Thongor and the Wizard of Lemuria Read Online Free Page A

the walled city of Thurdis rushed past—crossed, occasionally, by great roads paved with stone. He could see the farmhouses and outbuildings, plain in the bright moonshine. From this height, they were no larger than the slow wains in which the farmers carried their harvest to the bazaars of the city.
    It was a fantastic, thrilling experience to fly like a great bird far above the earth. Only a couple of men, including Oolim Phon the Alchemist and the Sark himself, had ever flown before. Thongor felt like the hero Phondath the Firstborn, flying through the night astride his winged dragon in the myths. He grinned, feeling the cold wind lift his black mane. Thus the War Maids rode, bearing the spirits of valiant warriors to Father Gorm, so they might dwell in the Hall of Heroes until vast Lemuria sank beneath the blue waters of the mighty seas!
    He gazed above, reading the starry hieroglyphs of the constellations. His father, years past and gone, had taught the boy Thongor to read his direction in the stars—taught him how the two stars of the constellation of the Chariot pointed over to the Boreal Star. According to star lore, then, the floater was headed almost exactly northwest. Were he to continue on this course, he considered, he would pass directly over Patanga, and Kathool farther on. Patanga he had no desire to visit. The city was virtually dominated by the yellow-robed Druids who worshipped Yamath, God of Fire, by burning women alive on his red-hot altars of fiery bronze. Barracks rumor had it that the young Princess Sumia of Patanga was virtually a prisoner in her great palace, under the command of the Yellow Druid Vaspas Ptol, who had seized power in the land upon the death of Sumia’s father, the late Sark. Phal Thurid, Sark of Thurdis, hoped to wed this young Princess, thus gaining the fabulous wealth of Patanga without battle—if he could wrest her from her captors.
    Thongor shook his head. The City of Fire sounded too chancy—best that he continue on to the farther city of Kathool, whose Sark needed warriors to protect his jungled borders from the savages of Chush.
    He re-entered the cabin to examine the dial that reported the remaining amount of rotor power in the great coiled springs that ran beneath the deck. A rough estimate gave him five or six hours of flight before he must crank up the springs again. It would be dawn then. He stretched out on the small bunk and was asleep in a moment.
    The farmlands of Thurdis gave out into wilderness below the floater’s gleaming keel, and soon it was passing over the waters of the Ysar, silvered by the round lamp of the moon. While Thongor slept the deep and refreshing slumber of one whose strength has been exhausted, the airboat began to cross far above the dense jungles of Chush, and soon the Eternal Fires on the domed roofs of the temples of Patanga passed beneath. As Thongor slept, the floater hummed beyond the City of Fire, where, unknown to him, his destiny lay, and headed for the distant realm of Kathool, flying through the night skies of Lemuria like a great bird.

CHAPTER 3
    Attacked by the Lizard-Hawks
    Below him, dwark with dragon-fang,
      Above, hawk-talons stretched to crush!
    Strange battle there, ’tween earth and air,
      Above the deadly deeps of Chush.
    —Thongor’s Saga, Stave IV
    Thongor was awakened by two things. First, the silence and motionlessness of the floater, and second, the harsh scream that ripped through the stillness of the dawn. He sprang from the bunk, wide awake in an instant. The springs had wound down, and the airboat drifted without power. But what had made that raucous screech?
    He went out on the deck, and stood amazed at the unexpected sight. It was the sixth hour, and the sun of morning lit the sky with rose and gold. But beneath him gleamed not the long quays of Kathool on the Saan, nor even the wide swath of cultivated lands that stretched for miles around it. Beneath him lay the deepest jungles of Chush.
    He rubbed