The House of the Worm
Page 6
Upon a day the last deft touches were put to that hateful idol. Yah-Vho, soothed somewhat by the completion of his task and the promise of opals, covered his handiwork with a sheet, and went down to the wine shops of the city to wash the dust from his throat. The high priests watched him go, and smiled.
And a little while past midnight, three high priests and a strangled priest slipped out of the darkened temple of Sthood, observed only by the Moon; and stepping very carefully around the rectangles of yellow lamplight that fell from the shaded windows, made their stealthy way to Yah-Vho’s modest studio. After several hours only the high priests went away, holding folded handkerchiefs over their noses.
When the maker of gods left the wine shops in the small dark hours of morning, and returned to his modest studio, he found first the broken lock on his doorstep, and then the door creaking subtly open. Three pairs of sandalled feet had tracked a foulness across the floor of that evil-smelling studio, and out into the night; someone had taken the sheet off that hateful idol, and tried to hide that noxious spreading puddle on the floor. Three trails led away, but that sinister bulge under the sheet might almost have suggested human bones. Very carefully, with thumb and forefinger, Yah-Vho drew back one corner of the sheet… Then he turned, and almost dropped his lamp.
For Yah-Vho knew that there is something very wrong with any image whose bulbous stone is noisomely soft and plump, wholly unlike what one comes to expect of sandstone; the ring of fleshy pink horns about the mouth glistened moistly, and something wet dribbled down the neck. And Yah-Vho turned to run.
But Yah-Vho did not turn quickly enough, and his tiny incessant screams continued for many minutes after the idol proceeded to devour him.
ABOUT THE BOOK
It is with special pride the publisher offers this first book by the young California writer Gary Myers. The imperially slim volume is an episodic novel, a collection of ten tales each a masterpiece of macabre fantasy structured to present the author's own special insight into the Cthulhu Mythos - what Mr. Myers calls "an interesting heresy."
Brevity is the soul of Gary Myer's style; his viewpoint is mordant, ironic and always perfect for striking a note of chilling terror. Whether he is being ocularly descriptive as with "The House of the Worm" and "The Maker of Gods," in which the unrelenting terror is established as if a report from the pupil of the eye transferred from pen to paper, or creating an abstraction of eerie strangeness as in "Hazuth Kleg," Myers captures perfectly with few words the mood of cosmic horror.
With an introductory note by the author and fanciful illustrations by Allan Servoss, readers who appreciate the literature of macabre fantasy will find this novel worthy of leading them through the "gates between the dreamlands and our own world."
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gary Myers is a native of South Gate, California, where he has lived his entire life. He is a self-proclaimed pessimist with “disappointingly ordinary dreams,” a remarkably modest self appraisal in view of his talent for creating boldly imaginative fiction. He can write only by sunlight and enjoys walking. Other interests include reading fantasy for pleasure and copying the fiction of Lord Dunsany.
It was the discovery of the fiction of H. P. Lovecraft that prompted Mr. Myers to compose the episodes that are collected in The House of the Worm. Since writing this hook he has earned his B.A. in art from the University of Redlands. Sonnets by Gary Myers have appeared in The Arkham Collector.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
The cover artwork and illustrations in this book are the work of Allan Servoss. Mr. Servoss is a native of Great Falls, Montana. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the University of Montana in 1970 before moving to Wisconsin where he taught for several years. Since 1974 he has been living in Campbelltown, Australia, a suburb of Sydney. Besides teaching art on the high school level, Mr. Servoss conducts pottery-making classes in night-school and plays his guitar at a local restaurant. Mr. Servoss is also an accomplished photographer.
Table of Contents
Introduction
CHAPTER I
The House of the Worm
CHAPTER II
Yohk the Necromancer
CHAPTER III
Xiurhn
CHAPTER IV
Passing of a Dreamer
CHAPTER V
The Return of Zhosph
CHAPTER VI
The Three Enchantments
CHAPTER VII
Hazuth-Kleg
CHAPTER VIII
The Loot of Golthoth
CHAPTER IX
The Four Sealed Jars
CHAPTER X
The Maker of Gods
About the Book