Lovecraft Ezine Mega-Issue 4 Rev1

by Price, Robert M.

  His latest Lovecraftian fiction appears in the anthologies Black Wings III (PS publishing, 2014), The Madness Of Cthulhu II (Titan Books, forthcoming), both edited by S T Joshi, and Gothic Lovecraft (Cycatrix Press, forthcoming), edited by S T Joshi and Lynne Jamneck. He lives in Cardiff, the capital of Wales.

  Story illustration by Steve Santiago.

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  The Power of a Name

  by David Anthony

  Fear surged through Ayanna Dorosan’s veins as she stood before the king in his castle throne room. This wasn’t going to work, she kept telling herself. It was a clever plan, but the king was a clever man; he was sure to see through their deception. She glanced over at her mother. The hateful woman stood but a few feet away, casting her a caustic glare, warning her, telling her to keep it together; they couldn’t afford to make a mistake now. The penalty for lying to the king was death.

  Ayanna swallowed the lump in her throat and turned back to the king. “Yes, your grace, that is correct. I can take straw—any straw—and spin it into gold.”

  King Eldan Ducay the Second stirred in his throne. His long graying hair and thick gray beard made him look much older than his forty-two years. He wore the finest silks and a cloak bearing the colors of the royal house—blue and silver. His arctic-blue eyes appraised her coolly. “These are trying times, girl. Are you aware of our predicament?”

  Ayanna’s eyes strayed to the tall stone sculpture behind the throne. Poseidon, god of the seas, stood watch over the throne room, trident in hand. It was said that there was once a time when Poseidon looked after their kingdom, causing the sea to overflow with all manner of fish, the rivers to run yellow with gold, but in all of her seventeen years of life she could not remember such a time. These days the sea was empty of life, and poverty swept the land like a hideous black plague. “Yes, your grace,” she answered.

  “Our kingdom hovers on the brink of financial ruin,” he said. “Our debt is high; our income barely existent. We cannot afford to pay our armies, so they grow smaller each day as men desert. The heathen warlord to the west is aware of our troubles, and threatens to invade. If war comes to these lands, it is a war we shall lose. These are dark times indeed, but if what you say is true, this magic of yours may be the key to saving our kingdom.”

  Ayanna felt her heart skip a beat, her spirit suddenly lifted. Maybe her mother was right after all; maybe the plan could yet work.

  “But I cannot simply take your word for it,” he said. “You must first be put to the test. You will be placed in a room with a spinning wheel and a large supply of straw. You will be given three days to spin all of the straw into gold. If you succeed, you will be married to the prince and made queen of the kingdom.”

  Ayanna struggled to repress a smile. Her eyes turned toward the young Prince Eldan Ducay, seated next to his father, and felt her heart flutter. He was everything a girl could ever want in a prince. Long, silky black hair framed the most handsome face Ayanna had ever laid eyes on. His silk clothing was every bit as elegant as his father’s—perhaps even more so—and he had an air of grace and charm about him. She watched as his eyes traveled up the length of her, taking her in.

  Ayanna was suddenly glad she had listened to her mother’s demanding rants for once. She had been certain they stood no chance of gaining an audience with the king, yet she had followed her mother’s orders, putting on the dress her mother had picked out for her—a beautiful blue and silver dress, one that revealed so much cleavage that her large, milky-white breasts were practically bursting out of it—and then put on her makeup and washed and styled her golden blonde hair in the most elegant of braids. She saw the prince’s eyes linger on her exposed cleavage and felt a warm stirring in her loins.

  “Thank you, your grace,” her mother said, stepping forward with a little bow. “You are too kind. We will return home immediately and prepare the girl’s room for the test.”

  “Do you take me for a fool?” the king roared, slamming his fist down on the arm of his throne. “The girl will not be returning home. We will prepare a room for her here, in one of the highest towers of the castle. She will be locked away; guards will be posted outside her door. No one will enter her chamber without a signed notice from me.”

  “But, your grace,” her mother protested. “We would never seek to deceive—”

  “Three days!” the king shouted. “Three days is what she will have to spin all of the straw into gold.” He leaned forward. “And if she fails, she will be stripped naked and hung over the Pool of the Old God, where her flesh will be stripped from her bones by the creatures within!” He leaned back slowly, his eyes ablaze. “Such is the punishment for trying to deceive the king.”

  A wave of terror crashed over Ayanna’s body. She brought her hand up to her mouth to silence the whimpering sound emanating from within. This couldn’t be happening. It wasn’t part of the plan! They had already prepared her bedroom for the test they knew was inevitable. A trap-door in her floor would allow them to remove the straw using the narrow crawlspace beneath and bring in the gold—the king’s own gold, stolen from one of his carriages on its way to the castle by her mother’s boyfriend and his band of thieves. It was a perfect plan, but one that would only work in their carefully prepared environment. Isolated high atop the castle tower, the plan was doomed to failure.

  Ayanna turned her eyes to her mother’s, desperately pleading for help. She didn’t want to die in the Pool. She had seen it happen, and it was cruel and agonizing death. Once a place of sacrifice to the Old God, it was now used only as a place of execution for those foolish enough to displease the king.

