Craig Shaw Gardner - Arabian 3 - The Last Arabian Night

304 Pages·2016·0.5 MB·English

by  Gardner Craig Shaw

This book is an Ace original edition, and has never been previously
published.
THE LAST ARABIAN NIGHT
Book Three of the Arabian Nights
By Craig Shaw Gardner
An Ace Book / published by arrangement with the author
PRINTING HISTORY
Ace edition / April 1993
All rights reserved. Copyright © 1993 by Craig Shaw Gardner.
Cover art by Darrell K. Sweet.
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PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This one's for Barbara,
with no excuses.
The Prologue,
in which we manage to simultaneously reiterate
certain points of difficulty,
while once again starting anew.
Then it is my turn?
I will tell you therefore a story of life and death, of dreams unforetold
and places no able man has ever seen. My tale shall hold within its
bounds the hidden secrets of beasts and the true nature of men, and it
shall range from the distant day before there was a Baghdad to a time
far after every one of us is gone from this earth, and ifrits and magicians
are thought of as nothing more than childish fantasies.
Not, of course, that my humble excuses for storytelling are in any way
exceptional. But I digress.
You have heard from the others now, concerning the glories of
Baghdad and the wonders of other lands. And both of these men,
clever Sinbad, who was once a porter, and bold Ali Baba, who once
cut wood to survive, have proven themselves to be noble adventurers
and grand storytellers. It would be almost impossible for an unassuming
tale spinner like myself to best their stories of magic and terror, and I
must admit that I have, by and large, led a somewhat less venturesome
life than these men, as is suited to my sex and station.
But this is not to say that my story is without drama, for, in a certain
way that you shall see, my very life depended upon my every word,
for, were my words to fail me, my head would quickly be separated
from my shoulders.
Ah, I can see our captor takes an interest now. Yes, even a great djinni
such as Ozzie might appreciate the effects of the spilled blood of
maidens. But I will talk of more than blood, and more than maidens.
For, while you shall see that my life has always hung near the blade of a
headsman's axe, I have also discovered certain more subtle dramas as
well, but no less strange for their relative calm.
My existence has been a life hidden, by and large, from the world of
men, within your world and yet totally separate from it.
So it is that I have discovered that there are stories within stories,
thoughts within thoughts, and lives within lives. And it is now my task to
unravel all these stories, thoughts, and lives for you and, I hope, reveal
those truths that hide within truths.
So I pray you to grant me the proper time and attention, so that I might
tell you the most unusual story of Scheherazade.
Chapter the First,
in which certain unfortunate errors
are quickly cut away.
Know now, that while I tell my own story, it is the story of many others
as well. First and foremost is it the tale of two mighty kings, one named
Shahryar, who ruled over the great city of Baghdad, and his younger
brother, the great King Shahzaman, who ruled the neighboring kingdom
of Samarkand. And both these rulers reigned over their kingdoms for a
full score of years, bringing peace and prosperity to all their subjects,
and thus both were known throughout each of their kingdoms, and
indeed throughout the entire civilized world, as being among the fairest
and most beneficent of rulers.
But a man is more than a throne and a talent for judgment. So it was
that the elder of the brothers, Shahryar who was known to his people
as the tall king, found himself with a violent longing for his brother and
childhood companion, whom he had not seen in all of those long years
that the two of them had ruled their separate domains. He therefore
sent his trusted vizier to visit his brother, King Shahzaman, who was
still, for all his years and wisdom, known as the younger king to both
his subjects and those of the neighboring kingdom.
And the younger king, hearing of his brother's longing for reunion,
readily agreed to such a meeting. He then prepared his court for a
prolonged absence, having long discussions with his own majordomo,
and his chief of eunuchs and his chief of slaves, telling them to tend to
their particular duties, and to take special care to watch over his wife
and to protect her from all trouble, for he loved the woman dearly.
Oh, but that fate can change any and all without warning, and that no
man can control his Destiny! So it was that, mere moments after he had
departed from his court, the younger king remembered a certain item in
his apartments that he had wished to present to his brother as a gift. No
sooner had he returned to his apartments, however, than he discovered
not one form, but two, residing upon his wife's favorite couch.
