The Fantasy Fan, Volume 1, Number 9, May 1934: The Fan's Own MagazineVarious
History
The Fantasy Fan, Volume 1, Number 9, May 1934: The Fan's Own Magazine
Various
Fan magazines; Fantasy fiction -- History and criticism -- Periodicals; Fantasy fiction -- Periodicals
We would like to know your views on any phase of weird fiction. After
all, this is _your_ magazine and we want your opinions to be put before
other fans. However, we must ask you to limit your comments to less
than 100 words, due to the small space available.
* * * * *
The Flower God
by R. H. Barlow
Annals of the Jinns--6
Alair, the ruler of Zaxtl, sent a present unto his enemy, the
neighboring King Luud. Now such an act was unlike Alair, and had not
pleasant omens. For more than a decade they had waged bitter warfare,
and therefore Luud was not a little surprised to see the crimson lotus
on a field of _argent_ displayed before his gates. The messengers
came unguarded in their glittering robes, and when the portcullis
was withdrawn, they ascended the steps before the throne and made
obeisance. The guards of Luud would have fain drawn wary swords,
but the king signalled withdrawal, that he might hearken onto the
emissaries.
Their gift was brought in by swarthy slave men. It proved a
mani-colored flower of alien aspect, whose aromatic perfumes spread
langorously through the room. Alair had sent no message save to state
cryptically that here was the ruler of plants, the Flower-God, and Luud
preferred not to ask the reason for this strange and lovely gift. So
it was he made a long and eloquent speech of surpassing insincerity,
claiming friendship between the countries, and when they had left,
he set artizans constructing a dais. When this had been done, the
Flower-God was set upon it in a jewel-encrusted trough; where he might
lift his eyes from affairs of state and gaze upon it. And it was
admired by the entire court. Only Gra, the counsellor, would have been
unwilling to accept it, but he was not heeded.
But the land soon found there was something amiss, for gossip spread
thru-out that a madness had come upon the king. He would lock himself
in with the flower for days in succession and be oddly exhilarated
upon resuming his customary life. Whispers were that he was drugged
or hypnotized by the strange plant, that he performed odd and ancient
rites before it--rites that were not good and were avoided by even
necromancers. Truly, he had developed an abnormal passion for it, and
there were obviously mysterious happenings afoot. In time, he was
observed to make unwise decisions after he had been alone with the
Flower-God, and he would pause in the midst of trite affairs and go
over to it, lovingly strolling the tendrils and closing his eyes as if
listening. But there was nothing audible save the rustle of the vibrant
petals.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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