  Her mother lowered her eyes in defeat. “Yes, your grace.”

  Ayanna couldn’t believe it! Her mother was just going to abandon her! Her eyes burned angry holes into the woman’s body, but she said nothing. Better to hold her tongue now and hope for escape, than to reveal their deception and be sent to her death immediately.

  “Guards!” the king called. “Take our guest up to the east tower and prepare a room for her. And see to it that her mother is escorted from the castle, and barred entry until the test is over.”

  Ayanna glared at her mother as the guards escorted her from the throne room. The woman refused to look at her. It was just as well, she thought. She was glad to be done with the woman after all of her terrible schemes. The next time they saw each other would be the last—her execution day!

  Ayanna sat in her tower bedroom staring at the old, wooden spinning wheel and the mountain of straw next to it. The last three days had been the longest of her life. She had spent them alternating between cursing her mother’s name, crying hysterically, and praying fervently to the gods—any gods, old or new, whatever gods would hear her pleas. But still no answer came.

  How could it have come to this? She was a smart girl; how could she have become involved in yet another of her mother’s awful scams? The woman was so full of trickery, so deceitful. And all the men she surrounded herself with were ten times worse! She had made Ayanna do so many awful things: lies and slander, whoring and pick-pocketing. But Ayanna wanted desperately to believe that everything her mother did was out of love, that she did it for her. So they both could climb from their lowly pit of poverty, and find some source of happiness in their lives. Instead, all of her plans ended in disaster. And this one would end in her death.

  Ayanna stood from the bed and made her way across the large stone room to the window, pushing open the shutter, and sticking her head out into the cool night air. The light of the full moon cast eerie shadows across the sleeping city of Koralith below. The ships were all docked for the evening, their sails furled. The usual hustle and bustle of the port now lay as silent as the dead. The sea beyond was an endless expanse of inky black water. Once the source of all their livelihoods, it was now only the source of anger and endless frustration.

  She wondered what this city had been like in the times before King Hazak the Conqueror had arri
ved to drive the Torgoukin people from these lands. People in town spoke of its former inhabitants only in hushed voices, as if their ghosts were still here, listening and plotting their revenge. They were said to have been a strange and superstitious folk, worshipers of a dark god of the sea. It was said that the Pool was once used to sacrifice people to this dark god, in an effort to avoid his wrath and ensure a plentiful bounty of fish in the sea. Now that god was gone, driven from these lands by a mighty king, and in the long years since the creatures of these waters seemed to have followed.

  Of course, these were only stories. Ayanna truly knew nothing of the Torgoukin people or their dark god. Nothing except that terrible thing they had left behind: the Pool. It was a hideous contraption, situated in the main courtyard of the castle. A wooden stage and strange crane-like device overlooked a large stone well, filled with water that seemed to reach deep down into the sea itself. She could already see herself strapped naked and shivering into that cold metal device, suspended above that horrible, frothing pool of water. The nightmarish creatures below would swarm anxiously, awaiting the taste of her blood. The crane would lower her in slowly, bit by bit, allowing the terrible things below the time to savor her flesh, tearing into her, ripping her apart piece by piece. The water would turn red. And she would scream.

  And scream and scream and scream.

  After some time they would raise her up out of the water, still alive and in unimaginable pain. They would let her hang there, allowing the gathered onlookers a chance to see the bloody strips of meat dangling from her tattered body, allowing them to see what it means to defy a king…allowing her to suffer.

  And then they would lower her in again.

  Ayanna turned abruptly from the window, away from that awful image of her future. There were only a few hours left until morning, and with it, the day of her execution. The straw still sat untouched, never to be turned into gold. It was hopeless. As angry as she had been at her mother, she wished she was here now. Ayanna slid down the wall to sit on the cold stone floor, put her face into her hands, and began to cry.

  “Surely it is not as terrible as all that.”

  Ayanna’s head flew up at the sound of the voice, shock pulsing through her body. A man stood in her room. He was frightening to look at. He wore a long, black robe that swept the floor as he walked toward her. A series of strange necklaces hung down to his chest, made of a peculiar metal that she had never seen before, and covered with arcane symbols and odd hieroglyphics depicting various sea-creatures—some of which were familiar and others disturbingly not. His face was the most appalling of all. He had a narrow head and a wide, flat nose. His large, bulging eyes seemed to have no eyelids, and were constantly staring. His skin was a sickly grayish color, and held an almost scaly texture. The stench of the sea clung to him.

  “Who are you?” she said, jumping to her feet. “What are you doing here? No one is allowed here without the king’s permission.”

  “The king does not tell me where to go,” the man snapped. He glanced over at the spinning wheel and that ridiculously huge mound of straw. “I go where I am needed…and I answer the prayers of those who call.”

  Ayanna gasped. Could it be possible? Could her prayers have really been answered? “Are you…a god?”

  “I am,” he said. “An old and forgotten god. But it seems that you have not forgotten me. I heard your prayers, and have come to aid you in your hour of need.”

  Hope began to blossom in her mind. She glanced anxiously at the straw. “Then you can help me? You can turn all this straw into gold?”

