The Reign of Wizardry Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. But a sudden rumor had swept the city that he came from Crete, and had studied the arts of Daedalus and Minos.
    “The stranger offered, for a fabulous sum, to bring rain on this very night. My former clients were desperate. They went to the Hittite usurers, pledged their lands and slaves and cattle and even their wives, and borrowed the stranger’s fee.
    “That nightit rained.
    “I knew then that the stranger possessed the power that I had claimed, and that his superior arts must in fact have been responsible for my failure. I sought for him, intending to ask him to take me for an apprentice. But I found that he had already departed. None knew how or where he had gone, but a huge strange bird had been seen rising through the storm clouds.
    “Returning throughthe muddy streets to my own dwelling, I found that some of my angry clients had come there to insist upon return of their fees. I found it therefore expedient to assume the guise of a woman and leave Babylon also, astride a donkey.”
    The Dorian pirate made an impatient gesture with his smoking lance. The little wizard shuddered in the ropes that bound him to the mast, and Theseus held out a restraininghand.
    “Wait till you know my peculiar misfortune,” begged Snish. “The stranger from Knossos must have cast some powerful spell upon me, which he neglected to lift before he departed. For all matters concerning the weather remain unfortunate for me.
    “My travels since I left Babylon have been extensive andusually unwilling. I was put ashore near Troy some moons ago by an Egyptian captain whohad begun to suspect that my presence aboard his ship had something to do with unfavorable winds.”
    Cyron came with a hot lance from the fire. “Let me at him, Captain Firebrand,” he begged. “The Cretan fleet is bearing down upon us—this lying little wizard is trying to talk us all to death. Let me burn his eyes out, and go.”
    “Wait, Gamecock.” Theseus stopped him, and turned back to the shudderinglittle wizard. “If you have such cause to fear the warlocks of Knossos,” he said, “you had better explain why you were sailing for Crete! And talk fast!”
    Snish rolled his bulging yellow eyes. “I was coming to that,” he wheezed anxiously. “I found myself friendless in Troy. In Babylon, before I so unwisely sought to change my trade, I had been a cobbler. I sought employment in the shops of Troy,but I could find nothing, and hunger presently forced me to make a living with my small arts. I began to make certain prophecies to the clients who came to me—with results that proved unfortunate.”
    Snish shook his bald, brown head regretfully, and his eyes rolled at Cyron, who was watching the southward sea and flourishing the hot lance with increasing impatience.
    “You see, even Troy has beencompelled to yield tribute to Minos, and many were inquisitive about the future of Crete. Now, whatever one may actually read of the future—and it is said that the warlocks of Crete can survey it with considerable certainty—it is almost invariably the best policy for the seer to ignore his actual findings, and tell his clients merely what they wish to believe.
    “I assured the Trojans, therefore,that Minos is doomed, and that all the splendor of Crete will one day be forgotten, and that Troy will one day be the mistress of the world—I ignored certain grave indications in the stars as to the fate of Troy itself, save to warn the Trojans to beware of horses.
    “I had no rivals in Troy, for it is but a small city, and for a time I was very successful. Too successful, in fact, for my famereached the ears of the Cretan resident. He sent for a Cretan priest, and the priest had me arrested.”
    Snish shuddered against the ropes. “It appears,” he said, “that all the practitioners of magic in the dominions of Minos are organized in a compact and jealous guild. No wizard outside the guild is allowed to practice. Unwittingly, I brokethe law. I was being taken