The Country of the Worm: Excursions Beyond the Wall of Sleep by Gary Myers

Author:Gary Myers [Myers, Gary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2013-03-22T23:00:00+00:00

Dusk

The ceremony was over. The last stroke of the last gong had echoed away into silence. The last file of celebrants had solemnly departed, their feet softly whispering on the polished marble floor. The galaxy of hanging lamps had burned out one by one, leaving the temple in ghostly twilight. The sorcerer was alone.

He was alone. All through the ceremony he had sat tall and regal, but now he settled wearily back into his cushioned throne. He had reason to be weary. His lowered head was bald and wrinkled. His beard descended long and white over the sinking chest and rising belly beneath his yellow robe. But today he was borne down by more than age. All through the ceremony he had felt uneasy, and now that it was over he felt more uneasy still. And it was the burden of his uneasiness that bowed his head and weighed upon his heart.

Yet he need not bear that burden unaided. He clapped his hands together once. In response a demon appeared, appeared as one who, having long stood back among the shadows, suddenly steps forward into the light. He was draped in a long black robe that covered him from head to foot. Only his face was clearly visible. It too was motionless and black. It seemed less like a living face than a mask of tarnished silver.

“What is your command, my master?” the demon asked. His voice was metallic and resonant, like a voice inside a bell.

The sorcerer put words to the anxieties that plagued him.

“I am troubled in my mind, yet I cannot say why. I am king of a great realm, a realm kept secure and prosperous through my power alone. My people worship me. I possess everything that a man of my years can desire. And yet I feel gloomy and oppressed, as if a great weight were bearing down on me, crushing the lifebreath out of me. As if a dark cloud were hanging over me, blocking out the sun.”

The sorcerer paused. Never before had he spoken his mind so freely before a servant. But there was no one else, and his anxiety was great. Had his words made any impression? The mask-like face did not show it. The demon only repeated:

“What is your command?”

“Find the thing that oppresses me. Go out into the wide world and see what you can learn. Maybe it is a foreign nation plotting an invasion of my land. Maybe it is a gang of domestic rebels conspiring to subvert my power. Or maybe it is a rival sorcerer casting spells against my life. Find it out, whatever it is. And when you have found it, return to me here and tell me of it so that I may deal with it as I may.”

“As you have commanded, my master,” said the demon with a low bow. And again the sorcerer was alone.

There is a time to act and a time to refrain, and it is the part of wisdom to know the difference.

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