  The man shook his head sadly. “I’m afraid that would do you no good. The king does not merely desire a stack of gold. He wants a queen for his son who has the power to create as much gold as their kingdom could ever need. He wants the power to rebuild his kingdom, strengthen his army, and bring prosperity back to this land. He wants magic unlike any the world has ever seen…and I will give you this power. You will spin straw into gold. You will become queen. And with the prince, you will rule this land for the rest of your lives.”

  She couldn’t believe it! Her prayers had truly been answered! But then a sudden, overwhelming suspicion overtook her. “And what is it you ask in return?”

  His wide lips slid into a devious grin. “You are a bright girl, indeed. Power like this does not come free, it does not come cheap. But worry not; you need give me nothing today. You will spin your gold. You will marry the prince, redeem this land, and live a long, happy life. But somewhere down the road, you will choose to have children, and if by chance you happen to bear a son…you will give him to me.”

  Ayanna felt her blood turn to ice. “Please,” she said. “You can’t mean this…my firstborn son…it is too great a price to pay.”

  “All power has its price, sweet girl. You will have many happy years before you have to pay this one. Or you can refuse, and your life can end in mere hours. The choice is yours.”

  Ayanna knew it was never a choice at all. She could either take the deal and live a wonderful, happy life for a time, or refuse and suffer the most horrible of deaths imaginable when the sun came up.

  She took the deal.

  She spent the remaining hours until sunrise at the wheel, spinning all of the straw into gold. She wed the prince in the most beautiful of ceremonies. The former king stepped down, allowing them to become king and queen of the kingdom, and with her new power Ayanna brought prosperity back to the kingdom.

  As the years went by, Ayanna forgot all about those three dark days in the castle tower, and the mysterious god who had visited her there. But then one terrifying day she discovered she was pregnant, and nine months later Prince Eldan Ducay IV was born.

  Since the baby had been born Ayanna could hardly sleep nights. Her servants were more than capable of attending the baby, yet still she would toss and turn, waking frequently, getting out of bed to check on the young prince, to make sure that he was safe, that no monster had come like a thief in the night and stolen him away. She had already decided that if—no, when—he came, she would refuse. The baby was hers and she would not give him up. The wicked, nameless god would have to find some other form of payment.

  She had considered telling her king. She would have to expose her deception, dishonor herself, and possibly still be sent to her death in that awful Pool, but it was her best chance of protecting her son, and that was all that mattered.

  She found her husband in the Grand Dining Hall with several of the castle guards. The room was full of energy, the kitchen staff busily setting the long oak table with their finest dinnerware, preparing for a large dinner party tonight with all the important lords and ladies of the land. She maneuvered through the crowds of servants and hurried toward him, searching for the words she would need to reveal her betrayal as gently as possible. But as she approached she realized that something was wrong.

  “Ayanna!” he called out, rushing over to her. A look of concern was etched upon his face. “Thank Poseidon you are unharmed.”

  “I am fine, my lord,” she said, suddenly confused. “What is the matter?”

  “There is an intruder in the castle. It is feared he may be an assassin from the west. Several of our guests have said he has the look of a dark wizard.”

  Ayanna’s heart nearly stopped. “A dark wizard? Here? Are you certain?”

  The king hesitated. “I do not know. I pray it is not true. Please, my love, you must return to your bedchamber immediately. I will send two of the castle guards to escort you and stand watch until the danger has passed.”

  But Ayanna had already stopped hearing his words. This was no dark wizard. It was something much, much worse. She whirled around and ran from the room, not bothering to wait for her escort, not wanting to risk wasting a single moment. She hurried up the stone staircase towards her bedchamber as fast as her legs could carry her, her heart pumping red hot panic through her veins.

  She slammed open the heavy wooden door to her room and burst inside. The
nameless god stood there, grinning hideously over the infant’s crib, looking exactly the same as he had five years before in that dreaded tower room.

  “Get away from him,” she hissed before she could stop herself, anger and fear dripping from her words.

  The Nameless One looked up at her. Contempt simmered behind his big, fishy eyes. “We had a deal, my good queen—a boy for gold, a prince for a crown. And a queen always keeps her promises.” He moved away from the baby and began walking slowly towards her. “Unless you are not truly a queen at all…but merely the same tavern whore whose mother once convinced her to lie to a king.”

  “Stop it!” she said. “I will hold up my end of the bargain. You will have your payment…but not the boy.” She gently closed the door behind her, and began walking toward him, unbuttoning her dress. “I offer myself as payment.” She closed her eyes as the dress fell to the floor, exposing her in all her nakedness. “Take me now, and then be gone from here forever.”

  The Nameless One chuckled softly. “Ever the whore then, I see. Put your dress back on, whore. I do not want your body.”

  Ayanna felt her face flush. She opened her eyes and began quickly pulling the dress back up. “Then name your price, daemon. Anything else…we have a great fleet of warships in the harbor, an enormous army, an endless supply of food. Take some of our people as slaves, if you must. What is it you will have?”

  He regarded her coldly. “You know what I will have.”

  Suddenly she was very angry. “Then you shall have nothing. Go from this place, daemon. And let me never see you here again.”