From
The Worm Ouroboros
by
E.R.Eddison
Therewithal the King unlocked the greatest of those books that
lay by on the massive table, saying in Gro's ear, as one who
would not be overheard,
This is that awful book of grammarie wherewith in this same
chamber, on such a night, Gorice VII. stirred the vasty deep.
And know that from this circumstance alone ensued the ruin of
King Gorice VII., in that, having by his hellish science conjured up
somewhat from the primaeval dark, and being utterly fordone with the
sweat and stress of his conjuring, his mind was clouded for a moment,
in such sort that either he forgot the words writ in this grammarie,
or the page whereon they were writ, or speech failed him to speak those
words that must be spoken, or might to do those things which must be
done to complete the charm. Wherefore he kept not his power over that
which he had called out of the deep, but it turned upon him and tare
him limb from limb. Such like doom will I avoid, renewing in these
latter days those self-same spells, if thou durst stand by me
undismayed the while I utter my incantations. And shouldst thou
mark me fail or waver ere all be accomplished, then shalt thyself
lay hand on book and crucible and fulfil whatsoever is needful,
as I shall first show thee. Or quailest thou at this?
Gro said
Lord, show me my task. And I will carry it,
though all the Furies of the pit flock to this chamber to say me nay.
So the King instructed Gro, rehearsing to him those acts that were
needful, and making known unto him the divers pages of the grammarie
whereon were writ those words which must be spoken each in its due time
and sequence. But the King pronounced not yet those words, pointing
only to them in the book, for whoso speaketh those words in vain and out
of season is lost. And now when the retorts and beakers with their several
necks and tubes and the appurtenances thereof were set in order, and
the unhallowed processes of fixation, conjunction, deflagration,
putrefaction, and rubefication were nearing maturity, and the baleful star
Antares standing by the astrolabe within a little of the meridian
signified the instant approach of midnight, the King described on the
floor with his conjuring rod three pentacles inclosed within a seven-pointed
star, with the signs of Cancer and of Scorpio joined by certain runes.
And in the midst of the star he limned the image of a green crab eating
of the sun. And turning to the seventy-third page of his great black
grammarie the King recited in a mighty voice words of hidden meaning,
calling on the name that it is a sin to utter.
Now when he had spoken the first spell and was silent, there was a
deadly quiet in that chamber, and a chill in the air as of winter. And
in the quiet Gro heard the King's breath coming and going, as of
one who hath rowed a course. Now the blood rushed back to Gro's heart
and his hands and feet became cold and a cold sweat brake forth on his
brow. But for all that, he held yet his courage firm and his brain ready.
The King motioned to Gro to break off the tail of a certain drop of
black glass that lay on the table; and with the snapping of its tail
the whole drop fell in pieces in a coarse black powder. Gro by the
King's direction gathered that powder and dropped it in the great
alembic wherein a green fluid seethed and bubbled above the flame
of a lamp; and the fluid became red as blood, and the body of the
alembic filled with a tawny smoke, and sparks of sun-like brilliance
flashed and crackled through the smoke. Thereupon distilled from the neck
of the alembic a white oil incombustible, and the King dipped his rod
in that oil and described round the seven-pointed star on the floor the
figure of the worm Ouroboros, that eateth its own tail. And he wrote the formula of the crab below the circle, and spake his second spell.
When that was done, yet more biting seemed the night air and yet more
like the grave the stillness of the chamber. The King's hand shook as
with an ague as he turned the pages of the mighty book. Gro's teeth
chattered in his head. He gritted them together and waited. And now
through every window came a light into the chamber as of skies paling
to the dawn. Yet not wholly so; for never yet came dawn at midnight,
nor from all four quarters of the sky at once, nor with such swift
strides of increasing light, nor with a light so ghastly. The candle flames
burned filmy as the glare waxed strong from without; an evil pallid
light of bale and corruption, wherein the hands and faces of the King
Gorice and his disciple showed death-pale, and their lips black as the
dark skin of a grape where the bloom has been rubbed off from it.
The King cried terribly,
The hour approacheth! And
he took a phial of crystal containing a decoction of wolf's jelly
and salamander's blood, and dropped seven drops from the alembic into
the phial and poured forth that liquor on the figure of the crab
drawn on the floor. Gro leaned against the wall, weak in body but
with will unbowed. So bitter was the cold that his hands and feet
were benumbed, and the liquor from the phial congealed where it fell.
