I was thankful for any wind that carried that foulness away.

“Nyarlathotep allowed me to pause again and brace myself, to adjust to the odor as well as the beauty, before he ushered me aboard. ‘I present you the Phantasm,’ he said. It was a strange name for a ship, but I had no idea how appropriate at the time. ‘This way, Zyr.’ I shot him a look when he used my abbreviated name. ‘That is what your men called you, did they not?’ I nodded numbly. ‘I rather like it,’ he said. ‘Yes, I like it very much. Come.’”

“So he was getting more personal,” Howard says, and I note the caution in his voice. As if he’s reading an adventure book, he wants to shake that old me in the story and warn that Zyraxes not to listen to the devil who is obviously leading him on.

“Yes, he was,” I say. “I realize now how subtly that acted on me, gradually putting me more and more at ease. I followed him aboard, and there I looked around at a strange crew. At first, I thought I was looking at men, but they had such pronounced features: large jaundiced eyes and cheek bones and especially large and expressive mouths with thick lips. They wore turbans on their heads that were wrapped so as to create two large frontal humps over their low foreheads, and any facial hair was combed and joined into a goatish wisp on their chins.

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.