Now, one of these individuals was indeed the king's wife, which one
might not find surprising. However, the second form-which was
pressed so close that you could not tell where the perspiration upon
one naked body ended and where the sweat upon the other unclothed
form began, not to mention certain other fluids that one might share
between a male and female-this second form was the chief among
slaves, that very same man whom the king had so recently exhorted.
Never had King Shahzaman imagined, when he had issued his
instructions, that the tall and agile slave would protect his wife quite that
closely.
Well, Shahzaman had little choice in a matter of this nature. There was
nothing for it save to have both wife and slave beheaded. But, once he
was done with this onerous task, not only was he an additional quarter
of an hour late for the beginning of his journey, but this unfaithfulness
business had placed him in a temper unbecoming to a reunion with his
brother.
And yet, a promise is a promise, and a king is nothing if he does not
fulfill his duties. So it was that King Shahzaman traveled to the
neighboring kingdom. And his brother, the tall king, King Shahryar,
greeted him joyously, and Shahzaman did his best to reciprocate the
emotion. But, despite his best efforts, the younger king found he had
little appetite for the grand banquet that evening and did not even deign
to glance at the sumptuous entertainments which followed. Indeed, his
thoughts plagued him that entire night, so that the following morning
found him still awake, with hollowed eyes and sallow complexion.
His brother asked him what was amiss, but the younger king did not
wish to trouble the tall king with his domestic difficulties, and blamed
the long journey for his malaise. At that, King Shahryar declared that
they should both go on a great hunt together, for it is in such manly
pursuits that even kings might forget their troubles. But the younger king
had no heart even for this sport and bade that his older brother go
without him.
So it was that Shahzaman stayed behind while his host proceeded to
the hunt, and the younger king did retire again to his chambers and
attempt there to rest, although his thoughts still would not allow sleep to
come.
Now it came to pass that, as the younger king was in this restive state,
he did hear a great commotion in that garden that lay just beyond his
quarters. Curious even in his misery, Shahzaman arose and, treading
quietly, peered from out of his darkened doorway at the unbelievable
scene beyond. For there, frolicking among the vast array of cushions
that littered the center of the gardens, were twenty male slaves and
twenty female slaves, and at their center was the queen of this kingdom,
and wife to his brother, King Shahryar.
And the slaves all paused in their merrymaking, as if waiting for a signal
from their queen. And for her part, the queen smiled very sweetly upon
one of the male slaves, who was tall and very well muscled, and
furthermore was endowed with a prodigious gift of manhood, for I have
neglected to mention that all the slaves, male and female, were entirely
naked, and, indeed, even the queen wore but the flimsiest of robes.
"Come to me," she said to the fortuitously equipped slave. "And you
know how literally I do mean those words. You should consider them
nothing less than an order from your queen."
Then did the slave smile upon the royal woman and take her in his
arms. And the queen further remarked, "We will make these cushions
know they have been used!" drawing the slave down next to her with
great cries of "Let us do it!" and "Whoopie!" and other sayings
especially coarse and shocking coming from the conversation of a lady
of such refinement. And then did all the other slaves do the same,
naked men and women mixing without discrimination, so that the entire
mound of cushions, and the pathway of stones that led to the gardens
beyond, became a mass of bouncing and giggling nudity.
Truly, the younger king was astonished by this course of events, and
found himself watching the drama for a substantial period of time in
order to discern the finer details. But there comes a time when even a
king must make a judgment, and so it was that Shahzaman said to
himself: "As bad as is my misfortune, my brother's is twenty times
worse." And furthermore, "Truly, though I was presented with the
leavings of a diarrheic bird upon my brow, my brother has been gifted
with the similar gifts of a whole herd of oxen.''
And with that, and another hour or two of observation of what passed
in the garden beyond, he found that his grief had passed, and he was
once again able to eat and drink and sleep with the grace of a king.
