by Lin Carter
Flushed with pleasure, the stalwart young warrior received from Thongor’s hand the coronet of his lordship. Bowing to the smiles of Princess Sumia, and receiving a boyish grin and a mischievous wink from Prince Thar, the new Lord of Tallan returned to his place at the forefront of the throng.
Thongor was again speaking.
“In a very large degree, the freedom of Patanga on this happy day is the work of the alertness and the vigilance of one brave officer, and we are all in his debt Let this man step forward now.”
Again the ring of the great mace against stone, and the sonorous voice of Zaldon Thald sounded through the length of the hall.
“Changan Jal of Patanga, senior Daotar of the Air Guard, come forth!”
His winged silver helm flashing in the sunlight, his cloak of sky-blue silk fluttering from his lean shoulders, resplendent in the metallic silver harness of the air navy, the graying officer whc had first seen the invasion fleet, first to flash the alarm that woke the city to arms, and first to strike at the ships of Tarakus, strode proudly to the foot of the dais.
“Kneel, Changan Jal, Daotar, and rise as Vice-Daotarkon of the Air Guard and a kojan of the Empire!”
The bestowal of honors now done, the Chancellor led the throng in a thunderous acclaim for the Lords of the West there assembled. And when the Hall of the Hundred Kings was silent once more, Thongor smiled and said:
“And now let us all go in to dinner!”
AND here my story ends—as all good stories should—with a victory, a wedding, and a feast.
“… Even the Pirates of Tarakus, armed with the dread power of the Gray Magicians of elder time, could not stand against the Warrior of Valkarth, and fell before him, and thus the seventh city of the West came beneath the Black Hawk Banner, and thus the Golden Empire grew from year to year.”
So it is written in the third chapter of the Fifth Book of The Lemurian Chronicles.
APPENDIX:
THE AEON OF THE GRAY MAGICIANS
THOSE passages from The Lemurian Chronicles which record the lost history of the Gray Magicians of Nianga, and to which the Hierarch Eodrym refers in the third chapter of this novel, are, among the few fragments of that mighty volume which have survived the ages into our own day. I thought it might amuse my readers to see the actual text to which Eodrym alludes.
The Lemurian Chronicles were written down half a million years ago. The tongue wherein this ancient lore was recorded has perished from human knowledge; the very continent whereon these words were written down has foundered beneath the waves; but a few scraps of the age-old book survive where all else is forgotten.
But here is a page from that lost book.
From THE THIRD BOOK:
ii. The Nine Cities of the West Are Founded
… Thus it came to pass that the Children of Nemedis passed thither into the West and they builded in those lands the Nine Cities of Thurdis and Kathool, Cadorna, Zangabal and Shembis, Tsargol and Tarakus and Pelorm, and Patanga the City of the Flame. And there they rested and begat tall sons and fair daughters, and three thousand years of time went by.
iii. The Era of the Gray Magicians
But eastwards in the land of Nianga dark forces were at work. For there had risen up in those lands, over the centuries since the Fall of Nemedis and the coming-hence of men into the West, a mighty Kingdom whereof there were three great cities of Kuth and Shandathar and grim Zanjan. And the black wizards of remotest Zaar, leagued with the cunning Serpent in his secret isles amidst the Inner Sea, went amongst this folk and won them to evil ways with the promise of power. And thus arose the reign of the Gray Magicians, as men did call them with fear and trembling.
iv. Gray Magic
Of old was it set down in the mighty pages of the Scarlet Edda that the Magicians of Nianga didst seek to seize and tame even the Ultimate Fires of Our Lord the Sun himself; and that they hadst won the mastery of a great art whereby men might wield forces so vast that the mighty Earth itself couldst be shaken forth from its sphere amidst the firmament of heaven, and that the dry land and the great sea shouldst both be consumed in a torrent of ever-burning flame, should ever these Forces break free from their control.
v. The Doom of Nianga
Yet ere the Gray Magicians had set their hand upon the delicate balance of forces whereof is the Earth maintained among the spheres and the fires of the mighty Sun held in balance, a vast and shadowy Doom fell over these lands, and the cities of Kuth and Shandathar and grim Zanjan were overthrown and the people thereof fled. And that land became a desolate wilderness which men called the Gray Barrens, where none do dwell. Some say it was the Gods, but others say the hand of Nature smote them down, they who wouldst tamper with the Laws whereby Creation is held firm amidst Chaos.
vi. The West Riseth.
