Mazirian the Magician Read Free Page B

Mazirian stepped around a shoulder of rock, inspected the origin of the sounds.
    Thrang’s lair was an alcove in the rock, where a fetid pile of grass and skins served him for a couch. He had built a rude pen to cage three women, these wearing many bruises on their bodies and the effects of much horror on their faces. Thrang had taken them from the tribe that dwelt in silk-hung barges along the lake-shore. Now they watched as he struggled to subdue the woman he had just captured. His round gray man’s face was contorted and he tore away her jerkin with his human hands. But she held away the great sweating body with an amazing dexterity. Mazirian’s eyes narrowed. Magic, magic!
    So he stood watching, considering how to destroy Thrang with no harm to the woman. But she spied him over Thrang’s shoulder.
    â€œSee,” she panted, “Mazirian has come to kill you.”
    Thrang twisted about. He saw Mazirian and came charging on all fours, venting roars of wild passion. Mazirian later wondered if the ghoul had cast some sort of spell, for a strange paralysis strove to bind his brain. Perhaps the spell lay in the sight of Thrang’s raging gray-white face, the great arms thrust out to grasp.
    Mazirian shook off the spell, if such it were, and uttered a spell of his own, and all the valley was lit by streaming darts of fire, lashing in from all directions to spit Thrang’s blundering body in a thousand places. This was the Excellent Prismatic Spray — many-colored stabbing lines. Thrang was dead almost at once, purple blood flowing from countless holes where the radiant rain had pierced him.
    But Mazirian heeded little. The girl had fled. Mazirian saw her white form running along the river toward the lake, and took up the chase, heedless of the piteous cries of the three women in the pen.
    The lake presently lay before him, a great sheet of water whose further rim was but dimly visible. Mazirian came down to the sandy shore and stood seeking across the dark face of Sanra Water, the Lake of Dreams. Deep night with only a verge of afterglow ruled the sky, and stars glistened on the smooth surface. The water lay cool and still, tideless as all Earth’s waters had been since the moon had departed the sky.
    Where was the woman? There, a pale white form, quiet in the shadow across the river. Mazirian stood on the riverbank, tall and commanding, a light breeze ruffling the cloak around his legs.
    â€œHo, girl,” he called. “It is I, Mazirian, who saved you from Thrang. Come close, that I may speak to you.”
    â€œAt this distance I hear you well, Magician,” she replied. “The closer I approach the farther I must flee.”
    â€œWhy then do you flee? Return with me and you shall be mistress of many secrets and hold much power.”
    She laughed. “If I wanted these, Mazirian, would I have fled so far?”
    â€œWho are you then that you desire not the secrets of magic?”
    â€œTo you, Mazirian, I am nameless, lest you curse me. Now I go where you may not come.” She ran down the shore, waded slowly out till the water circled her waist, then sank out of sight. She was gone.
    Mazirian paused indecisively. It was not good to use so many spells and thus shear himself of power. What might exist below the lake? The sense of quiet magic was there, and though he was not at enmity with the Lake Lord, other beings might resent a trespass. However, when the figure of the girl did not break the surface, he uttered the Charm of Untiring Nourishment and entered the cool waters.
    He plunged deep through the Lake of Dreams, and as he stood on the bottom, his lungs at ease by virtue of the charm, he marvelled at the fey place he had come upon. Instead of blackness a green light glowed everywhere and the water was but little less clear than air. Plants undulated to the current and with them moved the lake flowers, soft with blossoms of red, blue and yellow. In and out swam