DIY History | Transcribe | Hevelin Fanzines | Pegasus, v. 2, issue 1, Summer 1943

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Pegasus, v. 2, issue 1, Summer 1943

Page 6

                                      Pegasus
and dry. The ground thirsteth for water; my people thirst: they pant, their mouths are open, they drink dust. The rain cometh not, and the dust filleth the sky; dust is in the air, and death: and ye my people are dying."

And the King made and end. And he lifted up his eyes and beheld the seer Evos standing apart like one minded to speak, but full of doubt. And the King commanded him, if aught he knew of hope, to speak his thought.

And Evos spake: "O King, there may be a greater evil than dying of hunger or thirst. By a certain divination I have found a place of water, but meseemeth that there is an evil and aperil there, and that doth lurk which may bring fear and a nameless fate. Let the people arise and go unto the banks of the river Amarthais and haply many will live until the rains come once more."

But the King replied: "Thou knowest, O Evon, that many are gone thither, and that many have been slain by the great serpents of the river. Only at the ford of Lurei, where the river is shallow, may the people get water. How many, dost thou think, may dweil at the ford? Reveal therefore where other water may be found and tell what peril doth threaten."

Then slowly Evos answered: "Let it be so. This, then, msut be done: men must go unto the tower which is on the Hill of Duorm, and enter therain, and dig in the bottom; and water will be found benenth. But concerning the peril mine arts tell me naught save that it is strange and awful. And I fear lest it come forth from the tower and go abroad in the land; wherefore consider well, O King, whether  water should be sought in the Hill of Duarm."

When the King and those about him heard the saying of Evos they were troubled; for in the land and city of Cromaril the Hill of Duorm  bore an ill name, albeit none knew why this should be. Yet oft at night, in the time when it was the custom the people to listen to the ancient legends, hearing how the Moon-Spirit first descended to earth to bathe in the river Moul, and how the river flowed thereafter not into the  sea but stopped where the Spirit had bathed, then the tellers of tale whispered of a forgotten legend. And they spake of the Hill of Duorm rising in singular symmetry where the river had once flowed, south of the city of Cromaril, which lay between the Hill and the Pool os the Moon. And they apake of the ancient tower, reared by a forgotten people; and how some evil once had dwelt in it, so that even in these days all men shunned it, but none remembered why.

Of these rumors of a forgotten legend the King bethought him, and pondered lonh in doubt and misgiving; howbeit at length, beholding the plight of his people, he commanded sundry of his men to go unto the tower and there do the bidding of Evos. And he also Kasu the One-Eyed, captain of his bodyguard, he who had loat his eye in defence of his master: him he sent together with the soldiers; and he bade them be watchful againest danger.

Saving...

Pegasus and dry. The ground thirsteth for water; my people thirst: they pant, their mouths are open, they drink dust. The rain cometh not, and the dust filleth the sky; dust is in the air, and death: and ye my people are dying." And the King made and end. And he lifted up his eyes and beheld the seer Evos standing apart like one minded to speak, but full of doubt. And the King commanded him, if aught he knew of hope, to speak his thought. And Evos spake: "O King, there may be a greater evil than dying of hunger or thirst. By a certain divination I have found a place of water, but meseemeth that there is an evil and aperil there, and that doth lurk which may bring fear and a nameless fate. Let the people arise and go unto the banks of the river Amarthais and haply many will live until the rains come once more." But the King replied: "Thou knowest, O Evon, that many are gone thither, and that many have been slain by the great serpents of the river. Only at the ford of Lurei, where the river is shallow, may the people get water. How many, dost thou think, may dweil at the ford? Reveal therefore where other water may be found and tell what peril doth threaten." Then slowly Evos answered: "Let it be so. This, then, msut be done: men must go unto the tower which is on the Hill of Duorm, and enter therain, and dig in the bottom; and water will be found benenth. But concerning the peril mine arts tell me naught save that it is strange and awful. And I fear lest it come forth from the tower and go abroad in the land; wherefore consider well, O King, whether water should be sought in the Hill of Duarm." When the King and those about him heard the saying of Evos they were troubled; for in the land and city of Cromaril the Hill of Duorm bore an ill name, albeit none knew why this should be. Yet oft at night, in the time when it was the custom the people to listen to the ancient legends, hearing how the Moon-Spirit first descended to earth to bathe in the river Moul, and how the river flowed thereafter not into the sea but stopped where the Spirit had bathed, then the tellers of tale whispered of a forgotten legend. And they spake of the Hill of Duorm rising in singular symmetry where the river had once flowed, south of the city of Cromaril, which lay between the Hill and the Pool os the Moon. And they apake of the ancient tower, reared by a forgotten people; and how some evil once had dwelt in it, so that even in these days all men shunned it, but none remembered why. Of these rumors of a forgotten legend the King bethought him, and pondered lonh in doubt and misgiving; howbeit at length, beholding the plight of his people, he commanded sundry of his men to go unto the tower and there do the bidding of Evos. And he also Kasu the One-Eyed, captain of his bodyguard, he who had loat his eye in defence of his master: him he sent together with the soldiers; and he bade them be watchful againest danger.