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Fantascience Digest, v. 2, issue 2, January-February 1939
Page 4
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Page 4 FANTASCIENCE DIGEST The ARTS of HANTOC by CYRIL MAND A gibbous moon shed pale beams of silvery light over the land of Dak, mighty and sage ruler of the land most favored by the ghouls and the spirits and the demons. It shed its light impartially for which reason Hantoc the Sorcerer was jubilant. For it was only on such nights that the demons and their cohorts adopted visible form and sold their blasphemous knowledge. Of a certainty, the price for this knowledge was very exorbitant; seven corpses for each item of black wisdom. Seven bodies unmarred by either former sin or present vermin. Seven corpses of which he himself could make very good use. Nevertheless, he would be forced to continue his irregular deliverances of the bodies until he had gained a dominance over even these masters of the night. A dominance through which he could force from them the knowledge that they yet withheld. A dominance that might be possible through the ownership of the azure flame. In his eyes were reflected the gleam of the cupidity that dominated his evil brain as he lapsed into meditation. He was well aware of the fact that this, the azure flame, was one of the few things that inspired terror among the patrons of his ghastly trade. Many were the times when he had glimpsed its exquisite blue and its spirit occupant. He had perceived all the other phantom-beings draw away from it in instinctive fear, and many were the allurements with which he had attempted to cajole the spirit from among the clouds that now and again momentarily hid the moon, leaving only the glory of the azure flame to jar the enveloping night. And all these attempts to take what he wanted through shrewdness and the use of his cunning were all in vain. And also in vain were the many snares with which Hantoc attempted to incarcerate the spirit in some uninhabited body and thus to wrest the knowledge of the composition of the azure flame from it. But the spirit was wary. Oh, Hantoc remembered many occurences directly or indirectly concerned with the spirit-owner of the blue haze and himself, and some even Hantoc, evil though he was, dis liked recalling. Tonight he was presenting the finest set of corpses in the land of Dak. In none were the worms and maggots acrawl and in some the spirits were still present, imprisoned there through Hantoc's necromancy. His wares should prove irresistable allurements to all spirits, and possibly even a demon of Hell might come to trade. In any case, surely the spirit of the azure flame would appear. And so he muttered his hideous incantations and he stirred his cauldron as he poured evil smelling potions into it. And soon he was rewarded , as he considered it in his perverted mind, for soon the demons and the spirits and the ghouls and even a solitary Hell-being here and there appeared-- and among them the brightness of the azure flame was to be discerned. And Hantoc grew even more jubilant when he perceived it come to rest beside a body lying on a marble slab. He instantly realized it to be the prize of his gruesome lot. In its fleshy shell was imprisoned a spirit whith through-
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Page 4 FANTASCIENCE DIGEST The ARTS of HANTOC by CYRIL MAND A gibbous moon shed pale beams of silvery light over the land of Dak, mighty and sage ruler of the land most favored by the ghouls and the spirits and the demons. It shed its light impartially for which reason Hantoc the Sorcerer was jubilant. For it was only on such nights that the demons and their cohorts adopted visible form and sold their blasphemous knowledge. Of a certainty, the price for this knowledge was very exorbitant; seven corpses for each item of black wisdom. Seven bodies unmarred by either former sin or present vermin. Seven corpses of which he himself could make very good use. Nevertheless, he would be forced to continue his irregular deliverances of the bodies until he had gained a dominance over even these masters of the night. A dominance through which he could force from them the knowledge that they yet withheld. A dominance that might be possible through the ownership of the azure flame. In his eyes were reflected the gleam of the cupidity that dominated his evil brain as he lapsed into meditation. He was well aware of the fact that this, the azure flame, was one of the few things that inspired terror among the patrons of his ghastly trade. Many were the times when he had glimpsed its exquisite blue and its spirit occupant. He had perceived all the other phantom-beings draw away from it in instinctive fear, and many were the allurements with which he had attempted to cajole the spirit from among the clouds that now and again momentarily hid the moon, leaving only the glory of the azure flame to jar the enveloping night. And all these attempts to take what he wanted through shrewdness and the use of his cunning were all in vain. And also in vain were the many snares with which Hantoc attempted to incarcerate the spirit in some uninhabited body and thus to wrest the knowledge of the composition of the azure flame from it. But the spirit was wary. Oh, Hantoc remembered many occurences directly or indirectly concerned with the spirit-owner of the blue haze and himself, and some even Hantoc, evil though he was, dis liked recalling. Tonight he was presenting the finest set of corpses in the land of Dak. In none were the worms and maggots acrawl and in some the spirits were still present, imprisoned there through Hantoc's necromancy. His wares should prove irresistable allurements to all spirits, and possibly even a demon of Hell might come to trade. In any case, surely the spirit of the azure flame would appear. And so he muttered his hideous incantations and he stirred his cauldron as he poured evil smelling potions into it. And soon he was rewarded , as he considered it in his perverted mind, for soon the demons and the spirits and the ghouls and even a solitary Hell-being here and there appeared-- and among them the brightness of the azure flame was to be discerned. And Hantoc grew even more jubilant when he perceived it come to rest beside a body lying on a marble slab. He instantly realized it to be the prize of his gruesome lot. In its fleshy shell was imprisoned a spirit whith through-
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