The Mammoth Book of Angels & Demons by Paula Guran (Ed)

Author:Paula Guran (Ed) [Guran, Paula]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Science Fiction, Anthology, Fiction
ISBN: 9781780338002
Publisher: Constable & Robinson
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

The Man Who Stole the Moon

Tanith Lee

Tanith Lee’s stories of the Flat Earth are based in a mythology of her own brilliant devising. Above her Earth is the rather uninteresting Upperearth, where indifferent gods do little more than think and sleep. Below are two realms: Underearth – ruled by Azhrarn, Prince of Demons –– and Innerearth, where Uhlume, Lord Death, keeps dead spirits for a thousand years. Obviously, in our context we are most interested in Azhrarn and the demons he rules. The Vazdru are beautiful demons similar to their prince; they can transform themselves into animals. The rather dreamy (and equally beautiful) Eshva serve them. The Drin are ugly, dwarfish craftsmen. All three types of demons tend towards making mischief amongst the humans of Earth. In “The Man Who Stole the Moon” we meet both Yulba, a Drin who expects an unnamed but no doubt questionable reward in exchange for assisting a trickster thief, and the Prince of Demons himself.

Several tales are told concerning the Moon of the Flat Earth. Some say that this Moon, perhaps, was a hollow globe, within which lay lands and seas, having even their own cool Sun. However, there are other stories.

One evening, Jaqir the accomplished thief rose from a bed of love and said to his mistress, “Alas, sweetheart, we must now part forever.” Jaqir’s mistress looked at him in surprise and shook out her bright hair. “You are mistaken. My husband, the old merchant, is miles off again, buying silk and other stuff, and besides suspects nothing. And I am well satisfied with you.”

“Dear heart,” said Jaqir, as he dressed his handsome self swiftly, “neither of these things is the stumbling block to our romance. It is only this. I have grown tired of you.”

“Tired of me!” cried the lady, springing from the bed.

“Yes, though indeed you are toothsome in all respects. I am inconstant and easily bored. You must forgive me.”

“Forgive you!” screamed the lady, picking up a handy vase.

Jaqir ducked the vase and swung nimbly out of the high window, an action to which he was quite accustomed, from his trade. “Although a deceiver in my work, honesty in my private life is always my preferred method,” he added, as he dropped quickly down through the vine to the street below. Once there he was gone in a flash, and just in time to miss the jar of piddle the lady that moment upended from the window.

However, three of the king’s guard, next second passing beneath, were not so fortunate.

“A curse upon all bladders,” they howled, wringing out their cloaks and hair. Then, looking up, they beheld the now no-longer mistress of Jaqir, and asked her loudly what she meant by it.

“Pardon me, splendid sirs,” said she. “The befoulment was not intended for you, but for that devilish thief, Jaqir, who even now runs through that alley there toward a hiding place he keeps in the House of the Thin Door.”

At the mention of Jaqir, who was both celebrated and notorious in that city, the soldiers forgot their inconvenience, and gave instant chase.

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