When, upon the following day, his brother returned from the hunt, King
Shahryar discovered that the younger king seemed much improved in
health and demeanor. So it was that the tall king asked his brother
again for the cause of his malaise, and this time, Shahzaman answered,
repeating how he had returned to his palace to discover his wife in the
arms of a slave and how, as his brother most readily agreed, he had
both of them immediately beheaded.
"Still, though," the younger brother continued, "did I suffer for my
misfortune, both pining for my lost love and much angered by her gross
treachery, until-" But with this word the younger king took on the
countenance of most profound regret and ceased to speak entirely.
But his elder brother was astonished by what his sibling related, and
bade him to continue. So it was that the tall king prompted, "Until?"
But the younger of the two was extremely reticent to continue, since, in
his relief at finally finding himself able to relate his misfortune, he had
neglected to consider that the latter portions of his story might
contribute to the misfortune of another.
"Until?" his elder brother, who no doubt was not fully cognizant of the
other's dilemma, replied a bit more forcefully as he pulled distractedly
upon his beard.
But instead of a more direct reply, the younger king said, "Perhaps it is
better that I end my story here, for to continue would no doubt cause
you great consternation and grief."
Howsoever, his brother, the great King Shahryar, thought otherwise.
"Until?" he demanded as he pulled even more distractedly upon his
brother's beard.
King Shahzaman only shook his head, a difficult feat when your beard
is being wrenched.
But still did the tall king bid the younger to continue, or he might have to
consider a beheading of his own. And further did Shahryar remind him
that Shahzaman was in Shahryar's kingdom, with Shahryar's army, and
Shahryar's headsman, and Shahryar's extensive network of prisons and
torture chambers.
"Then again," Shahzaman replied with a wisdom common only in kings,
"perhaps I am compelled by brotherly duty to speak." So did he tell his
brother what indeed happened after "Until," especially concerning the
night that he had witnessed his brother's wife with the forty slaves.
But when the younger of the two was done, the elder brother declared
that he could not believe in such a thing and had to see it with his own
eyes.
Then did Shahzaman, who still realized the possibility of the headsman's
axe, suggest that his elder brother loudly announce that the two kings
would now embark on a hunt together, but, instead of doing this thing,
they would instead both secrete themselves in a corner of the palace
with a clear view of the garden.
Shahryar agreed to this plan, and quickly made it so, announcing that
he would hunt again on the morrow. But while he sent a full
complement of hunters and attendant servants out into the great forests
beyond the palace, he and his brother stayed behind within a secret
place and then moved quietly to a balcony overlooking the gardens.
Mere moments passed before the queen reappeared in the garden, and
around her frolicked the forty slaves, and all were clothed, or rather
unclothed, precisely as before. And, after a verbal exchange between
the queen and her primary slave concerning bananas, melons, cherries,
and other fruit, all further proceeded in much the same manner as
Shahzaman had previously related.
And there were many calls of "Whoopie!" that arose from the garden
and even, I am afraid to relate, an occasional "Hotcha!" Shahryar did
witness this spectacle in his garden in every detail, first with disbelief,
then with anger, and lastly with an evergrowing sadness. His grief
doubled with every whoopie that rose from down below.
At last, he had had too much of this display, and so he said to his
brother, "Why must both of us, though we be kings, have to face this
misery? I cannot bear to stay within this palace another instant. Come,
we shall take to the road, until we might find someone who might
explain why we must be so miserable, or until we might find someone
who is even more miserable than we two kings!"
And Shahzaman, seeing his brother's grief, discovered his grief
rekindled as well. So it was that both kings left the palace by a secret
way and took to the road, leaving their fate in the hands of Destiny.
The two kings traveled, day and night, until they came to a meadow by
the great salt sea. And in this meadow was a tree of substantial age and
height, and a modest pond of fresh water. The kings paused there to
drink the fresh water and rest beneath the tree. But soon did a great
black column of smoke rise from the sea, as if the ocean itself were on
fire. The two brothers cried in fear and sought the safety of the upper
branches of the tree, as that blackest of black smoke whirled its way