The Iron
Crown

But as the spectacle developed before us it became clear that all was not well.

The flowing limbs of an eternal sunset seemed suffused with the dark and rank blood of a growing treachery, and we were sore afraid.

Already the Bozo's men lay supine on the Basenjoria floor, some of them silent in fear, other weaker natures weeping at the prospect of some unknowable fate.

We, however, stood firm and watched the spectacle unfolding before our astonished eyes.

The longer I watched, the more it became clear to me that we were at last near to getting a first notion of what was involved in our expedition.

As the moon turned slowly across the ritual area, neither flat nor round, the constellations circled about it in a way that was strange to one who knows the evening sky as well as I - the order of the heavens was somehow different here in this dank hall where the cries of monkeys, who watched the reddish glow of the walls, was the only sound which did not bespeak amazement or fear.

Slowly new stars, new nebulae, and whole new constellations took their form: the Puma, the Potato, the Sely Jug.

My guide took me aside, and thrust into my hand the root I had noted at Gorrimib, but had been frightened to pull up.

"Eat this," he urged.

Transfixed with fear yet curiously helpless to avoid him, I succumbed to his persuasions and crammed the wrinkled stump into my mouth.

At first there was no effect, no, but soon I began to see a certain light in the eyes of the grim creatures which lurked all about and I knew I was in a strange place where the souls of the departed came to infest the corpses of rabid beasts of the lesser orders.

As the effect of the noxious root grew greater I began to realize their every motive and thought, my perceptions growing with every instant.

Suddenly I could hear their thoughts, their inner voices, and could feel the weight of the malice they were directing at me.

Then I noticed Wollis watching me, and his expression was one I shall never forget: he looked at me as if his heart was breaking, as if he almost wept at the change that had come over me.

This brought me to my senses and I realized what would happen if I did not try to resist the effect of the root.

Though my jaws were unwilling, I tore it from my mouth and hurled it into the midst of a knot of cats against one of the walls, who shrieked horribly as it fell amongst them.

But still I felt my mind encroached by the souls of those around and their curiously bitter but dispassionate hatred.

I called out to Wollis, but he shrank from me.

I remember falling to my knees, trying to clutch at his arm.

Then summoning one last burst of strength, I cried out, "Termatephalos and all the great gods of the grand halls of Zygo, grace me with one final tear!" as we had often been taught.

Then a great darkness fell.