Vasker said: “Perhaps you will return with us to Llaio and we will explain our philosophies in full detail.”
“I will keep your invitation in mind. For the next few months I will be busy at Pergolo, sorting through Iucounu’s affairs. Already, a number of his spies have submitted claims and invoices which almost certainly are falsified. I have dismissed them out of hand.”
“And when all is in order?” asked Bazzard. “What then? Is it to be the rustic hut by the river?”
“Such a cabin, with nothing to do but watch sunlight moving on the water, exerts an attraction. But I fear that I might become restless.”
Bazzard ventured a suggestion. “There are far parts of the world to be seen. The floating city Jehaz is said to be splendid. There is also the Land of the Pale Ladies, which you might care to explore. Or will you pass your days in Almery?”
“The future is blurred as if in a fog.”
“The same is true for all of us,” declared Pelasias. “Why make plans? The sun might well go out tomorrow.”
Cugel performed an extravagant gesture. “That thought must be banished from our minds! Tonight we sit here drinking purple wine! Let tonight last forever!”
“This is my own sentiment!” said Archimbaust. “Now is now! There is never more to experience than this single ‘now’, which recurs at an interval exactly one second in length.”
Bazzard knit his brows. “What of the first ‘now’, and the last ‘now’? Are these to be regarded as the same entity?”
Archimbaust spoke somewhat severely: “Bazzard, your questions are too profound for the occasion. The songs of your musical fish would be more appropriate.”
“Their progress is slow,” said Bazzard. “I have appointed a cantor and a contralto choir, but the harmony is not yet steady.”
“No matter,” said Cugel. “Tonight we will do without. Iucounu, wherever you are, in underworld, overworld or no world whatever: we drink to your memory in your own wine! This is the final joke, and, feeble though it may be, it is at your expense, and hence, enjoyed by the company! Sylphs, make play with the decanters! Once again to the goblets! Bazzard, have you tried this excellent cheese? Vasker: another anchovy? Let the feast proceed!”
-- THE END --
About the Author
Jack Vance (1916 – )
Jack Vance was born in 1916 and studied mining, engineering and journalism at the University of California. During the Second World War he served in the merchant navy and was torpedoed twice.
Author Jack Vance has been central to both science fiction and fantasy since 1945, publishing nearly ninety novels and collections. He has received every major genre award, including the Edgar, Hugo, Nebula, World Fantasy and Science Fiction Writers of America Grand Master.
Beginning in the late 1940s, Vance contributed a variety of short stories and novels to the pulp magazines, but nothing of this early work, dependent as it was on pulp conventions, prefigured the mature Vance. The change began with his first published book, The Dying Earth (1950). The novel's convincing articulation of a future Earth in which magic has replaced science was instantly influential, and remains so to the present, continuing to inspire authors and game designers.
Vance's second original contribution to the science fiction and fantasy fields was his sophisticated approach to the "planetary romance," a style of science fiction tale in which the setting is a richly detailed planet, the characteristics of which significantly effect the plot. Vance's work not only expanded this genre's existing archetypes, but established several new ones, significantly inspiring other authors to this day.
As Vance's created worlds became richer and more complex, so too did his style. His writing had always tended toward the baroque, but by the early 1960s it had developed into an effective, high-mannered diction, saturated with a rich but distanced irony. His resulting genius of place, and command as a landscape artist and gardener of worlds has rarely been matched.
Also By Jack Vance
The Dying Earth
1. The Dying Earth (1950) (aka Mazirian the Magician)
2. The Eyes of the Overworld (1966) (aka Cugel the Clever)
3. Cugel’s Saga (1966) (aka Cugel: The Skybreak Spatterlight)
4. Rhialto the Marvellous (1984)
Big Planet
1. Big Planet (1952)
2. The Magnificent Showboats (1975) (aka The Magnificent Showboats of the Lower Vissel River, Lune XXII South, Big Planet) (aka Showboat World))
Demon Princes
1. The Star King (1964)
2. The Killing Machine (1964)
3. The Palace of Love (1967)
4. The Face (1979)
5. The Book of Dreams (1981)
Planet of Adventure
1. The Chasch (19648 (City of the Chasch)
2. The Wannek (1969) (Servants of the Wankh)
3. The Dirdir (1969)
4. The Pnume (1970)
Durdane
1. The Anome (1973)
2. The Brave Free Men (1973)
3. The Asutra (1974)
Alastor Cluster
1. Trullion: Alastor 2262 (1973)
2. Marune: Alastor 933 (1975)