Thus it was that the Gray Magicians fell who dared toy with those Forces whereof the very stars of the firmament are sustained, each in his appointed sphere and station; thus were they undone by the very powers they sought to control …
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Also by Lin Carter
Science Fiction
Hautley Quicksilver
The Thief of Thoth (1968)
The Purloined Planet (1969)
The History of the Great Imperium
Outworlder (1971)
The Man Without a Planet (1966)
Star Rogue (1970)
Callisto
Jandar of Callisto (1972)
Black Legion of Callisto (1972)
Sky Pirates of Callisto (1973)
Mad Empress of Callisto (1975)
Lankar of Callisto (1975)
Ylana of Callisto (1977)
Renegade of Callisto (1978)
The Green Star
Under the Green Star (1972)
When the Green Star Calls (1973)
By the Light of the Green Star (1974)
As the Green Star Rises (1975)
In the Green Star’s Glow (1976)
The Mysteries of Mars
The Valley Where Time Stood Still (1974)
The City Outside the World (1977)
Down to a Sunless Sea (1984)
The Man Who Loved Mars (1973)
Zarkon, Lord of the Unknown
The Nemesis of Evil (1975)
Invisible Death (1975)
The Volcano Ogre (1976)
The Earth-Shaker (1982)
Horror Wears Blue (1987)
Zanthodon
Journey to the Underground World (1979)
Zanthodon (1980)
Hurok of the Stone Age (1981)
Darya of the Bronze Age (1981)
Eric of Zanthodon (1982)
Other Novels
Destination Saturn (1967) (with Donald Wollheim writing as David Grinnell)
The Flame of Iridar (1967)
Time War (1974)
Tower at the Edge of Time (1968)
Tower of the Medusa (1969)
Fantasy
Thongor of Valkarth
Young Thongor (2012) (with Robert M. Price and Adrian Cole)
The Wizard of Lemuria (1965, 1969)
Thongor of Lemuria (1966) (revised as Thongor and the Dragon City (1970))
Thongor Against the Gods (1967)
Thongor in the City of Magicians (1968)
Thongor at the End of Time (1968)
Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus (1970)
Conan
Conan (1967) (with Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
Conan of the Isles (1968) (with L. Sprague de Camp)
Conan the Wanderer (1968) (with Robert E. Howard and L. Sprague de Camp)
Conan the Buccaneer (1971) (with L. Sprague de Camp)
Conan of Aquilonia (1977) (with L. Sprague de Camp)
Conan the Swordsman (1978) (with L. Sprague de Camp and Björn Nyberg)
Conan the Liberator (1979) (with L. Sprague de Camp)
Conan the Barbarian (1982) (with L. Sprague de Camp)
Sagas of Conan (2004) (with L. Sprague de Camp and Björn Nyberg)
The Chronicles of Kylix
The Quest of Kadji (1971)
The Wizard of Zao (1978)
Kellory the Warlock (1984)
Godwane (World’s End)
The Warrior of World’s End (1974)
The Enchantress of World’s End (1975)
The Immortal of World’s End (1976)
The Barbarian of World’s End (1977)
The Pirate of World’s End (1978)
Giant of World’s End (1969)
Terra Magica
Kesrick (1982)
Dragonrouge (1984)
Mandricardo (1987)
Callipygia (1988)
Tara of the Twilight
Tara of the Twilight (1979)
"For the Blood is the Life" (1984)
"The Love of the Sea" (1984)
"Pale Shadow" (1985)
Other Novels
The Black Star (1973)
Found Wanting (1985)
Lost World of Time (1969)
The Star Magicians (1966)
Collections
King Kull (1967) (with Robert E. Howard)
Beyond the Gates of Dream (1969)
Lost Worlds (1980)
The Xothic Legend Cycle: The Complete Mythos Fiction of Lin Carter (1997)
Dedication
THONGOR FIGHTS THE PIRATES OF TARAKUS
is dedicated to three of Thongor’s most
devoted fans.
AUDREY TINSLEY,
CARTER LUPTON,
and DREW SMITH,
who are thus created kojans of the Empire
with all best wishes of their friend, Lin Carter
Lin Carter (1930-1988)
Lin Carter is the working name of US author and editor Linwood Wrooman Carter, most of whose work of any significance was done in the field of Heroic Fantasy, an area of concentration he went some way to define in his critical study of relevant texts and techniques, Imaginary Worlds (1973). Born in St Petersburg, Florida, Carter was an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy in his youth. He was also quite active in fandom. Carter served in the United States Army between 1951 and 1953, after which he attended Columbia University. He is best known for editing the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series in the 1970s, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre, including James Branch Cabell, Lord Dunsany, Hope Mirrlees and Clark Ashton Smith. He began publishing sf with “Masters of Metropolis” for the Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction in 1957, with Randall Garrett, and the story “Uncollected Works” (1965) was a finalist for the annual Nebula Award for Best Short Story. He resided in East Orange, New Jersey in his final years, and died in nearby Montclair, New Jersey.
Copyright
A Gollancz eBook
Copyright © Lin Carter 1970
All rights reserved.
The right of Lin Carter to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This eBook first published in 2019 by
Gollancz
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An Hachette UK Company
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN 978 1 473 22043 0
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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