Yet the sweat stood in beads on the forehead of the King by reason of
the mighty striving that was his, and in the overpowering glare of that
light from the underskies he stood stiff and erect, his hands clenched
and arms outstretched, and spake the words LURO VOPO VIR VOARCHADUMIA.
Now with those words spoken the vivid light departed as a blown-out lamp,
and the midnight closed down again without. Nor was any sound heard
save the thick panting of the King; but it was as if the night held its
breath in expectation of that which was to come. And the candles
sputtered and burned blue. The King swayed and clutched the table with
his left hand; and again the King pronounced terribly the word
VOARCHADUMIA.
Thereafter, for the space of ten heart-beats silence hung like a
kestrel poised in the listening night. Then went a crash through earth
and heaven, and a blinding wildfire through the chamber as it had
been a thunderbolt. All Carcë quaked, and the chamber was
filled with a beating of wings, like the wings of some monstrous bird.
The air that was wintry cold waxed on a sudden hot as the breath of a
burning mountain, and Gro was near choking with the smell of soot and
the smell of brimstone. And the chamber rocked as a ship riding in a swell
with the wind against the tide. But the King, steadying himself against
the table and clutching the edge of it till the veins on his lean hands
seemed nigh to bursting, cried in short breaths and with an altered voice,
By these figures drawn and by these spells enchanted, by the unction of
wolf and salamander, by the unblest sign of Cancer now leaning to the sun,
and by the fiery heart of Scorpio that flameth in this hour on night's
meridian, thou art my thrall and instrument. Abase thee and serve me,
worm of the pit. Else will I by and by summon out of ancient night
intelligences and dominations mightier far than thou, and they shall
serve mine ends, and thee shall they chain with chains of quenchless fire
and drag thee from torment to torment through the deep.
Therewith the earthquake was stilled, and there remained but a quivering
of the walls and floor and the wind of those unseen wings and the hot smell
of soot and brimstone burning. And speech came out of the teeming air of
that chamber, strangely sweet, saying,
Accursed wretch that troubles our quiet, what is thy will? The terror of that speech made the throat of Gro dry, and the hairs on his scalp stood up.
The King trembled in all his members like a frightened horse, yet was
his voice level and his countenance unruffled as he said hoarsely,
Mine enemies sail at day-break from the Foliot Isles. I loose thee
against them as a falcon from my wrist. I give thee them. Turn them to
thy will; how or where it skills not, so thou do but break and destroy them
off the face of the world. Away!
But now was the King's endurance clean spent, so that his knees
failed him and he sank like a sick man into his mighty chair. But the
room was filled with a tumult as of rushing waters, and a laughter
above the tumult like to the laughter of souls condemned. And the King
was reminded that he had left unspoken that word which should dismiss
his sending. But to such weariness was he now come and so utterly was
his strength gone out from him in the exercise of his spells, that
his tongue clave to the roof of his mouth, so that might not speak the word;
and horribly he rolled up the whites of his eyes beckoning to Gro,
the while his nerveless fingers sought to turn the heavy pages of the
grammarie. Then sprang Gro forth to the table, and against it sprawling,
for now was the great keep of Carcë shaken anew as one shaketh
a dice box, and lightnings opened the heavens, and the thunder roared
unceasingly, and the sound of waters stunned the ear in that chamber,
and still that laughter pealed above the turmoil. And Gro knew that it
was now with the King even as it had been with Gorice VII. in years gone
by, when his strength gave forth and the spirit tare him and plastered those
chamber-walls with his blood. Yet was Gro mindful, even in that hideous
storm of terror, of the ninety-seventh page whereon the King had shown him
the word of dismissal, and he wrenched the book from the King's palsied grasp
and turned to the page. Scarce had his eye found the word, when a
whirlwind of hail and sleet swept into the chamber, and the candles
were blown out and the tables overset. And in the plunging darkness beneath
the crashing of the thunder Gro pitching headlong felt claws clasp his
head and body. He cried in his agony the word, that was the word
TRIPSARECOPSEM, and so fell a-swooning.
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