Cugel's Saga
aka
Cugel - the Skybreak Spatterlight
By
Jack Vance
Book 3 - Tales of the Dying Earth
[ First published: 1983 ]
Published under titles:
Cugel's Saga
Cugel - The Skybreak Spatterlight
Novella titles:
The Bagful of Dreams, 1977.
The Seventeen Virgins, 1973.
Copyright © 1981, 2012 by Jack Vance.
All rights reserved.
For information, address
Tom Doherty Associates,
175 Fifth Avenue,
New York, N.Y. 10010.
eISBN: 9781466821965
First eBook Edition : May 2012
This title was created from the digital archive of the Vance Integral Edition, a series of 44 books produced under the aegis of the author by a worldwide group of his readers. The VIE project gratefully acknowledges the editorial guidance of Norma Vance, as well as the cooperation of the Department of Special Collections at Boston University, whose John Holbrook Vance collection has been an important source of textual evidence. Special thanks to R.C. Lacovara, Patrick Dusoulier, Koen Vyverman, Paul Rhoads, Chuck King, Gregory Hansen, Suan Yong, and Josh Geller for their invaluable assistance preparing final versions of the source files.
Digitize: Richard Chandler, Ian Davies, Herve Goubin, Joel Hedlund, Christopher Taylor-Davies, Format: John A. Schwab, Diff: Joel Hedlund, Charles King, Tech Proof: Fred Zoetemeyer, Text Integrity: Rob Friefeld, Steve Sherman, Tim Stretton, Implement: Donna Adams, Hans van der Veeke, Security: Paul Rhoads, Compose: Joel Anderson, Comp Review: Marcel van Genderen, Brian Gharst, Charles King, Update Verify: Bob Luckin, Paul Rhoads, RTF-Diff: Patrick Dusoulier, Bill Schaub, Proofread: Patrick Dusoulier, Ed Gooding, Karl Kellar, David A. Kennedy, Joe Keyser, Bob Luckin, Robert Melson, Jim Pattison, Joel Riedesel, Steve Sherman
Ebook Creation: Arjen Broeze, Christopher Wood, Artwork (maps based on original drawings by Jack and Norma Vance): Paul Rhoads, Christopher Wood, Proofing: Arjen Broeze, Evert Jan de Groot, Gregory Hansen, Menno van der Leden, Koen Vyverman, Management: John Vance, Koen Vyverman, Web: Menno van der Leden
The author and publisher have provided this e-book to you without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied so that you can enjoy reading it on your personal devices. This e-book is for your personal use only. You may not print or post this e-book, or make this e-book publicly available in any way. You may not copy, reproduce or upload this e-book, other than to read it on one of your personal devices.
Copyright infringement is against the law. If you believe the copy of this e-book you are reading infringes on the author’s copyright, please notify the publisher at: us.macmillanusa.com/piracy.
Contents
Cover
Chapter I - Shanglestone Strand to Saskervoy
Chapter II - From Saskervoy to Tustvold
Chapter III - From Tustvold to Port Perdusz
Chapter IV - From Port Perdusz to Kaspara Vitatus
Chapter V - From Kaspara Vitatus to Cuirnif
Chapter VI - Cuirnif to Pergolo
About the Author
Chapter I
Shanglestone Strand to Saskervoy
1
Flutic
Iucounu (known across Almery as ‘the Laughing Magician’) had worked one of his most mordant jokes upon Cugel. For the second time Cugel had been snatched up, carried north across the Ocean of Sighs, dropped upon that melancholy beach known as Shanglestone Strand.
Rising to his feet, Cugel brushed sand from his cloak and adjusted his hat. He stood not twenty yards from that spot upon which he had been dropped before, also at the behest of Iucounu. He carried no sword and his pouch contained no terces.
The solitude was absolute. No sound could be heard but the sigh of the wind along the dunes. Far to the east a dim headland thrust into the water, as did another, equally remote, to the west. To the south spread the sea, empty except for the reflection of the old red sun.
Cugel’s frozen faculties began to thaw, and a whole set of emotions, one after the other, made themselves felt, with fury taking precedence over all.
Iucounu would now be enjoying his joke to the fullest. Cugel raised his fist high and shook it toward the south. “Iucounu, at last you have exceeded yourself! This time you will pay the price! I, Cugel, appoint myself your nemesis!”
For a period Cugel strode back and forth, shouting and cursing: a person long of arm and leg, with lank black hair, gaunt cheeks, and a crooked mouth of great flexibility. The time was middle afternoon, and the sun, already half-way into the west, tottered down the sky like a sick animal. Cugel, who was nothing if not practical, decided to postpone the remainder of his tirade; more urgent was lodging for the night. Cugel called down a final curse of pulsing carbuncles upon Iucounu, then, picking his way across the shingle, he climbed to the crest of a dune and looked in all directions.
To the north a succession of marshes and huddles of black larch straggled away into the murk.
